In Italy, even antipasti (appetizers) vary region by region.  Usually you’ll find prosciutto, local cheeses, olives on the menu no matter which part of Italy you visit.  After those, the local products come into play.  I was inspired to recreate two of my favorite Roman antipasti after two lovely lunches at Osteria de Memmo in Rome and two Umbrian antipasti after the beautiful dinner our Spello friend Paola prepared for us.   Here are the two typical Roman appetizers that I recreated, Carciofi alla Romana and Melanzane al Balsamico.  The Umbrian antipasti will probably be the subject of a future blog:

Carciofi alla Romana

Melanzane al Balsamico (Balsamic infused eggplant)

As we were walking back from a beautiful hike I asked an Italian friend, Diana, how she prepares Balsamic infused eggplant.  Diana and her husband, Alberto own and run a luxurious lodging (www.leloggedisilvignano.it) just above Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry’s villa in Umbria (he is an American actor who wrote Living In a Foreign Language about their experiences in buying and renovating their home).

• Cut eggplants into 1 ½ inch thick slices, sprinkle some salt and let it sit for 1 hour to drain off the bitter liquid.
• Either in a non-stick pan or on a grill, cook the eggplants until soft.  Once cooked, cut slices into 2 square inches cubes.
• Dress cooked eggplants and let them sit for at least one hour before serving.

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Experiencing Rome is like peeling a BIG onion. We recently spent 4 days in Rome, our fourth such visit in the last four years. During the first two trips, we hit the major tourist attractions, like the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Vatican, etc. The third trip we visited the churches and galleries in Rome that house most of the Caravaggio paintings and Bernini sculptures. This trip we visited two special art exhibits, one to commemorate the 450^th anniversary of Caravaggio’s death, and the other which demonstrated the strong alliance between impressionist art and nature. In addition, we visited Villa Giulia which houses one of the best Etruscan art collections in Italy. We also visited Villa D'Este in Tivoli and were awed by its splendid fountains, waterfalls, glorious purple wisteria and rare tulips. It was a bit early for roses and peonies but I can imagine what a sight it would be in early May. With its 2700 plus years of history, even if one sees all that Rome offers above ground, there is still the Roman underground to discover. For example, we visited a medieval church, Basilica di San Clemente which has two levels of underground churches: one from the 1^st century and the other from the 4^th century.

Our experience illustrates what I meant about peeling the onion. Rome is filled with monuments, churches, architecture, and artwork from Etruscan to Roman to the Middle Ages to the Renaissance up to contemporary times. We have only scratched the surface in four visits, and we still need a map to maneuver and even with a map we sometimes get lost. The moral of the story for most tourists who come to Rome is to decide beforehand where to focus. As a friend says, if you don't peel away at the city, Rome can be too overwhelming and frantic to fall in love with what really is an eternal city.

Besides being immersed in the art and history of Rome, we gave “equal time” to immersion in Rome's food culture. Feeding mind and stomach are equally important. Using TripAdvisor as my primary restaurant guide I picked three restaurants, one for Italian high cuisine(Ristorante Crispi 19), one for typical Roman cuisine (Osteria de Memmo I Santori) and one for pizza (Ristorante dar Poeta). TA is a good site to use because it includes tourist reviews as well as native Italian reviews. When the Italians give high marks, I usually find it more convincing.

Typical Italian food is peasant food made with fresh local ingredients and simply prepared. In the last 10 or 15 years, Italian high cuisine started appearing but until our recent experience, we found it too pretentious. Ristorante Crispi 19 is not quite in the same league as Le Bernardin in NYC but not too far behind either, in terms of creativity and presentation of seafood.

See my review on TA: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187791-d1380808-Reviews-RISTORANTE_CRISPI_19-Rome_Lazio.html Many dishes were memorable but our favorite was spaghetti in shelled clams with zucchini puree’ and bottarga (grated dried fish eggs) sauce.

After the first bite of our antipasti misti della casa at de Memmo, I knew we would come back to this typical Roman restaurant. It’s tucked away on a tiny street, not far from Piazza Navona. Unless you are specifically on a mission to find it, de Memmo will probably remain a mission. The antipasti misti was incredible, it came with 10 or more little appetizer sized portions of vegetables, cheeses and prosciutto. The highlights for me were the various vegetable creations, simple but full of flavor. They included grilled eggplant served with chunks of garlic, balsamic braised eggplant, grilled zucchini and red pepper, celery and swiss cheese salad, steamed green cauliflower, marinated mushrooms, fennel hearts, and the famous carciofo romanesco (large cleaned artichokes slow cooked in water, olive oil, mint and garlic). The subtle taste of mint and garlic gave the artichokes a nice balanced flavor that lingered pleasantly on your taste buds . For the “secondi”, we ordered an oven roasted young pig with rosemary potatoes. The meat was tender, juicy, and flavorful with a crispy crust. All these years in Italy, we’ve never tasted porchetta this good at any other restaurant.

See my review on TA: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187791-d1087174-Reviews-Osteria_de_Memmo_I_Santori-Rome_Lazio.html

After all these splendid meals, we finally broke down and had our first gelato. After seeing an attractive young Italian businesswoman on a Vespa stop at this gelateria, I figured I had to check it out since it looked like the choice of locals. It was the best gelato I have ever tasted. Its artisan, true flavors resulted from the fine ingredients they use. The ice cream is silky and rich and the sorbet is intense. The passion fruit and raspberry sorbet will knock your socks off. We’re so glad we stumbled on it! In the future it will be the only dessert we eat in Rome….

See my review on TA: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187791-d1536028-Reviews-La_Gelateria_Frigidarium-Rome_Lazio.html

The purpose of this Web Site is to tell you about the Just Asian Plus Cooking School.  Specifically what are the goals, what classes are offered, what fundamental philosophies of teaching can you expect, and how do past students feel about their experiences.

I'll be using the Blog to share a little bit of everything, usually with the proviso that it is related to the "culinary arts".  You'll probably see links to my favorite sites, favorite recipes, recent discoveries, great cooking tips.  You might see restaurant recommendations.  Because fresh produce is so important there will probably be some seasonal topics.  Since travel is almost always a source of new culinary experiences, there will be blogs with a travel spin.

I also encourage you to add your comments to this blog.  Share your Just Asian Plus experiences with other readers.  If you discover new recipes, a great market, or useful culinary related web sites let us know.

Thanks for your contributions!

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