On New Years Eve, during a major snowstorm, one of my daughters became violently ill.The timing, of course, could not have been worse and after a call to the doctor we were put at ease, told to stay in, to push fluids and to ride it out. “There’s a stomach bug going around and it will pass” — we were told. But “stomach bug” I knew this was not. This thing, whatever she had, was far more sinister. A day later and two separate trips to the emergency room we wound up in the hospital for seven days of pure agony. Not only were we quarantined in a room that we were not allowed to leave but my potty-trained daughter was back in diapers –- going to the bathroom up to 30 times a day and screaming every time (sorry tmi). The poor thing was finally diagnosed with Salmonella (it takes 3 days to show up in a blood culture), and even rarer, it had spread to her bloodstream.Where she got it – I still don’t know.Salmonella is one of those things that you can get from food, playing with a turtle, anywhere really – nobody knows. And when a kid gets it, especially if it gets into the blood, it is nothing short of terrifying.
After my own bouts with food poisoning in the past (I have been hospitalized twice for food contaminated illnesses from work, once with Salmonella from a CANTALOUPE!), I have been fearful of food and have become very particular about what I eat and what I feed my children.But you can’t be vigilant 100% of the time, and sadly, there is really no control over the situation.The food supply in the US is worrisome to say the least and unless you are shopping at local farmers markets or paying top dollar at Whole Foods you really have no idea where your food is coming from.
So where am I going with this? I guess after seeing my daughter go through such an excruciating situation I am on mega high alert which reminded me of two books that are worth reading. Two excellent books about the state of the food supply in the US are The Omnivores Delimma and In Defense of Food. I was lucky to have grown up with a mother who was a hippie so I was quite aware of what was healthy to eat, but these two books were eye opening to say the least.
And last week I finally watched the documentary, Food Inc. If you have not seen it – watch it now! Oprah just did a special on it. Buy it or rent it or get it on demand.It will blow your mind, make you sick and might even make you a vegan overnight.I hate to bring this up and scare people but I am worried and I don’t even know what to eat anymore — if you have ideas, please send them my way. I am pretty confident this is a US related issue but not sure. I just get the feeling that in Europe there are more markets and access to fresh food. Please let me know. I am just curious.
Milan is an expensive city, and when you are visiting on travel it’s probably even more difficult to have dinner without spending a fortune. During the day the ubiquitous bakeries allow you to eat on a budget easily but at night it’s easy to have to shell out a small fortune for a dinner, however nice it may be. If you take into account that children’s menus and small portions are hard to find, then the bill will be even higher for families with small children.
A nice solution might be to make the best of the Milanese aperitivo or “happy hour”. The hour is happy not because you get two drinks for the price of one, but because by paying for a drink you get unlimited access to a free buffet.
Most bars now, after 6 pm, will offer way more than a few crisps and a bowl of olives. The quality of the food will obviously depend on the venue, but most of them will offer some pasta or rice, focaccia and fritata, cold cuts, raw vegetables and many styles of bruschetta-style nibbles. More than enough for a light dinner and definitely food that appeals to children.
I have already written about an aperitivo option in Milan but the peculiarity of what has become a habit here has attracted the attention of Matt Gross, the NYT Frugal Traveller, who has spent a whole week in Milan without ever paying for food at dinner! (You can find all his suggestions and comments here.)
Italians, or possibly just the people from Milan, have come up with their own version of brunch. In the last 10 years many restaurants have specialised in a particular Sunday lunch, that goes by the name of brunch.
It’s not too dissimilar from what the international crowd believes brunch should be, but it has its own peculiarities. First of all it happens at lunch time, not in between breakfast and lunch. The experience normally involves a big buffet table that offers food in a very wide range. You’ll find lasagna, pasta and risotto next to meatballs and sausages. All sorts of grain salads next to grilled vegetables. But also scrambled and hard boiled eggs, brownies, pancakes, fruit, yogurt and cereals. So it’s really hard not to find something everybody likes.
That’s why it has become a favourite family event — informal, quick and with lots of choice for the fussy children.
