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L’Artusi, or To Dine Out on Monday?

February 6, 2010 · Leave a Comment

I’ve been meaning to try the restaurant L’Artusi, owned by the same people as the always crowded dell’Anima, for a couple of months now. They take reservations, but every time I’ve tried to book, usually on the same day, they haven’t had any openings.  So when Sallie said she would be in town on her last trip to NYC from Seattle for a while (she’s pregnant and can no longer fly), I thought it was a great opportunity to book ahead and give it a shot. So it was the two of us, plus Leslie, on a cold, winter Monday for dinner.

The restaurant is located on West 10th Street behind a bit of scaffolding and a small door. Once inside, it opens up into a deep, rambling space.  It has all the current requisite pieces of a new restaurant: chef’s counter for dining? Check.  Cafe-like seating area in the bar space? Check. Large, open kitchen? Check. There’s also an upstairs that has a semi-private dining room at the back. The walls are black (or black-ish), and though they soften it with patterned upholstery in warm colors, the space more slick than neighborhoody.  While it doesn’t quite have the charm of dell’Anima, there’s still something friendly about it.  The staff were certainly all welcoming and gracious.

The menu itself is written in a somewhat non-standard way, which the information architect in me found interesting.  First, it’s turned on its side, so, Crudo, Verdura, Pasta, Secondi were written across the top as column headers, with the menu items listed beneath them in columns. The pastas were listed by noodle type, rather than by name (so rather than say Bucatini al’Amatriciana, it just says Bucatini, with the ingredients listed below it).  I found the whole thing interesting, if not entirely successful.

On to the food:  I started with the Chicories, a salad of chicory, radicchio and endive, with a parmesan anchovy dressing.  It was perfectly dressed, well seasoned and exactly what I had been craving.  (My efforts to eat locally mean I’m not eating much in the way of leafy greens these days. I think my body is craving vitamins.). Leslie and Sallie both got other salads, which I didn’t try, but they also enjoyed. So far so good.

We each got pastas for our main courses. I got the Bucatini. Mind you, I haven’t had amatriciana since I was in Rome in July, but I do know that there are decent ones to be had in NYC. It’s not the same, but it can satisfy the craving. This was perhaps one of the worst I’ve had. It was sauced with a very heavy hand, the noodles practically drowning in the chunks of pancetta and tomato. The pancetta was also overly caramelized, meaning it was burned. On top of that, the whole dish was overly salted, almost to the point of being inedible. Sallie got the pizzoccheri, which was baked in a heavy compilation of cheese and brussels sprouts. There could have been what was once a bechamel in there, but the whole thing was so dense it was hard to tell.  Leslie got a dish of farfalle with duck ragu. It was the best of the three, but it was only average. Both of their dishes were overly salty as well.

I know that in general the best chefs and staff in restaurants work Tuesday to Saturday, but whoever was working the pasta station at L’Artusi on Monday was inexcusably bad. The cold apps person did a fine job, as did our waiter (though there was something a little awkward about him). Although I feel no real inclination to go back to try it on another day, I can’t help but think the food has got to be better Tuesday to Saturday than what they served on Monday. But when there’s so much better Italian throughout the city, I’m not sure I’m going to give these guys another shot. I’d rather endure the lines at dell’Anima.

The bigger question for me is whether I should be eating out on Mondays at all? Maybe the next time I make dinner plans on a Monday evening I’ll just cook it myself.

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If it’s Wednesday, it’s Schnitzel Day

December 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I’m really more of a Mediterranean or Northeast Asian cuisine diner.  I love pizza and pasta, sushi and rice, noodles and offal.  I may very well be a product of my environment, where all this food has been popular and trendy for years and years, and where cheap, nonstop flights make it easy for me to travel abroad to try the real stuff.

But then the Schnitzel & Things guys came along (with another trend in NYC, the food truck), and I found myself eating a pounded, breaded and fried piece of meat for lunch every Wednesday, often with a side of potato salad.  Certainly this is because the food is fresh and tasty, the portions large enough to split between lunch AND dinner (and at $10 a bargain for two meals), and because I like the guys, who work hard, care about their craft and product and provide a great experience for their diners.

