Some might say, there’s no place like ROME for the holidays. In no particular order, my top food memories from the last few days...
pancetta al’ aceto. warm bacon slabs flooded with vinegar, olive oil, pepper. pictured left, at Borgo Antico - a Slow Food wine bar near the Vatican. mostly cold salumi plates on the blackboard menu, but also some hot dishes like zuppa di farro ed orzo (farro-barley vegetable soup.) farro is a grain i’ve seen all over Italy. it’s called emmer in the US and is one of the most ancient varieties of wheat.
roasted chestnuts twisted into a paper cone from a street vendor. pictured right, on the south side of Piazza Navona.
aqua frizzante. my new favorite: Guadianello from natural springs on the slopes of the extinct volcano Vulture in southern Basilicata.
brutti ma buoni (“ugly but good” cookies) at a pastry shop round the corner from the Pantheon. toasted almond-egg white-cinnamon mounds.
salted caramels, THE highlight from S.A.I.D. chocolate, a short walk to San Lorenzo from the Rome train station. originally opened in 1923 and, pictured left,the shop looks straight out of SoHo – attached to its own chocolate factory. long wood tables display pretty chocolate blocks, flavored bars wrapped in lace and terroir bars tied up with ribbons around tissue paper. glass jars filled with fig candy, wooden bins of hazelnut gianduia, a praline counter, and antique chocolate-making tools all the way to the café/restaurant in the back. the chocolate bar I’m taking back to Boston with me? dark, 70% made with Himalayan crystal salt.
-sy
Yummy... :-)
Posted by: Mike | December 18, 2007 at 06:45 PM