It takes a mammoth effort to drag me of the couch on a Tuesday night with a head of cold and a full evening of TV viewing on the Crime Channel ahead. But when Four Seasons Doha calls and offers you an exclusive opportunity to try their Black Truffle Month menu, I managed to summons up courage, clarity and commitment to attend. It’s Black Truffle Month and this means that hotels across town snap up as many of the morsels as they can freight. Tuber melanosporum, called the black truffle, Périgord truffle or French black truffle, is a species of truffle native to Southern Europe. It is one of the most expensive edible mushrooms…
-
-
Milking It – A Guide to Dairy Free Cheeses
It may stun you to know that I have friends who don’t eat cheese. My friend Beth is one of those people. She loves cheese, it just didn’t love her. Beth’s problem is cow’s milk in particular disagreed with her. She told me once she really missed pizza and other goodies because of her cow’s milk cheese intolerance. Standby because I’m about to get sciency and stuff. It is commonly believed that milk proteins, not the sugars, found in milk are the cause for a dairy allergy. Although symptoms associated with lactose intolerance are similar to that of a dairy allergy, the body’s reaction is different. A true food allergy…
-
Just Leave it Brie
*Warning this post contains bad puns about cheese. I am a bit of a conservative when it comes to my cheese. The more unadulterated, the better. The only exception being truffle brie. On a recent supermarket spree, I found two new hybrid cheeses – a truffle Moliterno and a bruschetta brie. For me, the Moliterno was the more successful hybrid. Unlike most truffled cheeses (where the cheese is added at the last minute before sale), the wheels age for about six months before being infused with pure black truffle paste, so that the cheese develops a very particular character and depth. The vein of truffle is part of the cheese, not an…
-
Ricotta Get Outta This Place
There comes a time in a woman’s life, when she makes the rookie error of mixing her dark and clear drinks and ends up with a banging headache and vague recollections of dancing to Canadian soft rock. This may or may not have happened to me recently. I may also have woken up in a cold sweat realising I promise to bring cheese of some description to a weekend brunch gathering. My options were these: 1. Plead hormonal imbalances and dust off a bottle of vino from the rack 2. Do smash and grab at the local supermarket and lob up with a slab of cheddar and something resembling crackers…
- Cheese, Cheese in Cooking, European Cheese, Food, Italian, Italian Cheese, Italy, Recipes, Travel, wine
The Grate Escape – Eating Pecorino in Italy
You may have heard, I recently went to Italy. To say this was a spiritual experience (bit like my visit to The ABBA Museum would be very accurate. I spent most of my time in Florence like Florence is well known for many things. some bloke called David, the setting of a million films and novels and of course, its’ food. I was there for the cheese – specifically Pecorino. Pecorino is the name of a family of hard Italian cheeses made from ewe’s milk. The word derives from Italian pecora meaning ‘sheep’, which in turn is from the Latin pecus meaning livestock. Like Parmesan we have all probably had…
-
Slice Up Your Life – Milan Style Comes to Doha
I can’t remember a time when pizza hasn’t been a part of my life. I believe my arteries wish there were vast tracts of time when my devotion to this food icon wasn’t so fierce. For those who love their pizza and want to move beyond the (beef) ham and pineapple or “supreme”, for one week only Chef Maurizio from Paper Moon in Milano will be spinning the dough at La Spiga by Papermoon at W Doha Along with some of my social media peeps I was invited to sample the menu and I can attest to the authenticity and cheesy goodness. The calzone is a must try. He’s only here…
-
My (Goat Cheese) Tart Will Go On
Remember Cher’s character in Mermaids? Where she only fed her kids cocktail snacks for dinner? That is my idea of heaven. I love a cocktail bite, at any time of the day. This could be because of simple maths, small bites don’t have as many calories right? Being of socialite tendencies, I am an expert in the field of food on a stick or in a napkin. And if it can incorporate cheese into that equation, heaven awaits. Ahem. The following morsels were served to me at a recent drinks function at Grand Hyatt Doha The creamy goats cheese tart was literally coin sized and the pastry on the right…