When a couple of weeks ago the guys had mechanical issues with their truck, I found myself without schnitzel on a Wednesday. Alas, I thought, I guess I can avoid eating a deep fried piece of meat for one week. But thankfully, I had a casual dinner planned with some old high school buddies, and Chris, who spent some of his childhood in Austria, suggested going to Blaue Gans in TriBeCa.  I’d heard of this place but had never been.  It’s in the old Le Zinc space, which was one of my favorite restaurant interiors in all of New York, its walls papered in museum exhibit posters (largely from the modern era, my favorite period).

It was a cold winter evening, and this Austrian food was the perfect meal for the weather.  Chris and I were joined by Erik and Rob, as well as Ricky who was visiting from San Francisco.  We ordered a Wurst plate to share, which came with 2 kinds of mustard, sauerkraut and freshly grated horseradish.  And then for my entree I had the Weiner Schnitzel, this time made with pork.  Here are the pics (Taken with iphone. Sorry):

The schnitzel was pounded VERY thinly and the breading was light and fluffy.  It came with a potato salad (which I was sort of hoping would be served warm, but it wasn’t) and a lingonberry sauce.  It hearty and satisfying, though I think the sausages really won the day for me.  I can’t remember what they were (combinations of beef, pork and veal), but they had great flavor and the mustards were superb.

The very next day, I found myself at yet another Austrian restaurant, Seasonal.  This place is located on 58th Street between 6th & 7th Avenues and has a hardly noticeable entry in the middle of the block.  Who knew it had a Michelin star? I was just having drinks and a little cheese (which was quite good), so I didn’t try the real food.  But the interior was modern and clean and the service friendly without being overbearing.  It’s definitely worth a revisit while the weather is cold.

So it looks like Austrian food has become part of my regular rotation.  I’m not sure how viable this will be after the season is over, though I do like a glass (or three) of chilled Gruner Veltliner when the weather gets warm.

Blaue Gans (map)
139 Duane Street between Church & West Broadway

Seasonal (map)
132 W. 58th Street between 6th & 7th Aves.

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Hooray for Sam Sifton!

December 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I absolutely adored his review of SD26 today.  I loved the writing, the review of the food, the understanding of the current food zeitgeist, everything. My favorite lines from today’s review:

But it is a hard truth that in Manhattan in 2009 excellent meats from “Italy” are not what people want. Weird but true: They want salumi out of a basement in Greenpoint, made by some kid with tattoos who dropped out of Wesleyan. Local is the new authentic.

Hooray for Sam Sifton!  Read today’s review at nytimes.com

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Thanksgiving

November 17, 2009 · 3 Comments

Note: This post was authored by my sister, Christina.  I was hoping I could get her a byline, but apparently this WordPress theme doesn’t support this feature.

It’s that time of year again: Thanksgiving. It puts both excitement and dread into the hearts of cooks everywhere. For me, what I love about Thanksgiving is that it’s a time when so many people are cooking very similar foods… and talking about it. Everyone wants to share their opinions, recipes and secrets for how to make the best stuffing, the creamiest mashed potatoes and, of course, the juiciest turkey.

I don’t know what it’s like in your family, but in ours, the side dishes are almost sacred and based on years of tradition. Sometimes we vary some of the vegetables, but we end up liking the old standbys the best. So, there’s not much to talk about there.

But when it comes to the turkey, we’ve tried all types and all methods: heritage breed, organic and kosher. Brined and not. Breast side up, breast side down. Basted and not. High heat, low heat. Butter smeared all over the top of the skin, under the skin and just a rub down with olive oil. You name it, we’ve tried it. Because let’s face it – turkey can be dry and boring. And there’s just so much of it. Shouldn’t there be a trick somewhere??

