No comments about Time Out Shortlist Florence (Time Out Shortlist).

5 comments about Rosemary and Bitter Oranges: Growing Up in a Tuscan Kitchen.

1. I loved this book I could not stop reading it even when I was very busy finishing a deadline work... It is so naturaly and beautifuly written... Parizia Chen will go far and I am sure all her books will be read with such a pleasure.

   Thanks for this delicious treat... with all my cogratulations to Patrizia Chen.
   Virginia C Corm.




2. I enjoy reading food narratives and childhood accounts of growing up in foreign countries; however, this book is quite a disappointment after reading the summary above. The writing isn't great, the descriptions certainly don't transport you to Tuscany, and despite the title, I wouldn't say there is an emphasis on food. If you were related to Patrizia, you mind find it an interesting read, but I've found myself skimming through it, searching for compelling passages, of which there are few.



3. Always on the lookout for eloquent voices on Italian food and life, I noticed a new release entitled "Rosemary and Bitter Oranges" by Patrizia Chen. Subtitled "Growing Up in a Tuscan Kitchen," the book piqued my interest on several levels. Rosemary and bitter oranges are strong ingredients, impossible for a cook to ignore. On the cover, a sepia snapshot of a pigtailed girl in a proper '50s cotton dress and sensible shoes smiled sweetly in a sun-dappled garden. The name Patrizia is certainly Italian, I thought, but "Chen" sounds Chinese. I was curious.

   Patrizia was born just a few years after the end of WWII and grew up in a stately peach-colored home on Via Roma in the heart of Livorno, Tuscany's major port. Only a few years earlier, the large home had, of necessity, been abandoned by her family and had endured the abuse of occupying German soldiers.

   Patrizia lived with her parents, grandparents, brother, two sisters, and the family cook Emilia.
   The tension that existed between the culinary dictums of the patriarch Nonno GianPaolo and the talents of the cook Emilia play a central theme of the story and mirror Patrizia's personal journey from a well-bred Italian convent schoolgirl to an international journalist married to a Chinese American living in Manhattan.

   Of her grandfather's table, Patrizia recalls, "The food was invariably whiteýuniformly whiteýand bland. Many souffleés, lots of sformati (timbales), paste al gratin, and beautiful fishýmaybe a merluzzo (a small Mediterranean cod), steamed to perfection, with a whisper of extra-virgin olive oil. Food was judged by the same standard as fashion: spiciness was as vulgar as a skintight dress."

   Of Emilia's kitchen, she recalls, "One day as I passed through the kitchen after playing in the garden, my senses were suddenly awakened, stirred by a vivid aroma that I had never experienced at the table with my family. Emilia was eating the meal she had prepared for herself. It was an explosion of colors: vermillion tomatoes, green basilico and parsley, and contrasting black pepper dots. And the smell! Pungent, strong, and exotic enough to stop me, and my seven-year-old nose, in my tracks."

   After Emilia shares a sample with Patrizia, both lives are changed. Emilia teaches Patrizia to cook, and a special bond develops. "Now I knew that lifeýreal lifeýhappened behind the kitchen doors and not in the subdued, elegant atmosphere of my grandparents' dining room."

   Seasoning the story are recollections of chickpea pancakes, sugar-coated doughnuts, chocolate ricotta and other comforting childhood snacks. Recipes for the signature Livorno dish cacciucco (seafood soup), minestrone, semolina gnocchi, chicken stew, coffee zabione and more are woven into the text. And black-and-white family photographs take us immediately back to postwar Italy.

   Strong support characters are important to any good narrative and Patrizia supplies them. Her Mamma's bitter orange marmelade production becomes worthy of a minor opera. Her Nonna Valentina's whimsical creation of canary gelato, prepared from freshly fallen snow, evokes images worthy of Fellini.

   Grazie, Patrizia for sharing.




4. I tried & tried but I just couldn't get attached to this book. The characters weren't presented in an interresting manner, neither was the food & certainly not the memmories.

   Have I been spoilt after reeding Collette Rossant? She was what hooked me on food memmoires, but I'll certainly think twice before reacing for another book of this genre.

   My advice is get a proper cook book & don't bother with this one!




5. `Rosemary and Bitter Oranges' is a memoir of a contemporary writer's childhood, mostly around the age of eight years old, in the house of her grandparents (Nonna and Nonno), parents, and two siblings. The house is that of a pre-World War II upper middle class family of Livorno, in Tuscany, near the Tyrrhean seacoast. The time is the late 1950s, when the family has restored some of its lost wealth and position to the grandfather while father is a lieutenant and teacher in the nearby Italian naval academy.

   The central character in the child's life is neither Mamma nor Nonna, but the cook and housekeeper, Emilia, who fits in every way the stereotype of a middle-aged Italian housekeeper. The first and most fascinating culinary memory in the story is the difference between the cuisine of the household eaten at the luncheon and dinner tables, and the cuisine that the housekeeper makes for herself and eats in the kitchen. The family's meal is described as almost entirely white, as if to avoid a mismatch with the custom Belgian white linen on the table. In contrast, Emilia's meals are a riot of reds and greens, and represent a major discovery for eight year old Patrizia.

