One of the nicest Italian rituals I continue to observe  is the “Sunday visit.”  The idea of the Sunday visit is centered on spending time with your family and friends, maybe consuming an espresso or aperitif, and celebrating a leisurely day without work or obligations.  I was exposed to the Sunday visit early on at my grandparent’s home, where we […]

(photo: via iPhone, local persimmons) (photo: via iPhone: sage drying in NJ basement) I snapped these two photos with my iPhone earlier in the week and I really liked the deep Fall colors in the orange persimmon and green sage.  The persimmons are courtesy of my mother who can grow almost anything in her tiny New Jersey garden, including a […]

You can tell that a country is serious about preserving food culture when they issue “protective status” labels for cheeses, meats, wines, etc.  Italy, for example has standards for wine (such as DOC or Denominazione di Origine Controllata; meaning that any particular wine from an officially recognized region of Italy must be produced in specific well-defined regions, according to specific rules […]

Italian Shopping on Steroids – On the Italian Life and Consumerism: Our Review Of Eataly You’ll have to excuse me if I sound a bit crabby this morning, as I just finished reading a New York Times review of the mega supermarket Eataly (located in New York City).  While the Times article was somewhat critical of the 50,000 square foot space […]

What is Good Espresso and Can You Make it at Home? Over the last few weeks or so I’ve been giving some serious thought to purchasing a semi automatic espresso machine.  My rationale for buying a home machine (including a burr grinder) includes two premises: 1. it’s very hard to find quality espresso at cafes (even in major cities like […]

Farro: History and Guide to the Ancient Grain The ancient whole wheat grain farro has a long and interesting history and for many years fed almost the entirety of the Mediterranean and Near East – hence our article Farro: History and Guide to the Ancient Grain.  Specifically, it fed the vast majority of Romans from 44BC to the collapse of the […]

Life as a child is often full of paradoxes and as a small boy I wondered why we needed a day to celebrate Italian-American culture in the United States when I lived like an Italian in the United States each and every day of my life, for example.  As I grew up, I realized many Italian Americans observe Columbus Day […]

(photo: grapes ready to be crushed) Late September is one of my favorite times of the year here in Northern New Jersey.  The temperature and humidity dip, leaves begin to change color, and I begin to relish my days spent outdoors in the sun and cool air (it’s amazing what happens to one’s sense of appreciation when certain things won’t […]

Updated: October, 2012 The following post is a long time in the making and is a non comprehensive and wholly unscientific list of some of the Top Italian Themed Food and Lifestyle Sites and blogs on the web (English language only), at least from our perspective. Living the Italian life comes so easily to dyed in the wool Italians but is difficult […]

(photo: street scene in Bagnara Calabra, courtesy of myworldshots.com ) I’m going to make a statement that may upset serious cooks, but here goes: It’s almost impossible to cook foods from other places in the world outside of their place of origin.  I’m not stating an absolute truth because you can get pretty damn close to replicating a pizza from […]