I know our Los Robustos M/C has been somewhat quiet lately, but that's only because El Presidente johnny80s and Papa Chuy are planning big future events.
Juan and I are planning an Italian culinary masterpiece of Epicurean Excellence for you in October of 2013, to celebrate the 65th Birthday of "El Burrito Ballerina"!
We are going to organize a week long motorcycle tour of Italy, sampling the exquisite delicacies that dear young johnny80s enjoyed as a mere impressionable lad.
We are going to start our tour of fine Italian dining by landing in Rome and securing our Ducati, Aprilia and Moto-Guzzi rental bikes. From Roma we ride off to Tuscany to enjoy a wonderful repast of "Gatto in Umido", known to you gringos as cat stew. My Friends, you have not lived your life to the fullest until you have tasted Italian cat stew as it is prepared in the Arno Valley!
From Tuscany we ride on to Sardinia to enjoy a repast of Tordi: A beautiful songbird the size of a hummingbird, delicious and don't forget to eat the feet and beak; you must swallow them whole!
Then we ride to as far South as you can go on the Italian Peninsula, to the southernmost town of Cantanzaro on the "Italian Boot" for "La Dormice". That's right mi fellow Los Robustos M/C; Surprise! Sit back and enjoy your Dago Red Vino and watch as our waiters bring out plate after plate of this rare treat: The lowly dormouse swallowed whole; Fantastico!
But mis Amigos, we hearty eater Band of Brothers whom make up the ranks of Los Robustos M/C are not finished yet; hang on to your helmets boys, because we are now off to Sicily for the "piece de resistance": Eeyore! We load our bikes and ourselves onto the ferry at Reggio di Calabra and cross the Faro Strait to the ancient Roman city of Messina. From there it is a 200 kilometer ride to the famous and historical city of Palermo for our greatest meal of the trip.
We assemble in an ancient dining hall on the side of Mount Pellegrino, overlooking the Mare Tirreno for this banquet. And out come our servers, pushing a cart with an entire barbecued and roasted on a spit Donkey for our dining pleasure. A Los Robustos M/C Ride to Eat and Eat to Ride simply cannot get any better than what your El Presidente johnny80s and Papa Chuy are planning for our Members en Italia!
https://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/...-for-love-of-...
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Italian TV Chef Suspended for Love of Cat Stew
LONDON (Feb. 19) — The Italian region
of Tuscany is famed for gastronomic delights
like bistecca alla Fiorenta (a 3-inchthick
steak marinated in olive and garlic)
and ribollita, a hearty broth of borlotti
beans and cabbage. But earlier this week,
the hugely popular host of an Italian cookery
show was suspended from state television
for lauding one of Tuscany’s lesserknown
treats: gatto in umido. For non-Italian
speakers, that’s cat stew.
Giuseppe “Beppe” Bigazzi shocked the
nation when he unexpectedly began praising
the pleasures of feline flesh on his latemorning
program “La Prova del Cuoco”
(The Proof of the Cook). The 77-year-old
TV chef revealed his kitty cravings after
noting how some Tuscans had boiled up
stray cats in the poverty-stricken years following
World War II.
AP
Giuseppe “Beppe” Bigazzi proclaimed
that in a thick sauce, cooked cat is “better
than chicken, rabbit or pigeon.”
He could have stopped there. Instead,
Bigazzi went on to say that the casserole
wasn’t simply a last-ditch attempt to fend
off starvation in desperate times but was
“one of the great dishes of the Valdarno,” or
Tuscany’s Arno Valley. The secret to cooking
up a fine tabby stew, he revealed, was
leaving the cat’s corpse in a fast-running
stream for three days. “What comes out is a
delicacy,” he gushed. “Many times I’ve eaten
its white meat.”
Realizing that his comments were in paw
taste, co-host Elisa Isoardi, 27 — who has a
cat named Othello — desperately attempted
to change the subject. But Bigazzi
couldn’t be stopped. He confessed that cat
in a thick sauce was “better than chicken,
rabbit or pigeon.” Isoardi and the show’s
producers attempted to persuade the chef
— author of bestselling cookbooks like “The
Simple Cuisine of the Flavors of Italy” — to
apologize during an ad break. Bigazzi refused,
and declared on the air that he expected
“racist” environmentalists would be
outraged by his comments.
The station’s phone lines were soon
buzzing with complaints, leading TV bosses
to suspend Bigazzi “indefinitely.” That
wasn’t punishment enough for some pet
lovers. Carla Rocchi, president of the National
Animal Protection Board, announced
that she had asked her lawyers to
take action against Bigazzi for inciting cruelty
to animals. “There’s no limit to the idiocies
people are willing to go to for attention,”
she said.
The government also joined in the mauling.
Undersecretary of Health Francesca
Martini criticized the “extreme gravity” of
the chef’s comments, and said that “cats are
affectionate animals protected by law.”
Bigazzi later claimed that he had “been
misunderstood” and said he had never suggested
that people should dine on cat, calling
the idea a “complete folly.”
But stewed kitty isn’t the only Italian delicacy
that may outrage animal fans. Other
cute and cuddly critters on the country’s
must-eat list include:
Tordi: These tiny songbirds feed on
myrtle berries, making their meat a sweet
treat. In Sardinia, the wee fliers are netted,
poached and served cold with myrtle
leaves. You eat the whole thing in one bite
— beak and feet included.
Dormice: The edible dormouse (with a
name like that, it was never going to stay off
the menu for long) was a mainstay of Roman
feasts. Today, the mini-beast is a protected
species, although animal protection
agencies have estimated that some 20,000
are gobbled up each year in the southern
town of Catanzaro.
Donkey: “Please sir, can I have some
Eeyore?” That’s a regular request in Italy,
where the hardworking donkey appears in
everything from red wine stews (stracotto
d’asino) to a Piedmontese cured sausage.
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