Tag: Roma

A Roma dinner prepared by Bea and Behara, guests of a protected structure – Italian Cuisine

For the Gustamundo project, tonight, in Rome, two women living in the Casa di Leda will offer the specialties of their tradition: from sarma to ciupapsi, to mussaka

The Roma cuisine specialties, prepared by two cooks who will introduce diners to the most appetizing flavors of their tradition. Tonight, at 8 pm, the appointment is in Rome, in via Giacinto de Vecchi Pieralice, 38, at the restaurant of Gustamundo: is a project that was born with the idea of proposing social integration through the kitchen and that, with the collaboration of reception centers and non-profit organizations, organizes multi-ethnic dinners prepared by women and men from the most disadvantaged countries.

In the kitchen there are Bea and Behara, both of Roma origin, who live in the House of Leda, a protected structure, active since 2017, where women are accepted as an alternative to detention with their minor children (the spaces used by the House are those confiscated from the mafia). For this special solidarity dinner they will offer typical dishes like the sarma and i ciupapsi, but also the mussaka: a culinary journey through the notes of paprika, coconut flour and dark chocolate.

For both Bea and Behara, who in 2021 will finish serving their sentences, appointments such as Gustamundo's solidarity dinner represent an opportunity to return to normal life, but also a step towards a more dignified condition, of greater social and economic inclusion, together with their children.

"On people like Bea and Behara there are more risk factors in terms of marginalization," explains Pasquale Campagnone, founder and director of Gustamundo. "Their Roma origins and the penalty they are serving". But the ghettoization is fought first of all through the occasions of encounter between people, of mutual understanding and exchange. Like a dinner like this that, among its objectives, includes that of overcoming the widespread prejudices towards the other.

In Italy, according to data from the European Community, there are between 110 thousand and 180 thousand people of Romani origin: about 0.23-0.25% of the total population. Only one in five lives in a condition of precarious housing, but prejudice contributes to perpetrating the state of discrimination against the whole minority.

To book dinner write to info@gustamundo.it or call 366 8976779.

Breakthrough for Spazio Roma – Italian Cuisine

Niko Romito's project starts again in the capital becoming Bar and kitchen and focusing on the coffee shop, Italian-style comfort food, cocktails, bombs and the now famous fried chicken

Just over a month of closure and already the concern of the Roman foodies was snaking. What will become of it Space Rome? And here comes the answer, with a reopening after a brief restyling which gives a sigh of relief to enthusiasts and professionals: Spazio Roma continues its adventure, starting again from the Piazza Verdi venue and turning into "Bar and kitchen". In practice, what has happened is that Niko Romito has chosen to renounce the dichotomy that saw his Roman space joined by a corridor, but divided in substance into two rooms, the gourmet address of the restaurant and the space bread and coffee.

New opening

With the reopening of October 9, 2019, the Roman address officially becomes one and bino, Bar and kitchen, with an offer that starts from breakfast at 7 am and ends after dinner. In the middle there is a snack, lunch, five o'clock tea, an aperitif, dinner: all in a space that broadens its horizons and rewards the success of the Bar, which only a few months ago was awarded by the Gambero Rosso Bar guide with the three grains and the three cups, as well as with the Illy Bar award of the year.

Entrance, therefore, only in Piazza Verdi, in practice it will not be possible to leave aside a passage for the counter, where the wonderful loaves will continue to show off, to be bought to take home or to eat on the spot. Then theand bombs, in its sweet and savory versions, the now famous fried chicken, traditional Italian dishes such as boiled meatballs and creamed cod, soups and salads, cured meats and cheeses discovered by Niko Romito in his earth, in Abruzzo. And also the cocktails of the mixologist Mauro Cipollone and a wine list of 250 labels.

A single space, therefore, which, depending on the time of day, transforms from a bar into an Italian bar and a kitchen with a domestic kitchen, from a tea room to an aperitif. All in the hands of a woman, Gaia Giordano, who becomes the executive chef of the entire Spazio project, turning her adventure together with the patron Niko Romito. The basic philosophy remains, as well as one of the objectives for which Niko Romito has begun to disseminate his spaces for Italy and the world: the format is a direct spin-off of the Niko Romito Academy, the tristellato training school, as well as the place where, as Niko Romito says, "the ideas sprouted to the Real are developed, bringing them into new contexts and giving life to new experiences".

Last mention of the restyling, made by the architect Stefano Rosini, who was asked to make the environment less formal, above all what was once the restaurant. He did it by fishing in modern furniture markets and grandmother's dishes and cups, so as to make everything closer to a living room, to give those who enter a feeling of familiarity, then continue with food, inspired by their own to Italian comfort food.

