se my nominee page here:http://dannythechef52-9-member-nominee.htm

Espresso machilada and a cappuchino. Wonderful full flavoured Italian coffee to start the day of.(when in roam). Today we go to visit the excavated ruins of the city of Pompeii which was covered completely in 79 a.d after the eruption of mount Vesuvius. The after effects of the earthquake didn't destroy the city it engulfed, it preserved it. This means heading off from Casa Del Poppolo to Pompeii via Naples. Italy is only 150 yrs approx. united. So when you leave one area and cross into another you could get the feeling that you are in a different country. It is unmistakable to avoid pizza while in Rome. Rome pizza is traditionally thin and crispy, while in Napoli there is three strict criteria to be adhered to qualify as Neapolitan pizza

. (1) Tomato Sauce.(wonderfully baby like plum tomatoes called San Marzano are the only tomatoes used for tomato sauce in Napoli. A wonderfully sweet sun ripened tomato simply seasoned and pulped into a sauce. A definite must for any food lover. (unfortunately the food in Italy was not always as rich as today. For years the diet consisted of vegetables, fish sauces (fish fermented for four days crushed and mixed with white sauces) and pulses and beans. It was not until   Christopher Columbus discovered the new world and brought things like potatoes etc. to Europe did the Italian diet improve. For years the tomato was considered a poisonous fruit, because they didn't know how to use them.It grew every where. Not Until one day someone decided to eat one and like nowadays the tomato became an important ingredient in the Italian diet)

(2). Unlike pizza in Rome, Neapolitan pizza has a thick outer crust narrowing to a thin crisp centre.

(3) The oven for cooking Neapolitan pizzas must be domed shape.

The fare on offer today in the Tiberius restaurant was exquisite tasting Neapolitan pizza.

Bianca - cheese and ham (no tomato sauce)

Margheritta - Cheese , tomato and , Basil,

Neapolitan - Pastry base with San Marzano tomato sauce.



Also associated with pizza is Mozzarella cheese. But not mozzarella as we know it. To Italians mozzarella does not come in a block. Traditionally mozzarella is made by separating curd and whey. Then the curd is warmed in a vat and stretched by hand . The cheese is pinched of into balls and then stored in the whey. You can see finger marks on the balls where the cheese was pinched away and formed into a ball. The small town of Cassino , between Rome and Napoli is rich in fertile lands and green pastures. People seem to mispronounce the Buffala part. Most people outside of Italy refer to it as buffalo Mozzarella. An O at the end of the word in certain Italian words is masculine. But as we know bulls don't have milk. So therefore the pronunciation is "buffala Mozzarella" (feminine). And another important interesting fact to note is that you will never find fruit (pineapple /orange etc ) on a pizza in Italy or will you find any more than three ingredients on a pizza for the simple reason they don't like to complicate or overpower flavours with other flavours.

Because of the lush green pastures it is an area that is flush of olive trees (which are planted this time of the year and should be just beginning to blossom. The olive is pressed in November to create extra virgin olive oil "often described as liquid Gold" The tour guide informed us to buy a good quality olive oil at wholesale price in Italy is €6. They don't sell cheaper at a loss to anyone. Considering the yield of any olive press is between 10-17%.


This year is predicted to be a good year for harvesting unlike the last few years.

But that's not the reason for telling you that, the reason is next time your in the shop and you buy olive oil at €6 euro bottle or less you need to question the quality of the oil.

Lardo Muffato.

IN Ireland we have one or two remaining Cafollas left. One is close to us, in Ccastlebar town. A must when we go to Castlebar shopping etc. There chips are famous and the reason being is they cook them at low temperature, in lard, and use Maris piper chipping potatoes. The cooking in lard is a tradition associated with the Campian Region of Italy. There they have specially moulded lard and they serve it at meal times.

