The Gallo Salame Old World Workshop

pasta dish

I attended the Gallo Salame Old World Workshop, on Thursday 06-10-10, and had a great time. The people from Gallo were warm and inviting.  The workshop was lead by Chef Catherine “Cat” DeOrio, and she was fantastic. 

She demonstrated to our little group of foodies, food bloggers, and food writers ways to add excitement to everyday meals by adding Gallo Salame.  Each participant received a tray of ingredients and Cat led us in combining them into a delicious pasta salad, made all the more delicious with the addition of strips of Gallo Salame. 

Cat also instructed us in making a ham, turkey, and Gallo Salame sandwich which could be easily turned into a panni with a little butter or oil brushed on the outside of the bread and then grilled with a weight on top.

Gallo Salame Tasting

All yummy things to do with Gallo Salame, but these were just the show pieces, or stunt dishes if you will because the period dressed wait staff whisked our creations away from us once we were done.  “Wait, no take food away,” I heard my stomach say.   But all was not lost. 

Our hungry little gathering soon learned that the people at Gallo Salame were ready to fill our gullets with whatever we wanted from their Trattoria 1910 menu.  I must say the antipasti and the primo entrée selections looked intriguing, but being from the planet Bake, I was on the edge of my seat at the prospect of tasting a Salame macaroon, and if I was exceedingly charming I might even get them to offer me the Trattoria 1910 Cheesecake.

Antipasti and Primo Menu

I was, and they did, and it was delicious and it had only a hint of Salame flavor, and the rest was all rich and creamy cheesecake. The salame macaroon tasted like a cross between a French macaron and a salty, spicy bite of salame.  

Think of it as sitting on your couch and eating bag full of French macarons will watching TV (no judgments, and sadly, yes, I have done this) and then you take a bite of a salame rich panni, and your taste buds start to quiver with confusion, unsure if it wants more sugar, salt or spice to determine if it likes the combination or not. 

It’s not bacon drenched in chocolate or anything, but salame macaroon could be a hit one day.

Gallo Salame Workshop

After Gallo fed us we all had a chance to sit around and talk food.  I met the lovely Aihui Ong who runs the website Love with Food.  Aihui says she wants to bring food lovers and food makers together without all the red tape and bureaucracy.  I am all for that. 

Aihui was sitting with a very pretty food blogger whose name begins with an L, and I did not get her card.  It’s not like me to forget the names of pretty women. I apologize for that.  I also met TerriAnn van Gosliga who runs Cookies and Clogs a food blog for budget minded moms, and she gave me ideas on where to find bargains, and I am not even a mom.

Delicious pasta dish

I also talked to Chef Cat about traveling in Italy and Italian food.  Cat, Aihui, the pretty "L" named girl, and I then sat around and did what foodies do, talked food, restaurants, and food gadgets. That was a lot of fun.

It was a great event and I thank the people at Gallo Salame (Alex Bie and his colleagues) for inviting Papawow.com to participate.  And if you have time, visit the Gallo Trattoria 1910 (90 Natoma Street, San Francisco).  The food is free!

Winter beer tasting at The Jug Shop

I did a beer tasting at The Jug Shop in San Francisco. 13 beers for $15. All of them were Belgian except the Sammi Claus'; of which they had the original and the Helles. The helles being even stronger on my palate and tasting a bit like cherries. Maybe that was because it comes in a red label. Funny how the mind works like that.

Now I swear that Sammi Claus used to say on the bottle, "the strongest beer in the world. " That was most likely the reason why I bought it in the first place. Even when I was broke, beer was still something I would splurge on.

The Sammi Causes were the only two that came in 12oz. bottles. Everything else was in a 750ml, some of which resembled the Champagne silhouette more than anything else.  The first beer they poured was aged in oak barrels for, I believe he said, two years - and it sells for $50.  People simply refered to it as, "The Expensive One."

I started geeking-out with a guy named Brian Yeager, modest as he may have been, it was his girlfriend who told me he has just published a book... on beer.  They gave me a sticker and I found his website the following morning.   www.beerodyssey.com - "Red White and Brew," it looks like a fun travel book about driving across the country in a Prius and drinking beer.