Castellanese
There seem to be mixed thoughts on this post about a day-trip to Assisi. Your trip went well. How easy or difficult is it to travel from Rome and spend a day in Assisi?
Thanks for your help

Go to Orvieto. Assisi is too far for a daytrip.

Hi Gohedwig,

I had my doubts about daytripping to Assisi from Rome because it is indeed somewhat far, but I really wanted to visit it, so I thought "what the heck? Let's do it!".

I took the 8.15 direct train from Rome and arrived at Assisi train station at 10.30, then I took the bus that takes you to Assisi at the bus stop that is as you come out of the train station and arrived in Assisi at about 11.

The main landmark is the Basilica di San Francesco, which is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful churches I've ever been to. I went on a Wednesday, so there weren't too many people. After walking up and down exploring the town, I went up to the Rocca Maggiore from where you get a wonderful view of Assisi and the countryside around it.

As I said before, Assisi is quite small and very easy to visit. I had time to have a slow-paced lunch at a restaurant on Piazza del Comune and to spend some time sitting on a bench on the same square. The lunch was inexpensive and excellent. I had truffle salad, truffle bruschetta and "strangozzi al tartufo" as a main course. I had never tried truffles before, so I wanted to have a full truffle meal. I bought some delicacies from Umbria at a shop on the same square and beautiful St. Damien cricifixes at another shop near the Basilica di San Francesco.

To go back to Rome, I took the bus from the bus stop near the Basilica to the train station, and finally the 18.30 direct train to Rome. I arrived at Termini train station at 20.30.

It sure is a long daytrip, but it was totally worth it. If I had to do it again, I definitely would.

Orvieto is a great day trip from Rome!! There are many attractions in this darling town that rises out of the tufa...I love the approach to Orvieto, especially when I am driving in a car. The surrounding countryside is gorgeous.

I need to give a plug to my favorite restaurant in Orvieto, where I had one of my best meals ever in Italy: Antica Trattoria dell'Orso, onVia della Misericordia 18/20. Seriously great, flavorfilled food in a sweet, low-key and friendly setting. You can't go wrong with this hilltown and this restaurant. Be sure to get a ticket to see the fresco cycle by Luca Signorelli in the San Brizio Chapel in the Duomo. Breathtaking!

Castellanese
Thank you so much for your reply and the details of your trip to Assisi.

Faredolce: Thank you for the recommendtion for Antico Trattoria dell'Orso in Orvieto. I see that this is a SlowFood member and that is also in it's favor. Sounds like a good bet; I think we will do a day trip to Orvieto for certain in January.

Curious about why so many Fodorites still recommend I Setti Consoli; what is it about this place that is so special? The food?

Ekscrunchy: A word about Da Felice in Testaccio.

In Venice, I met a friend who lives in Testaccio. She told me that Felice is too old to exercise his infamous tyranny and that one can now actually get into Da Felice. It has, however, become very popular, and reservations are recommended. She is a "regular" there and finds it both very good and reasonably priced.

Second-hand information, for what it's worth...

Great thread, ekscrunchy. We have a few things in common here--DH and I are headed to Rome in a few weeks on Delta. We purchased tickets for nearly the same price ($806 or $809, I believe, through Atlanta). We, too, are staying at Albergo del Senanto and are planning a day trip to Orvieto. I really appreciate all the info you've managed to gather here! :-)

Thanks to you both. Eloise, I did read someplace, might have even been Sandra Gustafson's book, that Felice's son now runs the place and it is far easier to get a table than in the past. So I will put that on my all-but-definite list for January and let you know...
I know the food of Lazio does not get many raves here but I have always had excellent meals in Rome and am looking forward to more of the same.

As for Orvieto, I have all but decided on either Trattoria dell'Orso, or La Palomba, both SlowFood members. If anyone here has more eating info on Orvieto, bring it on, please! Thanks.

