Barcelona is a city where I wish to live! I visited the Catalan Capitol for the first time in 1989, and since that journey, it was love at first sight, or better at first bite. Sun, sea, historical monuments and delicious food: I wouldn’t have it any other way! This city is magic, and I try to go back there whenever it’s possible. Here a short list of the best Catalan dishes and where I ate them during my last visit in Barcelona: enjoy!
MY FOODIE TRAVEL IN BEIJING, CHINA – Beijing cuisine
My foodie travel in Beijing cuisine – Beijing is a city that constantly transforms. Every year it changes; the streets, as well as the kitchens. But Beijing is also the custodian of immutable traditions: take a ride with me through the narrow streets of the Chinese capital, and experience the ancient delicious recipes and the street food stands.
TRATTORIA GALLO NERO – a bite of Tuscany in Portland, Oregon
Coming back in Portland to discover the best Italian restaurants,I stop at “Trattoria Gallo Nero” where chatting the owner Davide, eating a dish of pici and cantucci with vin santo, he tells me how he came to open an authentic Tuscan restaurant on the other side of the world.
DANIELLE, BECCA, DAVIDE, RICK, AND NICHOLAS
The Pearl District of Portland; In a few hundred meters is possible meet a plenty variety of the world. However, forget the hectic life of a big city; here we are on the more unknown to mass-tourism West Coast part. We are in Oregon.
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AN ALTERNATIVE HAMBURGER IN FLORENCE – Gnam firenze
Looking for the best hamburger in Florence.
Florence is a destination I’ve been visited frequently during my Italian travels (also because my wife’s parents live there!). If you are foodies, Florence it is a kind of paradise; tasty soups, crispy bruschettas, high quality products, and juicy steaks (click here to read how to cook a Florentine T-bone steak). It is missing only one single thing … a good hamburger with fries! Throughout my last foray into the Florence, my American spirit needed to be fulfill by a delicious burger with fries, but I knew it would be tough challenge satisfy my wish. Luckily I was wrong! After some research and a few failed attempts, I found a place that offers an innovative solution; Delicious organic burgers prepared with local ingredients combining the taste of one of American classics with a touch of Tuscan cuisine.
MY FOODIE ADVENTURES IN PARIS – where and what to eat
Paris is a monochromatic city.
A pale low sun, illuminates the nineteenth century buildings and their classic zinc rooftops.
Gray on gray.
If you’ve never been there, Paris is difficult to describe; Reading these first lines, you could imagine a sad and boring city. In truth, the city is an ideal backdrop to bring out wonderful surprises to discover behind every corner. Colors and fragrances hidden everywhere, just looking for them. The bright coats of two girls waiting for the bus to stop. Cascades of flowers that bloom from small, old, shops. Walls of golden brown Baguettes indicating where to buy bread. The warm yellow light of the umbrella heaters outside cafes Parisians. Bright colored Tablecloths and the little square of painters in Montmartre.
Although, at first sight, it is looked like a sad city, Paris reveals itself as an elegant, old lady, walking with young grandchildren, cheeky and mischievous, hiding theirselves behind doorways, peeking out from corners and joking with strangers.
This is Paris: austerity, elegance, impertinence, joke. Feelings that move in his cuisine. Here the cooks have become “Chef”, the cookery has become art.
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VISITING FIRENZE – What and where to eat in Florence
Florence is well-known worldwide for its incomparable Renaissance history. In Florence, however, have been created several must-to-taste recipes of the Italian cuisine. Here was born Catherine de’ Medici, wife of Henry II of France, who imported in Paris the best Tuscan recipes, fundamental for the birth of French haute cuisine.
A few weeks ago I went back to Florence. I walked around the taverns, the market stalls and carts of street food. Read on and take a trip with me between grilled steaks, slow-cooked recipes, weird-but-tasty street food, vegetarian soups, crunchy bruschettas and local cheese of the Florentine tradition!
Belizean food: a journey in Caye Caulker
Surrounded in the ocean Caribbean, Caye Caulker is a place where time runs slowly and the asphalt has not yet come. “Go slow” suggest the local people when you arrive to the island: the racket of mass tourism has stopped in San Pedro while luxury lovers prefer the resorts in the South of Belize. The nearby reef, the second largest in the world, is an irresistible attraction for divers, while the neighboring atolls offer white beaches and mangrove forests to explore. But, Caye Caulker is not just sea and sand; the influence of nearby Mexico and the Creole culture is felt deeply in the Belizean food and on this small island it is possible taste great dishes, simple, but well prepared. So between a boat trip sailing and a dive at the reef, you can relax with a cocktail at the Split savoring tasty grilled fish, burritos and excellent examples of Creole cuisine.
ITALIAN RESTAURANTS: ENZO’S CAFFÈ ITALIANO, Portland, Oregon
In Alberta street in Portland, a great taste traveler a few years ago opened an Italian restaurant specializing in southern cuisine. His name is Enzo and his story is long, varied and flavorful as his signature dish: Italian meat sauce “Ragù alla Barese”.
ITALIAN RESTAURANTS: PASTA PER CASO, Caye Caulker, Belize
A little over a year ago, Caye Caulker, one of the most beautiful islands in Belize, has welcomed a piece of Italy. A small meeting place where you can enjoy pasta, prepared fresh every day, and traditional sauces which are simple and genuine. Armando and Anna run it since 2013 and called it “Pasta per caso” (pasta by chance), to recall the coincidences that brought them from Italy to this little tropical paradise.