GUSTI Blog

Applebee in The Bronx

Just received in the mail:

 

 The Bronx Tourism Council Invites You To

The Grand Opening

&

Ribbon Cutting Cerimony

For Applebee's at

The New gateway Center

 

Wow... just what we needed, another fast food joint in the Bronx!! 

 

Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Croatia

Steffi is a very good friend of mine and, like most of my friends in America, she does not cook. But she loves what I do. I still remember when, a few years ago, The NY Times wrote an article on Gustiamo (West Farms; Under a Tuscan Sun (Near the Sherdian Expressway)) she was the first to call the house at dawn (she is an early bird, too) and she was almost more excited than we were.

Steffi just came back from a cruise to Croatia with a lovely gift - only for me: a bottle of Ekstra Djevicansko Maslinovo Ulje, or Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I was impressed by the extensive information on its label: even if I am not exactly fluent in Croatian, I understood that they mention how the oil is made (only mechanical process), where it is made, when it was bottled, how it should be stored, the acidity level and ...LISTEN TO THIS... the perossidi level (if that is "peroksidni broj" in Croatian). Very impressive! This is information I never saw on a bottle of olive oil, before. More on the perossidi, later.

I learned that this olive oil is made by Vilma, a small company that, in addition to making olive oil (only extra virgin olive oil - good for them!), also has a bakery where they make the very famous (in Croatia) cake of Rab.  Vilma is located on the island of Rab which has a long tradition of olive growing and sheep herding (like Molise, then). Hence, Vilma also makes pecorino cheese in EV Olive Oil. Francesco Travaglini, are you reading this?

Finally, we could open the olive oil and taste it. It was delicious and, as you can see from the picture above, we finished it very quickly. Grazie Steffi!

Industrial vs Artisanal Honey

 On Tasting Table, an article about honeys and the honey pump, which will prevent you from making a sticky mess when you pull the honey out of the jar. I thought, what a great idea. But then, perhaps not. Artisanal honeys chrystallize, they become more or less solids. If they don't christalize, they are an industrial products. I just went in the warehouse to check our five honeys made with religious fervor and taliban approach by Licu Manias in Sardegna. They are all solid, you can pump like there is no tomorrow... nothing will come out.

Berta Chateau Restaurant in New Jersey

Peter (Pietro) Bernstein is the owner and chef at Berta Chateau in New Jersey and a customer of Gustiamo since 2006. We always talked on the phone and I appreciated Pietro's desire to learn more about Italian artisanal products. We finally met in person when he came to the warehouse to pick up his order of pasta Latini and Terra Amore e Fantasia peeled tomatoes. We loved to meeting each other . Watch the video below (click on the arrow on the picture) and listen to Pietro describing his restaurant and his favorite dishes on the menu. His exhuberance is catching; in fact, I can't wait to go (just checked for driving directions on google map and it would only take 45 minutes from the city) and taste his spaghetti all'amatriciana, the sauce with tomatoes and guanciale.  In the video, Pietro talks so enphatically about the guanciale made by Marc Buzzio, of Salumeria Biellese (I have heard of Marc and his great products many many times) that I can't wait to meet Marc, too.

Nestle' Sells Motta and Alemagna Brands

Two famous brands, Motta and Alemagna, two icons of Milano's Panettone, are returning to Italian hands. Bauli, a group of companies with revenues of more than $400 million, bought the brands from Nestle', the multinational packaged food company headquartered in Switzerland. Good. I would also like to see Perugina and Buitoni leave Nestle's Italian BRANDS possessions. Any volunteer to buy them?

Angelo Motta and Gioacchino Alemagna started as bakers in the early 1920s in Milano and they made Panettone. With much competition between them, they both grew their respective companies to become very big (8,000 employees), but not profitable. These companies were both sold to Nestle' in the late 1990s. In my view, these are not companies any longer, as there is no product behind them. Forget the Panettone! They are BRANDS. Some big industrial factories will make their panettone using those brands.

On the other hand, Antica Dolceria Marchesi started in 1824. Angelo Marchesi is still the only master baker.  A great artisanal product is a good sign for a long life.

Exeptional Tomatoes

Anne Ritchings, is a customer and food blogger. She wrote: "Since I'm not in the employ of any food-related company, I can shamelessly promote any product that I like. One company that I have purchased items from over the years is Gustiamo.com. All their products are imported from Italy and I must say that they are some of the best Italian foods I have ever had the pleasure of putting in my mouth."  Not bad, eh? Then she talks about our Piennolo Tomatoes, hence, the picture I just took in the warehouse, on the left. And she writes: "You can find these marvelous tomatoes only at Gustiamo.com. I have used them in sauces and they are truly remarkable. These fall into the category of "expensive, but worth it."  I know they aren't local, but every once in a while it won't hurt to support the small farmer on another part of the planet." Read here the whole post: Exceptional Tomatoes.