Eloise, I am sure you have seen this but maybe others would like to read her opinions: Fant is the author of a great eating guide, Trattorias of Rome, Florence and Venice (maybe not in that order):

http://web.mac.com/mbfant/iWeb/Site/...1C5B52C27.html

Yes, I've seen Maureen Fant's list. She posted a link to it on SlowTrav.

Personally, I'm quite fond of Roman cooking. Partly, I daresay, because I enjoyed it for many years with Roman friends who are no longer here and partly because I prefer plain, honest food to more sophisticated "creations."

I love the homely pasta dishes, which are basically variations on a theme: cacio e pepe, alla gricia (add guanciale or pancetta), alla carbonara (add eggs to that), all'amatriciana (add tomatoes instead of eggs).

I'm less fond of the quinto quarto dishes. Many years ago, my friends ordered rigatoni alla pajata for themselves and me, and I carefully picked out all the recognizable pieces and transferred them to their plates. I encourage you to try it and tell me about it! I've only had coda alla vaccinara as a pasta sauce; I don't like fighting with bones, and I thought I could sort them out more easily from a pasta dish than a main course. But I love fegato alla griglia. I've had it in a number of restaurants in Rome, and it has always been impeccable.

And the fried dishes can be wonderful: carciofi alla giudea and, above all, fiori di zucca fritti.

Incidentally, here's a link to a page (in Italian, but with pictures) of fruits and vegetables in season; I always take a list of the things that are in season to Italy with me.

http://casa.alice.it/extra/025/index.html

Speaking of things in season, I've heard or read about a restaurant in Rome that specializes in truffle dishes. If I find a reference to it, I'll repost here. I haven't eaten there, of course, so it can only be "à titre d'information."

Do enjoy your stay in Rome. And, of course, write a detailed food report!

Where would I be without Google?!?

Here, a lot faster than I thought, is a reference to the truffle restaurant: Papa Giovanni.

http://www.deliciousitaly.com/ristor...p;regione_id=7

And with the name in hand, you can always Google for reviews.

Your hands are quicker than mine, fellow fegato lover:

www.ristorantepapagiovanni.it

more later..

Well, I'm unlikely to order truffle dishes in advance by e-mail and pay market prices for them, but this little bit sounds intriguing:

&quot;From 1999 a new establishment has been opened in via dei Sediari no. 2, close to the main well-known restaurant. This has been named ' Hostaria Al Valle ' honouring the ancient theatre Al Valle located in the same street. <b>The menu is based only on typical roman courses with a low price.</b>&quot;

Eloise, hello - as a fervid admirer of the quinto quarto, I have to say something in favour of the coda alla vaccinara: no bone in the whole culinary world is easier to remove, no hint of bone fighting at all! You should really try the &quot;original&quot; (without-pasta) version, too, this is among the most delicious meat stews I can imagine (and it's not quite understandable why it's being counted among the quinto quarto - no entrails involved, and meat of utmost delicacy!). Btw, if ek forgives me an off-topic sidenote: how was your holiday in Venice, Eloise?
(And yet another sidenote, this time for you, ek: as for Mantovan cuisine, I've left you an explanation on that other Bologna/Verona/Mantova thread, I'm not sure if you're still following that one.)

Eloise, I will check it out when I go in January. Also have you, or anyone else here, eaten at Colline Emiliane?

I don't think I can think of myself as a gourmand if I do not try the pajata and I agree about the bone issue with oxtail; I have liked it here in NY when I've had it in ravioli or in a sauce. I usually urge my dining partner to order these things but in Rome I will have to step up to the plate with the pajata. I've had sweetbreads, as well as beef cheeks, which I guess would be part of the quinto quarto. I actually cooked with guanciale earlier this week when I made farro; tasty as all these fatty porky things are! So am I corrrect in thinking that quinto quarto cuts refer to the off-cuts or parts of lamb, pork, beef, or veal? Or are guanciale and pancetta and other pork parts not considered as such? (Probably not..) Thanks, Eloise..you always impart some new interesting information here.

