Well, after the delicious postings on foods from Penny and Cathy here is my humble contribution on desserts. I think Americans don't know what they are missing at the European tradition of pastries and ice-cream (yeah, yeah, we have here the best ice-cream ... but just wait until you hear about gelato). As a kid growing up in a small town, I was blessed by having a Danish pastry shop near my home. I don't know how this Danish family landed in Sogamoso, but I thought it was a divine intervention. I loved the stuff they had, and with such fancy names which I cannot recall. So I went looking for desserts in Rome and sure enough they had some very delicious looking stuff (Cathy tells me that there are better places in Italy to get pastries and I know that France has better ones, but according to my childhood memories the Danes have even better ones). This
site gives a list of the best 10 sweets and where to get them (Testaccio,Trastevere, Piazza Bologna). Just take a good look at what is waiting for us...
Now according to this
site gelato is not just the Italian word for ice-cream, gelato is different from ice-cream: (i) it has less butterfat, so it is melts less hard and it just melts in your mouth; (ii) it has a higher density because E.U. regulations do not allow increasing its weight by adding water or its volume by blowing air into it as in done with ice-cream; (iii) it is frozen quickly in small batches and so it has to be eaten fresher than ice-cream. Although I believe them, I want to verify it and see how different it is from the gelato you find in Pittsburgh (we have lots of Italians here, and I hope they know their stuff). The above site indicates the best 6 places to go for gelato. Just look at that cone ... it looks scrumptious!
Well, after the delicious postings on foods from Penny and Cathy here is my humble contribution on desserts. I think Americans don't know what they are missing at the European tradition of pastries and ice-cream (yeah, yeah, we have here the best ice-cream ... but just wait until you hear about gelato). As a kid growing up in a small town, I was blessed by having a Danish pastry shop near my home. I don't know how this Danish family landed in Sogamoso, but I thought it was a divine intervention. I loved the stuff they had, and with such fancy names which I cannot recall. So I went looking for desserts in Rome and sure enough they had some very delicious looking stuff (Cathy tells me that there are better places in Italy to get pastries and I know that France has better ones, but according to my childhood memories the Danes have even better ones). This site gives a list of the best 10 sweets and where to get them (Testaccio,Trastevere, Piazza Bologna). Just take a good look at what is waiting for us... 
That "brutti ma buoni (ugly but good), lumpy mounds of nuts in a chewy meringue" sounds right up your alley Papi! And yes, from my limited time in Italy I remember the gelato bring very good!
ReplyDeleteRevealed in Rome has an updated list of The Best Gelato in Rome because in April of 2014 she wrote an article for the National Geographic Traveler on Gelato.
ReplyDeleteAbout the Danes.....yes, they have wonderful pastry!! After all they have all that butter! So they make these absolutely delicious multilayered (with butter) pastries which they call wienerbrod, Viennese bread. And in Vienna the same are known as "Kopenhagener geback or Danische plunder. Maybe is's really Sogamoso bread!
ReplyDelete