Caffe Pascucci, the name's meaning and the forthcoming coffee shop in Hatch End

Hatch End was called the restaurant capital of north west London by a local newspaper.  Hatch End has no shortage of Italian style coffee bars and Italian and Indian restaurants. 

Caffe Pascucci

Scheduled to open early May, 8-10, they told me, is the Italian Caffè, by the same people as the caffè Pascucci  a few doors along towards the Hatch End station. The new branch in on the corner, where the old post office was for years.

I have lived in Hatch End many years and often pass the caffe and find the name hard to remember. I finally got around to looking up the origin of the name. It comes from the Italian word for Easter, so it was a name given to children born around Easter time. Or the offspring of a parent who was given that name.

If your first language is English, how do you remember it?  The Italian sounds similar to the French for Easter, Paques. Also the Hebrew Pesach. There you have it, the meaning, and the way to remember the name of the coffee shop.

https://caffepascuccihatchend.co.uk/

https://venere.it/en/the-meaning-and-history-of-the-last-name-pascucci/

https://www.names.org/n/pascucci/about

 

Please follow me and share links to your favourite posts.

After the Real Italian Wine & Food Experience at Exscel - looking backwards and forwards

After the Real Italian Wine & Food  Experience at Excel, I have been looking back at their website and catalogue and what I discovered and enjoyed at this new style trade show. 

Why Sunday and Monday?

Firstly, the date of the show was a Sunday and a Monday. The day of the week chosen was not an accident, nor simply due to the availability or price of the exhibition hall. The organizers, wineexperience.com, chose a Sunday and Monday because that is when many restaurants and food and wine businesses are closed or have fewer customers, consumers, and can afford the time to go to an exhibition for business to business meetings.

Looking Back At What I Learned and Missed

I missed out on the blind tasting area. I like an attractive bottle and label. If I had more time, next time I would do the taste test without the distraction of the bottle and labelling. 

Super Seating - Lounge Based

What I did enjoy was the cosy seating.

Instead of having everybody walking around whilst sampling drinks, and spitting, which I hate, a new system. Not the old cross between a random cocktail party and a boozy pub crawl. Nor the other system of  having front desks where temp agency staff ignore passers-by, and a gatekeeper holds back everyone from a VIP area. 

Something much better.  Each stand at this show had comfortable chairs. This created and a nooky look and feel so you were invited to sit down and savour the drink, and sometimes food.

Sitting Listening To Stories

Whilst it is possible that every stand has a story, it did seem to me that I could quickly establish if we had no connection before sitting down. The most smiling and welcoming people often knew they had a great story, or were willing to chat away until we found a profitable point or subject of mutual interest.

Here's a summary of what I learned.

1 Cans Of Semi-Sparkling Wine 

The stand had both bottles of sparkling rose wine and cans of semi-sparkling. I tried both and I was honest, tactless, enough to say that the cans did not have as much of a sparkle, a bubble, as the traditional bottle. Convenient to carry, for a picnic, backpack. 

Why no bubbles? Just for a cheaper product? No. The promoter, Cristina, explained that, as most people already know, the heavy glass of the Champagne bottle and similar sparkling wine bottles, is there to withstand the pressure of the bubbles. The much lighter aluminium cans can't take such strong bubbles without the risk of bursting. Once I knew that, I was no longer disappointed by the smaller sparkle of the canned drink. Just a different product, for different occasions, different requirements, different weight, size, and price.

If you look carefully, the can may say semi sparkling.

I have a can of  Peach Moscato says  kosher, not for Passover, but kosher for other occasions.

It is only 5% alcohol, nearer to the alcohol content of beer. Not as strong as wine.

Looking Forward To the Next Real Italian Wine & Food Experience

Similar trade shows are being organized in the Americas in Mexico City, in Mexico, in April

In summer of 2026, in June, in Asia. The event is in Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam. An opportunity for a side trip to one of the two top sites in Asia, the green pinnacles in the blue sea, visited by boat on a romantic  overnight dinner cruise at Halong Bay.

The next opportunity is in November in Mexico City. 

Next year I shall want to attend this trade show again in London, England. 

2 Forno Minniti For Perfect Panettone

Large Panettone from Forno Minniti. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I look forward to seeing and sampling what is new from Forno Minniti, the makers of the oh so aromatic and tasty Panettone, flavoured with bergamot (which is an orange) and almonds. What will they come up with next year?

The Spelling of Panettone

Notice the spelling. Minniti has double n, one letter tee. The opposite of panettone.