Yes, ek, that's exactly what quinto quarto means: the cut-off parts, those not considered distinguished enough for bourgeois and aristocratic tables in the 19th century - the cheap parts that poor people could afford: notably entrails. That's why the quinto quarto is associated with the Testaccio district: a rather poor worker's district (even today!), where the slaughterhouse, the mattatoio, was once located (today, the old mattatoio has become a center for young and &quot;off-Broadway&quot; cultural activities) - and the quinto quarto was sold for low prices to the locals. Amazing, though, at least for me, I repeat, that also the oxtail was considered a cheap part... I think it's excellent.

Ek, brava! I look forward to the report about pajata.

As regards quinto quarto, Franco (hello, Franco!) and I seem to have different interpretations of it. I understand it as being whatever is left over of the beast (mostly beef, as I see it, but I'm not sure) after the &quot;good parts&quot; have been carved up for the well-to-do. To my mind, delicious as it may be, the tail is definitely a &quot;left over.&quot; I have no idea how guanciale is classed, but I'd personally tend to toss it in there with the rest of the quinto quarto. On the other hand, I wouldn't put pancetta in there, which is probably being inconsistent...

As regards Colline Emiliane, I only have an unpleasant memory and no experience of it. I went there alone one evening; the place was empty; I was turned away. (See the long thread started by Monica Pileggi on that...) In retrospect and after many more years of eating in Italy, I think I am now more forgiving and more apt to think that the restaurant was, in fact, fully booked. I know that most references to Colline Emiliane suggest that one reserve.

P.S. to Franco (with apologies to Ek): I'm still thinking about it - the Venetian experience, I mean.

Franco writes faster than I do... Maybe we are not so far apart on the definition of the quinto quarto.

Franco and Eloise, we need to have dinner together someday!

I am thinking that the pork products such as pancetta and guanciale are fats, not in the class of the meats discussed above. The whole subject is fascinating. My father used to love a dish called ptscha (spelling?) which is jellied calf's foot. And I used to hate cleaning the table after he ate it, cause all the little jellied bits would be scattered about and I found them kind of disgusting. But my favorite thing was unborn chicken eggs... well, seem to have strayed off the initial subject here by a few decades and many miles......

I will not be able to face Franco (and now Eloise) on Fodor's if I do not try the pajata and promise to report back after my trip. Most of the oxtail I've had in the US has been at Caribbean places where they serve it on the bone and it is unwieldy to eat..kind of like certain crabs, too much effort and not enough meat.
On a recent trip to Spain I loved the suckling lamb (wonder if this was the same as the springtime Roman lamb..??) which supposedly still had the mother's milk inside it when cooked, so how different can pajata be, right?

Today, this seems to be our race thread: first, Eloise googling four minutes faster than ek, than ek and me, head-to-head, posting in the very same minute, then me, slightly faster than Eloise :)
And yes, I'm writing quickly, and I don't preview - that's why I'm always making SOOOO many mistakes :)

You see? Just again: ek one minute before me!
I repeat, I don't quite understand what those who cooked the oxtails both of you seem to have had did to them (and to you) - in my experience (and I'm regularly cooking oxtail myself), there is really no bone in the whole wide culinary world easier to remove on the plate: a correctly done oxtail literally falls apart, you just need to take the bone and put it aside, no effort at all involved! And no, the oxtails I'm cooking (and eating in Rome) have MUCH more meat than bone. Is it possible that they're selling you ossobuco instead of oxtail?? (Ossobuco: 70 percent bone, 30 percent meat; coda: 30 percent bone, 70 percent meat)

Franco now you have confused me! The osso buco cut I buy here in the US has much more meat than bone. I know it depends on where on the shank(?) the meat is cut from..some have more bone than others, but never as much as 70 bone in the ones I have had. I like this very much; the cut is quite costly here in NY.

