Perfect Puglia

Well, would you look at that...it's now March! Doesn't time fly? And, as per usual (oh dear!) this Brit is way behind on her blogging...

A couple of weekends ago, it seemed as though Spring had already sprung here in Puglia. The sun was out, the sunglasses were on, and the thick coats were off. Myself and my man were incredibly lucky, as we had chosen this particular weekend to go on a little trip down to the beautiful Baroque city of Lecce (often named the 'Florence of the South', and it's easy to see why). We were blinded by the sun all the way down and even OPENED up the windows to let in some air, as the car was getting pretty hot. In FEBRUARY. Anyway, we had chosen to say at the Risorgimento Resort in the city centre; a rather chic five star hotel. And before you start thinking that I have rather extravagant tastes in accommodation , I actually stumbled across this place on Booking.com back in December, and snapped up a great price for that weekend. Myself and the Italian were very impressed, even if the staff weren't the friendliest bunch.

comfiest. bed. ever.

From the Pasticceria 'Natale'. I simply URGE you to go there.

We relaxed, drank coffee, ate delicious cakes and explored the city; in short, we had a wonderful (albeit brief) time in Lecce. Check out my recent article on charmingitaly.com if you want to know a bit more about lovely Lecce: http://www.charmingitaly.com/article/luxurious-weekends-in-lecce.

When Sunday rolled around, and we (very reluctantly) rolled out of what may be the biggest, most comfortable bed I have ever slept in, we said goodbye to Lecce and headed towards the seaside town of Polignano al Mare.

A visit to this little town, which is located right on the Adriatic sea in the province of Bari, is an absolute must for anyone who has the pleasure of visiting Puglia. Not only is is packed full of history, as it has been around since prehistoric times, but it is also home to cute little shops, restaurants and pavement cafes. Make sure you take time to wander around the windy little streets and read all the arty little messages that have been painted into the stone.

Next weekend we will be heading down to Matera. It is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, and home to the famous 'sassi' (stone houses). Roll on Saturday!

The Best of British!

You only have to spend a few minutes on my little blog to realise a couple of things. One, is that I am not a fan of the Italian post office. Another, is that I love exploring southern Italy. But one of the most obvious thing you can find out from my blog, is that I love Italian food. Dolce, pizza, pasta, gelato... the list of things I love eating here in Italy is endless. But underneath all of that love for Italian cuisine, I am still very British. There are a huge number of British products that you can't get for love nor money here in the Boot, so I may have literally yelped with joy when this wonderful package found its way to my door:

check out the FLAG!!!!

Thanks to the lovely people at the British Corner Shop (http://www.britishcornershop.co.uk/), my cupboard is now well stocked with some yummy goodies, including (but definitely not limited to) chocolate digestives, walkers crisps, Cadbury's fingers, Jamaica ginger cake and, the piece de resistance... LYLE'S GOLDEN SYRUP. Over 400g of thick, sugary goodness now sits in my kitchen cupboard. 'Is it like powdered sugar?' one Italian friend speculated. I corrected him by slowly prising open the lid and dazzling him with the golden GLOW.

One week after ordering, my package arrived on Monday. I discovered (via the handy UPS tracking service) that it had had a (relaxing?) weekend stuck in Bari. Trust the Italians to delay my British goodies. My Italian man was just as excited as I was about the package. 'Ooo my crisps!' he (incorrectly) stated. After a peaceful night's rest, safe in the knowledge that I had all sorts of deliciousness sitting downstairs, I did the only sensible thing possible: made a load of flapjack.

With 250g oats, 100g of butter, about 120g of brown sugar and two tablespoons of golden syrup, I recreated one of my favourite British recipes. My boyfriend took a load of the stuff for his parents to try and they apparently LOVED it. Well, what do you know. Those food-fussy Italians do enjoy some quality British grub!

In some of the flapjacks, I even added a cheeky bit of  Green and Black's cooking chocolate, which had also arrived in my package. And guess what I'm having for my tea tonight? Oh yes, WARBURTONS CRUMPETS. ( 'So, do you like, make a sandwich out of these or what?' Silly Italian.)

