Food I love.. eating or cooking

[SANDRO43]

Sure! Chocoladnitsa or Coffee House? 

Olga, you should be an authority on Moscow Cheese Houses .

[Olga_Mouse]

Olga, you should be an authority on Moscow Cheese Houses .

Well I'm a fan of tiramisu - which is made of mascarpone cheese if I'm not mistaken? 

[Gylden]

Just finished a bottle with my wife! Sandro do you know this wine?

[SANDRO43]

Well I'm a fan of tiramisu - which is made of mascarpone cheese if I'm not mistaken? 

Yes, tiramisù (pick me up) is:

made of savoiardi (otherwise known as lady finger biscuits) dipped in espresso or strong coffee or rum, layered with a whipped mixture of egg yolks, mascarpone cheese, and sugar, and topped with cocoa. The recipe has been adapted into cakes, puddings, and other varieties of dessert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiramisu

Another, simple way of enjoying mascarpone is using it as a bread spread: just mix it with a couple of spoonfuls of sugar and a moderate amount of strong liquor, like rum or French cognac. I never tried it with vodka, yet .

[Daveman]

Good night.... I need to stay away from this thread.. the recent photos are killing me...

This stuff looks GREAT - especially Sandro's Italian cuisine, and Gator's, um, well, the pelmini looks fabulous too (noting the guard dog in the vicinity).

[SANDRO43]

Just finished a bottle with my wife! Sandro do you know this wine?

I'm familiar with the type (barbera) and the area (Oltrepò pavese, a part of Lombardy south of Milan) where that bottle was produced, not with that particular variety.

Oltrepò wines tend towards the bubbly, I don't know if that was your case. Barbera proper comes from the southern part of neighbouring Piedmont:

Barbera is a red Italian wine grape variety that, as of 2000, was the third most-planted red grape variety in Italy (after Sangiovese and Montepulciano). It produces good yields and is known for deep color, low tannins and high levels of acid (which is unusual for a warm climate red grape). Century-old vines still exist in many regional vineyards and allow for the production of long-aging, robust red wines with intense fruit and enhanced tannic content. The best known appellation is the DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) Barbera d'Asti in the Piedmont region. When young, the wines offer a very intense aroma of fresh red and blackberries. In the lightest versions notes of cherries, raspberries and blueberries and with notes of blackberry and black cherries in wines made of more ripe grapes. Many producers employ the use of toasted (seared over a fire) oak barrels, which provides for increased complexity, aging potential, and hints of vanilla notes. The lightest versions are generally known for flavors and aromas of fresh fruit and dried fruits, and are not recommended for cellaring. Wines with better balance between acid and fruit, often with the addition of oak and having a high alcohol content are more capable of cellaring; these wines often result from reduced yield viticultural methods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbera

Up to the early 1960s, young barbera used to be the cheapest wine one could find in our osterie:

An Osteria  is an Italian-style eating establishment where the emphasis is generally placed on maintaining a steady clientele rather than on haute cuisine. Osteria in Italian literally means a place where the owner "hosts" people. Food is generally regional and prepared with local recipes, and often served at shared tables.

Besides eating, an osteria was were working-class people in cities and peasants in the countryside congregated in the evening for enterntainment, mostly drinking wine and playing cards - as well as a game of bowls if a lane was available .

[Gylden]

Yes Sandro, this wine was about the same degree of sparkling as the portugeese green wine. Good with desert!! and a bit of scopa with the boys on occasion!!

[SANDRO43]

Yes Sandro, this wine was about the same degree of sparkling as the portugeese green wine. Good with desert!! and a bit of scopa with the boys on occasion!!

Do YOU play scopa ?

Yes, scopa and briscola - and their numerous variants (scopa d'asse, scopone, briscola chiamata, etc.) were favourite card games in osterie, while tressette was usually played by the high-brow minority (village mayor, doctor, pharmacist, notary, etc.) if ever visiting those lowly premises .

I'm recovering dim and long-lost memories of those games with the aid of some downloaded programs , having a tough time with briscola - a trick game with trump suit where players are NOT required to follow suit at each hand.

[Sculpto]

Fig season started.  For the next three weeks its all about the figs. 

[SANDRO43]

Fig season started.  For the next three weeks its all about the figs. 

Their leaves, as well ? Very much in use here for modesty purposes during the Counter Reformation after the Council of Trento (1545–1563) .

[Sculpto]

LOL last week I was sitting in a cafe with an old friend having an espresso and two completely naked guys walked in... well.. they had flip flops on..  and the thing is.. no one payed any attention to them.. SF IS REALLY A TRIP... and you aren't gonna see stuff like that at Fisherman's Wharf.  Muddy Waters @ 16th and Val.. for those that know the city.. btw.. the lesbian that runs that place makes one hell of a good chocolate cake.. I forget what that one is called but it has like six layers of cake with chocolate chantilly in between each layer.. but she is strange.. she always smiles when I first come in.. and then by the time she serves the stuff she is angry.. been that way for years.. for a long time i thought it was just me.. but i asked my friend the other day and she said its the same for her for years too.. so yeah.. great chocolate cake.. awesome espresso.. served with a frown and the guys at the next table are naked. 

“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”

[Sculpto]

2 kinds of figs.. green and purple.. blackbeauty grapes.. Blue St Aden cheese.. fresh mint..

[Sculpto]

i got some awesome peppers at the farmers market Saturday.. five total.. one deep dark blood red.. one bright orange.. one bright golden yellow.. one pale lime green and one purple..

i just caramelized a big yellow onion and now the peppers are caramelizing..

At the last minute I will douse and deglaze with balsamic..

will use them for vegetarian sandwiches and also on top of pasta..

[OlgaH]

Fig season started.  For the next three weeks its all about the figs.  

Russian "fig"   (fee-ga (фига), aka doo-lya (дуля) , koo-kish (кукиш), sheesh(шиш)