There comes a time in every boy’s life when he takes papa’s razor and gives it a try … which usually ends with some bloodshed.
Julius thought that 4 is the right age to start shaving and his first results were .. well .. you will see.
What was kinda funny was his reaction when I found him in the bath, blood on his face, razor in hand … he was not crying … he looked very ashamed, he was expecting me to scold him (which I did not) … I just told him he has to very careful, he should ask before investigating any of papa’s objects (on the other hand I don’t want to curb his curiosity) and that now it is time for bed.
When I brought him to bed I asked him if he wants a song, but instead listening to papa, he started singing (and I had the camera ready).
While a bit dark, you can hear him well, you can see the blood … and maybe someone with knowledge of Italian nursery songs can identify them?
Every once in a while Lidl has some surprise (mystery?) meat … in the past it was duck and lamb … but today I found deer, in nice pieces to make a stew and I also remembered some typical German side dishes to go with that like red cabbage and cooked pear.
I pretty much followed this recipe (in German), but I used (frozen) porcini mushrooms.
While the end product was very nice, the meat did not taste much different compared to beef.
Now I hope some day Lidl has goat and I can make a mean curry 
… what I was watching on TV today …
(please post your guesses in the comment section)
This might have been Julius’ first visit to a Michelin star awarded restaurant … and he surely was the only small boy there, but he behaved like a pro, focused on drawing and ate pretty much everything we shoved in his direction.
We had heard about “All’enoteca” many times before and it is just too far from Turin to just go there, have dinner and drive back (about 1 hour one way). So to explore the place we found a very nice B&B and were able to only drive back 4 km after dinner.
Anyways, let’s talk food:
The place is very nice and friendly, they actually do that ‘menu for men (with prices) menus for the ladies (without prices) thing, which we had not seen in a while (maybe back in Alba?)
We both went with the sample menu of the chef’s signature dishes … and wow, it was just fantastic … while the menu only mentions 4 dishes, we got 7. It starts with a tiny appetizer plate of some egg / veggie square, some roasted pepper with anchovy and a fried fish in a cute little paper funnel bag, complete with a mini curry bread stick.
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Then our real appetizer arrived .. it is called something like ‘beef from head to toe’ .. and they are not kidding .. it is 6 little portions of beef, from all over the animal, including stomach (Ger: Kutteln), tongue and feet.
This may sound grizzly to some, but it was very delicious. 5 of them come cold, one is warm. |
| The ‘primi’ was also a revelation. Some very simply steamed pasta pouches filled with the meat of three different roasts .. hidden in a serviette, no sauce at all … instead you get a cup of delicious broth and you just dip each little dumpling in there before you devour it.
Amazingly simple but extremely tasteful. |
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Our main dish was a very nice piece of beef, cooked to perfection, with a very enticing ensemble of veggies.
We were stunned that once we had finished, that there was even more left of ‘our’ piece (which they had brought back to the kitchen to keep at perfect temperature). |
While it might feel usually uncomfortable to get a table close to the kitchen door, this time it was actually kinda fun: for one we got to watch star chef Davide Palluda in action, then we could always see what else came out of the kitchen and once one table asked for a truffle, we were constantly bathed in truffle fumes, which was just fantastic. The truffle that 10 – 12 person table ordered must have cost them around 800€ .. the current rate that evening was 480€ for 100gr.
| We enjoyed a very good white wine this evening. A Roero Arneis from Cornarea (they happen to be in Canale, and with 18€ it was one of the more expensive bottles on the list but a) it was indeed very very good and b) compared to the price ratio food / wine in fancy NY restaurant, or even in Switzerland or Austria, that was a steal.)
We hunted down the origin of this wine the next day and found it at Villa Cornarea for 9.50€ a bottle, but I am sure there is some more direct supplier where we can get it even cheaper. |
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They spoilt us with some pre-dessert, some cream with red orange pulp and some ricotta cheese with citrus flavor, and then our real dessert, a chocolate tart filled with a hazelnut chocolate cream surrounded by mint sauce arrived. I am not the biggest fan of the choco-mint combo (reminds me too much of after eights) but it was delicious (I would have preferred a zabaglione cream) |
The total damage was in the realm of what we usually pay at Mare Nostrum .. so .. a special occasion place, but not totally out of this world.
We are looking forward to coming back. Next we want to try the 80€ surprise menu, maybe for v-day (and get a babysitter for Julius for the night)
All’ Enoteca
Via Roma, 57
12100 Canale (Cuneo), Italy
+39 0173 95857
More pics, restaurant reviews and such later.