So, if any of you fellow expats fancy a quick fix of some tasty British treats, check out a massive selection of stuff at the British Corner Shop, which also has an ever-growing American section too. Next on my list? Quavers and ginger biccies!

Happy eating! 

Sweet Monday...

So, it's Monday again. How on earth does this day manage to come round so quickly? Everyone needs a little pick-me-up on Monday mornings, so here's a little treat for you all. It occurred to me that I haven't posted a photo for some delicious dolce for a while, so I thought I had better remedy that immediately. Behold! A selection of  mouth-watering delights from one of the best bakeries in the local area, Saint Honore....

Cassata, Torta alla ricotta and two creamy chocolatey creations that tasted SO. DARN. GOOD.

Have a great day!!

Blogger and...pizza maker?

A little while ago I spent an evening with my boyfriend's family at his brother's house. Every now and then the whole family gets together for a meal, and this time we had the pleasure of sampling some homemade pizza, made in his brother's very own pizza oven! Now, I have eaten my fair share of pizza, and have even had a go at making some dough myself, but I've never eaten it from someone's very own pizza oven at home. Needless to say, I was very excited indeed. My boyfriend's brother was an excellent pizzaiolo, and churned out pizza after pizza all evening, with all sorts of various toppings. After I had eaten a piece of pizza (or 7), I was asked if I wanted to have a go at rolling out the dough and cooking the pizza myself. Erm, yes please! I was told how to roll and stretch out the dough into the pizza shape, and even how to place it in the oven properly. Afterwards, I put the toppings on the pizza and, beaming with pride, placed it on the table for his family to dig into. The fact that there wasn't a single piece left made me feel just a little bit proud of myself... ;)

 While I couldn't take any credit for the dough this time, I did write a recipe for pizza dough in this months ITALIA! magazine, complete with all the information you need to know about how the Pugliese like their pizzas (mashed potato and all!!) Get your hands on a copy now! :D 

Blog News

Hello everyone! Did you all have a smashing weekend? I gorged on homemade pizza, and even had a go at making some myself (blog post to follow shortly).

For today though, I just have a bit of news to share with you all. My little blog has made it on to a fantastic list of 15 top lifestyle blogs in Italy. Big fat YAY! To be included on a list with all these other fantastic blogs is an absolute honour. So THANK YOU to those at Ville In Italia for including me! Check out the list here:

http://www.villeinitalia.com/en/blog/living-in-italy-top-15-italian-lifestyle-blogs/

While I'm at it, I'll also mention a little interview that I did for The Local; a great English language website which is packed full of Italian news, goings-on and information. Again, I feel honoured to have been included, and would like to thank the lovely people at The Local. Interview can be found right here:

http://www.thelocal.it/20140131/if-youre-willing-to-be-part-of-the-community-italians-will-welcome-you

Have a great day folks!

More food please!

Good afternoon from wet and windy Puglia! I hope you are all having a nice, relaxing Sunday so far. This blog post is, surprise surprise, a food one, and also provides further evidence of my ongoing culinary development. This week I made some nice little vanilla cupcakes (the icing didn't turn out perfectly, hence a photo senza drippy frosting mess) and, with the help of my incredibly patient man, I assisted in preparing a traditional Pugliese Sunday lunch. I have been told that, even if you are rubbish at preparing other dishes, the Sunday lunch is one that you must perfect. Best get to work then...

I used a recipe from the BBC website for these moist, tasty cupcakes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cupcakes_93722 

 

This is definitely a Southern delicacy: the Pancotto. I tried this one at La Locanda di Hansel in Foggia (Trip Advisor reviews here)

The Pancotto had to be followed by dolce of course. This was the torta Kinder. One word: YUM.

Couldn't have put it better myself....

Yes, all of this went into making a delicious sugo for our Sunday lunch

We also made involtini using beef, parsley, Parmesan, a little garlic and salt.

Sugo in progress

Meaty sugo plus traditional pugliese orecchiette makes one happy Amy.

Buona Domenica!

Cooking Curiosity...

