Milano Bakery

***2015 UPDATE: Milano Bakery is now called Milano Meneghi, while their menu has changed, the decor remains almost the same and they still offer a nice brunch***

It was another one of those places that I had been longing to visit and finally on a cold, sunny Sunday we had a nice brunch at Milano Bakery.

Di viole di liquirizia

I had heard so much about this place that the other day, while walking on the beautiful Via Madonnina, I decided to visit Di Viole Di Liquirizia.

 

Pasta does make the difference

I love pasta, but I had never believed that the brand of the pasta could influence the taste of a certain dish. Until now. 

Hilton London Kensington

A couple of weeks ago we were in London visiting a friend. Taking advantage of the "Any Weekend Anywhere" sale, we were able to get an affordable rate for the weekend at the Hilton London Kensington. Even if the name says Kensington, this one is not in Kensington, but conveniently located in Holland Park Avenue, a 3-minute walk from the Sheppherd's Bush Underground and Overground stations and, most importantly, Westfield shopping center.

Photo from the hotel's website

Holly Cheeses!

After the disappointment with the tuna at Eataly Rome, I was not in the mood for any more food disasters (I can get so dramatic when it comes to food) so our friends suggested we tried a new place in the Roman ghetto. So, we headed to this beautiful area of Rome, my food mecca, and after a short walk we got to Beppe e i suoi formaggi (Beppe and his cheeses).

February Photo a Day Challenge

Just a quick post to let you know that during this month you'll be seeing some strange photos on my Instagram... (the arrow is poiniting to my Instagram pictures, you can follow me at: http://instagram.com/simarik3/)

The reason is that I've decided to participate in a curious challenge, the "February Photo a Day Challenge 2013".

Some months ago I stumbled into this nice blog and I noticed the fun challenge of Photo a Day but I decided to wait until February, the shortest month, to give it a try. How does it work? At the begining of each month Chantelle provides a list of subjects for each day, so each day you have to take a picture of that subject and post it, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, on your blog, etc. with the hashtag #fmsphotoaday

I've decided to post only to Instagram and perhaps by the end of the month make a collage of all my shots. Here's the list for February:

And here's my first picture (not very creative, sorry - I've been browsing on instagram the photos with the hashtag and there are many funny and very cool ones):

Eataly Rome: in decline?

As you might remember, we were in Rome this summer a week after the opening of Eataly Rome, the foodie's paradise. We were so enthusiast about it: great food, top quality products, good prices. So we decided to make it our Trevi Fountain (you know the deal: everytime you visit Rome you must go throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain so you ensure your return to the eternal city) and visit it everytime we are in Rome.

So last weekend we headed to Eataly to find out if it was as good as we remembered. And to be honest, we were a bit disappointed. First of all, the Roman Osteria where we had the delicious tripe has been turned (only for a month) in a Neapolitan Osteria  -nothing against Naples but we are in Rome, and when in Rome...-, then we found out that the water, which had always been free of charge, is not anymore so you have to pay for it, fair enough. The biggest disappointment was the tuna. You know we are fans of Eataly's tuna, so have a look at the tuna from Eataly Turin:

and the tuna from Rome this weekend:

After waiting for ages to be served, as you can see, the fresh salad, the tasty potatoes, coarse salt and mustard (not pictured) were substituted with... fennel... yes, just sone fennel that was not even cooked or garnished to be paired correctly with the tuna. The quantity of the tuna was reduced. The only thing that saved the dish was the quality of the tuna because it was tender and tasty.
I was still hungry so we went to the beer restaurant for a beer and a cheese platter. Since we hadn't been here before I couldn't compare it to any previous experiences but the beer was good. The cheese platter was also good, but that evening we went to another place I'll write about in another post and there I had the best cheese platter (stay tuned).

A positive thing that keeps us coming back are the prices of the wines, we still found the same good prices as last summer.
After we came back home, I happened to read this post on one of my favorite websites (sorry, it's in Italian). It shows a picture of a Despar truck in front of Eataly Rome, so, if they say that their ingredients are top quality from only small producers, what do they get from a low-cost supermarket like Despar (I'm praying they only get toilet paper and hand soap) ?
I don't know if it's true or not that the products are no longer top quality - the tuna and cheeses I had were very good - , but what we could notice were those aforementioned details. I'll be coming back next time we're in Rome, just to see where is it going.