Zahtar buttermilk biscuit and my first days in London

It takes some time to recover from bad experiences and it takes even longer to get back to or daily life after a short parenthesis of happiness.

Almost one week has passed since my visit to London. As I am sure I have already mentioned in previous posts (here and here) London for me is synonymous of friendships. Nothing better of a vibrant metropolis filled with friendly faces and great food to ease the mind from a life of routine boredom.
This time around though the friendly call was accompanied by a call to action. It was the Food Bloggers Connect weekend and I was asked by the organizer Bethany to present few talks on food science.

Birthday under the Baroque shadows of mount Etna

I am not sure of it... For those who believe in astrology, this year previsions for my sign weren't all that sparkling; nothing serious, just another year uphill.

 How was my 30th year of life? I think it was a good year, a positive one. I started this blog at the end of my 29th, I opened to the world my rambling in the kitchen and brought it to other people kitchens too. I was happy to be finally able to make other people smile and have a pleasant different evening (maybe also memorable).
Opening to the world meant also starting to tweet. I met many great people, now great friends, thanks to this media. Food connects people at a higher level, faster, truer. The first Food Blogger Connect conference confirmed this to an unexpected level. Opening the foodie door brought me in contact with an inner portion of myself, with roots that I was unaware to have, influences and dependencies that were so loudly screaming inside me to become quieter than a flying butterfly.
Nothing is exclusively positive in our life, we won’t have white without black; I convinced myself of this when trying to reproduce a chiaroscuro as high-school task, I wasn't pushing hard enough my pencil and everything was flat. Thankfully we tend to forget most of our negative experiences so I can't really point out negative events; it is the overall lingering sensation of being on waiting for something to happen or to finish. Do you know when you feel yourself pushed to the border of the cliff? When the decision, a decision is building up in your head? Maybe this will be the year.

Prague: the third day.

On the third day finally it was Jewish quarter time. Got up as usual around 9am we had our Lucullan breakfast (note the sarcastic tone) and then decided to hit the road. To reach the traditional Jewish quarter in Prague you most probably have to pass through its main square, this means that again today we ended up doing the same way downtown as the previous days and had again the opportunity to assist at the automaton show at the astronomical clock. Well, no way… There were far more interesting things to do eheh.
This time we turned into the right way and started looking around. This street was also the fancy shopping street of the city with all the glamorous brands of haute-couture and jewelry creations. In face of us, on the other side of the river and on the top of a hill, was standing a huge red metronome ticking the time (this image was quite fixed into my mind since my first trip here in my young and effortless high-school years).

The weight of a foodie

Since one year or so, I have opened the door that conduct toward the world of the conscious foodie world. Up to now, it has been a great journey; many books have been my compass along the way still allowing me to peek at the far landscape of the gastronomy world. The way is still long (thank God, I must say) and I will dedicate myself to it. The bad sides of this path of knowledge is that it applies to so many occasions during the day that you can end up criticizing every single bit of thing you put into your mouth.

Dining with friends can become a nuisance for them; with every mouthful your face going perplexed and analytic and afterwards all the blabla and critics. I think that sometimes it can be useful so, personally, that is why I do it; Ok, often I just cannot control my mouth.

What do we critic mostly after all? Is it taste profiles or techniques? I believe that it is mostly technique since in matter of taste there are no real absolute reference points. For instance, when is something too salty or too sweet? I guess it is matter of who tastes the food, but this can be topic for another post.
The doneness of the meat, the temperature of the items on the dish, the cooking point of starches and sometimes garnishes; none of these are so subjective but just a matter of technique and care for the dish. This is what upset me mostly. An extra thought, a simple touch, can change the dish or just make it right.

It is quite hard to contain the disappointment in these situations. Therefore, I feel like I have to apologize to my friends for being so annoying sometimes.

How do you behave? What disappoints you mostly in a restaurant experience?

Dinner Experience: Restaurant Basilico, Bonn

Tonight was a special night. A very good friend of mine invited me and other four friends out for dinner. She chose the Basilico restaurant by the Hotel Dorint in Venusberg, Bonn.
The hotel is situated in a great region around Bonn. High on the hill of Venusberg, surrounded by woods (and hospitals) the Dorint hotel has a terrace with a great look over the city of Bonn and the Rhine river.
The outside of the building reminded me of a mountain chalet; quite a different feeling from the marble and alabaster covered lobby. The restaurant has gone a restyling lately and the new look is quite appealing with its basil green wall, dark wood furniture and big copper light fixture on the roof.

When we arrived, we were greeted by our maître at the reception and he escorted us to the best table on the terrace. We could look directly at the city without being disturbed by the gorgeous trees.
Once sat down, we started choosing our meal (I have to stress that I do not remember the exact name of the dishes, so what I will write as such is based on what I had on the plate).