Last year at this time, I was doing an internship in the kitchen at Jean-Georges restaurant in New York City (which was an amazing experience). Thanksgiving is one of the restaurant’s busiest days of the year, and all the chefs were extra crazed. Me – I was mostly peeling mountains of garlic and picking the leaves off more thyme that you can imagine.

But peeling garlic and picking thyme are relatively mindless tasks that are perfect for conversation. And I took the opportunity to ask some of the best chefs in the world how they cook their turkeys. Of course, it turns out that many of them have NEVER cooked a turkey at home. Crazy, right? But it makes sense – they are always working in the restaurant that night.

That’s not to say that these culinary masterminds didn’t have ideas and opinions about how to cook the bird. In the restaurant, they think the breast tastes best when cooked sous vide. Well, I don’t know many home cooks who have their own immersion circulators, so that wasn’t so useful.  Turns out Jean Georges flips his bird over 4 times. And another chef (who was cooking turkey at home for the first time) was planning to slash the meat on the legs so they would finish cooking at the same time as the breast. Very interesting.

But the biggest revelation – which was universally noted by all of the chefs – was that the turkey should be pulled out of the oven the moment breast reaches 145 degrees F. Not 165 F, as most recipes say. If rested properly, a large turkey will have enough carry over cooking to take the meat up to 165 F, the temperature at which a turkey is safe to eat. Genius.

With that tip in mind, I began the process of preparing my thanksgiving turkey, and it was agreed by all at the table, that it was the best, juiciest bird we’d ever had.

A couple of notes. I recommend air drying your turkey to make sure you get crisp skin. But if this seems excessive, you can skip this step. Just make a lighter brine (2 cups kosher salt to 2 gallons of water) and brine for up to 12 hours. Timing and temperature are what this recipe is all about; I use a probe thermometer and put it in the turkey breast once the bird is flipped over. That way I know exactly when the turkey reaches the magic temperature.

Chefs’ Thanksgiving Turkey

4 cups kosher salt
1 12-14 lb. turkey (don’t forget to remove the giblets and the neck from the cavity!)
6 cups stuffing, optional
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1.  The day before Thanksgiving, brine your turkey. Make the brine using the kosher salt and 2 gallons of cold water. Submerge the bird in either a big bucket or use a brining bag (if using the brining bag, you may have to turn the turkey from time to time). Refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours.

2.  Air dry your turkey. Remove turkey from brine and rinse well. Pat dry both inside and out with paper towels. Place turkey breast-side up on a rack inside the roasting pan and refrigerate, uncovered, 8 to 24 hours. This will help to make your turkey skin nice and crisp.

3.  When ready to cook the bird, adjust the oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 400 F.

4.  If stuffing your bird, microwave your stuffing. This helps to ensure that the stuffing starts off at a high enough temperature to ward away bacteria. Microwave stuffing, covered with plastic wrap, on high until stuffing registers 120 to 130 degrees on instant-read thermometer, about 6 minutes. Using a spoon, place the stuffing into the bird’s cavity, making sure not to pack to tightly (it will expand during cooking). If not stuffing the bird, place a halved onion, a halved head of garlic (skin on) and several sprigs of thyme in the cavity. Close up the cavity and tuck the wings behind the bird’s back.

5.  Brush melted butter all over the breast-side of the bird and then set the bird, breast side down on a foil-lined roasting rack. Then brush the rest of the bird with melted butter. Add about 1 cup of water to the bottom of the roasting pan. For a stuffed bird, roast 1 hour, then reduce temperature to 250 degrees and roast 1 ½ hours longer, adding more water to roasting pan if necessary to keep the drippings from burning. For an unstuffed bird, roast 45 minutes and do not turn the temperature down.

6.  Remove roasting pan with turkey from oven. If you turned the temperature down in the previous step, turn it back up to 400F. Using thick wads of paper towels, turn the turkey breast-side up and brush with remaining butter. Continue roasting until thickest part of breast registers about 145 degrees, about 1 hour for a stuffed bird, and about 45 minutes for an unstuffed bird. Let the turkey rest at least 30 minutes before carving. (For food safety sake, make sure the thickest part of the breast has actually reached 160F before serving.)

