If you happen to be visiting the incredible city of Florence, Italy and are hungry for a piece of pizza then get yourself over to Pizzeria del Duomo next to the Duomo church. This is the place! The staff is hospitable, they make great food and have tables out front in the plaza to sit and enjoy your slices. Be sure to try the meatball pizza. I love this place and went to visit daily. Motto grazie.
Opening just in time for 7 hungry tourists walking by to enjoy lunch, we lucky visitors were led to the back patio garden of this place, by a friendly staff member, to enjoy a warm spring day and some Tuscan lunch. After some refreshing wine the group chose a number of various items that can be seen above. All were incredible tasting. If you are unsure which place to eat while visiting Volterra then decide to eat at Restaurante Enoteca del Duca. Luckily, The Dude of Food and friends chose to go here and it was one of the best decisions ever!
Motto bene! Grazie.
Seen from the street, Bar Porta Al Prato looks like this corner building. Sitting quietly, this recently opened culinary beauty awaits your entrance, offering everything one could desire once you make your way through the doors and into the soul of this gem. I went daily.
Bar Porta Al Prato in Firenze offers both a great indoor environment or a huge patio out back to enjoy. The staff here are awesome, extremely helpful, talented, generous and fun besides offering many delicious and thoughtfully prepared Tuscan dishes.
Their menu offers everything from pizza and gelato to pasta and fine wine and everything in between. What a great way to spend quality time dining with your family, friends or team while in Florence.
The delicious wine comes from local vineyards that produce some excellent flavors. The homemade gelato is delicious and kid approved. (see photo below)
Thank you Bar Porta Al Prato for everything. The Dude of Food thinks you guys are doing a great job. Keep up the awesome hospitality and great food. They can also be found on Facebook by searching Bar Samus Porta. Grazie.
Located at Via Veio, 4, near the San Giovanni metro station in Rome is the greatest beer and wine store around. The staff at Johnny’s OFF LICENSE are super knowing about the processes and tastes of their products and offer an awesome selection, especially beers.
You can drink on the streets in Rome, so you go in and buy yourself a coldie and simply enjoy it out front while talking with other beer professors. Much local knowledge can be learned from respectable folks at these street meetings, i.e. restaurant recommendations, train and bus info, etc.
These guys at Johnny’s OFF LICENSE are a hospitable bunch and even gave me a beer book to read while traveling. (3 Sheets to the Wind, Pete Brown). Johnny is a good dude and you certainly should go by and say hello. Thank you guys for your hospitality.
This place is a must if you are tired of feeling like a tourist at the hotel. Tell Johnny that the Dude of Food sent you. Enjoy.
One of the things that happens to the Dude of Food when he walks all over Rome is he begins to work up an appetite.
On my way to the Pantheon I stopped at the Habana Cafe and had a delicious and very affordable lunch.
Located on Via del Pastini 120, around the corner from the Pantheon, you can get a great lunch, served by a cool staff for less than $15 euros. I sat outside and enjoyed the historical ambiance as I ate anti pasta, spaghetti carbonara and sipped a beer.
There are other options in the immediate area but this place is certainly worth checking. Bon Appetit. Grazie Habana Roma.
The first place to eat that the Dude of Food came across after exiting the Vatican City museum is this sidewalk cafe called ALDO.
After much walking, I was ready to sit down and have some nutritious authentic Italian lunch and the Aldo Restaurant provided it for me. The thoughtful staff, cool service and really good food left me feeling blessed and content and the meal was very reasonably priced. It was awesome to sit under the shadow of the Vatican and enjoy the grace of the Lord and be blessed with a deliciously preparred meal.
“I would eat here all the time, if I was the Pope” exclaimed the Dude of Food.
Motto grazie Aldo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steckerlfisch
If you like fish, especially salmon then you’ll most likely love Saibling fish, also known as Char. It is a lake fish once forbidden to be eaten by all Bavarians, except King Ludvig himself. It’s referred to by some as ‘the Kings fish’. A heavy penalty would come to those caught stealing the King’s fish.
Munich vendors in the local beer gardens have these grills designed so they can put a fish with a stick running through the center of it in a good spot to cook over the charcoals. Make sure to visit these fish vendors, set up in the beer gardens, as they are worth checking out. Get yourself a date, a masse of beer each, a bowl of obatzda to share, a pretzel and your choice of stick fish in paper and set up at a table with your friends and enjoy the fun. You won’t be disappointed. The English Garden is really nice and one of the largest urban parks in the world. The Hirschgarten is 2 hectares in area, dates back to 1791 and has deer’s in it. There are numerous beer gardens of various sizes all over town and all worth visiting.
When south of Munchen, in Sindelsdorf, on farmer’s market day you will most likely find a vendor selling freshly smoked Saibling fish. The Dude of Food says run, don’t walk, to this vendor and get the biggest fish you can choose. I cannot speak for the Forelle, which is supposed to be ‘as good’ but never sells out as fast as the saibling fish. The third common fisch you will see is Mackerel which are also really good. Personally, I think Saibling is the best and I love the town of Sindelsdorf. Oida Sindelsdorf family und prost. Vielen danke und liebe. Ein prosit, ein prosit . . .
Steckerlfisch can be eaten for breakfast, brotzeit, lunch, dinner or while sleep walking at night and is best consumed with cold German Helles Bier. Get some!
Good food is what fuels good thoughts in good creative people which is what the Dude of Food happens to be. It’s when the middle managed, mucky mucks and bean counters sitting in the offices eating their favorite foods from their favorite restaurants decide to save $80. on crew lunch cost by budget cutting catering costs for the hard working stage crew that catches the attention of folks and creates division in the ranks. Caterers are painted into a corner and forced to try and prepare healthy meals on a peanut butter and jelly budget.
The creative chef, Yossi Faigenblat, worked for Dustin Hoffman as the actors private chef. The food was ‘All That’ and Hoffman encouraged chef Yossi to get into the catering game. That was in 2003. They opened a craft service /catering company for the movie industry. The kitchen line up has changed over the years and Off The Shelf has grown and now operates a couple trucks in New York and a few more in Los Angeles. Off The Shelf has both catering trucks and craft service trucks so their awesome creative food can be shared with all of the folks behind the scenes that make the actors playgrounds look so fabulous.
In Feb 9, 2010 Saveur magazine did an article (issue # 127) on movie industry catering companies that included Off The Shelf’s quality food preparation. The link below will take you there.
http://www.saveur.com/article/Travels/Fresh-Off-The-Truck
OTS is not cheap but will do wonderful things with the budget you have. The goal at Off The Shelf as told to the Dude of Food is ‘high end quality food and making people smile’ and this is something the folks at OTS catering are doing quite well. The Dude of Food would like to personally say ‘Thank you OTS and keep up the great work.”
Off The Shelf can be located at the following web address. http://www.otscatering.com/
OTS can also be followed on Facebook and other social media outlets.
Off of Highway 100 in Nashville is a place called the Loveless Cafe. You may not be close enough to walk in but you can go to their web page and check out the stuff they make.
http://store.lovelesscafe.com/product/hot-sauce/sauce-seasoning
The Plain Ol’ Hot Sauce is one of the secret ingredients the Dude of Food adds to his homemade micheleada recipe. It adds the perfect amount of spice. Truth be told, the Dude of Food also likes Red Rooster from Louisiana hot sauce. They both go great in my micheladas and on my grits, greens, smothered chicken, gravy, stuffing and waffles.
