Spring has sprung and we’re kicking off with what to watch, where to eat and how to cook perfect pasta.
One to watch
Four Food Elements
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is the new Netflix documentary series adapted from Nosrat’s best-selling cookbook of the same name. Like the book, the docuseries divides its four parts into four areas of cooking that provide the foundation for how to make delicious food. Spanning four different countries — Japan, Italy, Mexico, California in the U.S. — and four essential elements to cooking — salt, fat, acid, heat — Nosrat gives us scenes in which every slurp and swallow and exclamation illustrate the full, rich pleasure the chef/author finds in eating good food. Cleverly she also gives us the basic tools and understanding to make informed decisions which will enhance our cooking.
Perfecting Pasta
DON’T DO IT!
1. Never put oil in the pasta water, because pasta coated with oil won’t absorb the sauce properly.
2. Never rinse off stray Grains of starch, it makes it harder for the sauce to stick.
Big bottom bugs
The big-bottomed ants found in South America that make good eating, are a domineering, all-female squad. Large as a cockroach and curvy as a pin-up, the “big-bottomed ant”, known as siqui sapa in Peru and hormiga culona in Colombia, is coveted by gourmands around the world, but are not easy to find making them quite the luxury. In South America, the bugs are soaked in salted water, roasted, and eaten like peanuts. At first the flavour is reminiscent of pork rinds, but it quickly evolves into something more earthy and bitter. They are sometimes compared to caviar, which seems an unlikely match until you realize their “butts” are so well endowed because they’re swollen with eggs.
International demand for these big bottomed bugs keeps prices high. In the United Kingdom, Harrods sells half a dozen ants dipped in Belgian chocolate for just over £6.
Inspired by continental travels
Located in St. Georges Bay, St. Julian’s and forming part of the Hugo’s Group, HSixty6 is a cosy, intimate restaurant, with an immersive, modern singular elegance inspired by the continental travels of its founder. Serving the finest food and drink, within a relaxed, informal yet professionally orchestrated environment, HSixty6 is proud to announce that it has just launched a brand new menu for Spring, highlighting the wonderful flavours and beautiful quality of carefully sourced seasonal game, meat, fish and vegetables. For reservations please call 2016 2466 or e-mail hsixty6@hugosmalta.com .