Note: The photo at the top of this post is our Thanksgiving turkey from last year.  It was legendary.

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To-Be-Named-Later Catering

November 17, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Leslie and I wanted to host a baby shower for our friends Sallie and Ash, who are expecting their baby (aka The Kid Johnson) in April. Sallie and Ash live in Seattle, but were here in New York for a wedding this weekend, so we took advantage of the timing and threw a brunch in their honor at my apartment on Sunday.

Leslie has experience throwing big parties with lots of people at her in-laws’ place in Long Island. This usually involves firing up the grill and throwing down lots of meat — chorizo, skirt steaks, hamburgers & hot dogs — and putting together an amazing chimichurri.

Unfortunately, I’ve got no outdoor space, and unpredictable weather in November meant there would be no grilling going on this weekend. So instead, we hired my sister, Christina, to cater our party. I bought some bagels, cream cheese and lox, but this would be supplemented by her home-made quiches (2 bacon and onion, 2 goat cheese and leek) and 2 dozen blueberry scones, also made from scratch. We also served up some bacon from Flying Pigs Farm.

Of course I’ve been fed by Christina many times before, but I was really impressed by the quality of the food she made for my party.  Everyone really loved her food, so much so, in fact, that only two or three bagels were consumed (anyone want some bagels?), while all of the stuff she made was completely demolished by our guests, about 20 adults.  Leslie’s spicy bloody marys helped loosen everyone up as well; everyone abandoned the mimosas after tasting the bloodys (anyone want some OJ?).

So with the holiday season approaching, please think of Christina to cater your party.  There’s no web site yet, but you can leave comments on this blog or find me on twitter or email me directly if you actually know me and my email address.  She’ll do such a great job for you that you’ll wish you had leftovers.  But you won’t (at least not of her food).

Unfortunately, the one picture I took of all the dishes was really poorly shot, so here’s a pic of one of the quiches and some of the scones cooling before we served them:

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Momofuku Fried Chicken Dinner

October 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I’ve fallen in love.  With a fried chicken.  This was what emerged from the open kitchen at the Momofuku Noodle Bar around 6 pm on Wednesday: 2 1/2 chickens, deep fried to crispy perfection:
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On the left is the buttermilk chicken, which was brined in buttermilk (I suppose brined is the cooler word for “marinated” these days), and on the right is the triple-fried Korean-style chicken, a/k/a my new love.  The dinner came with a veg bowl, 4 sauces–hoisin, ginger scallion, jalepeno and “bibim” sauce, which is known in some circles as gochujang– and some mu shu pancakes like what you get with peking duck.  Here’s the pic:

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Rather than prattle on and on, I’ll just give a few observations.  The buttermilk chicken was very, very good.  The skin was perfectly crispy and the interior was juicy (even the white meat).  Under any other circumstances, I would be in fried chicken heaven.

The Korean-style, though, was mind blowing.  It’s deep fried twice, I guess under the same principles of french fries to ensure crispiness, and then sauteed in the sticky, sweet/spicy sauce right before serving.  Even with the sauce, the skin was super crispy, in a crackly kind of way, which was different from the more bready, softer crisp on the buttermilk chicken.  On top of that, part of what made the Korean-style so delicious was that all the pieces were dark meat, and it came with LOTS of wings.  And those wings were the best thing about the meal.

I was also surprised by how good the chicken was wrapped in a mu shu pancake, with a little sauce.  I don’t think I would have minded eating the chicken just straight, but it was nice to have some different things to try to break up the monotony of the single dish.  We realized during the meal that while we had reserved for 4, this meal could have fed at least 1 more person, and we could have certainly extended the res. to even more and ordered a few things off of the regular menu.  Still, we did a good job with the chow, leaving only 5 pieces (all but 1 the buttermilk chicken) to take home with us.

We finished off the meal with a little softserve ice cream, sweet potato swirled with pie crust flavors.  Not my favorite flavors, but it was nice to have a sweet bite to round out the meal.  Many thanks to Leslie for getting the reservation and for inviting me to join her.  She’s now responsible for both this meal and my first dinner at Momofuku Ko, for which I’ll be eternally grateful.

