Bright colors for Indian celebrations, spicy food and digestive sweets

How to find an Indian mood in Florence?

Just going to Via Guelfa, in a very comfortable and welcoming restaurant:

Indian restaurant - Royal India
Indian restaurant – Royal India

It’s the first time for an Indian taste here, so maybe it’s better to have the fixed-price menu and enjoy several dishes, spicy creams, tikka chicken, vegetables, flavored rice and, obviously, tandoori chicken. Typical products to remember: Pappadam and Puri, two kind of flat bread.

In the meantime, let’s see the place: all those colors drew my attention, green, purple, red, yellow, like the original pigments.

colors of India
colors of India
Indian colors
Indian colors
Indian drapes and curtains
Indian drapes and curtains

Then, here you are some particular staff shown on the shelf, like these turbans:

Indian hats
Indian turbans

Actually, the traditional names for Indian turbans are ‘Safa‘ or ‘Pagri‘, depending on the kind of tissue they are made of. And generally, the colors depend on the kind of celebration you’re going to have: weddings, birthday or obviously, pale colors as brown and blue for unhappy ceremonies.

Well, let’s finish with the traditional Indian black tea named ‘masala chai‘ and typical desserts (almost based on sugar and coconut) and colorful sweets you’re served at the end of the dinner, in order to help you to digest:

Indian black tea
Indian black tea
Indian dessert
Indian dessert
Indian digestive sweets
Indian digestive sweets

Colorful breakfast: Macarons or Macaral?

I took some pictures, they’re very colorful and bright, looking so happy. They’re about this new trend of ‘Macarons‘, something I thought was produced in France. I’m speaking – writing?! 🙂 – by using the past tense, because, in fact, some days ago I discovered something different. There was this old lady, who was working in one of the most colorful and modern cake design/pastry of Florence – Rinaldini its the name – and she told me that their origins are Italian, they’re part of the Made-in-Italy-history.

In fact, by looking at the following pictures, you will see that they’re called ‘Macaral‘ in order to be distinguished from the universal trend of nowadays. I think that Ladurée brand is playing a very essential role in the diffusion of those biscuits all around the world, and it’s also helping to spread the conviction that macarons are from France, even if it’s not true.

Macaral - Rinaldini - Florence

Anyway, wherever they’re from, it seems you can’t avoid to have 2, 3, 4, 5 (…) Macaral at least once in your life, for breakfast or a break in the afternoon..

Rinaldini pastry - Macaral in Florence

And if when you are in front of those colorful infinite rows, you have such difficulties to choose the best flavors, just don’t worry, it’s normal! You’ll be displayed all the possible flavors of the world…violette, strawberry, pistachos, licorice, chocolate, coffee and many, many others.

If you want a tip: just choose by the color 🙂

‘Dolci’: sweets in Naples, a total delight.

Last weekend I was i Naples, I got fat in just 3 days 🙂

I didn’t want to, but it was impossible to avoid those wonderful windows where you could stare at all those sweets. So utopian to not eat everything there, and here you are the explanation: ‘sfogliatelle’, ‘baba’ in the background and ‘struffoli’, the typical sweets for Xmas time.

sweets in Naples

And this was the wonderful bakery, or better a pastry shop, that draws the attention of everybody: this is Leopoldo, on of the most popular bakery of Naples. And now it’s becoming even more popular thanks to the addition of the ‘gelateria’ corner. Now you can have the pastry on the right (by Leopoldo) and ice creams on the left (by Casa Infante): a total delight.

DOLCI, Leopoldo in Naples

And finally, here you are one the wall that drew my attention, a black and white picture of the past:
delights of the past

Delights of the past, the same as in the present.