Now, I have had the coda 3 ways in the US. First is brasied and then shredded and stuffed into ravioli, same preparation as beef cheeks. The second way is braised and shredded and incorporated into a sauce for pasta. Both of these have been fabulous. But when I ate oxtail &quot;on the bone&quot; so to speak, there were cross-sections of several round-ish bones surrounded by a llittle meat. Several of these cross-sections were served in a sauce (I am talkng about Haitian or other Caribbean restaurants here,,not of high quality. But when I see it in &quot;ethnic&quot; markets, it looks like that..I wish I could sketch you a drawing...) I wonder if there is confusion between the word ox and cow...here we go again..we had this discussion before, I think but I can't remember.. Perhaps I was having the tail of another animal in the Haitian places? I am going marketing right now (late already, as usual) so I will look at the meats and see what I can find....

What can I say? Mysterious world of culinary experiences... of course, though, I like coda as a pasta sauce, too. As always, it seems to depend on the local ingredients available where you are. (Just imagine, to come back to Mantovan cuisine, how differently tortelli di zucca can taste, depending on the pumpkin variety - there are literally thousands of them, each one tasting so differently.)

And cross-sections? No. A coda, as I'm used to it, has just one rather small round bone (of a somewhat cartaliginous kind) in the middle, surrounded by nothing than meat. Google helps also in this respect, and I've found a wonderful picture of an oxtail how it should be: voil&agrave; - http://www.pix8.net/pro/pic.php?u=63...F&amp;i=759284, and buon appetito!

Franco, yet again you are correct. Just returned from a local market where I checked the oxtail. It is indeed one center bone with what looked like several bony spokes...various sizes depending on what part of the tail they came from. There is plenty of meat on them and I was tempted. I will try soon. It is quite amazing how travel opens up one's world. Last week I made skate for the first time, having enjoyed it in Paris recently. It had never been in my repertoire and now I am planning to make it again..it was so good. So very soon will experiment with the oxtail. Thank you for the photo.

Here is an interesting related article:

http://select.nytimes.com/search/res...A80894DA404482

While we're having fast-writing contests, we might as well have Google contests...

This, I think, is what Ek means when she says cross sections:

http://www.deliaonline.com/ingredien...ail,13,IN.html

It's what I also remember from my coda pasta dish; there was some shredded meat mixed with the pasta and one piece of oxtail placed on the side. The oxtail piece had a center bone that seemed to be wider in some parts and narrower in others; it was easier to pick the meat off where the bone was narrower and the meat thicker, but there was no way that I could see of removing the bone in one piece. Was it badly prepared?

I did like the taste, though, and I may just splurge and have the real coda alla vaccinara at Da Checchino dal 1887 the next time I am in Rome.

That's another nice picture, yes. And bony spokes, yes, now we agree, I think. Eloise - I wouldn't like to disappoint you, but yes, if there was any effort involved in removing the bone, I'd say it was badly prepared, sorry. Spokes or no spokes, the bone is always one piece, right? And the meat should be so tender that it really tends to fall from the bone, already when moving the whole piece from the pan to the plate; and when you touch the meat with your fork &amp; knife, it has to come away from the bone upon the lightest pressure. Three or four touches with the knife, without cutting, just gently pushing, and the bone should be perfectly clean and ready to be removed. This, at least, is what a good oxtail stew means for me: meat that is impossible to cut because it immediately falls apart - much less effort than separating bones and meat of, say, a chicken, let alone a trout...

You guys are great! One day soon I will try the recipe from Amanda Hesser that I posted above. But I am thinking I will remove the meat from the bones before serving. And will now have to try in Rome!

Re: The skate I wrote about earlier, I see a recipe for Bucatini all Razza (bucatini with skate) in a cookbook by Mario Batali which says that this is a traditonal Romann dish. Live and learn!

Ek, since this thread has already wandered all over the map - literally! - from the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi to high dining at Vissani and a spirited discussion of the quinto quarto, I'm going to shamelessly lead it off on another new angle.

You mention one of Mario Batali's cookbooks. Have you read &quot;Heat&quot; by Bill Buford? I've read the parts tht appeared in the New Yorker, and I'm waiting for the book to come out in paperback. He spends time in Batali's kitchen as well as at that famous butcher shop in Panzano owned by someone called, if I recall correctly, Dario Something. I've enjoyed the parts I've read, and it's a fun look behind the scenes of Italian cooking.