So, as my friend AZ likes to say, Run, Don’t Walk to try this meal.  You can book your reservation at the momofuku web site.

 

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Schnitzel Throwdown

October 28, 2009 · 1 Comment

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I don’t generally talk about work on this blog, so suffice it to say, I’m working on a new startup, and my friend Lance has offered my company some desks in his office space.  He’s the CEO of NextNewNetworks, but there are a couple of other startups working in this space as well.  It’s a great environment, in part because there are often videos being shot right in the office (sometimes with elaborate costumes), but also because it’s great to be among other tech professionals working on building early stage companies.

Anyone who follows me on twitter (@dobsohn) will know that I’ve been evangelizing the Schnitzel & Things food truck online, but I’ve also been talking them up offline too.  This includes at the office, so last week I took a few people, Lance and Vanessa from NextNewNetworks and Gidon from Boxee, with me to the truck.  Gidon claimed he eats a lot of schintzel, and he makes it at home at least once a week.  So he offered to do a little throwdown, where he’d bring in his own schnitzel for lunch this week.  Today was the day.

Gidon’s schnitzel was well seasoned beyond just salt and pepper, as was his rice pilaf which had a great herbal flavor.  Together they made a very tasty lunch.  He had made it the night before and then we reheated it in the toaster oven today.  You could easily tell that it would be fantastic when it comes right out of the pan.  Better than schnitzel truck?  Let’s just say that I’d be very happy eating either one.

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Dining Al Fresco

October 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Eating outside has taken on a whole new meaning now that I’m trying to be more frugal (thanks to a diminished income) and that food trucks and stands have taken on the city by storm.  Of course, my love for the Schnitzel & Things truck continues, but I also recently tried the Cravings truck and the Fatty Crab and Cabrito stand in Madison Square Park.  I’ve also visited the Shake Shack a couple of times in recent weeks. Now that my office is nearby and I can go during the day rather than at dusk or at night, I can put aside my disgust for the high rodent count of that park, since the rats tend to stay away during daylight hours.

I thought the Cravings truck was just ok.  I tried a combination of the chicken and the fish cake (fish cake is one of my favorite foods of all time), both of which were deep fried and served over a bed of rice covered partially by a pork sauce. My knowledge of Chinese food is limited and of Taiwanese food is non-existent, so I can’t vouch for the food’s authenticity. The flavors were great, but it was all a bit greasy.  Plus, standing in the long line (an only-Asian line, I might add) on a windy day, downwind from the truck, I walked away smelling like I’d been standing over the fryers myself all day.  Not good.  I also ordered the dumpling combo (pork and veg), just to try them.  I didn’t love these (though they were NOT fried, which was a relief).  Here are a couple of photos:

Cravings Truck Dumplings

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This past week, I walked over to the Fatty Crab/Cabrito stand over in the temporary stalls in Madison Square Park.  Just a couple of weeks ago, some retail and food stands popped up on the west side of the park (Hill Country, the BBQ place, has a stand there as well).  I was excited about Fatty Crab, since I have a hard time tolerating waiting for a table to eat at the restaurant and I don’t go as often as I would like.  I didn’t realize that it was a combination stand of both Fatty Crab and Cabrito (both are owned by Zac Pelaccio), but this was even better.  I got a Fatty Crab Slider (made with beef and pork) and a chorizo taco from Cabrito.  Here’s the photo:

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The slider was rich, perfectly cooked with a nice char on the outside, and has some sort of semi-spicy seasoning.  The taco was fiery, even with the crumble of cheese and sprig of cilantro on top, and it left my mouth with a pleasant burn for a good 20 minutes afterwards.  This is a stand worth visiting or returning to.  Another thing that I loved about it was that they were cooking the food right there on the street, in what is essentially a median between Fifth Avenue and Broadway.  Can you get any more New York than this?

