i went to rome for the gelato

If I'm being honest, the main reason I wanted to go to Rome on vacation was to try as much gelato as possible. That and drink an unreasonable amount of coffee. Below I present a humble list of the places I went and the flavors I ate while in Rome.


san crispino
flavors: pistachio, caramel meringue, stracciatella, chocolate, honey, crema, pear ginger

This was the first place we went because there was an outpost just two streets away from our hotel. The snooty way they keep their gelato---in deep silver bowls with lids---matched the snooty attitude of the workers. I've read several times that this is the favorite gelato of the masses and it made sense once we tried it. Their gelato lacked any assertive flavors and left no impression on me. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. The caramel meringue was their best effort. I enjoyed the bitter caramel and sweet and crunchy meringues. But the rest just failed to impress.


giolitti
flavors: caramel, coconut, dark chocolate, mint

This place gets a lot of play in the blogosphere as well. After my visit, I wasn't sure why. I know you can't pass judgment by tasting only four of Giolitti's extensive offerings, but all four were so loathsome to me, I just couldn't see plunking down another 7 euros to give them a second chance. The caramel tasted like they melted down a bunch of those cheap butterscotch hard candies from Brach's, added some milk, and froze it. The coconut was overly sweetened and the mint assertively flavored with what tasted like a bad mint extract (or Altoids, perchance?). The chocolate was the only passable flavor.


cremaria monteforte
flavors: hazelnut, fior de latte, stracciatella, chocolate hazelnut, melon, yogurt, chocolate mousse, almond

The gelato here was consistently delicious. The hazelnut was outstanding, as well as the melon, chocolate hazelnut, yogurt, stracciatella and chocolate mousse. The fior di latte had a light, pure flavor, but was a bit icy. I expected the almond to have as intense a flavor as the hazelnut, but it paled in comparison, which was a great disappointment.


fior di luna
flavors: chocolate hazelnut, pistachio, rice, chocolate chile, coconut and pine seed

There was a sign here that talked about the importance of sourcing ingredients for the gelato they made. And it showed in the purity of the flavors---everything we tried was delicious. The pistachio was my favorite, followed by the pine seed, which leaned pleasantly toward the savory side. My only complaint was that the chile was a little too spicy. Chris gave up after two spoonfuls because it was starting to make him choke.


old bridge
flavors: coffee, rice, nutella, ricotta with pistachio croquante

This shop did not blow me away. The nutella was chalky and they had dropped a few pieces of Baci candy in it by mistake because the Baci flavor was placed right next to the Nutella. The coffee tasted off (maybe flavored with extract) and the rice tasted like they just folded in some cooked rice, which was odd. But then there was the ricotta. SO DELICIOUS. It wasn't overly sweet and the caramelized pistachios were crunchy and bitter. This was one of the best flavors I tried during our whole trip.


fata morgana
flavors: basil, banana with walnut croquante, honey, lemon curd, baklava, tiramisu

If you go to only one gelateria in Rome, you have to go to this one. The flavors were crazy and all delicious. This is the place with the much-hyped Kentucky flavor----chocolate mixed with tobacco (didn't try that one, though, because it's not my style). The basil was light and refreshing and the lemon curd intensely tart. Wished I could have tried the licorice, the white chocolate pine nut or the poppy seed, too. Sigh.


caffe san eustache
I went here for a cappuccino because it reputedly has the best coffee in Rome. I actually had a hard time finding the coffee underneath the stiff, rubbery blanket of foam on my drink. I went back and ordered a straight up espresso and I liked it much better. After that, I stuck to ordering espresso, so I could better judge the taste of the actual coffee. And it was all terrific, no matter where we stopped. I am missing Rome's coffee already...

a treat from work

apricot upside down cake
I spirited this tiny tart home from work last night. When there is a whole sheet pan of them lined up, it looks like a field of flowers. The person who runs the hot station at work is in charge of making the cakes, and I have heard some complaints about how tedious it is to cut all the apricots and arrange them in the pan. It looks so beautiful, though, I would think it would be some consolation for all the trouble. We serve it with praline anglaise sauce, candied almonds and toasted almond ice cream.


strawberry gelato
So I finally made a recipe from The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato and Sorbetto. Each of their recipes calls for you to make a plain base or chocolate base from two master recipes, then make add-ins to create different flavors. This recipe called for the plain base plus a homemade strawberry jam. I loved the recipe for the plain base. It had very little cream and only four egg yolks in it, and came together beautifully. The finished gelato was a little icy once frozen, but the taste I took just as it finished churning was smooth and extremely flavorful.


magnificent moist golden cake
So I have a cake order at the end of July! I was going to go with a delicious butter cake recipe we used for our wedding cake project in school, but I wanted to try a few other options first. This recipe is from Shirley Corriher's book Bakewise. She says in the book that she developed this recipe because she wanted to create a versatile cake that was both moist and easy to slice. It looked beautiful right out of the oven and did indeed prove easy to slice. But when Chris and I tasted it, we both agreed that it was too greasy and too sweet. I was really disappointed, especially since it was such a fussy recipe to put together. It called for milk and buttermilk, oil and butter and cream whipped into soft peaks.