go on… Rome

From Paris to Rome, I’d look forward to a much different world. Tasty but not fancy food, quirky people instead of poker faces, older archeology site… Some of them are valid while there are still so much different from the reality i met.

To start the journey in Rome, I gotta introduce my friend here, lou, my ex-boss client. She is my guardian in Italy.

I was living in her house for eight days and I would regard myself as a semi-tourist. This is the first time i was in Rome, the busy city is actually chaotic and filled with racers on the road. It’s not difficult to get around the city but I have to be careful of the people around. For the first two days, lou bought me to those popular tourist spots which indeed worth to visit before die.

The Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, Castel Sant’Angelo… everything was so delicate with long history. Giant sculpture made of marble, but look just soft like satan or lace. Good that we can spend some time to check that out one by one.
besides tour, she also brought me to a very nice restaurant, remind me about Shatin hotel in Hong Kong with beautiful scene and good food. Woo, food in italian version, much better ^o..^

Tour is just a minor part of my days in Rome, as the hostess request, making pastry is the most she want from me, that is also the reason brought me here.
To practise my newly learn skill, I need a lot of sweet tooth for the final product. Here I got lou’s couple, a guest from them and me, that’s quite a good combination for the tasting party.

It’s a bit different from france, ingredients preference and packaging are slightly different, I gathered the custom ingredients and go for the trail. The famous french patisserie for me is the various texture in one bite. Attractive appearance, crunchy outside, soft, creamy with certain aroma inside. So far what I learnt with the least tools and ingredients required is the Pear tart w/ meringue top.

There is no big different for the almond sablee base, but without the simple tart ring, i gotta fix it with an aluminium pie mold. It took me a while to trim the base but at last still fine. For the filling, I used fresh apple instead of canned pear, just cooked a bit longer with some juice came out, strain it after cook while it still taste fine at last.

That was such a good revision for me and for sure i’d modify the recipe soon after i’m back.
The simple visit of Rome ended up with the sweet memory from the wonderful hospitality of lou, her cats and the food. In term of all those, maybe Rome is worth for another visit in the near future!