Although not technically a 'food blog', this little site of mine is usually about 75-80% food. Well, what can I say? I live in Italy. The food here is nothing short of DELICIOUS. However, most of my food related posts are of things I have EATEN; not necessarily MADE. Apart from the odd pasta dish or yogurt cake, I do not promote myself as a cook. I have decided that I would like this to change. I'm not sure if it's the cold winter months of staying indoors, or viewing other people's culinary skills that have sparked my curiosity, but what I do know, is that I am determined to get just a little better at cooking stuff.

I have had a go at two simple recipes recently (yes, I'm starting off simple), namely Nutella brownies and funghi al forno. They both turned out very well indeed, thus prompting me to research my next dish. A friend recently gave me the recipe for a pumpkin risotto, so methinks that will be the next step. However it turns out, it will be posted on here. So no pressure or anything....

Nutella Brownies: 240ml of Nutella (yes, it's rather a lot...), 60g flour, 2g slat, 2 eggs, 100g brown sugar, 5ml vanilla essence, 56g melted butter. Mix eggs, Nutella, sugar and vanilla. Then alternate adding the flour/salt and the butter. Spread into a tin and bake for about 25/30 mins (depending on your oven) at around 160/170 °C. The brownies were quite cakey, but very tasty indeed. I added some coconut to mine too. (Recipe taken from the AllTheCooks.com food app)

Funghi al Forni: This is so simple but absolutely delish. Remove the stalks and wipe the mushrooms clean, before laying out on a baking tray and covering with chopped garlic, salt, parsley, Parmesan cheese, olive oil and a scattering of breadcrumbs. Pop in the oven for about 15 minutes or so at 160°C. Event though I got good feedback for these, next time I think I'll add a little more Parmesan and breadcrumbs. (Recipe taken from a lovely colleague of mine)

Post Office? I think I'll pass....

Good morning from cloudy Puglia. (Yes, that's right, the sun doesn't ALWAYS shine here...)

The thing that I'm going to talk about today is one that I have almost certainly mentioned more than once in the past. The topic in question is the quick, efficient, helpful organisation that is the Italian post office. In case you didn't quite pick up on it, those three preceding adjectives were positively dripping with sarcasm. I'm not what you would call a 'fan' of the Italian post office. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I have a EXTREME dislike of it (I don't like using the word hate. Except when talking about One Direction of course. Anyway.) My reasons are numerous: slow service, lack of efficiency in any shape or form, slow service, largely unhelpful staff (in my local branch anyway), slow service and disrespect for customers. It is the latter that I wish to draw attention to today, as I recently witnessed something really quite surprising, even by Italian post office standards.

The story played out something like this: Bumbling my way into the packed post office, I saw an old guy waiting to speak to someone in the back office- I guess he wanted to discuss his account or something similar. Seeing that another guy, who also wanted to speak to someone, was about to push in front of him, he (rightly) said 'I'm the first one. But the customer service man has gone for a coffee. He'll be back soon I think'. Right. Other guy retreated and seemed fine with this. OUT FOR A COFFEE though? It was heaving in the post office. But, whatever. Italians like coffee. They clearly need it to get through a morning of pushy post office go-ers. I get it. Five minutes later the customer service guy returned, but didn't call in the next customer.  Oh no. He proceeded to stand outside and chat to other colleagues while this poor old guy was just waiting. Then, THEN, the second man in the queue goes out to the customer service man and starts talking to him, clearly about his own post office issue. The cheek! The man obliges and seems to be serving him first. Still with me? Good. By this point, the old man was getting pretty irate. Grumbling (and rightly so) to everyone who would listen. He then went outside to this guy, shouted a bit and made some hand gestures. Ten minutes later, when I left the post office (thank God), he still hadn't been seen. (His  hand gestures may not have helped...)

Sometimes, I just don't get it. I love how laid back southern Italians are, but when it becomes disrespectful? No thanks. All of my correspondence will definitely be in electronic form from now on methinks. And let's hope that the old guy isn't still waiting for his turn.

In other post-related news, I had the joy of receiving (albeit a good two weeks late...again, thanks Italian post...) a wonderful card from my friend in Canada. This friend runs an absolutely wonderful bike tour company (see my write up of the tour I went on HERE) and is one of the most positive, inspirational people I've ever met. And doesn't she have great taste in greetings cards?!

karamiaitalianadventures.com

 That's all for now folks. Over and out.