   Like Gennaro Contaldo's stories of his Campagnia childhood in the cookbook `Passione', and unlike some adult and second hand impressions of Italy, the descriptions of impressions, experiences, and memories are so strong, you can practically smell the starch in the linen and feel the polished brass and the cool tiles in the courtyard. There may be much metaphor in saying this, but it gives one the sense of how vivid and genuine the word pictures come across to the reader.

   Unlike Patricia Volk's memoir `Stuffed' and Ruth Reichl's first memoir volume, `Tender at the Bone', there is not a very large cast of well painted characters filling these pages. All the aunts and uncles and grandparents and parents and siblings fill pretty much the roles expected of them for the little girl of the author's memories. Since this is a memoir of a culinary writer, it has, like Reichl's two volumes, a number of recipes within each chapter which are more like photographs used to illustrate the narrative rather than a serious source of culinary material. My most interesting find was the recipe for Emilia's marinara sauce which is almost identical to Mario Batali's simple sauce published in all his books, which includes carrots to sweeten the tart tomatoes. This is perfectly fitting, as Mario acquired his authentic Italian cuisine in Emilia-Romagna, just a few miles from the border with Toscana (Tuscany).

   Another fascinating resonance with Mario Batali's is the description of Emilia at the great central open-air market in central Livorno. Batali constantly states that every Italian housewife believes it is her god given right to get the very best piece of meat or vegetable available that day. Judging from Ms. Chen's description of Emilia's tactics at the meat counter, this rather benign Batali picture doesn't even come close to describing the cutthroat behavior of Italians at the market. Your average American who politely takes their paper queue chit and quietly waits their turn at the deli counter would be totally out of place. At the Italian counter, there is no queue and the ladies use every trick in the book to advance their position relative to that particularly attractive lamb shoulder in the display case.

   Next to culinary memories, the most evocative are those connected with the young child's love of reading and interest in things which would later be her career in writing. I suspect part of interesting writing is to see and describe simple things that escape the average person's attention. It is not that the non-writer doesn't experience these things, it is that they take no special note of them. In the case of this writer, her narrative of the sights and smells of bookstores and stationary stores with freshly printed books and newly sharpened wooden pencils brings back similar memories to me.

   If you love culinary lore, memoirs, Italian culture, or just plain good writing, this book will be a rewarding and entertaining day's read.

No comments about Buying a House in Italy, 2nd (Buying a House - Vacation Work Pub).

5 comments about Eating in Italy: A Traveler's Guide to the Hidden Gastronomic Pleasures of Northern Italy.

1. I've made something like ten pleasure trips to Italy in the past decade, and for me, this is easily the best dining resource IN PRINT. In this Internet age, there are additional ways to garner some information about Eating in Italy, but it you aren't too interested in the "new, hot, trendy" etc., this is definitely money well spent.
   There are other books I draw upon, including Sandra Gustafson's "Cheap Eats In Italy," Maureen Fant's "Trattorias of Rome, Florence, and Venice," and the guides from the Time Out series. But kilo for kilo, this is the one I use most frequently, especially if you wander away from Rome-Florence-Venice.
   Many of her recommendations also pop up (as citations) in some of the better travelogues--- for instance her writing is cited in books such as "The Collected Traveler-- Central Italy" collected by Barrie Kerper and the recently issued "Piazzas and Pizzas-- the Adventures of the Clean Plate Club in Italy."
   Worth every penny, Euro, or late, lamented Lire that you spend.



2. This was our second trip to Italy using Faith's guide to help us find local markets. We were invited to prepare a celebration dinner at a villa for family/friends in Tuscany. We were able to locate all the special ingredients we needed for the feast which lasted 6 hours and ended with a standing ovation. It was a dream come true. Before and after the week at the villa, we traveled in Italy, also relying on Faith's excellent recommendations. She reports that she is currently writing a book for Southern Italy. You can bet we will plan a return visit when it becomes available. Faith has foodie tours of Florence and offers small cooking classes, as well. Check out her website.



3. This is a most excellent guide to the food of northern Italy, maybe the ONLY comprehensive guide in English to that vast and delectable region. It covers a huge range of cuisines from the rustic simplicty of Tuscany to the highly inflected Franco-Savoyard provincial foods of the Val d'Aosta. It gives special attention to the rich traditions of Emiglia-Romagna, especially Bologna. It also does a fine job of sampling the gamut of local offerings, from simple but excellent family kitchens to the greatest restaurants.
   
   Unfortunately, the book is out of date. Last updated in 1998, I have found that maybe one third of its listings are now defunct, and many more can no longer be reached at the phone/fax numbers listed. I am currently planning a trip to Arezzo, Pisa, Assisi, Bologna, and Modena, and many of the restaurants I wanted to visit no longer exist. Still, the larger, more established restaurants and the older more established family kitchens tend to have the same contact information that they did eight years ago.
   
   Please join with me in encouraging the author and publisher to revise and reissue this great guide. I'd love to see it as a supplement to the Fodor's Italy guide, which is generally excellent but provides only cursory coverage of food.
   
   Please note that my rating is somewhat arbitrary given that the book has become largely obsolete.



