Places to Eat: Florence

Have you ever had a meal that immediately stands out from the rest that will go down in your books as your top five, all time meals?  I had that experience in Florence a couple of weeks ago when I went to ZEB.  ZEB is a small restaurant, kitchen and deli/shop located outside the historic centre of Florence.  We showed up twice and finally got seated the second time for a late lunch. It’s a hot culinary spot in the city with counter-seating only.  For lunch we ordered two glasses of wine, a big bottle of mineral water, two heaping plates of the most delicious pasta I have ever tasted, an espresso and a mille-feuille for dessert, all for 30 Euro.   We left stuffed, satisfied and dreaming of the next time we would return to this gem.  I am convinced I would drive back to Florence simply to taste another plate of tagliatelle drenched in olive oil, topped with thyme, parmesan and shaved white truffles.

via tripadvisor

via tripadvisor

via tripadvisor

Another interesting spot that I discovered in Florence that is blog-worthy material is the Stickhouse.  The Stickhouse makes handcrafted gelato on a stick, aka popsicles, in a variety of different flavours using 100% natural ingredients.  While walking down the touristy road that leads to the Ponte Vecchio, I noticed a tiny, flourescent green retail shop with a display full of beautifully merchandised, gleaming popsicles, neatly displayed and ready to eat.  Over the four days I spent in Florence, I sampled Stickhouse’s frutti di bosco, coconut and strawberry popsicles and they were fabulous.  They were even great to eat in freezing cold, rainy weather.  I can only imagine how refreshing they would taste if it was sunny and warm.  For chocolate lovers, they also make chocolate dipped popsicles that looked awesome (next time & see below).  This is a smart concept that has been expanding around Europe and the Middle East with locations in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Indonesia and the Philipines.  I recall reading  in the New York times

via dipuggo

via red suitcase

via dolcesalatoweb

Interview w/ The Pillarbox

I don’t know about you, but if you have every tried to find a beautiful, English language greeting card in Prague, it is nearly impossible.  Same plight goes for wrapping paper.  Last week, I conducted an interview with local entrepreneur, Roisin Lamb, on the recent opening of her fabulous stationery store, the Pillarbox, located on Balbinova 24, in Prague’s Vinohrady district.

During my morning chat with Roisin, I learned that the Pillarbox was named after the free-standing, red post boxes found in the UK, and aims to provide Prague-ites with a wide array of English language greeting cards, invitations, wrapping accoutrement, kids items and gifts under one roof.  Carrying both local and UK stationery and product lines such as Rachel Ellen, Jellycat, One Green Bee, Glick, Woodmansterne, and jewelry from Louise Maystrenko, the Pillarbox is the place to go if you have forgotten someone’s birthday, are looking for colourful gift wrapping accessories such as bows, ribbons, stylish wrapping paper and bags or are in need of adorable invitations for a party.

As you get your mind in holiday mode, if you haven’t stopped by the store, it is a must for the upcoming holiday season, especially if you are on the hunt for some quality gifting accessories.  The best part about the Pillarbox is that it is open on Saturday from 11am to 3pm, quite uncommon for your typical Prague boutique!  Filling a necessary gap in the Prague market for stationery and paper products, the Pillarbox, with its knowledgeable and helpful staff ready and willing to gift wrap for you (boys/men- take note!!), will surely grow to become the new go-to store.

If you are looking for other places and spaces to get acquainted with the Pillarbox in Prague, you can find Roisin on December 3rd at the International Women’s Association of Prague’s (IWAP) Christmas fair at the Diplomat Hotel, as well as at the Prague British School’s holiday market event on December 15th and on their Facebook page.

pancake factory

What is a girl to do when she is craving pancakes in Prague?  When palačinky, the Czech Republic’s answer to the pancake, are not enough and you are craving North American-style pancakes that are found flipping on every diner griddle on the continent on a Saturday and Sunday morning?  The solution, is the Pancake Factory.

Last week I was at the gym and was flipping through a Czech magazine that was left on a table and noticed a red advertisement that screamed for my attention.  The small box on the middle of the page contained two words that were heaven to my ears, “American and Russian pancakes.”  I was sold.  I scribbled down the website and went home to Google my find, “Pancake Factory, Prague.”  To my delight, I found the restaurant and it was only located 34 km south of Prague, in the village of Kamenice, which makes for a nice drive on a Saturday morning.

The Pancake Factory specializes in American and Russian style pancakes in addition to offering other non-pancake restaurant items like meat and fish.   This place is part bakery and part restaurant and is open from 11 am to 11pm.