Changes.

When a new year begins, it's a great time to make some changes. Whether it be something important like your job situation, where you live or even your general outlook on life; when January rolls around, what better time is there to change it up a little.

Now, before you think this is going to be a wonderful, positive thinking, inspirational blog post, you are a little mistaken. Because, dear readers, I'm going to write about my HAIR.

One of my changes this new year, is my hair colour. Now, men, you may not quite understand this, but you ladies out there certainly will; a change of hair colour is a big thing. Last April, I went from brunette to blonde. I liked it, it was fun and interesting, but there was a drawback. Yep, you guessed it: ROOTS. My hair grows like weeds (what a nice image) so even after two weeks, there would be a dark line ruining my barnet. So, this year I have returned to brunette. It's easier to manage and there are no pesky roots to speak of. However, it seems that (Italian) public opinion is somewhat divided. 'You looked better as a blonde!' 'Why have you changed?' 'You've ruined your whole life!' OK, the last one is made up, but you get the gist. Anyway, my point of writing (yes, there is a point...at least I'm sure there is...) is to emphasise the fact that Italians simply have a habit of TELLING THE TRUTH. If they don't like it, they'll say so. See here for a post that I wrote after having turned into a blonde. You will see some similarities. 

Anyway, here are a couple of  photos of me and my deliciously dark hair. You may think that I DID look better as a blonde, but personally? I prefer the dark side ;)

selfie.

not selfie.

OK, I know, that last one isn't of my hair but I just HAD to include it. Last night's indulgence: chocolate and pistachio cake. Erm, yes please.

Buona domenica!

Buon anno...

To all my readers, fellow bloggers, and those of you who have only just stumbled across by little webspace, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Yes, I know it's a little late what with it already being the 8th and everything, but the year still feels nice and new to me. Stretching out ahead of us, full of promise and countless opportunities to explore, discover and of course, eat delicious things.

Talking of eating (which I almost always do), like many other human beings I have definitely indulged over the Christmas period. My trip to the UK was filled with family time, seeing friends, watching Sherlock and eating my body weight in Celebrations/Heroes/Christmas cake. But during the festive period, I deem it NECESSARY to enjoy yourself when it comes to food. Especially if, like me, you have 'suffered' (ahem) 5 months of pizza, pasta and mozzarella- a chicken curry and big helping of Christmas pudding are essential to break the routine a bit. As usual, I got rather snap happy with my food when I was at home in the UK, so feast your eyes upon these beauties....

I may have eaten most of what you can see here in a very short space of time....

YES, I definitely do eat my vegetables!

Coffee with a friend at Cafè Rouge (oo la la)

More coffee, this time with a nice helping of carrot cake

Best way to enjoy eggs? Benedict style of course.

No words are necessary for this.

 Although believe it or not, it wasn't all calorific indulgence.

A cold walk on Christmas day...

..plus dog of course

.

Well, when in Britain...

It had been a good few months since I'd been back home, and I have to say that I really felt the difference. Obviously the people surrounding me were no longer all chattering in Italian and gesticulating wildly, nor were they taking quick coffee shots before getting into their cars and failing to use their indicators at ANY point during their journey, but I did notice that the Brits just seem to be more controlled. Sometimes unnecessarily so, sometimes rightly so, but definitely more respectful of rules in general. This is something I both miss and have come to dislike at the same time. I have said this a million times, but living down here in the south, people are a little more 'relaxed' in all areas of life. They walk slower, take their time, don't worry about being late, eat later and don't even understand the concept of a queue. One day during the holidays, as I was standing in the queue in Boots, I found myself eyeing everyone up; ready to pounce if someone wanted to steal my spot in the line. Then I remembered that I was in BRITAIN, and we Britons know exactly how to queue. We're experts at it. Anyway, in short, I think it's fair to say that Italians and Brits are just different people. Who'd have known...

And now I'm safely back in the sunny Boot, willing to see what 2014 may bring. I don't exactly have any new year's resolutions, but I do want to continue travelling and explore this wonderful country. The political and economic situation may be troubling to say the least, and they may not have Miniature Heroes, but no-one can deny just how beautiful Italy really is.