Author: Mara L.

In my last entry to Jens’ blog, I imparted a secret well kept by the upper class of Salzburg. And surely, we all need a piece of real cake on first returning to Europe. But we are also dying for the pleasures of getting lost in *summer* (this being a rather vague category, but I trust immediately intuitive to anyone who ever had a summer). For that, we need to travel south, preferably to a place which kills all activity prior to sunset. Say, Sicily. Here, I have a rather adventurous recommendation.

Starting late in the day (unfortunately, it is very hot once you get going), you go to Selinunte, an ancient site at the southwest coastline of Sicily. The remains of the Greek temples are located right at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. For me, Selinunte is the most amazing archeological site on the entire island. The point is to get there just about early enough to still get into the excavation site, but late enough to make this, eventually, a dinner excursion.

Hot as it is, you can only visit the temples for so long. At the eastern side is a small barrier on the road that connects the temples, and from here you walk down to the beach. Now is the time to delay, and perhaps even swim for a bit. Finally, when you can plausibly claim that it’s evening, you walk further east, straight along the beach, until you get to a white-washed wall, behind which (or rather, on top, it is some sort of terrace) you’ll find one of the best (but nicely low-key) fish-restaurants of the island. I certainly don’t want to bore you with references to the Sicilian aristocracy, but this place has been recommended to me—in precisely the above fashion—by an actual prince, or ‘principe’, and it does live up to the recommendation!

All of it, that goes without saying, only works, and has the right kind of feel of total indulgence, if you walk all the way from the temples.

Coming up: Cereals À La Italienne

When starting this food-series for Jens’ blog, I promised advice for the newly arrived, those who find themselves in New York, painfully aware that there is nothing to eat they like, knowing that one shouldn’t openly say this. But I also promised my most sacred tips for culinary delight in Europe. If you are not among the unlucky ones with regular jobs (is it even possible to leave Europe under such dire conditions?), you are sure to plan your various trips for the next couple of months right now. So this is the moment to impart one of my best-kept secrets.

Rather conveniently in the middle of various attractive places (such as Italy, the alps, Switzerland, etc.) lies Salzburg. Perhaps the Festspiele are too much for you, too much Salzburg, as it were. The exact right amount of Salzburg is provided, I think, by a tasty little piece of cake from one of the tiniest cafés and confiseries in town—outside the tourist’s well-trodden path, but just by a few steps, on the other side of the river, and thus easily in reach: Café Ratzka.

The confiserie, run by a family, refuses to enlarge the business, which caters to Salzburg’s oldest families (and, make no mistake, this means real money, and standards about as high as the most absurd aristocratic pretensions can induce). They refuse to enlarge it because all fruit for their tartes must come from the family *garden*, in order to be just as outstandingly delicious as it could possibly be.

Coming up: The Best Fish Restaurant In The World

This is another entry to my food-series, which Jens kindly invited me to write for his blog (devoting himself, as he should, to the most urgent concern of his fellow Europeans: culinary survival in New York). Today, I shall report on another find, hoping to save fellow-Europeans from what, for me, was a slow learning-curve. On first coming to New York, I was infected with ‘Green Values’ regarding food (which conveniently overlap with the long-standing values of gourmetship!). An illness which needed curing if I wanted fresh vegetables.

For at least six months, the plastic containers with pre-washed and pre-cut vegetables didn’t register with me. Plastic containers with vegetables are not the product of choice for the Green- or gourmet-minded person from Europe. Thus, I reported back to my friends at home that, sad as it is, there are no fresh vegetables in New York. Rumors abound: A conspiracy? Do New Yorkers like rotten spinach? Or do they really only eat take out? Especially my mother was ready to believe anything that was going to bring me home sooner rather than later. However, life here gradually opened my eyes. Unpackaged vegetables, as I now know, rot away because *no one wants them*. Just turn to the other side of the shelf, and you’ll see perfectly nice vegetables, sitting there safely in their plastic containers.

So, today’s entry is a piece of practical advice: Just get over it. Buy the pre-washed, pre-cut, pre-portioned, and, most of all, plastic wrapped, container-protected vegetables that healthy New Yorkers buy. Giving up resistance is anyway just a matter of time. And New York really does have fresh vegetables.

Coming Up: Raspberry Cake In Salzburg