Of course growing up in a farm town in Michigan, I never had even a distant encounter with fennel. My parents joked once that Greg Fraser, a kid in town, was sent by his mother to the drug store to ask for anise. And he pronounced it anus. The local druggist, Fred Gaul, must have ratted…More
Tag Archives: food
Grubs for Lunch–from And Now This
My friend Luigi asks, “Do you think prehistoric people were happier than we are?” We’re standing in line at an airport food vendor called the Dogpatch Bakehouse. Our flight is on time, but my stress level is high. I took a few wrong turns driving from the hotel to the airport, then left my phone…More
Facsimiles–the West, a breakfast, some shade
I couldn’t be this lucky, I think to myself. What are the odds of finding a rattlesnake skin that’s been sluffed off, left behind in one piece, and in pretty good condition? But there it is, of all places on the driveway of the Fairfield Inn, in Laramie, Wyoming. I figure, Well yeah, I’m out…More
Milk, Please–by the glass, the litre, and the gallon
No one, as far as I can tell, drinks milk in Italy. Whenever I find myself standing in line at the supermarket, holding a liter of milk–latte parzialmente scremato, which I take to be fresh 2 percent–I’m the only one. I’ve never seen anyone buy milk. There’s a tiny little milk section over there in…More
And Now the Letter H–hamburger with an Italian accent
Today I discovered Hamerica. Make that Hamerica’s. It’s a chain restaurant in Italy “dove vivi l’esperienza degli States e provi i migliori hamburger fatti in Italia con un gusto completamente americano.” Best hamburger in Italy, they boast. Just like being in the States. Walking through Rimini this morning, we passed what used to be Picnic…More
Ours Are Better–more hamburgers per piacere
One of our current favorite restaurants in Rimini is Nud e Crud. It’s just across Ponte di Tiberio, the 2000-year-old Roman bridge that takes you from old Rimini into San Giuliano, which is fisherman Rimini (and Fellini Rimini). Nud e Crud translates roughly as plain and raw. The food is simple and consistently excellent. A…More
For the Love of Bologna–the lunch, San Luca, and mysteries
My route into old Bologna is Via Stalingrado. At the rental car desk some years back, in the pre-cellphone era, I asked the guy handing me car keys the best way into the city. Following his advice, from the tangenziale, which cruises through town next to the A-14 toll road, I took the Via Stalingrado…More
Take a Tomato Break–antipasto, anyone?
I was talking to my friend Pat a few days ago about tomatoes. “Everyone who’s been there,” she said, “talks about the tomatoes in Italy. They’re supposed to be so good.” Yup, they’re good all right. Here in the US we do pretty well a few months of the year. Over there, year around it…More
An homage pot–bold beans
I went a little crazy the other day. Couple times a year my brother and I go to Breckenridge to visit our mom and dad’s graves. We spook around the cemetery visiting them and all the relatives gone but not forgotten.More
‘Tis the Seasoning–salt me
For years now I’ve suffered from garlic salt shame. It’s the seasoning I use most often, thinking that it’s a shortcut, that an accomplished cook with stores of self-respect would employ solo salt and stand-alone garlic that he would strip, dice, and sprinkle on a side dish or main course instead of going the two-in-one…More