On our pancake-seeking mission, we ordered banana pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, a mint tea and a cappuccino and I have to say, it was all pretty good.  The pancakes were light and fluffy and came with a side of two sauces, a raspberry sauce and a maple-esque caramel sauce.  The restaurant’s interior looks like a cottage with wood panels, samovars and other antiques displayed on the shelves and a fireplace in the back room.  There is also a play-pen section filled with toys for kids.  Our pancake breakfast was a fun experience and a beautiful, quick drive and I would totally recommend it to satiate your next pancake craving in Prague.

Amsterdam the sweet

I just returned from spending four days in Amsterdam touring wedding venues and really enjoyed the city. I have not been in Amsterdam since the summer of 2004 when I went with a friend on a Contiki tour of 10 cities in Europe, Amsterdam being one of them.  I recall being dropped off in the Red Light district and set free to roam the city for 24 hours before being shipped off on the bus to our next destination.  While a good introduction to the landscape of the city, on this trip, now seven years later, I was surprised by how large Amsterdam is and how much there is to see, do and eat beyond the confines of the Red Light district.

For the purposes of not writing a novel, I am going go break up my posts into sweet and savoury which will be easier to digest (don’t mind the pun).

Bakeries are a great way to learn about a city and Amsterdam has plenty of great shops to visit and things to sample.  In my travels, I was particularly surprised to see how many places offered afternoon tea and you know, a city that loves its afternoon tea, certainly has great baked goods to match!

I visited De Bakkerswinkel (multiple locations) by default but was content with my find for their great bread and scones.  The aesthetic of De Bakkerswinkel sort of reminds of Le Pain Quotidien, with long harvest tables, wooden/rustic display cases and beautiful breads, jams, and cakes.   I went twice for breakfast (close proximity to the hotel) and sampled eggs with a great brown sourdough bread with raisins and other seeds, an impressive selection of jams, and their muesli.

via babyccino kids

I loved De Taart Van m’n Tante, a cake shop started by Siemon de Jong and Noam Offer who craft whimsical cakes for any occasion.  If you don’t have an occasion to order one of their beautiful works of art, not to worry, there is a cafe where you can sit down for tea, cake and a little slice of heaven.

via myoutgo

via marianne lamers

I also tried something called a Gevuelde Speculaas, or Dutch Spiced Cake, which can be found at nearly any bakery in the city.  It seems that ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg are a recurring spice blend used in Dutch baking, as well as almonds and almond paste.  The Gevuelde Speculaas cake or cookie (mind came in bar form) that I sampled combined both flavours very well.  To describe the it, the bar had a hard exterior of gingerbread-like cake with an almond paste in the centre and it was very tasty!!

via the boy who bakes

I was told by a friend not to leave with out sampling Stroopwafel (checked off my list), a thin layers of waffel with a syrupy-caramel in between.  Delicious!

Finally, I don’t know if it is acceptable to categorize pancakes into baked goods since they are not in fact baked in an oven, but for the purposes of this post, I am.  Dutch pancakes (Pannenkoken) and mini pancakes (Poffertjes) are the best, especially the sweet ones that are covered in icing sugar!

via kitchen butterfly

Love This: Colourful Kitchen Kitsch

Kitchen / stock cans / – What’s Cooking Kitchen Lifestyle
Kitchen / kitchentools / – What’s Cooking Kitchen Lifestyle
Table / bowls / – What’s Cooking Kitchen Lifestyle
Table / salad servers / – What’s Cooking Kitchen Lifestyle
Rice Melamine Petal Bowl in Assorted Colours – Nettle Green
Rice Coral Red Nested Melamine Bowls – Nettle Green
Rice Round Plastic Tiffin Food Boxes | Round Plastic Tiered Food Boxes…
Rice Melamine Cake Forks in Assorted Bright Colours 6 pcs. – Nettle…

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011

I am super excited to be participating in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, which is being organized by the bloggers behind The Little Kitchen and Love & Olive Oil.  The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap will take place next month, where food bloggers around the globe will busily be preparing three batches of cookies to exchange with other food bloggers.   Originally, the swap was open to North American bloggers, but then I later read that Australia, Italy and the UK were added to the list of participants.  With the help of some new blogger friends in Prague, the Czech Republic now gets to participate.  If you are reading this and are dying to bake, blog, and participate, there is still time to sign up here.  Deadline is Tuesday November 15th, so don’t delay. Stay tuned for my three cookie swap recipes and photos in early December.

foodie sites for all tastes

I am so happy the weekend is here.  I am looking forward to staying home, finishing a couple of art projects I have delayed and cleaning up before hitting the road again next week to Amsterdam.  For some weekend inspiration, I just discovered three great food blogs that I wanted to share with you: Food 52, They Draw and Cook and A Dash of Compassion.