Not really sure what happened in school today that made him paint his face … I had to do quite some scrubbing in the bath tub to get it off.
Hit it, Kermit!
What I keep finding amazing about this song is that when I grew up, the German dubbed version had no indication of ‘feeling outcast because of skin color’ at all .. it was dubbed to ‘i feel so lonesome and alone’ [ich bin so einsam und allein]. Probably German kids at that time had hardly ever encountered a person of different ethnicity.
No piece of paper is too small for our budding artist … See what happens when he wakes up early on a Sunday morning and all he finds is a pack of post-its (he knows too well not to take any other paper without asking … seems he thinks yellow paper is up for grabs)
Very spontaneously (and thanks to the interesting coincidences and new acquaintances facebook presents us with) we ended up in the mountains for some fun in the snow.
The ski resort Pila is a good 1.5 h away from Turin. One hour to Aosta and then 30 mins up the winding roads to 1800m. Already enough snow for sleigh riding, but the ski season will start in 2 weeks … so .. today it was still very empty.
We met with Eva, Martin and their 4.5 years old son Daniel … and while the boys were initially a bit shy, they connected later. But Julius was very happy about the borrowed frying pan style sled and figured out the balancing act quite quickly:
Afterwards we went to a small bar / café for probably the ‘most simple’ of lunches we all had have in a while (off season, they did not eve have pizza) .. so we all had some very basic ham and cheese sandwiches … A lunch, if i’d ever offer that as lunch at home, my sweet wife would rightfully kill me for, but it was a nice atmosphere and we had more time to chat.
We then moved on to a bit nicer place to have coffee / hot chocolate and Tiramisu and the boys had a lot of fun throwing snowballs for the resident dog to catch.
While quite a bit of driving (3+ hours, traffic jam on the way back) and 20.40€ highway toll … we are very happy to have found this place and Julius just loves the snow.
Just some fun on a lazy Saturday afternoon.
This was mainly a test of RJDJ‘s great iPhone application which creates a soundtrack based on the sounds of the environment. Thanks to Ritsu for filming this and cudos to pac^man to help me get the sound file off the iPhone on my computer.
Today was a chestnut roasting and getting money for a good cause event at Julius school. It had been postponed because of rain and today looked only slightly better .. but sure enough the rain came right on time.
But anyways .. the highlight for J and his 2 girlfriends, Ogarit and Costanza was me playing the ghost and haunting and chasing them back into their little playhouse … it got even more fun when I took out the camera:
I also have some ‘spooky’ video of this … it is very dark and I have NO idea what Ogarit is yelling at me .. I guess she is trying to cast some spell:
It is just fun to see how the 2 girls are trying to protect Julius … and how viciously Ogarit fights the ghost!
We just spent a wonderful weekend out in the Langhe area in a wonderful B&B where Julius had especially fun playing with the harvested hazel nuts and the 2 resident dogs (the 2 resident cats avoided him)
There is much more to tell about the weekend, which I will do later .. let’s just say we ate too much again.
Another excellent recommendation from our B&B hosts.
Will write more later (hopefully) .. but here is the menu.
This weekend we spent in the Langhe region to explore more of the regional food and learn about the elusive white truffle of Alba.
| In a nutshell: Truffles are rare, tasty and expensive … but the white truffle of the Alba region is the diamond of truffles, only available (fresh) in this very region and only for a few weeks in autumn. |  |
We scoffed recently at a restaurant visit in the same area about the price, but we learnt that 30€ for one shaving (about 10 grams) was the market price at that time.
So, we followed a recommendation and this review to a place close to Sinio, called ‘Il Trifulau‘ .. which I guess is the Piemontese word for truffle truffle hunter.
The place was tricky to find (follow the yellow gravel road in the dark to where the dogs bark) and upon entering we were greeted by the father of the household with his 3 truffle hunting dogs. When I told him I hardly spoke any Italian, he replied ‘neither do I, I only speak Piemontese’ (which is not only a dialect, but a language by itself).
I had booked our table a week before and had a fun discussion with the daughter of the house in Italian & French, because she already wanted to know what we want to eat (i.e. truffle) .. this place does NOT have a menu … but fantastic food …
So … we arrived a bit early since we were hungry, we were the first people at this place (think some farm house’s living room) and only one other table was set up for more guests. After we made it clear that we are in for the truffle experience, the master of the house came with his basket full of fresh truffles and a scale and we got to chose our truffle for the night, which clocked in at about 16 grams … I think the biggest I saw and checked out was 94 grams.