Today we tried the play-brunch at the San Vittore restaurant, named from the prison it faces (in the center of Milan!). The place is light and modern and you get to sit either at normal tables or on small couches in front of coffee tables. It may sound weird but it actually works fine if you have very small children! We were welcomed with a tasty mimosa, the buffet had all of the brunch staples and included in the fixed price menu we were offered eggs (any style) and coffee. Not a gourmet meal, but definitely nice. What makes this place stand out is the entertainment for the children. Two girls went around the tables and joked with the children and built them swords and animals with balloon tubes. When most of the children were done eating they all ventured on the terrace and did some games and a magic show in which children could participate.
That gave us some time to drink our coffee and have some quiet adult conversation. Not bad after all!
Michela and I are often asked about family-friendly restaurants in our respective cities. Try as we might, we are hard pressed to come up with good suggestions. There is a huge North/South divide in Europe regarding the obvious signs of child friendliness in restaurants.
In Northern Europe you will more often than not be offered a highchair when you enter a restaurant with your kids. Often you find changing tables in the bathrooms and kids menus, and many places even have special toys they bring out. In Southern Europe it is rare to find this kind of service, BUT this does not mean that children are not welcome. In fact, they are almost always welcome, but are expected to fit around the adults.
As I now have two little ones with me constantly, I have been surprised by how many restaurants here in France are more than willing to put together a child portion of simple food, though there is almost never a specific child menu; you just have to ask. There may be no toys, but everyone from the cook to the other customers will comment on how beautiful your child is, which my 3-year-old personally finds hugely entertaining, (she is definitely not going to develop an inferiority complex).
One of our favourite places in Paris, the Café de l’Industrie close to Bastille is a perfect example. On the surface it looks like a lot of the establishments in the area. It is nicely decorated, has a great menu and lots of people hanging out drinking coffees and smoking cigarettes and philosophizing about life. If you turn up with a brood of youngsters though, they will make sure you get a comfortable table and offer the little ones pasta or sausages and mash as half portions. The young and beautiful waitresses find the spectacle of small children covering themselves in potatoes hugely entertaining. (So would I by the way, if I did not have to try and wash dried up mashed potatoes out of my daughters hair…)
You will be surprised by how much kids are actually accepted in restaurants if you are ever holidaying in France and if someone makes a fuss, just throw your arms up in the air and gesticulate wildly and walk out, just as the locals would do!
While checking out the baby biscuits at a health food store, I stumbled upon Baby Mum-Mum biscuits, and couldn’t resist the name! Now my almost 9-month-old is addicted– she clearly prefers these over any baby cookies I buy. I love them too– they come in individual packets, great to stash in your bag, they are slightly crunchy, and not at all messy. They are made primarily of rice, but do have small amounts of sugar and salt. (Maybe that is what makes them so yummy?) Click here for a list of US and Canadian retailers.
Another classic American fave for older babies is Cheerios. For my first daughter, I remember stuffing my suitcase full of plain Cheerios when I visited the States, as in France, only the honey nut variety are available. Apparently Cheerios are great for babies who have perfected the pincer grasp, and I’ve heard they reduce the possibility of chocking as they are circle-shaped. As I was thinking about this post, I was wondering what kinds of snacks and biscuits moms around the world feed their babies. Are there other great ideas, or even better– homemade snacks, that we should know about?
I had a coffee with the lovely Kirby from Petite Alma this morning in one of my favourite cafés and I suddenly realised that I have never written a post about it! It is called Le Loir dans la Théière on 3 rue des Rosiers in the Marais (Tel : 01 42 72 90 61).
We go there with friends and family for the fabulous brunch on the weekends (get there early, or risk waiting in a huge queue), we also go for lunch and we especially go there to have a big piece of cake in the afternoons. The lemon pie has a meringue crust that is at least 10 centimetres high! I have had friends refuse to leave town before having a slice of this pie! I am also very partial to their Tarte Tatin — it’s really incredible.
The thing I like almost as much as the food is the atmosphere and decor; it hasn’t changed a bit in all the years the café has been around. You will find mismatched, big leather armchairs and old tables. Laptops are not allowed, and even when there is a huge queue snaking out of the café onto the road, every customer is allowed to take as much time as he needs.