Incidentally, I read somewhere - and please do not ask me where! - that Batali always leaves out a crucial ingredient or procedure in his cookbooks. I wouldn't know, because I've neither eaten at his retaurant(s?) nor own any of his cookbooks...

And another &quot;incidentally&quot;: I intensely resent (smiley face) your posting a link to and then discussing an article that is not available to poor and stingy folk like me. If you do make Amanda Hesser's recipe of - I assume - coda alla vaccinara, I shall expect a full report.

I've enjoyed following this discussion. I made oxtail soup years ago and it was delicious, so I was all ready to head off for coda alla vaccinara at Da Checchino dal 1887, even though I usually don't like to go that far from my apartment for dinner. However, their website says that in addition to being closed in Aug, they're closed for a week over Christmas, which is when I'll be there.

There surely must be somehwere else I can try this? Preferably closer to Piazza Navona? Any ideas?

SusanP, in fact, the classic way to taste it would really be in the Testaccio district, cause as discussed above, this is the traditional quarter of the quinto quarto. Other than Checchino, there is old-fashioned Perilli, famous for the coda alla vaccinara - they're doing the second classic variation, with chocolate going into the sauce. Or else, if you go to Checchino (even if it's closed, just for orientation), turn your back to the entrance and turn around the corner to the right, walk along a few yards, on the right hand, i.e. on the very sidewalk where you are walking, there is another of those typical Testaccio restaurants, a much simpler and cheaper one, but very good, too (I don't recall the name, sorry).
If you really want to avoid going to Testaccio (which is a pity IMO - I think it's worth seeing this typical and unspoiled Roman district), there are of course many restaurants throughout the city serving coda alla vaccinara - Sora Lella on the tiny Tiber island, for example, another of my favourite Roman restaurants (though I've never tasted their coda, and I don't know whether it's always on the menu, but you'll hardly find a bad dish at Sora Lella's!).

Franco, Thanks for the suggestion. It's not that I don't want to go to Testaccio. I did go to that area when I was in Rome in March. I wanted to go to Volpetti, but it was closed and didn't reopen until 5:00, and that was too long to wait--I plan to go again this time. The reason I ususally try to stay closer to the apt for dinner is solely because by that time I'm pooped!

Eloise, I am really sorry about the link. It just pops up when I click on it but I realize that is because I am a Times subscriber; it is really annoying when that happens. It was about Amanda Hesser (NY Times writer and cookbook author) visiting Testaccio and eating at Perilli. In the article she describes how she tries to convince her grandmother to order as the Romans do..several courses at a meal, etc etc. With a recipe for coda. Sorry, and hope you forgive me AGAIN! (I did not forget Don Camillo and Cesari!!)

Anyway, yet I did read Heat. I have heard that allegation about leaving out an ingredient many times..who knows if it is true. I took Molto Italiano (one of Batali's cookbooks) out yesterday and recommend it; I have not tried the recipes but they look really good and the photos and introduction are informative, if a bit basic for some of us. I have used his recipes before and liked them a lot; made his farro Luccese last week..let me try to link the recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/reci...ml?rsrc=search

I added dried porcini and just had some leftovers for lunch. I also added a rind of Parmigiano Reggiano while cooking....Excellent.

Anyway, I enjoyed Heat. That butcher in Panzano, Dario Cecchini someone is getting so much press; he is mentioned in Faith Willinger's book Eating in Italy, too. I have never been there and suspect it would be wasted on someone without a nearby kitchen. One interesting thing is that he gets his bistecca from Spain, as he is not happy with the local cows for a reason I forget.

