An Edible Voyage

October 2021 Despite Italy's reputation for excellent coffee, being a flat white sort of a girl, I'm generally not taken with Italian coffee, finding espressos too intense and cappuccinos too weak and frothy.  Pappare, in Bologna's historic centre, did come up trumps with an excellent cappuccino though.  Not only that, the display of croissants was particularly exciting, with white and dark chocolate stuffed charcoal croissants balanced by the nuttiness of sesame, alongside pistachio cream, and vegan dark chocolate and raspberry.  And there was definitely no shortage of filling.  One might be forgiven for thinking there was too much chocolate ganache stuffed in to my croissant as every bite caused another blob too ooze out, but really, can there ever be too much filling?!  They also offer hand brew coffee, as well as savoury pastries, sandwiches, and more substantial brunch/ lunch. Find Pappare on Via De' Giudei. Another coffee that really has to be tried once b...

June 2020 A couple of years ago I went a pizza oven building course.  Not because I actually had any intention of building one, but because I thought it would be a fun day out - at the time, I lived in a flat so there was no opportunity to build one anyway.  Then I moved to a house with a garden, albeit it very small, and I begun to think about whether I should )and could!) build one.  When lockdown happened, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.  Due to lack of space and funds, I decided to build it at ground level.  I also had no idea how much clay to order - 125kg sounded a lot, potentially too much even! Actually I could have probably done with double. My brother was the guinea pig and the first one was almost inedible - we had to finish it off in the kitchen oven and ended up just eating the topping... I've definitely learnt a lot since that first pizza.  From how to heat the oven (instant light BBQ bags are my new best friend), how to stop...