There is no special kid-friendly equipment but the staff are really nice and try to accommodate you as much as possible, though it is best to avoid turning up with a big pushchair during the peak hours.
After recently spending a week in the UK my kids were very confused. In France one of the highlights of a child’s day is the “goûter”, a sweet snack at 4 pm. Usually it is a Nutella or jam sandwich with a glass of milk, or a sweet bread called a ‘pain au lait’ with a yogurt or a fuit compote (the French have never taken to the idea of rice cakes). It ties kids over until dinner time which is often given to them after their bath around 6.30 or 7.00pm. The day normally wraps up at 8pm.
In the UK dinner normally seems to be at 5pm and kids are in bed by 7pm sharp. So of course my daughter was very confused by not getting her customary goûter. I guess kids really are creatures of habit….
I’m interested to know what happens in other countries. Do you have the tradition of an afternoon goûter, or is the goûter just a French thing?
Okay, so I don’t want to sound like I’m having a meltdown but I am in a bit of a major adjustment zone at the moment. (Haha. It’s not going to last until he’s 18 years old, is it???) While I feel more comfortable with my baby being at daycare — he’s slowly settling in – I am still torn about letting go of another ideal I held about being a “good” mother. The first one to slip through my fingers was breastfeeding. Going back to work, it wasn’t practical to continue. And I also realised that I wasn’t producing enough milk to sustain my growing boy. He actually became quite underweight. Now, I’m weighing up the pros and cons of homemade solids versus store-bought ones. While I look at the jam-packed website of Annabel Karmel and wish I had a spare day or two to make “Tasty Salmon Puree” or “Braised Beef with Sweet Potato” I just don’t have the time. And while there is probably more variety in store-bought baby food than ever before, there still doesn’t seem a huge choice. I’ve yet to see any fish on offer in the form of a baby food jar (locally farmed, preferably — yep, I warned you that I have pretty high ideals). I would love to know what choices you’ve made regarding homemade versus store-bought food, especially if you’ve gone back to work.
In Italy teabags always come in individual envelopes, maybe it’s because Italians are not big tea-drinkers so tea is better preserved if it’s wrapped in paper. Whatever the reason may be, when I was growing up, I never questioned the fact — that was just the way teabags were.
When I moved to England I immediately noticed that teabags came in big boxes of at least 50 pieces and most of them didn’t have single envelopes, they were sleeveless… or as I started calling them: naked!
I got so used to them — definitely less waste of paper, quicker in the mornings and, not less important, naked teabags can easily be stored in nice jars. Once I moved back 3 years ago, I kept drinking English tea thanks to frequent visits and a frequent-flyer husband. Recently my regular supply came to an end, so I started looking for naked teabags everywhere but they are not for sale in Italy. After all, individually wrapped teabags do their job greatly, I admit I was being a bit picky.
That’s when I stumbled across British Corner Shop, a web-shop that sells British groceries and delivers worldwide. They carry a huge selections of everything you may miss when away from the UK (yes, come on… it can happen). Cereals, biscuits, marmite, beans, cleaning products and baby food. Prices are good but the delivery is not too cheap; just order loads of stuff to make it worth it (that’s what I did).
So that’s how I got my teabags, but that’s also how we finally had Christmas crackers on our table this year!
When Esther lived around the corner from me here in London I called her all the time just to ask her what she was making for dinner that night. Esther is really good at opening up her fridge, looking at what is left in there and then coming up with something tasty! I, on the other hand, am really good at copying other people’s ideas! I’m just not very innovative in the kitchen… But if someone tells me how to make something and gives me the recipe I’m pretty capable of doing it.
I still call Esther from time to time hoping for ideas and inspiration, and I love to read the recipes the other girls post here on Babyccino. It’s so fun to learn all the typical recipes from the different countries. I love Michela’s easy pasta recipes and Emilie’s recipes for French tarts and sweets!
With all of this in mind, we thought it would be fun to set up a forum for our readers to discuss what you’re all making for dinner tonight. Whether you’ve prepared a 3-course meal, pureeing home-cooked baby food or you’re scrambling eggs, we want to hear from you!!! (It also makes us feel better if someone else is ALSO just heating up left-overs, or ordering take-out… )
And, If you’re making up a recipe, we’d love to know about that too (even if it wasn’t very tasteful — it happens to the best of us). We would especially love to hear your all-time favorite recipes… If you’re willing to share!