5 goodies from the Roma Bar Show – Italian Cuisine

From non-alcoholic vermouth to gin that changes color, the new products presented at the first edition of the Capitoline event dedicated to spirits and mixing

Two days of tastings, tastings, cocktails, master classes and presentations. In summary, these were the contents of Rome Bar Show, but only by visiting it could its importance really be appreciated. Thousands of bartenders and beverage experts (almost ten thousand admissions according to the organizers) flocked from all over the world, hundreds of labels offered for tasting, dozens of new items ready to conquer the counters. Among these, we selected five proposals that struck us for their singularity.

Belsazar, the non-alcoholic vermouth made in Berlin

Among the Piedmontese vermouth, which claims its birthright, and French vermouth, few know that there is also German wermut. Belsazar declares itself "based in Berlin, rooted in Baden", meaning that it has the company in the German capital, but concretely distills its products with the collaboration of the Schladerer House Distillery, a historic plant located in the center of the Black Forest in the Baden-Württemberg region . Four main references (rosé, dry, white and red), to which the latest gem has just been added: the non-alcoholic vermouth, which we tasted as a preview, waiting for it to be presented in Germany. The fact that he is German circumvents the stringent Italian rule of the disciplinary which fixes the bar of alcohol at a minimum of 14.5 ° and gives the possibility to this company of spirits whose products are distributed by Diageo to propose the alcohol free version. Use? Both in mixing and in purity, perhaps for an aperitif without the alcohol test anxiety.

Amaro Venti, the Italian bitter

Before even reading the payoff "the Italian bitter", this definition came to us spontaneously when listening to the description: the first bitter not linked to a single region, but composed of twenty botanicals, one for each region of Italy. Twenty, then the name, like botanicals and like the regions of Italy. As the creators explain, the intention was to find the right balance between the sweetest products typical of Southern Italy and the most bittering characteristic of the North. In a historical moment in which bitters are experiencing a great wave of rediscovery. Olive tree from Liguria, juniper from Tuscany, gentian from Abruzzo, orange from Sicily, just to name a few. The result is a liquor of good complexity that we bet to see soon on the bottles.

Jack Daniel's rye

Apparently the Jack Daniel's is certainly not a novelty, but those who understand a little about whiskey will find it strange to see the word Rye (rye) next to this famous label. Yes, after 150 years the most famous Tennessee Whiskey has decided to indulge in the luxury of offering the public a new recipe, with its rye version, which distorts the percentages of the three ingredients already contained in the classic. 70% rye, 18% wheat and 12% barley malt is the balance from which this new recipe starts, created by the current master distiller Jeff Arnet. The first new blend for 150 years!

Sake Black, dark and Italian

Already hearing about an Italian sake makes your ears stand up, then you can see that it's black disrupts practically all the previous information acquired on the subject, according to which the transparency of the product is an indication of purity and quality. The Japanese will forgive us, but in fact even if we do not have a millenary history of rice distillation, rice paddies in Italy are not lacking and are quite peculiar. In particular those of the Vercelli area, the kingdom of the mondine, where among others a particular variety of black integral rice is produced, Penelope produced by Gli Aironi, which is the basis of this sake. The production process also changes, with the use of beer yeasts (a tribute to the historic Piedmontese brewers of the early 20th century) to start fermentation, and an addition of botanical herbs to flavor the infusion, including the classic artemisia and achillea, as a tribute in this case to the Piedmontese liqueur tradition of vermouth. In short, if we look at the disciplinary, perhaps sake has only the name (and indeed the taste), but there are several poetic licenses that do not make the product less interesting, but perhaps enrich it, making it more "homegrown".

Noon, the gin that changes color

Already seeing a blue gin makes you think of a concoction, then seeing that when in contact with tonic water it turns from blue to amethyst purple to a kind of rose (depending on how much tonic you put on), it will certainly upset even more purists. Yet it is nothing more than a small-medium chemical reaction, produced by reacting the anthocyanins of the Butterfly flower of Thailand with the bubbles of the tonic. This gin at the end is a very pleasant London Dry with ten botanicals, with a typically Italian flavor. In the first distillation in alembic the first nine botanicals are infused, including Florentine giaggiolo, bitter almonds, orange and lemons from Sicily, juniper harvested on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, in the second cold passage is added the Thai Butterfly flower which gives the characteristic gin color. And the magic is done.