South italian markets. Part two - fish market

Welcome to read the second part of my story about south italians markets - Fish market
Brindisi without sea urchins I can't imagine) in season when the picking of them is permitted you can find sea urchins everywhere - in the border of the streen, on the market, in avery fish restourant. I like to eat them freshly picked on the yacht of out friends dangling feet in the sea)

These are fish from the sea near rocks, we call them Rock fish. They are perfect for "Zuppa di pesce" of Fish soup or with pasta. The fish is very fresh and often it's alive and you can see its movements.

This is anglerfish (at least this name I found in internet) - terrible to see but delicious to eat)

Sea urchins and mussels and giant octopus

This one was still alive

Fish shop where you can find every fish from our sea and also from other places too like sword-fish or tuna

The owner always scale fish for customers

They are always ready to pose) The seller of shrimps

Scampi

Cicale di mare - Small European locust lobster

These are vey small anchovy, 

but in winter there are much smaller called "Schiuma di mare" - Sea foam. Usially it's eated raw with lemon or mixed with eggs and fried.

Leningrad Porcelain Factory (LFZ) - Summer Garden Collection

This article was written by Lyudmila from woolsolution. I was many time in Sain-Peterburg but never in this factory, but I heard a lot about it.

The Summer Garden in St. Petersburg is home to allegorical marble sculptures acquired from Venetian sculptors Francesco Penso, Pietro Baratta, Marino Gropelli, Alvise Tagliapietra, Bartolomeo Modulo and others for Russia's new capital in mid 1700s.
summer_garden_pic.
In late 1970s a group of artist of Lomonosov's factory started creating porcelain renditions of the statues from  the Summer Garden. It took almost 2 decades to complete the project. All figurines were made out of white unglazed porcelain and have a great decorative look. Unglazed porcelain also is called biscuit ware. LFZ is the first in the country to have worked out technology and set up production of the collectable and decorative items made out of Bisque porcelain.
The first figurines were cast in 1976 by one of the prominent masters of a porcelain plastic style of the Leningrad Porcelain Factory Elvira Eropkina*. This pair represents The Allegory of the Day and Night. The Day Figurine holds a mirror where the profile of the Night is reflected. Exactly like on a clear sky we see at day time sometimes the reflection of the moon. They are not copies but interpretations of the original statues.

The figurines "Mercy" and "Justice" were created in 1999 by artist Olga Belova-Veber**. "Justice" is carrying a double-edged executioner’s sword and "Mercy" holds the book as a symbol of the Wisdom and Law. All figurines have notable whiteness and thinness

*Sculptor: Elvira Eropkina (Born in 1944, Khabarovsk, Russia - Died in 2004, Jerusalem, Israel)

**Olga Belova-Veber, was born in Leningrad in 1961 and has been working at Imperial Porcelain Factory since 1997

Dying Easter eggs with pieces of silk

Easter is close and I finally found some time to realize my idea:  dying Easter eggs with pieces of silk,  more precisely with silk ties. Ties I bought at our flea market a couple of months ago and paid 1 euro for one tie. They waited patiently for their turn in the bag. I do not agitate you cut her husband's ties, in any case ) ) You can use any pieces of silk, I'm sure, they are stored somewhere in your house :) You could also use silk from an old blouse, a scarf, or whatever. You need 100% silk for this to work. Green colors it is better to avoid - they almost not dye, dark blues, purples, and reds work the best.

My eggs turned out not as I expected , but I think the second time I will make better)

The first step is to deconstruct the tie, just left with the silk. Cut a piece large enough to cover an egg. 

I used blown out eggs, because I was going to save the inside of the egg for cooking. If you do not blow out eggs, then you can't eat them. In internet you can easily find some tutorial how to blow out eggs.

Wrap the egg with the right side of the fabric making contact with the egg. Make it as tight as you can without breaking the egg of course.  The more direct contact the silk has with the egg shell the clearer the imprint of the pattern. If it's not in contact with the egg, the result will be blur or not dyed. This just happened with my eggs. Cut off the excess fabric.

Then you will need a piece of old cotton, the old bed sheet maybe, one of those that we usually use to clean the  dust. I took an old pillowcase. Wrap it over silk. That's what we've got.

Put all those little guys in a pot and cover them with water. Add 1/4 C vinegar and bring it to a boil. Boil for 20-30 minutes. I used a strainer turned upside-down to keep the eggs under the water.  OR, if you can fill your eggs with water it will weigh them down as well. After they come out they will be filled with boiling water.  Make sure to let them cool first, and then blow out the water

So here is the result of my experiment )