So please leave your comments. Check back daily to hear what others are saying, and keep the conversation going!
We think this is going to be so much fun!!!
It always amazes me what is considered an essential cooking item in some countries and what is not.
My Italian brother went backpacking through Ireland as a teenager and I will never forget how disgusted he was when he realised that the youth hostels he was staying in did not have a pasta strainer! Norwegian friends of mine just cannot get their heads around the fact that I do not own a cheese slicer, and my English friends are forever trying to find my potato masher in my cupboard when they stay with us. I do not understand how anyone could survive without a salad spinner, which is completely essential in my opinion!
I guess what we use in the kitchen reflects the way we eat and we are all pretty convinced that our national culinary delights and way of eating are the best in the world. In a time when you see Starbucks appearing on every corner in Paris and every other major city in the world, it is nice to see that we are still fighting for our own cultural identity, even if it is only in the kitchen!
(By the way, I would love to hear about other cooking utensils used in other countries…)
Our second daughter is now 6 months old and we have started weaning her, and she is really enjoying a change from plain old milk. The thing is… with our first daughter, weaning was a big deal for us and I would spend hours reading books on concocting the perfect nutritious purée, but this time round I don’t have the same luxury. I often need to give the baby something to chew on while I get a meal in front of the eldest. The good thing is, she loves feeding herself much more than being fed.
I read about baby-led weaning a couple of years ago and recently read an article about it in the Guardian. It is apparently very popular in Holland (as usual the Dutch are a bit more advanced than the rest of Europe). The theory is that you give your baby food they can pick up and then let them go crazy: steamed vegetables and fruit, bananas, and avocado all work. You feed them whatever you can cut up into big chunks and soften so that they cannot choke on it. At the end your table will look like a vegetable battle field, but your baby will have had the best time.
I don’t know how much food actually gets eaten, so I am still feeding my daughter purées, but I do believe she is getting to enjoy food and develop her motor skills whilst having a great time with the rest of the family at the dinner table.
Crostata is a very simple, yet delicious, Italian cake. It has a base of pasta frolla which is similar to shortcrust pastry (but less buttery) and usually a top of jam, but you can also find it filled with apples, fresh fruit, custard cream and even nutella. You could consider it the equivalent of the American pie, and the many versions of it!
It is quite easy to make, not very messy to eat and all children love it – that’s probably why it is quite often the cake of choice at children’s parties. My son is not into cakes at all, but he loves an apricot jam crostata.
You can find hundreds of recipes for crostata, all similar yet all different. They will vary in the amount of sugar and the number of eggs, and maybe also in the flavour you can add to the crust.
Just one warning: it’s a dessert that is nearly impossible to get wrong but is very difficult to get perfect. Like with all things simple.
What follows below is the recipe of my friend, Gianmaria (a man!), who has baked an incredible amount of delicious crostate.
Apricot Jam Crostata:
300gr of flour
100gr of caster sugar
150gr of unsalted butter in cubes
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 jar of good quality apricot jam (about 350gr)
Mix the flour, sugar and butter (brought to room temperature) together and work until you cannot tell the ingredients apart and everything looks like grated Parmesan. Add the eggs and kneed and mix until the dough becomes homogeneous. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes, even less if you are in a hurry. In the meantime butter a pie dish of about 28cm across.
Take out about 1/6 of the dough. With the help of a rolling pin make a disc of dough slightly larger than the pie dish and put it in the pan. It should not be too thick, no more than 1/2 cm. Use a fork to make quite a few holes in the dough right before you spread the jam. The leftover dough will be used for decorations. Traditionally you should make a grid of strips over the jam, but you can use cookie stamps to decorate according to the season or to write the birthday-boy’s name.
Bake for about 40 minutes at 180°, until the decorations are golden. Cool before eating, if you can wait that long.
The Dutch are pretty famous for their cheeses. The ‘normal’ Gouda cheese is well known internationally, and also the plain Edam cheese is pretty much available in better cheese shops all over the world.