Lemons are a tradition to the Campian region also. They are bigger than normal lemons . As you will see in the slide show at the end. The lemons are used to make "Lemon cello" a traditional Lemon liqueur meant to be sipped rathered than knocked back. Lemoncello is associared with Campian, Roman and Napoli regions. After a long day at work or on holidays, the Italians recommend ice cooled (lemoncello) cold to revitalise you, but be careful one or two is plenty or you may be looking for the short way home.

Raphael Esposito

I feel i must mention this guy,he has nothing to do with the Vatican,Colosseum or any archaeological sites in Rome.he was commissioned to create a pizza for the visit of queen marghareita as mentioned earlier in the blog there are three types of pizza associated with Naples.

Bianca

Napoleon

Margherita

We are all well aware of what margherita pizza is but where did it come from?having made the first two pizzas Raphael decided on a third one it was to consist of tomato sauce mozzarella cheese and basil,on the day of the royal visit queen margherita sampled all three pizzas and liked them all but liked the third one the most,because of her visit Raphael named the pizza margherita after the queen and that's how the margherita pizza came about and it is the pizza used as a base for all other pizzas and is most popular in the western world outside of Italy.

And finally we get to the most important part the day excursion to Pompeii,Pompeii was engulfed by lava from the eruption of mt Vesuvius(79A.D),thankfully the lava helped preserve the city of Pompeii and with over two hundred years work excavating the site we are beginning to get a better insight to how they lived in 79AD as you will see in the following photographs of the streets , ruins, houses,shops and theatres the town was quiet self sufficient and also there were remains of public swinning pools and steam baths as well as bars and Brothels(10).Also the remains of 25 bakeries,46 drinking wells.the city of Pompeii had running water connected 20yrs B.C The water was distributed through lead pipes,which are still visible.unaware of the lead poisoning aspect people were known to have gone mad(not just peasants but royalty also(Nero) also suffered

from the amount of lead in there digestive system. There are also remains and evidence pointing to the belief restaurants existed as far back as 79 A.d in Italy. You will clearly see the 4 well terracotta style hot food storage. You will see that there were four pots and as described earlier the diet consisted of bread , grains, pulses and fish sauces. This is where the food was kept warm for hours. Stone ovens, wheel grooves,functioning water, mosaic floors ceilings.

Being a port town, Pompeii was a thriving business town. The land was some of the most fertile in Italy and Europe. The excavated site is now about 9 kl from the port.This shows how far back the lava forced the sea. AS said earlier the last explosion was 1944. The volcano Vesuvius is still active today and takes 30 - 70 yrs roughly to erupt.Experts say it will explode again and the most notice anyone will be given is 3days max. They had a trial evacuation last year in  Napoli . There are 600,000 people living in the area and the army said it will take 4-5 weeks to evacuate them.So its just another catastrophe waiting to happen.



So getting away from pizza etc, here is a wonderful idea for an afternoon snack with crisp croistini.
1  Camembert cheese (250 gramme)
2 Basil leaves
2-3 sun dried tomatoes
white wine
2 teaspoon pesto.
1 roisti pan
2 tsp Calvados

Cut Camembert in  half length ways. Place one half in roisti pan. Finely shred basil leaves and sun dried tomatoes . Place in centre of cheese. Brush with basil pesto and pour some white wine onto cheese also. Place other Camembert on top. Lightly press down, and bake in the oven at 180 c for ten minutes.  Remove from the oven and flambé with calvados. Eat with crisp croistini





So my next destination on my food travels was to be france , keen fan of molecular cooking ,
and Brillant Savarins "physiology of taste". So the opportunity has arisen to be representative for Ireland and the U.k,  in the Paris food trip 2014 . So I said to my self why not give it a go . What motivation do you need to enter a competition of this calibre  to go to Paris the home of cooking, the Eifle Tower and the Louvre. The chance to meet fellow food enthusiasts and taste the delicacies that Paris has to offer, and also the chance of meeting esteemed chefs and also the idea of a michelin star meal is appetizing also.

So come on vote for me to be your Irish and English  representative in the Gourmandize food trip 2014.

You wont be dissapointed.