Best risotto @ Malborghetto, Siena

Siena is one of the cities famous for Tuscan wine and cuisine - The "cock wine" is one of the good example. Well... it's called Chianti classico, with the eye-catching cock logo. It was just me and my friend, and both of us can't drink much. Most restaurant/ wine bar don't offer the wine in glass. Therefore I didn't have the chance to take a sip ='[

However, I did tried something really good. The B-E-S-T-! The risotto I had in Siena ranked number 1 among all the food I had in Italy! It is a zucchini and saffron risotto. Three (main) ingredients, as simple as that. All fragments of the spices and freshness of the ingredients were absolutely balanced. Nothing too outstanding, nothing hiding from my taste bud. It's harmonised like floating peacefully on the water.

And look at the beautiful scenic behind! Yaaaaaa, I was eating outdoor, under the sun with mild wind. The weather was as perfect as the food! The restaurant was Malborghetto, which locates below the Piazza del Campo, at the end of the car park. The food are all in reasonable price.

The scene behind the restaurant is breath-taking. The car park is a balcony, which we can view a 270-degree down hill. The colourful, irregular, fair-tale houses are packed on both sides, and a green woodland/ farmland with streams and churches in front.

Siena is definitely worth for a visit.

Story after-------------------------------------

I attempted once to make the same risotto at home, but it was a failure O.o It tasted nothing like the one I had in Siena. Before I can make it again, the beautiful risotto stays in my memory only.
It looks not bad though.

Best Pizza@ Roma

What a nice Easter holiday in Italy!
I visited eight cities in twelve days! They are Roma, Pisa, Firenze, Viareggio, Siena, Venezia, Verona and Milano.

I wasn't a big fan of Italian cuisine, but now I am! I realised that the REAL italian food are hard to make outside the country. Once the oil, the spices, the vegetable and the weather are different, it's very difficult to reproduce the same taste. And most important, the mood and attitude of the chefs. From their dishes I could taste a strong passion, hard work, and respect to the food. Unlike the fast food pizza and frozen spaghetti, their food has a soul.

Most pizza I ate/ saw in Italy aren't seen outside the country. Traditional Italian pizza are usually thin and made in a long rectangle and sliced to serve in a pizza bar/ take-away store, or a big circle if it is served in a restaurant for one person. And there's a few vegan option and plenty vegetarian option! On the left was my favourite - sliced potato pizza! The ingredients (that I could distinguish) were just potato, salt and rosemary! (And the pizza dough of course) It's that simple and that lovely. Other vegan options are tomato with aubergine or spices.

This pizza bar was located two streets from our hostel. This is the approximate address: 20 Via di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

One night we went into a wine bar for dinner, without noticing it was specialised with wine. I kindly requested a vegan pizza and this came out......
It's a 16-inch pizza with tomato SAUCE only... not even tomato meat.
Anyway it's a wine bar only. This added laughters to our journal =]

日式腐皮包飯

這是蛋包飯的純素版，就是用一張大腐皮代替奄列，是日新品！

腐皮包飯怎可少了茄汁呢？大蕃薯本想買現成的Ｈ牌茄汁，在超級市場幾經爭扎後還是決定自己煮。
腐皮可於豆品店或雜貨店購入，順道支持一下小店也不錯。

材料：
腐皮（直徑約半米）一張
隔夜飯　　　　　　一碗
粟米粒　　　　　　半碗
紅椒（切粒）　　　半隻
蕃茄（中、切粒）　兩個

調味料：
糖　　　　　　　　一茶匙半
鹽　　　　　　　　適量
黑椒粉　　　　　　適量
麻油　　　　　　　隨意

（一人份量）

做法：
１。急凍粟米粒要先出水，新鮮粟米條就先蒸熟再切下粟米粒。
２。起鍋下油，用中大火炒蕃茄粒。
３。蕃茄開始出水時下糖、鹽，拌勻。用中火煮十五分鐘即成茄汁。
４。起鍋下油，用大火將紅椒粒爆香。
５。倒入隔夜飯和粟米粒兜炒，直至粒粒分明。
６。下鹽、黑椒粉、麻油，拌勻。
７。腐皮略沖水洗淨，將炒飯放在一角，摺疊包好。
８。用大火蒸腐皮包飯約五分鐘，再用少許油煎香兩面至金黃色。
９。淋上茄汁，畫個笑臉～

PS1　自製茄汁的蕃茄味比市面賣的濃多了，千萬別慳功夫隨便買噢。
PS2　茄汁要比其他蕃茄菜式稍多放糖。
PS3　炒飯可隨意配搭材料和調味料，但要避免太濃太嗆的配搭，別忘了要配合茄汁味。