A cheese I have never found abroad though is ’komijnekaas’ (’cumin cheese’) — basically a Gouda or Edam cheese with cumin seeds in it, and a cheese we love in the Netherlands (at least I do)!
The cumin seeds give the cheese a mild, nutty flavour and it is very good on a slice of fresh bread or just as is on a cheese platter.
If in Amsterdam, make sure to step in to one of the many cheese shops (don’t worry — although they are certainly ’cheesy’, they are not at all ‘just for tourists’)! They will gladly let you taste cumin cheese – and any other cheese you would like to try (and there are many)!
Although it is now the symbol of Christmas lunch and dinners all over Italy, Panettone is the ultimate Milanese Christmas dessert. Its origin is the subject of many legends, but what is certain is that it dates back to the XV century. It is shaped like a cylinder with a rounded top, it can be high (30cm) or low (15cm), and in its original recipe the dough contains eggs, butter, raisins and candied oranges. These days you can find it without candied fruit or raisins, or with chocolate chips and custard cream. But, as any true panettone lover would say, those may taste good…but they are not the real thing!
Italians normally have it at the end of a special meal (lunch or dinner) together with coffee or a sweet wine. When one feels really indulgent you can have some fresh mascarpone cream on the side.
Panettone should not be heated before serving, but does, especially in the winter, benefit from a few minutes in a warm place, like in front of an open oven or on top of a radiator. Left-over panettone makes for a very delicious breakfast. You can find loads of industrially produced ones, and some of them are quite good but nothing beats the panettone which comes from one of the traditional patisseries in Milan.
My all-time favourite is from Marchesi, a patisserie that has been around since 1824 and whose atmosphere still has the power to bring you back in time, to the beginning of the last century. Right before Christmas, as soon as you enter their shop, you will immediately notice the table with the big pile of panettoni wrapped in white with a red ribbon. If you stay in the shop for a few minutes you’ll see this pile disappear quickly, as many people enter the shop just once a year and for the sole purpose of buying their lovely 1kg panettone.
Luckily now panettone is produced almost all year round, with the exception of the very warm months of July and August. So any time you are in town you can pick one up to take home!
Milan is not a city full of spaces for great outdoor activities; people just make the best of what is available! The biggest park in the center of town is Parco Sempione, bordered by the Sforzesco Castle, the Triennale, the Arco della Pace and the Aquarium. It’s no wonder it has been central to Milanese leisure time activities since its creation in 1888.
So even if it’s not comparable to the beautiful (and unique) London parks, it constitutes a very good and effective outlet for kid’s energy. They can run, ride bicycles and play football, and on the side nearer Arco della Pace there is a nice playground with big climbing structures that will appeal even to the most experienced kid. Nearby there are kids’ electrical motorbikes and cars — the dream of every preschooler, and a cute (and old) electrical train that will be the joy of the younger ones. If you go in the afternoon then, when everybody is in need of a break, you can indulge in what Milanese excel at: aperitivo! The park is in fact surrounded by very cool and stylish bars that around 6pm get ready for the big “happy hour” crowd. Happy hour in Milan does not mean cheaper drinks; it means free food!
Arriving early, and having booked a table, means you can enjoy a drink even with children in tow. The counters are normally covered in trays of food, maybe not Michelin-starred, but of the type children love. There will be carrot and celery sticks, pizza and focaccia squares, little bruschettas, chunks of salami and mortadella, tofu cubes, a warm pasta, little sausages, meatballs, cheese cubes, sometimes fruit and, if you are lucky, raw fish… and all of this is on free buffet. These places become busy once office people set free, which is normally around 8pm, so you will have plenty of time to enjoy the chilled-out atmosphere before calling it a day and taking your kids home!
There are a few nice bars around the Arco della Pace and my favourite place is Living, just on the right of the arc, especially in the summer when they have nice tables on the pavement with great views of the park trees just in front of you.
I’m quite sure that in Europe we are a tad bit barbaric, because before living in the USA I wasn’t familiar at all with the term ‘double dipping’. In fact, in the Netherlands nobody really thinks much of it when you put your carrot in the dipping sauce a second time, or if you dip your nacho in the sauce after having already bitten in it. I don’t say this would be the standard for an official dinner party, but on an evening with friends nobody would really care. Or, better said, nobody would really notice!
