The Dave Page:
Dave Boccuti's Web
Page 
This page was originally started because I wanted to learn HTML -
that was a long time ago ;-)
It's just maintained sporadically now as a vehicle to share trip photos
and useful links.
As always, this page is "in progress" & updated when I can find
some spare time.
Shortcuts: | Books | Tech Corner |
Travel Related.| Food and Cooking | Boston Stuff |
Entertainment | Other Stuff | Search Engines |
MIT Stuff |
At Les Clos, one of the Grand Cru vineyards in Chablis (Burgundy),
France
At Young & Co's "The Ram Brewery", Wandsworth, London
www.youngs.co.uk
Photos of one of my favorite
places - Little Cayman, one of the
Sister Islands
off of Grand Cayman. See satellite map here.
Here are some photos of my fall 1998
trip to Paris, and of my fall 1999
trip to Paris and barge cruise in Burgundy.
That last trip was so good, I went to Paris and Burgundy again in fall 2001!
If you like what you see about barge cruising, give Ellen Sack, The Barge Lady, a call!
Here are some photos of my fall 1997 trip
to Fattoria Camporomano, site of the Toscana Saporita cooking
school in Tuscany.
Some cooking tips I learned from Anne and Sandra are here.
Books I've read and recommend:
- Fiction
The
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson (and the rest of the
Millennium trilogy) - real page-turners
- We'll Always
have Paris, John Baxter
- Bound for Glory,
Woody Guthrie
- Chronicles, Vol. I,
Bob Dylan
- The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
- Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
- Don't Stop the Carnival, Herman Wouk
- The Girl with One Pearl Earring
- A Patchwork Planet, Anne Tyler
- Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes
- Note: Bella Tuscany is just so-so, as are so many sequels.
- The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver, (and sequels, too)
- The Eight, Katherine Neville
- Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
- Strange Pilgrims (short stories), Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- War Paint, Tom Wakefield
- Water Method Man, John Irving
- Non-Fiction
- The Lost Art of Real Cooking, Ken Albala -
Some fine recipes for true scratch cooking
- Stirred But Not Shaken: The
Autobiography,
by Keith Floyd
- Remember "Floyd on Fish"? Here's
the story of one of the first celebrity chefs and his adventures,
cheffy and otherwise
- The Best Bread Ever, Charles Van Over
- I can't believe how easy and delicious this bread is. BTW,
this is not the
"no-knead" bread recipe, this is a food-processor bread.
- On Rue Tatin, Susan Herrmann Loomis -
Americans renovate old house in Normandy (a sort of French "Under the
Tuscan Sun")
- Beaneaters & Bread Soup, Lori de Mori - Wonderful vignettes
of
Tuscan food artisans, with recipes
- Momofuku, David Chang - stories and recipes from his
restaurants in NYC
- The Joy of Pickling, Linda Ziedrich
- Cooking by Hand, Paul Bertolli
- Charcuterie, Michael Ruhlman &
Brian Polcyn
(techniques and recipes for making your own cured meat products)
- Well-Preserved, Eugenia Bone -
"Recipes
and
techniques for putting up small batches of seasonal foods" (the
subtitle says it all)
- Blue Ribbon Preserves, Linda Amendt
- Beyond
the Great Wall - recipes and travels in the other China, J.