Then the food came .. first some raw minced meat, on which we had freshly shaved truffle .. then some frittata (looked like a very egg-y pancake) with black truffles in it .. then a fonduta (a cream of cheese) with more of our truffle, then some very nice pasta (yes, more of the truffle) and then as a main dish we had a rabbit cooked in red wine, which was simply to die for, served with some simple, fresh and extremely tasty slices of tomato.
During this feast, Julius munched on his extra pasta or was mainly drawing, while I tried to keep up a conversation with our hosts or spot what the other table was eating (seasoned guests who knew what else they could ask from the kitchen)
For desert we had some hazelnut pie and a chocolate pudding and we were happily full afterwards …
I will not disclose how much we paid, but it was overall very reasonable … in total we paid less than on our seafood outings at Mare Nostrum, and the truffle made about half of that…
So, what is so special about that white Alba truffle … well .. I recommend reading this wiki article for once … and then add my 2 own cents … it is a fragrance that is somewhere between cheese, mushroom and extremely stinky feet .. but in a good way .. like a very very good ripe cheese. It is not something that you would want to spread on your breakfast toast every morning, but instead cherish once in a while (like once a year, while you are close to Alba). But it sure is a flavor to behold and it goes so well with many things .. like a simple fresh pasta with butter or a cream cheese or even anchovies … don’t trust truffle oil, from what I read it is only a chemical, one dimensional, flavor.
Truffle or not … I highly recommend visiting this place … I hope next time we go, my Italian / Piemontese is better so we can order some other things. If you try to find the place and you have a GPS navigator: Take the gravel road starting at N 44° 36.355′ E 8° 1.498′ and follow it to N 44° 36.450′ E 8° 1.338′.
.. and bears … and penguins … and Lu ..
I just love to see how he arranges his plushy friends neatly and then falls asleep with them.
Once again some spy stuff from Julius swim class …
since we had heard that he migrated to the big pool we took some time off to go and watch … and take some video
Fun to keep one outfit and see if it still fits next year … the sweater is actually still ok … but the pants … no way.
This was last year’s November 14th.
And this was October 18th 2 years ago:
Another one of those 4 hour sunday lunch affairs. Kamal took us this time to yet another place in the middle of nowhere, run by his friend Bruno, who started his agriturismo business 15 years ago by just baking and selling organic bread …
Now he runs an eco-farm which happens to have a nice dining room which opens on a reservation only basis on weekends.
We were 3 couples with 4 kids (Interestingly, 6 adults with 6 different nationalities, thus all kids are mixed) , Oscar actually was a classmate of Julius 2 years ago before he changed to the French school. They did not really remember each other (though I remember Julius coming home from school, talking about Oscar) … but all 4 kids played nicely together and quickly took over every nook and cranny in the restaurant. The proprietor even brought out a play-blanket and a box full of toys … later the kids would take over an unoccupied table for drawing and board games.
Food was really nice .. first the kids got some pasta, then slices of cooked ham … for the adults we had a very interesting salad of cabbage, apple, crushed walnuts … and some kind of oil .. maybe walnut oil .. maybe olives … Then a selection of 7 different salamis, carpaccio with red celery (known also as rhubarb) and a little broccoli tart in cheese sauce … For primi we had handmade pasta with duck ragout and the main course was some oven roasted chicken with oven potatoes.
As much as I loved the appetizers … the pasta and the chicken were on the very basic / bland side … but sure all organic and the place advertises ‘home cooking’ … the desert was a piece of cake which was also on the rather basic side, but still very good … and at a price tag of 25€ per adult and 10€ per kid (including a little prosecco to start with, red wine, water and grappa to wash it all down) one can’t complain at all … I would gladly come back ..
Watch the kids having fun:
CASCINA DEI FRUTASE’
Strada Guardia 62
Cumiana, TO
011/9058642
349 7234114
N 44° 59.642′ E 7° 23.047′
When checking out some of his own videos, Julius kept pointing at other suggested videos … and quickly he figured out how to move the mouse and how to click ..
I did not expect that at age 4 I already have to wonder about limiting his online time …
Gladly, so far, the recommend videos mainly lead to some animated music videos .. still very age appropriate .. but I now have to resaerch how to keep a computer kid safe and maybe find some automatic time limiter software …
He is also very smitten by some of the music applications I recently downloaded to my iPhone .. like Bloom and RJDJ … i may have pictures / video of that at a later point.
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