Today I learned the secret of the strange giant crackers that rescued my chicken sate from being way too goopy.

I’m on what the real professionals call a mission, or, failing that, duty travel. And once again I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. So, rather than admit defeat and just leave well enough alone, I decide to record a little reflection on the food of Indonesia, at least, the food I’ve eaten so […]

Restaurant reviews, fake parmesan, real Prosecco, emulsions and nostalgia.

Karima Moyer-Nocchi is an American woman who teaches at the University of Siena. When she had been here almost 25 years she developed something of an obsession. On the one hand, she watched “a bewildering decline in the quality and craftsmanship of Italian food together with a skyrocketing deification of it”. On the other, “in […]