Name:   MrHodja - Subject:   Back from Tuscany.... Date:   9/23/2019 6:34:16 PM

La Grigliata in Las Spezia, down by the port.  Panegache, strachino, and affitati - unique to the area.  Panegache is like a thin bread-like pancake prepared by heating ceramic disks (much like the bottom of a clay flower pot) over an open wood fire.  Once they are hot the chef places one down, upside down, and ladles batter over it.  Then another disk, more batter, and so forth iuntil the pile is close to two feet tall.  The heat from the disks themselves cooks the batter and they are then served in wicker baskets.  Take a piece, slather strachino (a very mild very soft cheese) on it, add some affitati (thin sliced meats and salames), fold it and you have a delightful Italian "sandwich".  And REAL tiramisu...pudding with a vanilla wafer-type cookie inside, not the cake with a little flavoring often passed off here for tiramisu.

In San Tirenzo my son had a huge chunk of baked Polpo (octopus) that tasted similar to roast beef, and in Italy you learn that scampi is a crustacean that looks like a miniature lobster, not a way to cook shrimp!  And if you have enough diners and ask in advance, they have a way of baking fish in rock salt that produces a flaky, moist, tasty fish that is out of this world.  Maybe if AOC gets her way and there are no more airplanes she will build a bridge to Italy...