Gelateria da Bepi

It must be the best ice cream in the world

First of all, a look from outside:

Inside, generations two and three of truly passionate ice-cream makers, with their ware lovingly displayed:

It all started some fifty years ago (well, 70 if you count when the family started making ice-creams). Here is a picture of yesterdays:

The fifteen vans are long gone, but the passion is very much still here, together with memorabilia from the past.

Here icecream is made every day. Leftovers are just thrown away – a waste, you might argue, but with no freezers to speak of, it might be environmentally friendly after all – and under the very strong assumption that there is any left over.

The business concept couldn’t be simpler: genuine ingredients and a lot of passion. Fullstop.

The list of ingredients is very short: granulated sugar, longlife milk, and carob seed flour (an ancient firming agent – carob is common in Sicily, where we like to think that icecream reached perfection). The rest, the freshest fruit, so that the icecream you’ll find depends on what was fresh at the market that morning.

Most of the space in the lab is taken by the daily supplies of fruit and vegetables. And then you have the vanilla pods, the cocoa, walnuts, pistachio nuts, you name it, they have it. The icecream is made in these three machines every afternoon, ready to start serving from 7pm until 1 in the morning:

The machine on the left is still the one Bepi used. And all three of them use a technology no longer employed, as it is more expensive as it takes longer for icecream to be ready,and there is no automatic spout, but here they assure us the slower process adds to the quality of the finished product - the machine in action is in the video below.

With no added colorings, flavourings, bases nor other tricks, your pistachio ice cream will not have the green emerald colour you are used to:

From left to right and top to bottom: stracciatella (cream and chocolate bits) on pistachio, and almonds on blood orange – terrific. If you wonder about the plastic cup: it was on the boss’ order, ‘you must see what you are eating’. And the flavour is one you have hardly ever found in icecream.

Next time you are in Padova, this is a must!

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Trattoria Le Cave (Padova)

The day: 19 March 2010, Dinner.

The place: Via delle Cave 51, Padova, Italy

The venue: Trattoria Le Cave

The food: Unreconstructed Seafood Italian

The drinks: Simple but interesting wine list

We discover it in the most serendipitous of ways. We are in Padova for work, living in a completely nondescript neighborghood at the edge of the city. A walk around reveals this very simple looking but, to us, mysteriously enticing venue specialising in seafood. We reason that in an off-neighborhood like this, either they kill their customers with bad fish or they satisfy them to induce them to spread the word to non-residents, and to come back themselves.

And indeed, this is one of those stereotypical Italian restaurants of which unfortunately one sees less and less around: a cuisine based on immaculate ingredients simply but correctly cooked (as opposed to the more frequent category: mediocre ingredients pretentiously and/or faultily cooked). A trattoria, if you will, but one in which (unlike in more chic places) your are seated at a table with a proper tablecloth.


No menu, just the manager standing at the table and asking us what we'd like. Normally this would put us off, but as we said, this place strangely inspires confidence - and to be fair there is a menu outside the restaurant, and after a quick scan we had decided it looked honest. So we ask our attentive manager to prepare a mixed starter of raw and cooked seafood.

'Do you want to go the whole hog? Because I warn you: if you do, you won't have space for anything else'
'Well, no, we want to have space left for a grilled fish afterwards'
'OK, I'll take something out then, leave it with me'.

While we wait we munch some complimentary vegetables accompanied by a nice home-made mustard vinaigrette


From then on it was a real feast for the seafood lover. From tuna and swordfish carpaccio


(with good olive oil!).

Raw langoustines (stunning):


Raw local scallop (you can tell you are not in a fine dining restaurant here...but actually the coral which you don't usually get served is pleasant and, less sweet than the rest, it creates an interesting contrast)


We had also asked for a local speciality, the 'granseola' (crab):

and, while we are used to our great local Anstruther crabs, we must say this was a true delicacy. Very different and more 'dramatic' in shape, too, as you can see. For those of you with a naturalistic interest, here's a look at the picturesque back:


And the cooked part begins...


all super-fresh and nicely cooked, no hint of that rubberiness which is the most dreaded feature for this type of item.

And this, this dish of grilled cannolicchi (razor clams) and "mini scallops" (we forgot to note down the local name) was a stunner:


And we finish the 'starter' (ehm) with a cooked scallop each:


At this point we supposedly had space left for a grilled seabass, with a couple of grilled squids thrown in for good measure:


Thebass was ever so slightly overcooked but very fragrant, pleasant. The squids just perfect. It was accompanied by unadvertised roast potatoes


which while not helping our waistline surely did appeal to our tastebuds. Oh, yes, they did.

We did not have space for dessert, but we were offered one of several home-produced digestives (we opted for a delicious liquorice based one).

And here goes another old fashioned classic, talcum powder, viava' and a good brush, the indespensable tools to remove whatever juice or sauce has unfailingly found the way onto your shirt...


All in all, a very good, straight seafood triumph. It does not come cheap (€165 inclusive of a mid-priced and reasonably priced wine), but good fish never does.

And what you get here is that generosity, welcoming hospitality and straigth honesty that alas is no longer as common as it used to be. How many restaurateurs can you imagine offering you so much fish that you won't have room for the more remunerative desserts?

It was obvious from the word go that our delightful host was there to make sure we went out happy: and we sure did.

Don't come here if you don't like seafood because it is literally all they do: but if you do, do!


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Tortel di patate

Tortel di patate is a traditional dish from Trentino, a 'potato cake' made with grated potatoes which provides a carbohydrate base to accompany the main dish. There are many versions: those that add flour to the grated potatoes, those that add eggs, those that cook it in the oven, those that cook it in the pan, those that make it thick, those that make it thin.

We tried a modern, very light, very thin and almost greaseless interpretation at our Trentino fave Osteria Fior di Roccia. The purist take is: potatoes. The right potatoes, of course, so that once grated they will produce enough starch to keep the grated mass together, but not so much as to make a gluey mess. Good potatoes, very little oil to sear the cake in the pan, and a lot of skill. Full stop.

Here is the result:


Now, what more could you want?

The main character first:


which on this occasion we try with venison stew and the stunner of the dish, 'marmellata di corniole' (cornelian cherry jam):


The trio, the starchy-sweet and ever so slightly burnt potatoes, the acidic corniole, and the unctuous, dense and gamey venison, are one of those perfect combinations one only occasionally encounters in gastronomy. Pure delight.

And fun, preparing each tortino slice with the desired proportions!

All accompanied by a remarkable little wine:


From a local producer, a blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot, jammy and dense due to a proportion of dried grapes, balanced, with some elegance and interesting, unusual flavours.

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