The Mario Batali restaurants are very good and he is kid of a pioneer of quinto quarto meats. But he is getting to be more of a &quot;personality&quot; than a cook these days, as are most of those former chefs, now authors, tv stars, restaurant owners and cookware manufacturers on that network. I love a good food tv show as much as anyone but the only ones I like nowdays are the ones on public television like Lydia Bastianich, Michael Colameco, Jacques Pepin, etc. Joanne Wier, who seems really good from her books, has a new show about to debut soon that will probably be good.


http://www.babbonyc.com/travel.html


(take a look at the travel archives and the cucina section)

Now I am off on a real tangent; I am not even sure if you get PBS where you live, as I seem to remember that you live in Canada. I could be way off on this fact, though....

I have gone so far off course I forget what I am supposed to be posting about......

If I may, I think that Orvieto, Viterbo or one of the Castelli Romani would make a great side trip, with culture and,in the case of Orvieto, interesting culinary shopping as well as food. Appia Antica also has some very relaxing restaurants alongside and is a lovely walk on a winter day (check when it is closed to traffic). If you want regional food as opposed to more of an international style, you cant do better than to check the slowfood reccs at slowfood.it - there are several in each of these towns, as well as Rome, of course. It seems to me that there are also campanian towns with fine food closer to Rome by train than Napoli - once again, Slowfood should have some helpful info if you work through their regional selections
http://associazione.slowfood.it/asso.../osterie.lasso
Someone on this thread mentioned La Campana - we first visited there more than 25 years ago and liked it a lot - two years ago we revisited and thought it had slipped a bit. Still ok, but Certainly Armando al Pantheon was quite a lot better. One very good dish at La Campana was a very mellow vegetable soup (mostly greens), which I think was called vignerola that included guanciale. Their antipasti table was also ok.

jjkbrook; Thank you very much for your informative response to my queries. I was interested in La Campana because it appears to be one of the few restaurants in the city center that is open on Sunday evening; Ditirambo is another, according to my notes.

I have compiled the list of slowfood places in Rome and plan to use that during my trip. But your idea of a slowfood rec in Campania that is closer to Rome than Naples in a brilliant one! Although at this point, with only a week and a plan to visit Orvieto, and a possible return to Da Rodo in Nettuno, who knows if we will have time? I like the idea of a walk along Appia Antica and will put that on my list. Again, many thanks for taking the time and for the excellent ideas.

Ek, you’ve beaten me to the punch again...!

But since this thread has already wandered all over God's little acre, here are my opinions, which are worth exactly as much as you are paying for them...

SusanP,

I also do not like to eat dinner far away from my lodgings near Navona, but I do go much further afield for lunch. The danger, of course, is that after an ample lunch with wine, my afternoons may not be as full of energy, sights and experiences as they might otherwise be.

But do think of making a day of Testaccio and the Aventine. I’ve walked over from Navona - there’s only one part that is pretty soulless - passing Santa Maria in Cosmedin and the two temples, going up to Santa Sabina, one of my favourite early-Christian churches in Rome, peeping through the famous keyhole at the Cavalieri di Malta and wending my way down through a few other notable churches before lunch. After lunch, I’ve puttered around in and near Testaccio - Pyramid of Cestius, Protestant Cemetery with the graves of Keats and Shelley (although Shelley’s widow had his heart buried with her in, of all places, Bournemouth) - before grabbing a bus back to Navona. And dining lightly in my room on a picnic gathered from Volpetti and some neighborhood forni and wine shops.

Ek,

Thanks for all the information.

The farro soup sounds interesting, even though I rather suspected that Mario Batali has become more of a “personality” than a chef. Still, thanks also for the link to the Babbo site. I once happened on the site but didn’t realize that there was a whole archive of travel articles. I think we both read Batali’s article on Bologna and environs some time ago in Gourmet...

I know Amanda Hesser’s writing - although I missed that particular article - because I read the NYTimes on line every Sunday. Not all of it: only Travel, Book Review and Magazine. And I shall even graciously forgive you (joke).

