Pidoni... Not Phoney Baloney

GREAT ITALIAN INNOVATORS THROUGHOUT HISTORY:

#1) Enrico Fermi



Fermi was awarded the Noble Prize for Physics in 1938 due to his outstanding work in the field of radioactivity, and he is so highly regarded in his homeland that one of the largest Metro stations in the city of Rome bares his name.

#2) Lucio Fulci



Possibly mainly on my mind at the moment due to Halloween being just around the corner, Fulci's striking and uncompromising horror films of the 80's remain some of the most shocking and memorable of the zombie genre to have been made in all of Europe.

#3) Valerio Viccei




Viccei's 1987 robbery of more than £60 million from Knightsbridge Security Deposit Centre is regarded as one of the five largest thefts on modern record.

...Actually, maybe Viccei doesn't count, but I'll tell you who totally should be on this list:

Whoever invented the Pidoni.



Hell yeah, look at those things.

I pick mine up from Mediterraneo in Brighton, which is the best kept secret in town quite frankly. Their Arancini alone have usurped our previous favourites and will be getting their own post soon enough, but for now, this is all about the elusive mystery of the Pidoni.



I got one today for a lunch on the go. Here's a step by step illustration of what happens when you eat these on foot:



(Keep scrolling)





OM



NOM



GONE!

I barely made it a more than twenty paces. I had to stop, stand still on the pavement, and finish the rest. This is food that eats BACK at you! It is all-consuming.

Above all, it is delicious.

But a casual Google search for Pidoni reveals the following:



Hmm. That's not very helpful is it...

Let's try Wikipedia:



Oh heck no, I did not mean Pironi!



What gives? Why can't I find any information about this incredible food on the so-called "Infotainment Hyper-Bypass"?

The only way to get any results is to search the Italian version of Wikipedia, which produces a short entry that roughly translates to say:

"A Pidoni is a rustic Sicilian bread in the shape of a half-moon, similar to a Calzone."

We are obviously dealing with a jealously guarded Italian treasure, and should be thankful that the dudes at Mediterraneo managed somehow to smuggle the secret out of the country!

Lucio Fulci and the rest are probably on their way to reclaim the recipe right now...



Look out guys!

When A Man Loves A Sandwich...

When world-famous soul singing sensation Percy Sledge first performed his legendary 1966 song, "When A Man Loves A Sandwich" it was a shock to the vast majority of society. The world just wasn't ready to hear about the true honest pain of one man's passion for bread and meat.

In the politically charged sexual revolution of the late-sixties, many human-rights campaigners jumped to Sledge's aid, trying to earn him the right to profess his love for whatever foodstuff he should desire. Sadly, the petitions proved futile, and all known copies of "When A Man Loves A Sandwich" were destroyed in a public bonfire outside of Atlantic Records headquarters.



All that remains in the public memory now is the vastly inferior radio-edit, in which Sledge's management insisted he water-down the controversial sentiment by replacing the word "Sandwich" with the more publicly acceptable; "Woman".



Despite this, his original version of the song lives on the hearts and minds of all who heard it.

I know how he feels. I go through the same, head-over-heels, infatuation every time I go to Toast on Trafalgar Street in Brighton.



Fortunately for me, present society is much more forgiving of human/sandwich intra-romance. Everybody loves them, right? If you know somebody that doesn't love sandwiches, PLEASE, write to me and let me know. We need to get an intervention going...

One of the coolest things about the sandwiches at Toast is that they know how to keep you interested. Look at this board:



I know you can't really read it all that clearly, but that is a huge list of all the different specialist sandwiches they provide, and each one has its own "whacky" name. I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for a lunch with any kind of nickname, and it automatically makes me want to try them all.

Here are some, but not all, of the whacky named specials on offer at the moment...

The Alabama
Deep Sea
Morrissey (???)
Godfather
Breakfast Club
Camel Ride
French Connection
Achilles’ Heel
Quorn Baby
The Croc
Big Hank
Nova Scotia
Popeye
Buffalo
Swiss Tony
Kate Moss
Hail Caesar
Super Villain
Hot Diggerty Dog

For me, this was all that was needed to snag me hook, line, and sinker.
They all sound great!



Toast have got a pretty gnarly arsenal of all the usual trimmings you would expect, but all are of a far higher quality than you would necessarily expect from a shop this size. I've never seen less than four people working behind the counter at any given time, meaning that when you place your order, you have one dedicated sandwich technician all to yourself, to help see the project through from inception to completion.



And boy do they mean business. All of the ingredients really are of the highest quality. If they can make something by hand, on the premises, they will. If they don't know how, they will source from an expert as close to the site as possible. Everything is fresh, well put-together, and totally, hypnotically, delicious.



