Distant memories

It's been so long since I came here, I almost forgot why I started this off in the first place. It seems like another world, a simpler time, when my biggest worry was where my next big meal would be and how much grappa I could sample afterwards.

Not that I really have anything more important to trouble my mind nowadays. It's just that everything seems that bit more difficult. Two children, bills to pay and that thing all men must try to duck and avoid - responsibility.

I'm not going to pretend it has been plain sailing. I have had some bad times in these first years of parenthood. I don't cope well with a lack of sleep, I miss being able to pretty much suit myself what I watch on television, listen to in the car or do at weekends. Sometimes I forget the payback for these little sacrifices and my life looks bleak.

But I wanted to come back to this blog when I was in a better place than I have been of late and that mood has landed on me tonight. It is pouring with rain outside - as it has for most of this Scottish summer - but I don't care much. Something inside my brain has clicked onto a positive setting for the time being and I am going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts. I know there will be other fights with the darkness to come.

Above all, I want to get back to my writing. There are ideas rattling around inside me bursting to get out. Who knows, some of them may even be worthwhile. The clock is counting down to 40 and a certain urgency seems to be pressing me onwards. Since ever I can remember this has been what has driven me forward - a love of words, of storytelling and trying to put a structure on the chaos of existence.

So let's get on with it once again.

Tasting notes #1

Cooked myself a nice sirloin steak the other night with a red wine and mushroom sauce. Definitely a success - accompanied with just a little steamed broccoli. All in all, very pleasant.

It was joined by a £5.99 bottle of Barbera from Marks and Spencer which did not disappoint either. I like a Barbera anyway and this was a decent example. Nice and warm and reassuring - my only complaint, if any, was that it was almost too smooth and easy to drink. Now that really is getting picky...

Brothers in a bottle

You know, there is something in the chemistry of a good night out that I would love to bottle and preserve. You can put all the same ingredients together 20 times and they won't work out. Then one night they all fall into place. This Thursday was a good example.

Yes, when my old co-conspirator of the Grappa Diaries, Martino is in town there is always a high percentage chance of a fine night. In presidential parlance, his approval rating is about 100%. It has never dipped below that, as far as I can recall. Pull up a chair, pour him a grappa and sit back and relax.

However, his presence alone is not enough to explain the magic which took place. There I sat with a local shopkeeper, a fish and chip man, a farmer, a furniture restorer and a water worker and had a fantastic time. The meal was good, naturally. A starter of pasta with Italian sausage followed by pork escalopes in a cream and mushroom sauce. Also, my surrogate father (for when my own is out of the country) kept topping up my glass with a lovely Vermentino. All that before the grappas even arrived!

You know how a conversation just sometimes flows? That was how it was. It was daft, irrelevant, crude, nonsensical and fantastic. That's the part you just never know about.

It inspired me to come back to this blog - I have never really been away. This is my security blanket, I think. I need a little snuggle every now and again and couldn't live without it. Viva la Grappa, ragazzi!

Mine's a large one!

I feel a bit guilty now. First time I've blogged in ages and I'm blogging over children's birthday greetings to their nonna. So to make up for it a belated happy birthday from me too Mrs R!

Anyhoo this is what has brought me out of blogging retirement as I thought it deserved a bit more publicity than it is currently getting through sitting on my phone. On a recent visit to Milan I stopped at the Panzera close to central station and as is customary ordered a grappa at the end of the meal. This is what arrived.......


Now that is only a half bottle of wine next to it but is that not just about the largest grappa measure you have ever seen?

Happy Birthday Nonna!

Happy birthday from Dumfries!

Where did it all begin?

Where did it all begin? Well, let me tell you.

It started off up in the Tuscan hills, the Garfagnana to be specific. It was there that my great-grandfather Rizzieri discovered that there was not enough money to live on and set off for Glasgow. That was after the First World War and the story would be more simple if he had stayed in Scotland but he didn't.