Food 52 is a community food blog that started as a cookbook with lots of great articles, recipes, photographs and a shop.  They Draw and Cook are illustrated recipes sent in by people all over the world.  The illustrated recipes reminds me of the recipes that I used to see published in newspapers in the late 80s and early 90s and A Dash of Compassion is by a friend of mine in Toronto who is an amazing vegan baker.  I can’t wait to try out a recipe from each.  More about Florence (two shots below) next week, as well as ,what’s delicious and modern in Amsterdam.

Places to Eat: Milan

I just returned from a trip to Italy with stops in Milan and Florence.  I was there with my fiance checking out potential wedding venues with an excellent wedding planner who specializes in Tuscany weddings.  As a destination to get married, we learned from our mini Tuscany tour that this part of the world was definitely NOT for us (rustic is not charming or ideal for our backdrop).  However, that did not stop us from putting on our “urban-city searching foodie hats” and taking in the best of culinary, design and shopping in five days.

Milan is the second largest city in Italy and is known for its fashion, aperitivo, excellent food and design.  This large,  cosmopolitan, shopping mecca has an excellent transportation system both above ground and below, and for a 4.50 Euro day pass, it is both easy and cheap to visit all your favourite hot spots around the city.  There were several places we intended to visit like Peck, Gogol & Company, California Bakery, 10 Corso Como and Da Claudio Pescheria  but the combination of torrential rain and getting soaking wet, the fact that we only really had 36 hours in Milan spread over two days, plus exhaustion cut our Milan conquest a bit short.

Some of our favourite spots in Milan include Bianco Latte, a beautiful, light cream accented with wood, natural looking space that is part stellar gelatteira,  part cafe, part bakery, part retailer and part restaurant.  While it sounds like Bianco Latte has several different service offerings going on, I assure you the company does all of them exceedingly well.  We returned twice to Bianco Latte to sample different gelato flavours (ie. biscotti, dolce de leche, orange chocolate, and pistachio (of course)), browse their adorable retail section of colourful For Life teapots and tea cups, and cool, plastic, Baci Milano cake plates and serving pieces, and sip some much-needed tea.  As an aside, it is nearly impossible to find good tea in Milan and Florence.  I get the Italian coffee thing and how you won’t have a bad cup in Italy, but for the tea drinkers out there, a week of Twinings is hell.  To my good fortune, Bianco Latte carries and brews Lov Organic tea, a brand I have blogged about before and like.

via Bianco Latte

Luini, is a tiny store, tucked behind the Duomo and is a famous panzerotti house in the city.  Luini also made our list of top spots in Milan to visit.  Luini makes both sweet and savoury panzerotti, where the sweet taste like a cookie stuffed with delicious things such as nutella, pear, figs, or walnuts and lightly dusted with icing sugar. The savoury Luini’s taste like what a pizza pocket, panzerotti should taste like.  They also have some impressive baked goods available at the counter. They have a no picture policy, so the images I have for you are off the web.

photos via: vacanta-italia, virgbee, amoitaly, tourism milan, miguelvecin

Another spot that truly impressed us was Cioccolati Italiani, a design-forward, sleek-looking space that specializes in all things chocolate from eating to drinking.  Behind the counter, they have three taps that pour white chocolate, dark chocolate and milk chocolate tempting you to order something sweet.  Cioccolati Italiani has three stores in Milan and we visited the one opposite to Luini.  My fiance tried the chocolate espresso, a shot of espresso in a clear espresso cup with thick, dark chocolate on the bottom.   A spoon accompanies the drink and as he downed the espresso, he was left speechless as he scooped up the remaining melted chocolate below the coffee.

photos via: Where Milan, Linda Bezze, Con i Piedi Per Terra, Tamabea

Finally, La Rinascente food hall, on the seventh floor of La Rinascente department store was a magical place to see.  Rows upon rows of the best of Italian products including oils, pasta sauces, pasta, tea, chocolate, spices, wine, you name it, it was there.  We look forward to returning to Milan for a full weekend (and good weather hopefully) where we can take in more sights, areas and continue to explore the culinary delights of the city.