The specific sandwich that I want to talk to you about; the one that inspired this post, is a little guy that Toast call "THE LAZY MORRIS". That's a shot of it right at the top of the page, and here it is again while in the process of being transported to my chomping-zone.



Let me break it down for you:

Fish fingers
Emmenthal Cheese
Chilli Jam
Rocket

All toasted together on the freshest, fluffiest baguette I ever did see.

The fish fingers? Hilarious. I haven't had them since I was tiny, and this felt like a huge warm hug. They taste nice, why don't I eat them all the time?

The cheese? Oh man, they are so generous with it! Gooey, thick, and perfectly portioned throughout. Owmp.

The chilli jam? This is really the sauce-de-resistance. It's sweet, it's sticky, and it’s really quite spicy... It's such a simple solution to the frequently occurring problem of how to contribute flavour to fish without diminishing from it's naturally subtle goodness.



Morris, however lazy you may be you have leant your name to a true work of art.
That really is something worth singing about.

Take it away, Percy Sledge...

Dessert for Lunch

Dessert is a pretty weird concept in general, I think.

I like it, don't get me wrong. I will snarf down a cheesecake along with the best of them. But it seems to me that the very concept of dessert is just a remnant of childhood bribery. It begins as a way to get kids to eat their vegetables, a shiny, sugary beacon at the top of a mountain of broccoli; and from there it evolves into an all-purpose threat for general misbehaviour ("No dessert for you!"). This is the dining equivalent of global nuclear armament.



As an adult, this idea loses a large amount of it's relevence. A five-year-old loves ice-cream more than it loves Spicy Cous-Cous for three reasons:

a) Because five-year-olds have no education.
b) Children are scared of things that are new, and most desserts are generally pretty samey, therefor familiar.
c) Purely because the dessert is dangled as an inaccessible reward. With the proper conditioning, the same effect could probably be achieved with toothpaste.

[Note: I am a childless curmudgeon. These theories are untested.]



The point is, now that we are grown-ups, we are in control of our own dessert intake. I get to make the choice. That's kind of a powerful idea. As an adult, I have financial concerns, and if I'm eating in a restuarant the choice is often between an extra bottle of wine or pudding. I will let you guess which wins, and draw your own assumptions about me based upon that.

So, although as I have said, I like dessert, I don't often manage to get too pumped up about it. Especially as by the time it usually rolls around, I'm not hungry anymore.

But picture this:



It's lunchtime. You really are hungry. You can eat the above, or make an executive adult decision and go for this:



Not every day mind, but once in a blue moon, dessert for lunch really works. It's a flashy visual display with no nutrional value, but it feels pretty kinky right? In a good way.
It's eating outside of the box yo.

Your hunger will be satisfied, you will have asserted your dominance within the social set, and your soul will remain well-fed until dinner.

I'm a bad man.

Arancini @ Jason's

I love this little log.

It's an Arancini (compact rice, breaded and fried) from Jason's on North Street, Brighton and in the last week alone I must have eaten as many of these as there are humorous ways to end this sentence.



There are a bunch of ways Arancini can be made. Traditionally, the Sicilians make theirs in perfect spheres with a tomato filling. Rick Stein (henceforth to be known as RicSte) prefers his to be tiny-wee and flavoured with peas and ham.

But at Jason's, they opt for the far more satisfying "dense bar" shape, and add only pine nuts and cheese to the rich, crumbly, moist rice within. I asked Jason what specific cheese he used, but he wouldn't tell me. I asked him again, and he said he didn't know, and that they are made by his wife. When I asked if I could speak to his wife, he got all huffy and started pretending I wasn't there, so I left.

None the less, there is cheese in the mix, and if I was forced to guess, I'd say it was either Feta or possibly a softer-than-average Parmesan. Whatever it is, it sets my soul aflame, it truly does. Just look at the deep glowing calm that comes over you when you bite into it!



It's intense! But also comforting in a way that's difficult to put into words. Perhaps the word "cuddlesnackyum" should be introduced to the public lexicon; eventually added to the dictionary, then finally to spellcheck, so that I can type it here without error in order to accurately convey my meaning.

I will at some point attempt to make my own Arancini at home, and will document it thoroughly here on Dinnergeddon. I think I will imitate RicSte and use peas, but may stop short of ham. IT'S LITERALLY "MY CHOICE". So look out for that, anyway.

Oh, and as a side note, check out the drink I chose to accompany my lunch...



Snapple "Kuddling Kiwi Strawberry". This pretty much speaks for itself I think, although I would like to draw your attention to the small print at the top of the label: "Made with the best stuff on earth™."

Yes, that's right. Snapple have apparently trademarked The Earth. I guess you have to protect your investment. Try not to mess up Snapple's planet when you're going about your business today!