In the US I did learn about double dipping, and obviously adjusted my whole dipping technique. I mean, even though in Europe we sometimes say the Americans have germ phobia, it’s probably true that if, at a party, everybody would freely dip their crisps over and over in the same sauce, you might as well be French kissing the whole party!
And this is probably exactly what my American friend thought last week when I served her a dumpling out of the steaming basket with my own chopsticks!! She told me so too, which I must say I appreciated – here in the Netherlands we prefer each other to just say things as they are.
I thought the whole incident to be quite intriguing, so I thought it over a bit, and concluded that I had served my friend the dumpling to be polite, and had used my own chopsticks because I felt we were friends. But that was just my gut feeling – and cultural background, obviously.
Curious over the whole cultural differences thing, today, over a dim sum lunch in the same restaurant, I asked my Chinese friend Heng Sie about Chinese chopsticks etiquette. And this is what he said…
Let’s say Heng Sie’s mother would have been at the restaurant (who I haven’t met before, and is older than me), it would have been highly appreciated if I would have served her something (one Dim Sum dish at a time, according to Chinese etiquette). Since I wouldn’t have met Heng Sie’s mother before, I would have used the back of my chop sticks to serve her. She would then tell me, out of friendliness (I am her son’s friend after all) I shouldn’t use the backs of my chopsticks.
So there you go. According to Chinese etiquette, it is very polite and friendly to serve your neighbour at the table. If you are friends, you can use your own chopsticks; if you’re not friends yet, or not sure, (or American ) – use the back of the chopsticks…
By the way, never pour tea for just yourself at a Chinese table; always serve the whole party!
xxx Esther
P.S. No hard feelings to aforementioned American friend of course!
I’m spending the month of August on the Seiser Alm in the Dolomites region of Italy. It’s a lovely place and extremely kid friendly, so definitely worth a trip if you like the mountains and enjoy hiking. It’s full of little restaurant huts scattered throughout the valleys, where you can try many local delicacies… but there is one delicacy in particular that is truly unique.
At Gostner Schwaige, chef Franz Mulser does something very few people do: he cooks with flowers. Many flowers are in fact edible, and each of them has a particular flavour so they can be used in cooking – a bit like “regular” herbs. Franz has studied for sometime and has now developed a full menu where flowers play a decisive role. He picks what he finds locally and grows everything else he needs. All his dishes are extremely well balanced – a modern take on traditional recipes and local ingredients, and all of them involve the use of flowers.
Eating is such a discovery and everything is beautiful to look at. I guess it also helps that in his former life Mr. Mulser was a painter! I have been there a few times each summer for the past three years and I’m always ready to go back. Last Easter I tried one of their winter specialties: hey soup. I know it sounds weird, and I was skeptical at first, but it was such an experience. It did taste like hey, but in a delicate and very warming way; it had flowers and it was served in a bowl made out of bread. Delicious!
Call me a sentimental old fool but since I have a baby called Violette, I find myself drawn to anything with a violet flavour or scent. Fortunately for me there are a lot of violet-flavoured items around France. Some smell so bad that they might as well be the content of little Violette’s nappy, while others are really nice.
This is how I discovered what I have decided will be the drink of the summer for me: a Violette Kir. A Kir is a classic French aperitif – white wine mixed with a fruity liquor called a Creme. Traditionally and most commonly you use a Creme de Cassis.
A Violette Kir (made with Creme de Violette) is a derivative of the traditional drink and it is delicious. An even fancier version is the Violette Kir Royal, where you replace the white wine with champagne! The perfect way to toast a perfect little girl!
I found my bottle of Creme de Violette in my local Nicolas.
The other day I went to an Italian pharmacy (admittedly in a little village lost in the mountains of Liguria). They were selling baby food, and, as my youngest is getting closer and closer to the weaning age I was interested to see what they had to offer…. And the answer is, I kid you not: horse meat.
A happy smiling horse all mashed up, ready to feed a 4-month-old! Too funny, and who knows, maybe it’s the horse meat at a very young age that has earned Italian men the reputation of Italian Stallions??
