Why Puglia Was Not The Rustic Dream Holiday I Thought it Would be

I think sometimes I big up a destination in my head so much, that it can’t live up to expectation.

And I was very excited about my rustic holiday to Puglia (the heel of Italy).

I’d heard it was a less touristy region than many places in Italy, and it would be very rural and simple, and that I’d be able to eat amazing food for very little money.

So I was a bit grumpy at discovering on arrival, a lot of tourists and restaurants very much catering for them.  They were ruining my authentic experience of Southern Italy!  Damn you Justin Timberlake for getting married in Puglia and starting an influx of American visitors and unrusticking it.

We didn’t help ourselves by getting into the habit of eating croissants every morning.  Not sure what we were thinking as they are not bloody Italian.  Then for lunch, out of ease we started eating pucce (Puglian ciabatta) toasties with proscuitto and mozzarella every day – very nice, but it’s not exactly an enriching culinary experience. And in the evenings we weren’t faring much better, and frankly kept making crap, touristy, lazy choices.

On our fourth day, I broke my croissant fix and chose an Italian chocolate cake for breakfast.  And omg it was so stale.  It was the last straw.  I had a massive grumble to Jamie and said I wasn’t having the authentic Italian experience I wanted. Poor Jamie, I really moaned.  I banged on about all the amazing, cheap mind blowing meals I’d had in Italy on my 7 previous trips, and that I was disappointed.  In hindsight though, I was lumping together all the food highlights from each trip, leaving my perspective a bit skewed.

So we got a bit more organised and started scrutinising reviews on TripAdvisor before making restaurant choices, and just generally being a bit more fussy, and I also conceded that we might have to pay for quality (gasp!).

And guess what? Things got better.

Highlights included the chewiest chocolatiest torte, a divine carrot and orange cake, a very melty piece of lamb, two phenomenal octopus sandwiches (so fresh), a super crispy lasagne made with spinach lasagne sheets and lamb, a beautiful aubergine and cheese ravioli, oh yes and lets not forget cannoli – deep fried pastry tubes filled with sweet ricotta.

Deep fried Octopus in a bun – heaven!

Aubergine and cheese ravioli

Possibly the best lamb I’ve ever eaten

Breakfast at a proper old fashioned Italian cake shop – a culinary success this time!

And do you know what, despite a bit of whinging on my part, we had a really nice holiday, Puglia is beautiful, and most of it is rustic.  In particular I fell in love with the remote and rugged beaches, with the bluest, clearest seas.  And the ancient towns and villages at the top of hills like Lecce and Ostuni are gorgeous.  And in terms of taking photos, it’s pure Instagram gold. Lovely light, beautiful crumbly old buildings, colourful doors, blue seas – it was iPhone photo ecstasy!

This was an olive oil tasting at a fabulous olive farm visited

Beautiful Punta Proscuitto beach

 

 

 

Fortnightly Eats 27th May

It’s been a very sad and unsettling time with the atrocities in Manchester, it still all feels unbelievable to me.  I’m very proud of the attitude of the people of Manchester, who refuse to live in fear and have really pulled together to show their support.  As an adopted Mancunian, I continue to be grateful for and thoroughly impressed by the warmth and spirit of this city.

It feels a little at odds with this week’s events to be talking in a celebratory way about what I’ve been eating, but I think it’s important to stay positive and share some joy.

A couple of weeks ago we headed to The Drop in Chorlton to meet friends for a Caribbean Sunday roast.  It’s a gorgeous colourful Caribbean bar cafe with gorgeous colourful food! Everyone apart from me went for the Reggae Roast with jerk chicken, macaroni cheese and rice n’ peas, I diverged and went for the vegan Rasta Roast, which was pretty similar but with roasted pumpkin, fried plantain and feta cheese in place of the meat.

We virtuously cycled back from Drop Cafe to Hazel Grove along the River Mersey as it was glorious weather, and committed to continue with the healthy theme by baking a date, walnut and pecan loaf from my new healthy cake cookbook: Love Bake Nourish by Amber Rose.  It was definitely a bread rather than a cake, as it was quite dry and not very sweet, but it was very nice none the less, especially with a good slathering of peanut butter.

Reggae roast with jerk chicken and macaroni cheese

Vegan rasta roast with roast pumpkin, fried plantain and feta

Date, walnut and pecan loaf

Last week I attended a Guardian Masterclass on food photography and styling.  What a cracking course. It made me rethink my current photography style and the thing that stood out to me is I’m so bored of taking overhead shots of food on my dining room table.  As soon as I got home from a long day in London I demanded that we photograph our tea in the garden with Jamie as a model to get some real life atmosphere. I was rather pleased with the results. It was a chopped salad with bacon, sweetcorn and avocado and the deliciously fresh ingredients were from our Riverford veg box and the recipe was from Riverford’s Spring/Summer cookbook.

Jamie posing with a bacon, avocado and potato salad in our back garden

There does seem to be a bit of an obsession in our household with banana based cakes lately. Our next banana conquest was a cinnamon and banana cake with a generous dose of rum, also from Love Bake Nourish.  It was supposedly a healthy cake as it used wholemeal spelt flour and maple syrup – not sure how healthy rum is though? But my goodness it tasted indulgent.  Sweet and moist and rummy.  Even better with a scoop of frozen yoghurt.

Soaking the sultanas in rum

Banana and cinnamon cake

On Monday I was lucky enough to go along to a Taste The Love supper club at Gray’s Larder in Chorlton.  Here’s the menu:

Proscuitto, grilled lettuce, cucumber and white bean salad (so good)

Spinach and ricotta gnocchi in lemon broth (yum)

Pork cheek, parsley potato cake with lardo and rosemary (how I adored that potato cake)

Lemon posset with almond shortbread (divine)

Gray’s is a lovely venue and it was a superb evening – excellent food and service and a very buzzy atmosphere.

Taste the Love supper club at Gray’s Larder

On Tuesday I was in London again for a course and I treated myself to a Leon’s lunch.  What a fabulous little chain Leon’s is – healthy food with imagination and flair.  And if you don’t know already, now Manchester has a Leon restaurant at the Trafford Centre and another is due to open at Piccadilly station.  I had the tasty Thai green chicken curry and I thoroughly enjoyed staring at all the healthy cakey treats at the counter, however I still went off to Amorino the artisanal gelato shop on Goodge Street for a decadent scoop of chocolate hazelnut and another of amarena cherry gelato, delizioso!

Leon’s Thai chicken curry

Amorino gelato

Thursday I combined business with pleasure by going to Wine and Wallop in Didsbury for a meeting and a sharing board.  Everyone needs to try their platters! On ours we had Scotch eggs, pork pies, mackeral pate and posh cheese and ham – all so fresh and beautifully presented.

Wine and Wallop sharing platter

So lucky me, I’ve been eating superb food yet again.  I’ll be back next week with more foodie updates on what I’ve been eating.  Please let me know if you have any tips on great venues in Manchester to try.