But panettone has double t and the ne twice. The word starts with pan, not just a cooking pan, but the word for bread, or cake, in many languages, such as the French phrase for chocolate pastry, pain au chocolat. The word panettone ends with the word one, o - n - e.  You can get a small panettone but in my photo is one big one. Panettone.

Useful Websites On Italian Food & Wine Shows & Food

winesexperience.com

fornominitti.it

italianwinecan.com

it stands for italy.

Tea Time Fun For Families At Fortnum's

Enticing window displays. Huge flowers and animals to entertain children. Look closely and you will see a gold topped Champagne bottle in the lower middle.

 Upstairs in Fortnum & Mason food store in Jermyn Street, London.

I had a freshly squeezed orange juice. Hard to find in London. But everywhere in Singapore.

Teeny ice cream cone came with the double espresso. 

A informative placemat for adults, with a reverse for kids to colour.

Useful Website on Fortnum's

fortnumandmason.com

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Save the ocean - wines under water

 

At the Real Italian Wine & Food Experience trade show at Excel in London, I met this lady who was promoting her wines, underwater wines. The wines are aged underwater, in the cool water.

My favourite design of their attractive labels is the one with the two seahorses facing each other.

Excel Exhibition Centre - the excellent best and worst for travel and toilets

 Excel this year I was at The Real Italian Wine And Food Experience. 

Excel, Prince Regent DLR station entrance/exit. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Toilets

The absolute best was the juxtaposition of the entrance on the ground floor and the toilets also on the ground floor opposite.

This end of the gigantic venue, larger than some airports, is best. You still have a five minute dog leg or L shape walk to Prince Regent station. The semi-circular 4 star hotel has a spa and gym, delegates who stayed there told me. The hotel is conveniently right outside.

Left, the multi coloured hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Behind it is a large car park.

Advantages of Prince Regent Station DLR

Although one DLR stop further from central London, best for events at the end furthest from the Custom House station end. 

The PR station has a convenient lift behind the long staircase.

Advantages Of Custom House Station DLR

This alternative Custom House station is at the big entrance which is for larger events occupying the entire building or shows at this end. 

The walkway above from the station passes a wall of green plants on your left. On the right you pass restaurants and a coffee shop.

Toilets on Two Levels

Inside Excel from the Custom House DLR direction, the first toilets you reach are down stairs. Not ideal if you are carrying goods to or from the show. Good if you want to get some exercise. If you can wait, you can use the ground floor toilet at the Prince Regent station exit at the other end. 

The hall is the size of a major airport. I wish they would instal a travelator!

DLR stands for Docklands Light Railway. 

TFL Transport For London.

Please follow my blog and share links to your favourite posts.

Organic wines from Sardinia, Italian Island - and agrotourism - stay on the farm by the winery

 

Wines from Sardinia, which is an Italian island in the Mediterranean.  

Top, map pf Europe showing Sardinia off the west coast of Italy.  Lower map showing Gonnostramatza village inland on the riverside.

The business has a restaurant, a farm, cheeses, cookery classes, and b and b at the farm.  Recent reviews raved about the farm animals, sheep, goats, horses, the warm welcome from the brothers who run the place and the home cooked food. You can also buy their wines, Very pleasant whites, rose and red.

The bottles carry the label Fattoria Cuscusa. Fattoria is not factory but farm. The local co-operative group produces Vermenitino Di Sardegna, a name of controlled origin, which can be applied only to the Vermentino grape, produced in Sardinia. In other words, a uniquely Sardinian product, using that grape.

The owner's nice niece, Elena, told me.

The wines come from Gonnostramatza, a small village astride a river, whose two banks of the large part and the smaller part are linked by three bridges. 

Pastura Biological wine bottle label. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Useful Websites About Sardinian Wines And Winery Farm B & B

https://www.italia.it/en/sardinia/gonnostramatza

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Agriturismo+Fattoria+Cuscusa+Gonnostramatza/@39.6631863,8.8066531,17z

Please follow my blog and share links to your favourite posts.

 

Seaside sandy Soil Vineyard in Sardinia

 Sand is great for fighting the vine-destroying phyloxera insect which killed vines a century ago. Vineyards are not the only crops which can fail. In the last decade olives had a threat.

The sand requires a vine with strong roots. The Sardinian vines here also benefit from the savoury, not salty but savory aroma. Sea air in a glass.

You can go for tastings buying one glass or a flight.

The sun and sea make this special.

The nw airport is Alghero. That area speaks 

The town of Bardesi has the long beaches.