Author Archives: dgourmac

Peak Summer Dining (at home and away)

Posted on September 15, 2024 by dgourmac

This post feature highlights of summer meals, mostly at home, and a few at restaurants nearby. Eggplants are one of my most treasured vegetables, so I cook them often in mid-summer. My wife did some unusual explorations, and she came … Continue reading →

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Moroccan Eggplant and Olive Tagine (Once Again)

Posted on September 15, 2024 by dgourmac

This is one of my favorite meals, which explains why it’s in my blog every 4-6 months. Here’s the visual version.

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Best Lunches – Small Plates

Posted on August 4, 2024 by dgourmac

For semi-retired folks like me, lunches are a beautiful thing. Normally, there are no time pressures, no deadlines for when one must produce the meal. They provide a splendid mechanism to exercise your creativity while using up leftovers which would … Continue reading →

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Mid-July Magical Meals

Posted on July 22, 2024 by dgourmac

Mid-July is a good time to do what I enjoy most — conceive, create, and consume great meals. It’s a time when fresh vegetables are in season and plentiful at local farm stands; it’s a period when I have the … Continue reading →

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June: Seafood, Breads, and Flowers

Posted on July 2, 2024 by dgourmac

It was a month of weather extremes, punctuated by exceptional seafood, successful homemade breads, and sparkling blue hydrangeas. My wife pays a lot of attention to our hydrangeas. Most years the white ones are present in great profusion, but the … Continue reading →

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One More Roman Dinner: Tonnarello alla Gricia

Posted on May 30, 2024 by dgourmac

To conclude my trip to Italy, I arranged one more day in Rome to break up the trip. It involved flying from Brindisi, after my time in Cisternino, into Rome Airport Fiumicino. I didn’t really feel up to a trip … Continue reading →

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Cisternino Flowers

Posted on May 12, 2024 by dgourmac

High on the list of the many things I love about Italy is the profusion of flowers I see every time I come here. Of course, it helps that my trips are usually in April or May, so it’s a … Continue reading →

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An Italian Version of Briam

Posted on May 12, 2024 by dgourmac

Briam or Briami is a classic Greek baked vegetable dish. I first made it seven years ago and have done different versions at least a half a dozen times since then. When faced with a dilemma last week about what … Continue reading →

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Vattelappesca Restaurant (in Italian)

Posted on May 3, 2024 by dgourmac

Uno dei migliori ristoranti di Cisternino è Vatellapesca. Il nome bizzarro in realtà significa “come si chiama” o “come si chiama” in italiano. Ho mangiato lì già tre volte durante la mia prima settimana in città, e ogni volta sono … Continue reading →

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Vattelappesca Restaurant

Posted on May 3, 2024 by dgourmac

One of the best restaurants in Cisternino is Vatellapesca. The quirky name actually means “whatchamacallit” or “what’s-his-name” in Italian. I’ve eaten there three times already in my first week in town, and I’ve been delighted each time. The chef is … Continue reading →

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