There’s a poster over on SlowTrav - Diva - who once worked for/with/under the famous Dario, and she was a bit incensed that there are now tourists who walk into his butcher shop and ask him to burst into song or recite Dante or whatever eccentric thing he is noted for. Diva - Judy Something - now runs Divina Cucina, the madly expensive cooking school for tourists in Florence. I haven’t been to Florence in years and don’t expect to return, but I think she’s fairly sound on restaurants in Florence, should one of your gastronomic visits take you there:

http://www.divinacucina.com/code/florence.html

And yes, even here in the far North, we get PBS and a Food Network (I’m not sure it’s exactly the same as the American one). I’ll look out for the PBS shows you mentioned.

Jjkbrook,

You’ve known La Campana longer than I have: I ate there for the first time 21 years ago. I also liked their vignarola; I wonder whether, as a traditional spring dish, it will be on the menu in January when Ek is in Rome.

And departing from my resolve not to say anything about SlowFood restaurants in Rome (or elsewhere, for that matter; I’ve just eaten at one in Venice where the tourists vastly outnumbered the Venetians), I’ll also put in a word for Armando al Pantheon. I do worry a little about it, though; the last time I was there it was about fifty-fifty Romans and tourists.

Hi ekscrunchy,
I can't comment since I haven't been to Rome in over 10 years, but I just had to post because, as you may recall, we were just in Domme (I posted on your Dordogne restaurants thread) and now my husband and I are spending Christmas in Rome and staying at...you guessed it, Albergo del Senato! It's a small world...

Hope you ate well in the Dordogne (we sure did!) and thanks for starting such helpful posts! :-)

Eloise, yes, I may have to think about going for lunch. I see that Checchino is open for lunch. As I mentioned, I did to to that area last time. After taking the bus to Volpetti, I walked up the Aventine to San Anselmo &amp; San Sabina to the Keyhole and down the other side to Circus Maximus. This time I will go further down Via Marmorata to include the Pyramid &amp; Protestant Cemetary. Thanks for the suggestion.

Today's lunch made me think of the bone fighting discussion we've had here: roast kid back, a Greek recipe (I actually thought about going to Greece next spring, but always when thinking of Greek food, I'm reconsidering this destination over and over - especially today!). Now THIS was actually tough eating, with almost exclusively bones and the scarce flesh absolutely resistant to any effort of cutting it from the carcass...
Ok, end of sidenote. Eloise - I've had the same NYT website problem and can't therefore compare with Hesser's version, but I have what is supposed to be Perilli's original coda alla vaccinara recipe. If you want it, I could translate and type it for you here - just advise, please.

Hausfrau..I do remember you! I hope you have a wonderful trip to Rome with lots of good eating. I wrotte a report on my eating in the Dordogne that you can find...I posted the last bit just this morning; there is lots of food info, of course!

Eloise..you are a real font of information on eating and on Rome in general. You, and Franco, have convinced me to make a day of it in Testaccio and the idea of eating lunch ther, rather than dinner, is a good one, so we can do some exploring and pay a visit to Volpetti. I did visit Volpetti and the food market last time but was frustrated cause I went too early in my stay to buy lots of food items to take home. So this time will plan to visit a day or so before I leave Rome and do some buying. That store alone is worth a trip to the neighborhood and now I have your great info on meandering around the area. I, too, am torn about the idea of eating a big lunch since, especially with wine, it kind of knocks the drive out of me for further exploring. The obvious thing is to avoid the wine at lunch but for some reason (!!) I have a hard time with this. But what a great idea..have the lunch and bring some great things back for a light dinner in the room in the evening. Also, Divina Cucina is one of those things that gets touted endlessly here..expensive is an understatement. I suspect the same might be true of Maureen Fant's Testaccio food tour and cooking class.......wonder if anyone has done this...?????

Franco..I would urge you to consider a visit to Segovia province in Spain to sample the roast suckling lamb...you can even dig up my verbose report on my trip last May..in fact, here it is; scroll down towards the end for all the lamb details...


http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34810840

Now I know why I get nothing done in my house...laundry left piled up, stack of recupes to try..all sacrificed to Fodors and fascinating discourses like this one... Now if I can only find a way to link that Hesser coda recipe......