Ai Fiori!...

So rich. so heavy. so. much. butter. and seafood! :) good, just not sure i'd go back. pastas were spot on. I think I still have a better spot for Marea seafood even tho it's the same peeps running this!

Cannolichi: razor clams, chorizo, fennel. Grangio: soft shell crab, prosciutto, lemon yogurt, canteloupe.

 

Crudo di Passera: fluke crudo, american sturgeon caviar, meyer lemon. Animelle: sweetbreads, pomme puree, pancetta, truffle vinaigrette.

 

Trofie nero: ligurian crustacean ragu, sepia, spiced mollica, scallops. Spaghetti: blue crab, bottarga, chiles, lemon.

 

Tortelli: ricotta and marscapone ravioli, sottecenere cheese, red wine glaze.

Astice: butter poached lobster, asparagus, morels, chateau chalon sauce. Anatra: long island duck, ramps, foie gras, fava beans, frisee.

 

DESSERTS! Tartelletta: dark chocolate, anise, hazelnut gelato, grapefruit. Budino: chocolate cremaux, coffee crema, apricot, macadamia gelato.

Panna cotta: balsamica crema, blood orange, marcona almond, lemon sorbetto. Torta di Olio: ligurian olive oil cake, strawberry, pine nut, rosemary yogurt gelato.

Dinner in Balestrate!...

We're starting w/ Sicily in my....way overdue postings from the Italy trip! Why? b/c I lurved Del Capo market, the sweets in Balestrate & when Angela and Scott (and Karen) made some fantasmic fish and risotto and arancini! and...then the pics from Erice/Trapani! woohoo! and Palermo pizza!

A little..."preview" if u will...(of artsier shots i might not be able to make work in the rest of the entry :P...

We'll start this all with the dinner in Balestrate complete with my silly "chocolate" tasting with the stash I bought in Pisa. That'll be saved for another post b/c this one is just massive, hehehehe. Now...from the beginning...

We had lovely fennel w/ grated orange zest plus half anorange but u just can't see it in the pics. Fennel fennel fennel...kind of have an odd relationship with fennel--didn't like them grilled in a salad @ Olive's in Soho, kinda really enjoyed them raw and shaved with the diluted fish sauce aka nuoc cham aka dipping sauce (which btw totally makes badass salad dressing)...

...but here, we sauteed with some stock (if i remember correctly?) with the lemons and orange and pomegranates totally rocked and had a new depth of flavor....which i can't rightly describe since it's been so long :) but it was great with the risotto too :P

Getting out the pomegranate seeds for the fennel! Easiest way to get it all out tho--is to cut the pomegranate in half and then pat the back of it with a spoon and all the seeds come flying out :) Okay so you can see all that orange half and other stuff here... :)

The ladies workin' hard stirring away @ the fennel & risotto...

We also had a artisanal porcini risotto from one of the vendors (?) that works with Scott's company (yummers! I took home a pack and Karen took home a pack of saffron risotto!). Here are innumerable pics of that going down too :) Simmer simmering away!

In the meanwhile...Scott preps the fishy fish with capers, then salt & pepper--olive oil, then garlic! So...I forget what kind of fish we got at the market that day, but it was large and bootiful! Angela broke down the whole thing and descaled it and all!

Beautiful fish no? Shame we couldn't figure out what kinda fish it was but it sure was ginormous when it locked eyes with us and the fish-man :P

...and we even tried to go buy tweezers to remove the little bones but all i could remember to say was "Stiamo cercando per una pincetta per a prendere l'osso nelle pesce"...but i couldn't remember how to say "take out" or "remove" and kept making pinching motions and saying "sopraciglia" for eyebrows. Needless to say, my Italian has gotten supremely rusty! Anyhoo--so tons of pics of Scott drizzling the fish in olive oil after patting in some lemon slices, capers, garlic, and sea salt.

WEEE!! All packed up and ready to go...but see we actually forgot the garlic for a minute so...back open it goes :D...NUMMY NUM NUM...So that was a final "before" look @ our pesce...and....AFTER roasting in the oven! :D So many pictures...so little space hehe.

WOOHOO! so purty...and yummy! Note this is actually ish "other" people make but i'm still super jazzed eh? :P...seriously even putting all these photos back in sequence makes me a little giddy. In the midst of all this, I did a whole chocolate tasting set-up on the table as well and went back and forth stalking everybody in the kitchen and having them re-stage taking things out of the oven etc... :P

...and this!! yes that's STEAM...lots of it! bootiful bootiful steam! (and not a dirty wall hehe) ^_^

Scott gave us each some risotto from his co. to bring home. VERY VERY excited to crack it open! Anyhoo...back to dinner. Some of these are out of sequence back to the table with just the plates set up! :) To the table! But first some vino!...

Yes i'm a little crooked with this but I thought it kinda quirky and fun. When i rotated .75 degrees counterclockwise it just kinda looked generic. At least that's the story I'm sticking to anyway :) That and angela looks like a ghost! (do you know how impossible it is for me to keep still sans gorillapod with a b-shot?!)

This is the bottle of olive oil that Scott and Angela had freshly pressed the week prior, using olives from Scott's boss's orchard and pressed in the neighboring town. Apparently...everybody around there does it. WEEEE!! Look how thick it looks and almost opaque! That's how it's *supposed* to be. Nom nom nom...

We also had some fresh mozzarella (just from the supermarket--yeh SUPERMARKET, not the market market...but OMG infinitely better than anything @ the markets here, except maybe Murray's cheeses! or Odika? whatever it is...

AAAAaaaaannnnd done. :) I usuually don't post pictures with people in them on the blog...but Scott and Angela were pretty effin' awesome hosts and fun to hang around in Balestrate and Palermo so...here they are!! Thanks so much guys!! We sure licked the plates clean ;)

YAY SICILIA!!....oh hell one last look at that fantastic fish :D...

preview of Kee's chocolates...

OMFG.
got an xmas gift: box of Kee's chocolates...ended up ordering a box of 12 to bring back to CA for the holidays--this is just a light smattering of...the silkiest, delicate/ephemeral, intoxicatingly complex flavored, hand rolled chocolates you'll find anywhere. Godiva/Lindt/et al. be damned! *shakes fist!*

not gonna tell you what these are just yet--or what I ordered...but with flavors like yuzu, kaffir lime, lemon basil, honey saffron, creme brulee, fennel, smoked salt, thai chili, cognac, elderflower, pistachio, black sesame, different teas, honey kumquat....i just realized that's A LOT of the menu I gave away :P

but she makes macaroons too!! So much for "preview"...

WELL...you'll just have to wait for the pictures of them half bitten! :)