He went back home after a few years and spent the rest of his days in Italy. One of his children, Maria, died at the age of 18 from one of those diseases that would probably be easily cured nowadays. Her four sisters survived to much riper ages, one of them is still alive. The only boy, Romeo, my grandfather, was born in Scotland during his father's time in the country. He returned to Italy to spend his childhood in those wild cowboy lands of the 1920s and 1930s.

However, by 1936 - at the age of 16 - he too realised there was no money and little future in that family home nestled in the hills. He set off towards Glasgow with the plan of spending a year and making some money before going back to the land where he felt he belonged.

Now that, I guess, is where it all began.

Nostalgia

Is it possible to have nostalgia for a place where you have never lived? I sometimes feel a generational pang for the homeland not of my father but my grandfather.

It seems real enough, like a calling back to somewhere I belong. But how can it be? It's impossible, isn't it?

Visions of Barga 2009

Just got back from the old homeland for too much grappa, vino and food. The weather was amazingly good for January. Not warm, mind you, but beautiful sunshine every day.

I may chronicle some of the eating and drinking at a later date. In the meantime, these lovely images will have to suffice.

A two for one grappa scenario

My traditional grappa bet with the owner of one of our regular haunts has just got better. We were on an even stake but he is so confident he has doubled his contribution. Now I get two bottles if I win.

If you remember the terms, I have Inter as my team to progress the furthest in the Champions League while he has Arsenal. The Nerazzurri have their work cut out against Man United but I am hopeful Roma can give the Gunners a hard time.

Anyway, Forza Inter e Roma...

The fatted pig!

Amazing, truly amazing. Our Thursday evening escapades have always had a medieval banquet feel to them but never quite so much as last week. Our host provided nothing less than a whole suckling pig for us to feast upon (vegetarians turn away now).

Basted in honey, the pig was essentially sliced into eight big chunks for us to dine on. All washed down, of course, with the grappa on the table. A fine time indeed...

All I want for Christmas

When you get to a certain age, Christmas is more about the kids than it is about you. Still, be honest, you'd like to get a few of your favourite things on 25 December. Strangely, mine have never really changed from about age 12.

What I would love to get for Christmas:

1) Ipod Touch
2) Play Station 3
3) Scalextric
4) Some kind of internet radio/wireless music system.

What I will actually get for Christmas:

1) A jumper
2) Nice shirt
3) Maybe after shave...

I dont want to seem ungrateful because I will like the jumper, shirt and maybe after shave. It is just I would get so much more excited by a gadget. Ah, we boys never grow up. I think it is an overrated pastime anyway.

Getting the festive feeling

A double-header, can I cope? Out on Thursday night with the boys then the following evening with work colleagues. That used to be water off a duck's back but, then, I used to be able to sleep in or snooze in the afternoon. Now I have two kids and those are not really options.

It's not so much that I can't still do the drinking, I just can't recover. I end up tired and grumpy for about three days after the event. Hardly an endearing combination. Still, we shall see how I get on. Strangely, going Chinese on both occasions which is unusual - although Friday night is more modern European meets Chinese.

I will keep you posted.

An evening with a hero

Adelmo Fornaciari - better known as Zucchero - stopped off in Glasgow last night. It was an event no Scottish Italian could miss. So, of course, I was there.

My first memory of hearing his music was when his hit "Con Le Mani" was used on some television advert in the late 1980s (I think). I was immediately hooked by its beat. It started me searching out his back catalogue and following his career. From the great Oro, Incenso e Birra (Gold Frankincense and Beer) and beyond.

Anyway, the Loch Lomond Suite in Glasgow's SECC was the intimate venue for his only Scottish date. And it was among the most pleasant couple of musical hours I have ever spent. His voice is holding up well despite the fact that he is now in his 50s. There were some good rocking numbers and a few more gentle-paced songs too. Personal highlights were "Diamante", "Per colpa di chi" and "Diavolo in Me".

The dialogue with the audience was minimal. "It's better to speak in good Italian than bad English," he explained. "Many British acts come to Italy and we don't understand them." That was the sum total of his chat for the night.

It was just a good, old-fashioned gig with high class musicians and a singer who knew how to get the best out of his songs. It was all over too soon but not before the voice of Luciano Pavarotti echoed through the hall on the haunting Miserere. An emotional and powerful package. Grazie mille, Zucchero.