Alford and N. Duguid
- Made in Italy: food & stories,
Giorgio
Locatelli with Sheila Keating
- Mouth Wide Open,
John Thorne
- Look Me In The Eye,
John Elder Robison
- Nigella Express,
Nigella Lawson (one of her best to date)
- Cook with Jamie,
Jamie Oliver aka the Naked Chef (one of his best, too)
- Land of Plenty,
Fuchsia Dunlop (Sichuan cooking techniques, ingredients & recipes)
- Shark's fin and Sichuan
pepper: a sweet-sour memoir of eating in China (her memoir starts well
but tires by the end)
- Chez Jacques,
Jacques Pepin
- Treasures of
the Italian Table, Burton Anderson
- Mastering the
Art of French Cooking, Julia Child et al
- My Life in
France, Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
- Silver
Spoon cookbook, recently translated from the Italian
- Fast Food My Way, Jacques Pepin
- The Breath of a Wok, Grace Young and Alan Richardson
- Chocolate and
Zucchini, Coltilde Dusoulier
- The Cuisines of Mexico, Diana Kennedy (out of print, but
worth hunting down)
- Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques
- The Apprentice - My Life in the Kitchen, Jacques Pepin
- It Must've Been Something I Ate, Jeffrey Steingarten
- French Cheeses, Dorling Kindersley (publishers of the
excellent DK Eyewitness travel guides)
- Cheese Primer, Steven Jenkins
- No Picnic on Mount Kenya
- Secret Life of the Seine
- Zuppa, Anne Bianchi
- From the Tables of Tuscan Women, Anne Bianchi
- Solo Verdura, Anne Bianchi
- Resource Book of Phrases and Sentences, Cristina Boccuti
(Communication Skill Builders)
- Being Digital, Nick Negroponte (MIT Media Lab)
- Men are from Mars..., John Grey
- Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman (Biog)
- What Do You Care What Other People Think (Biog - Feynman)
- Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff
Tech Corner
Firefix is my preferred browser. One reasons is that it can be
customized to reflect your preferences using Add-ons. Following are
some Add-ons that I find useful:
- AdBlock Plus
- Better Privacy
- Search Preview
- TabMix Plus
-
HTTPS-Everywhere - available here,
not from the regular Firefox Add-ons page
-
Downloads in Tabs
You can subscribe
to any of several e-mailed Cyber Security Alerts produced by the Unites
States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT).
I recommend the "Cyber Security Alert" subscription.
Travel-related
Food and Cooking
With Jacques Pepin, at Boston University, Boston MA
With Gladys Howard, owner/manager of
Pirates Point Resort,
Little Cayman
Boston Stuff
- Used hand and power
tools at great prices - The Tool Shed, 471 Main Street, Waltham
- Hours: Wed - Sat, 1pm to 5pm - (781) 647-7970
- Fiore di Nonno - local
handcrafted small batch mozzarella, burrata and more - made fresh daily
and available at Dave's
Fresh Pasta, South End
Formaggio, farmers markets in Davis Square,
Lexington and Boston-Copley,
and many great
restaurants
- Car Talk - list of staff credits
from the end of the radio
show
- Chowhound's
Boston-area board
- Large
collection of restaurant menus from Cambridge & surrounding areas
by Samuel Lipoff
- Minuteman Library
Network
- reserve books from the comfort of home, have them delivered to your
local library
- North End Market
Tours - walking and tasting tour of the North End, guided by Michele
Topor
- Boston
Citysearch Restaurant Page - A good search engine for Boston
restaurants
- The Boston Globe Online
- Danforth Associates
- investment management
- NOAA National Weather
Service - Boston weather forecast
- Some of my
favorite restaurants in the Boston area
- Jacky's
Table, Brighton
- Casual French food, well prepared, at reasonable prices
- Golden Garden,
Belmont
- Dongbei cuisine is their specialty - the dumplings and Cumin
Lamb with Spicy Sauce are great
- Pescatore,
Somerville
- Italian restaurant and seafood grille - delicious and
reasonably priced
- Il Capriccio,
Waltham
- Delicious Italian food, beautiful interior - porcini souffle
is to die for
- Magoun's Saloon,
Somerville
- English beer (varies) on tap, great burgers
- El Rincon Limeno,
East Boston (not far from Santarpio's)
- Ceviche is the specialty here - try the ceviche mixto
- Peach Farm, Chinatown
- Make sure to get the small orange menu of specialties
- Salt & pepper shrimp, clams in black bean sauce, steamed
oysters & scallops on the half shell
- Wang's Fast Food, Somerville
- Sandrines Bistro, Harvard Square
- Tamarind Bay, Harvard Square
- Chilli Garden, Medford
- Order from the Sichuan section of the menu. Hot!
- Maria Bonita, North Cambridge
- Oishii, Chestnut Hill (Newton) - also Sudbury and Boston
locations
- Simon's Coffee Shop, Porter Sq.
Entertainment
Other Stuff
Search Engines
MIT Stuff
This young man must have seen my rat - he wanted to demonstrate the
effect of Coriolis acceleration on those
funnels of water over the red pitchers...
Visitor: 
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Last modified: Saturday, May 21, 2011