Michael

(40 comments, 55 posts)

This user hasn't shared any profile information

Home page: http://www.culturediscovery.com

Posts by Michael

In Search of the Perfect Espresso

2 years ago

by Michael in Coffee, Cooking, Culinary, Personal, Recipes, Travel Tips

TweetLike a fine wine or a great cigar, those who know their coffee are extremely discriminating. I count myself among them. Coffee is something I take very seriously.Technorati: VA2TJVJYZX67 Depending on the style of coffee, completely different factors come into play when determining [...]

american coffee arabica beans cappuccino central america cigar Coffee darkness espresso espresso machine espresso roast expresso fine wine italian italy naples naples italy percentages perfect blend remainder robusta single shot sumatra truth united states

Olive Garden cooking school in Tuscany?

2 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Food, Let Me Vent, Things that make me scratch my head, Tuscany

TweetUpdated 02/2010 Olive Garden is one of those places that really sets my blood to boil. Every time I hear the word ‘Hospitaliano’ I begin to cringe and twitch. When I hear them say ‘When you’re here, you’re family’, I can’t help but visualize the corporate offices of a chain with [...]

america american authentic italian food bad italian food chain chicken crostina commercials cookie cutter cooking school corporate culinary institute grandmother marketing olive olive garden television Tuscany

The Italian Beat – When Italy was covering all of our music

2 years ago

by Michael in Culture, Music, Things that make me scratch my head

TweetI was searching for Italian covers of popular International songs for the fun of it, and I couldn’t believe what I found. In the 60′s and early 70′s there was a huge trend for covers. Some are absolutely fantastic, while others are… well, they should have been left alone. I found [...]

60's beat believer california dreamin crimson and clover david bowie diana ross grease house of the rising sun international songs italian covers italian version italy Music popular music rock sixties space oddity sugar sugar youtube

Calcata Italy – A Quick Peek

3 years ago

by Michael in Culture, Lazio, Tours, Travel Tips

Tweet Calcata is an ancient hilltop village that is about 45 minutes from Soriano, near Rome. What makes this village so special is that in the 1930′s, it was condemned, and became a ghost town. However, in the 60′s hippies and artists began to squat here, and over time it developed into [...]

art galleries artist colony catholic church curiosity foreskin ghost town hilltop village hippies holy prepuce italian flavor italy new york times relic restaurants cafes rome sedona arizona slate magazine soho soriano vegetarian fare vibe

Bruschetta – The Truth and a Unique Recipe

3 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Food, Recipes

TweetIt’s not really what you think it is… In the states, when you hear the word ‘Bruschetta’, you think about toasted Italian bread with a tomato spread. But to think that way would be like thinking the word ‘Sandwich’ means two pieces of bread with ham, cheese and mayo. It’s actually [...]

appetizer bruschetta central italy cheese garlic garlic bread italian bread new oil olive oil piece of bread restaurants sandwich tomato

The Life of a Pig Before Prosciutto

3 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Culture, Food, Tours

Tweet I’m a city boy. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, sheltered from certain realities of life. So when I ate that bacon, I never really considered that a pig grew up, got slaughtered, was cut up and shipped to my local supermarket. To me, the bacon was just bacon. It comes from [...]

bacon big pig chickens farmers farmhouse prosciutto realities of life

Rotolo Rose Recipe

3 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Recipes

TweetRotolo Rose An amazing rolled pasta with cheese, Besciamelle and prosciutto dish my mother-in-law in Italy used to make on Sundays every once in a while. When we knew Rotolo Rose was for lunch, nobody was ever late… period! Translation Rolled Pasta with Prosciutto, Besciamelle & [...]

baking dish baking tray Besciamelle cooking classes fini heavy cream italian pasta rolled pasta sauce pan sauce recipe soriano nel cimino wooden spoon

Tuscan Roasted Chicken & Potatoes Recipe

3 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Recipes

Tweet Pollo Arrosto con Patate Easily one of the most popular recipes we do in our cooking classes, I thought this would be a great recipe to share on the blog. Don’t think this is like any roasted chicken you have had at home. It will certainly spoil you rotten. If you are cooking [...]