With my eldest daughter I got slightly fixated with what she should eat first. We had just moved to France and I couldn’t find any of the products recommended in my UK books and I was going crazy. I could not find rice porridge as described in the books and I did not have a blender as we were in a temporary flat. I remember spending hours mashing up green beans with a fork and trying to grind rice with a coffee grinder to make rice porridge.
In the end, my friend Mary unwittingly took care of it. Mary had the great idea of feeding my daughter, who had until then literally only had breast milk, chocolate ice cream while she was taking care of her.
Honestly, you should have seen my face when she told me. Cream, sugar, raw eggs and I don’t know what else as her first ever meal?!?!?! My books definitely did not mention that approach. I could have killed her! But the kid survived and funnily enough she still LOVES chocolate and also LOVES my friend Mary!
I kind of relaxed about the whole weaning thing after that, so maybe I will try out the horse meat on number 2, even though that is not mentioned in any of my books either….
On New Years Eve, during a major snowstorm, one of my daughters became violently ill. The timing, of course, could not have been worse and after a call to the doctor we were put at ease, told to stay in, to push fluids and to ride it out. “There’s a stomach bug going around and it will pass” — we were told. But “stomach bug” I knew this was not. This thing, whatever she had, was far more sinister. A day later and two separate trips to the emergency room we wound up in the hospital for seven days of pure agony. Not only were we quarantined in a room that we were not allowed to leave but my potty-trained daughter was back in diapers –- going to the bathroom up to 30 times a day and screaming every time (sorry tmi). The poor thing was finally diagnosed with Salmonella (it takes 3 days to show up in a blood culture), and even rarer, it had spread to her bloodstream. Where she got it – I still don’t know. Salmonella is one of those things that you can get from food, playing with a turtle, anywhere really – nobody knows. And when a kid gets it, especially if it gets into the blood, it is nothing short of terrifying.
Dina in New York
February 3rd, 2010
12 comments
Milan is an expensive city, and when you are visiting on travel it’s probably even more difficult to have dinner without spending a fortune. During the day the ubiquitous bakeries allow you to eat on a budget easily but at night it’s easy to have to shell out a small fortune for a dinner, however nice it may be. If you take into account that children’s menus and small portions are hard to find, then the bill will be even higher for families with small children.
The place is light and modern and you get to sit either at normal tables or on small couches in front of coffee tables. It may sound weird but it actually works fine if you have very small children! We were welcomed with a tasty mimosa, the buffet had all of the brunch staples and included in the fixed price menu we were offered eggs (any style) and coffee. Not a gourmet meal, but definitely nice. What makes this place stand out is the entertainment for the children. Two girls went around the tables and joked with the children and built them swords and animals with balloon tubes. When most of the children were done eating they all ventured on the terrace and did some games and a magic show in which children could participate.
In Italy teabags always come in individual envelopes, maybe it’s because Italians are not big tea-drinkers so tea is better preserved if it’s wrapped in paper. Whatever the reason may be, when I was growing up, I never questioned the fact — that was just the way teabags were.
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Crostata is a very simple, yet delicious, Italian cake. It has a base of pasta frolla which is similar to shortcrust pastry (but less buttery) and usually a top of jam, but you can also find it filled with apples, fresh fruit, custard cream and even nutella. You could consider it the equivalent of the American pie, and the many versions of it!
Although it is now the symbol of Christmas lunch and dinners all over Italy, Panettone is the ultimate Milanese Christmas dessert. Its origin is the subject of many legends, but what is certain is that it dates back to the XV century. It is shaped like a cylinder with a rounded top, it can be high (30cm) or low (15cm), and in its original recipe the dough contains eggs, butter, raisins and candied oranges. These days you can find it without candied fruit or raisins, or with chocolate chips and custard cream. But, as any true panettone lover would say, those may taste good…but they are not the real thing!
Right before Christmas, as soon as you enter their shop, you will immediately notice the table with the big pile of panettoni wrapped in white with a red ribbon. If you stay in the shop for a few minutes you’ll see this pile disappear quickly, as many people enter the shop just once a year and for the sole purpose of buying their lovely 1kg panettone.