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DBGB

October 14, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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Congratulations to DBGB, which got 2 stars in Sam Sifton’s debut review as food critic for the Times.  I went a few weeks back where I had the bone marrow, pictured above, as well as a sampling of the sausages (thai, vermont, chorizo).  While I thought the place was fun and the food tasty, my friends found that all their food was closer to room temperature than hot.  Still, I’d definitely go back, more likely for drinks and snacks in the spacious bar area than in the dining room.

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Italy Part 3, Rome

October 14, 2009 · Leave a Comment

We spent the last few days of the two weeks of travel in one of my favorite cities, Rome.  Both Christina and I hadn’t been there in years, so we mixed some touristy things with a dedicated effort to eat really, really well.  We armed ourselves with the food book Food, Wine, Rome, by David Downie (published by Terrior Guides):

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Downie’s book covers everything food related:  restaurants, wine bars, caffes, specialty food stores, butchers, pasta makers, bakeries, salumareias, markets, and so on.  The book is organized by neighborhood and has surprisingly accurate descriptions of the places and the people who run and own them–this person is shy at first, but warms up quickly, that person has a passion for food on top of the wines he sells, etc.  It was fun for us to read the descriptions and then see them for real upon our visits.

We started our eating in Rome at Da Armando al Pantheon, an old-school place recommended to me by my Roman friend, Francesca.  The service was friendly and warm, and the food was exactly what we wanted:  classic antipasti made from seasonal, local vegetables and pasta ala gricia, in this case spaghetti with guancale, pecorino and black pepper.

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Ok, so I wrote the first part of this post (above the line) back in August.  It’s now October, and much of that trip was a distant memory, so I’m going to cover a few highlights and finally get this posted up.

After Armando, we went to Trattoria Monti, a family-run place with two handsome brothers working the front of the house, and mama in the kitchen.  This was probably the first place I’ve ever been, anywhere in the world, where the recommended dishes (by one of the brothers) were really the best dishes, and those that weren’t recommended were just not as good (typically, the recommended dishes are the ones the kitchen wants to move).  We arrived at 9pm, just at the point when the tourists were finishing up and the locals were arriving, but it was busy with both, a good sign.  While I’d definitely eat here again, it was not my favorite.  Here’s a photo of a lovely raviolo filled with ricotta and egg yolk and topped with black truffles:

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On another day, a very good one, we stopped by the Campo de Fiori and picked up a picnic, then stopped by a couple of food shops for some cheese and cured meats and had a picnic lunch.  Then later in the day we visited the wonderful wine bar L’Angelo Divino owned by the retiring but very knowledgeable Massimo.  He served us some proscuitto from Friulli (not Parma!), which he deemed to have a more delicate flavor, along with our wines.  This place was a highlight of Rome, with its walls lined with wine bottles and “Maxi” working both the front and the back of the house.  If I lived in Rome, this would be my home away from home.  Sadly, our visit there was cut short, as we had a dinner reservation at the neighborhood restaurant Renato e Luisa.  Once again, we had a solid meal of antipasti and pastas, including this great looking dish:

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Some other quick highlights:

Hosteria Romana, a super old school place where you can see a picture of the owner at his wedding being blessed by the Pope (John Paul II), and the waiters are all older gentlemen who aren’t quite as cranky as they look.  The bucatini al’amatriciana was some of the best we had (note the messy bowl — they toss the pasta in the sauce, right in the bowl and then serve it to you — so good):

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Le Sorelle where we had a very lovely meal, finished off with this truly excellent tiramisu:

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We also had some great coffees at La Tazo d’Oro and Sant’Eustacio, and fantastic shopping experiences with the food purveyors at Volpetti, Antica Norcineria and the Forno off the Campo de Fiori.  Disan Crispino Gelato had an excellent lemon sorbet.

I was sad to leave Puglia and the beach for the city, but as soon as we arrived in Rome, I felt right at home.  I’m a city girl at heart, I guess, and, except for that one really mediocre place that we went to for lunch that our hotel recommended, the food lived up to all expectations.

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