arrosto con patate barbeque butterfly style chicken cloves of garlic cooking classes fennel garlic lasagna pan marinade pollo arrosto popular recipes potatoes recipe quality olive oil recipe roasted chicken rosemary salt pepper sweet paprika tuscan whole chicken

The FAMILY feeling of our vacations explained

3 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Culture, Food, Personal, Tours, Travel Tips, Tuscany

TweetOur future guests often ask me what our tours are going to be like, and I try to explain the feeling of ‘family’, and how it is so different than anything else out there. Oddly, it is a difficult thing to explain, especially since our future guests are little more than strangers on a [...]

bookings economic meltdown family friends friendship hospitality italian style italy new years eve travel industry Tuscany vacations village wonderful party

Spoleto, Italy – A Quick Peek

3 years ago

by Michael in Tours, Travel Tips, Umbria

TweetI tried to shoot a good amount of video this year to give me a bunch of material for the blog, so I will have quite a few of the various cities we visited on our tours. Spoleto was a place that we visited fairly often, but I only shot video once while there for a few hours. [...]

12th century 13th century 14th century 16th century ancient roman theater beautiful cities bloody bridge frescoes hill town italy jazz festival magnificent town palazzo della signoria perugia province spoleto spoleto italy terni torri Umbria umbria italy

Cooking & Touring Tuscany, Umbria & Lazio Italy in 2008, a look back

3 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Culture, Festivals, Food, Lazio, Music, Tours, Travel Tips, Tuscany, Umbria, Wine

Tweet7 months, 17 tours, 56 cooking classes, 144 guests and over 35,000 miles of Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio are behind us. That was the 2008 season for us at Culture Discovery. As with last year, after coming back to the US, I have gone into video mode. Here is the first video I have [...]

brunello classes cookery Cooking cooking classes cooking tours italy italy cooking holiday Lazio montalcino olive oil soriano nel cimino Tours Tuscany Umbria vacation vineyard vino nobile Wine wine rack winery

Recession-proof your vacation with Culture Discovery Vacations

3 years ago

by Michael in Tours, Travel Tips

TweetWith so much uncertainty ahead with the economy, skyrocketing fuel prices, and the drastic drop of the Dollar against the Euro over the past couple years; many people have been concerned about planning travel. In fact, during the 2008 season, most of Europe has seen a sharp drop in [...]

budget budget bus tours currency fluctuations discovery dolla economic downturn economy euro fuel prices initial costs life in italy planning travel recession proof transportation costs Tuscany uncertainty vacations world economies

Dances with Mozzarella

3 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Food, Tours

TweetFor my first video post in a while, I thought I would start with a cool little video compilation made of some of the video I shot during some of the cooking classes we had earlier in the season. This video concentrates on 3 groups we had in May and June of 2008 — I’m not sure why I [...]

class cookery Cooking cooking classes Culinary kitchen pasta ricotta video camera video post

Tuscia in Jazz Festival 2008 – Schedule

4 years ago

by Michael in Culture, Festivals, Lazio, Tours, Travel Tips, Tuscany, Umbria

TweetCultureDiscovery.com is a proud sponsor of this year’s Jazz Festival in Soriano. We hope you will come and see us! We’ll be filming a great deal of the festival this year in High Definition, as well as conducting numerous interviews. This is the preliminary schedule for the 2008 Jazz [...]

fabrizio bosso flavio boltro jam sessions jazz band jazz festival jazz master jazz masters jimmy woode kenny barron trio night jam ray mantilla rick margitza soriano soriano nell cimino tony monaco tuscia tuscia in jazz

The Blindfolded Chef – Ceci Soup Challenge

4 years ago

by Michael in Cooking, Culinary, Food, Personal

Tweet Last week Paola wanted to teach Alyssa, our 18 year old daughter, how to make Ceci Soup. She was saying it was so easy that she could do it blindfolded. As we laughed at her, she insisted that she could, so I ended up betting her $100 that she couldn’t. What started out as a stupid [...]