Category — Italian 101

Back when I was the Director of Tennis at the Tokyo Bay Hilton Hotel (the official hotel of Tokyo Disneyland, about 20 minutes from the center of Ginza), there were a number of great restaurants there. High-level Japanese, gourmet Chinese, Indian, Korean Barbecue, and Asian noodle bar all were part of the well-run food and beverage department of the hotel. However, one of the best dining experiences was the Italian food at Piazza Roma, under the care of my friend, chef Piero Zani.

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“Poco, ma Buono,” in Italian, literally, “Little, but Good,” is a deceptively simple phrase that sums up in a remarkably succinct way the Italian approach to so much of what is great in the wine, food, and culture.
Take, for example, espresso (not “expresso”). Invented by a Milanese businessman as a way to encourage his workers to speed up their coffee breaks around the turn of the century, it represents a true condensation of all that is great about coffee in one mere ounce of tawny brownish-gold elixir.
Yet this is not what we here in America have come to expect…

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Jamie & I have just gotten back from our trip to Italy.

It was a mammoth trip, with stops in Rome, and throughout Sicily at Palermo, Agrigento, Siracusa, and Taormina. We then flew up to Florence, and did Prato, Florence, Scandicci, Fiesole in Tuscany, before hitting Umbria. We went first to Orvieto, and then back-tracked slightly up to Gubbio, before heading down to Spoleto and Terni, where we participated in a massive blow-out wedding.

Full reports to follow over the next week-

Keep those comments coming!

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