Music to my ears! Thank you, Anne.

 

Sam Gugino in Wine Spectator - Extending the Olive Branch

Michael, my husband and Gustiamo's senior advisor, is also passionate about wine and he religiously reads about it both online and in offline publications. He is a little backed up in his readings. Only yesterday, he was able to catch up with the October 2008 issue of Wine Spectator.

Thanks to Michael, I read an interesting article by Sam Gugino about Italian Olive Oils. Sam says that great Italian Olive Oils are made in Toscana but also in other many regions of Italy, including Basilicata. Bravo Sam! (not very timely, but still owed!)

Sam liked two olive oils from Gustiamo:

Fattoria Fazzuoli from Toscana: "For a more throat-grasping Tuscan experience, try Fattoria Fazzuoli".

Antichi Uliveti from Sardegna: "I liked the herbaceousness and cardoonlike bitterness of Antichi Uliveti".

Sam, in your article, you did not mention Molise, where Francesco Travaglini makes Tratturello, a spectacular olive oil with local Gentile di Larino olive. Would you like to try it?

Pepolino Restaurant

The two men who opened this restaurant decided to give it the name of a herb, pepolino, which, they say on their website, grows in Toscana, where one of them is from. I never heard of this herb before.

Nevertheless, I had a lovely dinner with some girlfriends who took me to cool Tribeca for my birthday last week.

The restaurant is noisy but it serves good Italian food, with a pinch of arrogance. I started with some lightly fried zucchini flowers, which were delicious. Then I ordered the special Spaghetti with Leeks and Parmigiano. When a dish of SpaghettINI arrived, I  politely explained in Italian to the Italian hostess that I don't really care for thin spaghetti; had I known it was SpaghettINI, I would not have ordered it. Then, one of the Italian owners, I guess, came to the table and said that those were indeed Spaghetti. No doubt about it, said he, this is the way De Cecco makes their Spaghetti. I said "impossible" (didn't add: you don't know who I am). We discussed this a little longer; then, he said "I'll show you the box". When he returned without a box, he asked me if I wanted something else and quick to make (by that time, my friends had almost finished their first course) and he suggested fusilli al pesto. I said, perfect. What came out of the kitchen was not fusilli, but a strange shape of pasta which looked more like a 2 inches square accordium. I didn't complain because I was hungry and the pesto was good and well combined to the potatoes and the string beans, as this genovese sauce should be.

Conclusion: do go to Pepolino but, before you order your pasta, ask them to bring the box  to your table.

Gustiamo's Cool Offices

Big Announcement: Gustiamo finally has cool air! We don't have to sweat in the office anymore! The part of the warehouse where we keep our products has always been cool. It was the humans who were neglected. Every year we start our quest and ask for bids to cool ourselves. By the time fall comes, we haven't done anything because the estimates we receive are way too high for our purse. Same this year. We started early: in March we received our first 2009 estimate for $16,000. $16,000!!! It is not the price that upsets me, it is that Anne and I must not speak English well enough. We spend hours to make sure they understand that we want the minimum possible, we don't have the money, we need to think out of the box... No way. I don't know how many people I have interviewed over the years.

Then, the light! John Fusco, our landlord, felt sorry for us and put together our neighbors: Giovanni in construction on the right of our warehouse and Stephan, the electrician on our left. They installed a big machine over the entrance door (it will give heat in the winter time, too, which we need very badly) in a few hours last saturday. All billed, with taxes and all, it was $2,570. And it works, too! Thank you John!

Laura Schenone Goes to Bellavitae Restaurant with Gustiamo

After having attended an animated and interesting presentation at The Calandra Institute of Laura Schenone's last lovely book, The Lost Ravioli Recipe of Hoboken, we (from left: Beatrice, Anne and Martina) took Laura (that beautiful woman on the right of the picture) to dinner at Bellavitae, the restaurant in the West Village, on Minetta Lane.

Jon Mudder, owner and chef at Bellavitae, says that the secret to great Italian food is a well-stocked pantry, seasonal produce and simple execution. I can't agree more, and his restaurant is a testament to that principle - simple, tasty, good food.

Jon was working on a Pesto recipe he wanted to introduce in the menu. Meeting Laura, who is Ligurian and knows everything about Pesto, was a good opportunity for Jon to talk to the real Genovese. Can't wait to go back to taste it. I hope there is no butter in Jon's pesto! (read here the official Pesto recipe.)