Lidl goes Grappa!

A humble hunt for cut-price food - this is the credit-crunch you know - produced unexpected results this week. There, stacked among the 50% off veg and strange imported snacks, was a familiar-looking bottle. Could it really be?

Yes, that slightly gold liquid was well-known to me. On the shelves of supermarket chain Lidl there appeared a bottle of grappa! At an acceptable price of £12.99.

Now, I know what you are asking - did you go and buy it? Well, the answer is not yet. Somehow, I had some reservations about the quality of the brew. What has happened to me?

I feel bad even as I write this. Call myself a grappa man and I turned down the opportunity to purchase a bottle? Changed days, I fear, changed days...

Eating for Dumfries and Galloway

I have been trying this crazy experiment for a week, attempting to eat only food grown or produced in Dumfries and Galloway, the region where I live. It might have been easy for those who like meat and two veg for their evening meal every day. For a Scottish-Italian who loves his pasta it has been a bit of a nightmare.

The nice thing, however, has been going into little shops and farmers markets. Places where the conversation amounts to something more than "Would you like help with your packing?" followed by 59 beeps from a cash-register and then "Would you like cashback?".

The food DOES, by and large, taste better. Once you get over your fear of a big slab of meat or a fish tail or some such that doesn't come pre-packed in clingfilm it is actually quite nice. You feel a bit like a hunter-gatherer of old.

Still, be glad to get back to the pasta...

I grow old, I grow old. I shall wear my trousers rolled...

It is Thursday, therefore I shall go out. I sped back from a scriptwriting course just to meet my friends for a good meal. It was a Chinese. Should I, as an Italo-Scot feel ashamed? Should I shun the noodle and the fried rice?

Most importantly, can I admit my love of Chinese food is largely due to the woman pictured above? Ching He Huang has made the cuisine both fashionable AND sexy. Something which has largely failed most people. Except, perhaps, Nigella when she talked about Italian food and nipped down to the fridge for extra dessert in her dressing gown in the middle of the night.

Oh lord, I am an old fool...

PS. We had a platter of ribs, seaweed, spring rolls, chicken wings and satay skewers followed by sweet and sour chicken, crispy beef and duck in a chilli sauce. Heaven.

Hurrah! And then not hurrah!

I have been away from this blog too long. I realise it is one I can only turn to in my hour of need. Or, when I read a story like this...

Could it be that grappa comes full circle? Remember the old brew they used to offer you with a rag in the top and watch your face for a reaction when you drank it? Well, apparently they want to make it legal.

The mind, quite rightly, boggles.

I can picture it now - Acquavita dal bagno di Ginkers, Grappa Cucina di Martino or even Spirito di Cencio! Heck, any fool would be looking to brew their own. Now where are those grapes the kids just threw away...

Grappa goes legit?

I was sitting down with the wife the other night wondering what to watch on television. The kids were safely tucked up in bed, a nice meal consumed, it was time for some mild entertainment.

And what better than the tried and tested format of Mastermind? There were a couple of decent specialised subjects (The Godfather Trilogy and something else which I have forgotten). And you can always get a few general knowledge answers.

But there, in the grand final, the programme's crowning glory, what did I hear? A question about my favourite drink! "What do you call the Italian liqueur made up of all the old guff left over after wine-making?" asked the quiz meister. I nearly choked on my post-prandial espresso.

Ah, that it has come to this. What next - Oz Clarke and James May's Grappa Tour?

Go on, give the kids a treat

It is nearly Easter so why not look at a sweet treat for the kids? But this year, forgot all the chocolate eggs - give them doughnuts instead. I like to think I have found the perfect ones here!

Can you imagine the fun you could have with these little beauties? I bet you will never have such a peaceful Easter Sunday as the children snore away the afternoon...

That it should come to this!

The headline sent a chill down my spine...

"More bikies charged over grappa shooting!"

That the nights out with the boys should come to this!

http://news.theage.com.au/more-bikies-charged-over-grappa-shooting/20080208-1r2q.html