4. Very good for its age, but beware of this 1998 edition. We just spent 3 weeks in Tuscany, Umbria, Verona and Bologna. Many of the establishments named have closed or moved.
   But those businesses written about and yet enduring are terrific.



5. I have this book and didn't find it terribly interesting. When I went to Italy, I didn't stay in the north, maybe thats why I didn't find it so useful.

5 comments about Italy for the Gourmet Traveler.

1. If I had only one book to take with me when travelling in Italy, this would be it! Fred Plotkin's taste is impeccable. He's not a snob, and although not adverse to the occasional expensive restaurant, he generally leads you elsewhere: to the local trattorias that serve up sublimated versions of the local, home-cooked cuisine. His adjunct entries (food stores, markets, etc.) are also wonderful and fascinating. Some of the entries are out of date, but this is still essential for any food-loving traveller (and why go to Italy if you're not?).



2. I have used this book extensively during two trips to Italy, which covered approximately 45 days. This book is invaluable if you want to experience Italy like a "real" Italian.
   
   The author does a nice job explaining the various types of eating establishments (ristoranti, trattoria, osteria, enoteca, tavola calda, etc.) and how what you can expect in those establishments is different. The author also does a fabulous job of listing the various names for food stores and what they sell. This is extremely helpful if your Italian is weak or nonexistent. Also helpful for the first time visitor to Italy is the discussion of how to purchase something in a food shop. Most Americans are unfamiliar with the concept of paying first at the cashier, and then taking the ticket to the person who will prep your food. But in a gelateria or pizza shop this is just how it is done. Also nice, is how the author explains the table charge (or cover charge), what it is for, and that is optional since many locals will stand at the bar to eat.
   
   Regional specialties are covered in this book in reasonable detail. This is very helpful for getting into the spirit of a place and enjoying what is native to their geography. The Italians are very big on this notion and are fiercely loyal to their own products. If you want to fit in like an Italian, it is helpful to know how what you order in Firenze is different from Roma, or Venezia.
   
   I have found the authors recommendations on restaurants to be right on target. Many of the restaurants he recommends I had been in prior to purchasing this book and found that I agreed with his selections.
   
   I highly recommend this book for anyone that loves food, and wants to enjoy the best that Italy has to offer.



3. I planned my last trip to Italy around this book. Fred in one hand, an atlas of Italy in another. His insights into regional food kept us true to the places we visited (Liguria, Tuscany, Umbria, along the Adriatic coast, and Emiglia Romana), and served as a magical gustatory compass. We had five of our top-ten-EVER meals on that trip, with very few splurges. We're going to France in three weeks and have lamented over and over that this book doesn't have a French counterpart. If only he had a Francophile twin!



4. His reviews, from what I have experienced, are right on. I would recommed this book to a foodie who is going to be travelling to Italy.



5. This is an excellent book for deciding which part of Italy to visit if you want your trip to be food orientated. You have to remember that you can cross over from area to area though. You also have to remember that the book was written ten years ago and some places may no longer exist or be out of business. But it's so enthusiastic and although centered on food
   offers other options as well, like classic towns to visit. It fills you with a joy for visiting Italy and I thoroughly recommend it while urging Mr Plotkin to please please update it.

1 comments about Veneto: Authentic Recipes from Venice and the Italian Northeast (Italian Regional Recipes).

1. Although some of the recipes don't look too enticing, della Croce offers pages of great background information on the types and history of foods in the Veneto. And with the lush photography and rich quotes pulled from literature, even if you never make a recipe from this book, it makes a great gift for anyone who loves food or all things Venetian.

5 comments about Hammond International Italy Road Atlas (Hammond International).

1. We found this map to be very extensive, showing not only
   the small towns in Italy we were looking for, but it also
   includes surrounding European countries, which was a real
   bonus.



2. We used this atlas while driving from Rome and throughout Tuscany. It was invaluable - the large size of the maps is great for highlighting your route.



3. We used this atlas all over Italy. We used it as we walked around cities, including Rome, Florence, and Naples. We also used it when we rented a car to drive from Naples to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast.



4. This Atlas was invaluable for our August trip to Italy. We traveled all over Northern Italy. It also includes blow up maps of the major cities which were invaluable. The only negative I would say is it didn't have a sign legend to tell you what the different road signs met. Although, they are pretty easy to figure out. Happy Travels!



5. bought both the hammond & michelin atlas used only the hammond lots of cities i was looking for was right at border on michelin.... corinkidink?
   gps saved me many, many times.

1 comments about Italian Joy.

1. Be swept away by Carla Coulson's luscious life in Italy. A visual delight that takes you into the heart of Italian life and culture. One can almost smell the delicious Italian coffee, hear the sounds of the warm, beautiful Italian voices echoing through the streets and delight in the vivid colours at the fresh food markets. Embrace the beauty of Italy through Italian Joy. Carla really captures the heart of Italy through her beautiful photos and text. Go on a journey through this gorgeous country, meet the people and discover the heart of Italy.

No comments about Milan (City Guides - Cadogan).

No comments about Insight Guides Sicily (Insight Guides).