No Eating Near Rome's Monuments · Jul 23, 05:02 PM by James Martin
You’ve probably heard of the new regulation prohibiting snacking near Rome’s ancient monuments. It’s in place now, so don’t think of chowing down on a panino near the Pantheon unless you have 50 Euro burning a hole in your travel pouch.
The reactions coming from around the web are fascinating. The largest group of folks, as usual, are the people who think everyone is out to rip them off, and every government (except their own) involves itself in passing petty laws designed to make folks spend more money where they don’t want to spend it. In this case, you’ll have to spend a pretty penny at a cafe if you insist on eating in the shadow of the ruins of a civilization long exhausted—where the crap you generate will be cleaned up by someone in charge.
Jacy Meyer, in Foodie Alerts, asks:
But is this the best way to deal with the issue? Why not place more trash cans around the city and increase the fines for littering? And how exactly will police enforce this new rule; considering the number of not only tourists, but historic sites the city has?
I snapped to attention when I read these words. Suddenly it occured to me: that’s what I like about Rome, the lack of a thousand overflowing trash cans around the monuments.
You have to admit, pictures with trash cans in the borders aren’t the most attractive way to capture the timelessness of Roman architecture.
And the Police, bless their Barettas, will do just fine. I like the personal touch. Rather than placing a sign with the picture of a tourist eating some nasty bit of fast food and throwing the thirteen pounds of paper that come with each sandwich in a mound that obscures just about everything within a thirty kilometer radius, someone in a spiffy uniform comes up to you and politely informs you of your infraction while tapping his enormous pistol with a manicured index finger. What’s wrong with that?
When I went to my first ardia di San Costantino horse race in Sardinia, held at the Sanctuario di San Costantino in Sedilo, I was looking for a trash can in which to throw the paper my grilled eel had come wrapped in. My friend Antonio kept saying, “Just toss it. Toss it on the ground. There are no garbage cans. They hire people to clean it up! You’ll see!”
Like no way man.
But sure enough, come Tuesday, I sauntered over to the Sanctuario outside of Sedilo.
It was spotless. There wasn’t the tiniest bit of paper. No eel heads. Nada. Niente. It was as if the event never happened.
The results were far better than the trashy honor system that 87% of people follow in the U.S. It was better than overflowing rusty barrels, too.
But really, why do people insist on eating near monuments? Is it some ancient substitute for usurping your enemy’s strengths by consuming him? I mean, do we secretly desire a paunch similar to the dome of the Pantheon? Or are we so bored while we eat we look for diversions to make it all bearable?
It’s a conundrum. Here’s my solution. It doesn’t matter how expensive that outdoor cafe is, a carafe of the local vino will cost about 10 times less than it does in a restaurant in the U.S.
I wonder if Roman folks come unglued when they see a bottle of wine they’d pay 2 Euros for in Italy priced at $35 in a restaurant in Des Moines?
And just try to take that sucker out onto the sidewalk!
What Does a Hamburger Cost at MacDario's in Tuscany? · Jul 14, 05:15 PM by James Martin
Some of the most popular blog posts on Wandering Italy have to do with the cost of food in the touristy corners of the boot. (See: Food in Italy – Is it expensive? for an example.) You’re really rabid to know what to expect on your vacation. I don’t blame you. Good food in Italy is a bargain to me. Still.
In any case, if you know Italian pop culture, you know Dario Cecchini, the “Dante Quoting Butcher of Panzano” or some such. Yes, there are few places in the world a butcher can become and stay famous, especially after Bill Buford got done with him.
Dario recently started a restaurant known pretty much for its carne, as you might expect. Well, he’s added a hamburger to his menu. With fries, onions and tomatoes, ten euro.
Be aware that a hamburger in the bar of the Hotel Eden in Rome will cost you 38 Euro. Just so you know.
At Dario’s place, you can bring a bottle of wine and they’ll open it free. So lunch is a bargain, even by San Francisco standards.
How do I know about this new celebrity butcher hamburger? I read about it on Under a Tuscan Stove. Now I need to clean my keyboard. There are pictures to fare acqua nella bocca.
The Pasta alla Norma Tree · Jul 12, 10:43 AM by James Martin
What do you get when you graft together a tomato plant, and eggplant plant, and the devil’s fig (tree)? A 5 foot tall tree that grows both huge eggplants and tomatoes, a “creation” of Sicilian amateur botanist Giuseppe Marinoin.
Imagine, you no longer have to bend down to pick the stuff for your Pasta alla Norma.
Can this plant take over the world? Should you mess with God’s work, especially using the devil’s fig?
Marino said the shrub is resistant to disease and thrives in difficult conditions with little water, adding that his invention could be ‘‘an answer for the G8 to the problem of world hunger’‘.
Hold on to your hats! Food for everyone!
The problem now, of course, is that we’ll have to teach Namibians how to make a proper pasta alla Norma, which, I’ve just discovered, was named after Sicilian composer Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini’s opera “Norma”.
There’s always a hitch when you’re trying to end world hunger, although usually that hitch is Monsanto.
Read: Italian grows tomato-eggplant tree
Wine! He Said, and Make it Bolgheri Superiore · Jul 9, 08:25 PM by James Martin
It’s a good time to think about wine. Well, not where I live right now, which is northern California, with its 800 wildfires making the air smell like when a leftover smoked ham hock rolls under the couch and gets forgotten for a while. It hit something like 110 today. The red wine is in the fridge. I’ve hung the back leg of a pig outside, hoping to have Speck by morning.
Anyway, what I wanted to tell you is that you could win some mighty fancy Italian wine if you were inclined to write a bit. Yes, just leave a comment and your email address under this Italian Wine Blog post: Tenuta dell’Ornellaia Bolgheri Superiore Ornellaia and you’ll be entered. Do it before Friday, OK?
But here’s the kicker. You have to be in Europe—or have an address there it can be shipped to. Sorry. You could always ship it to my humble abode in the Lunigiana. No one will drink it. Promise.
At least the Italians aren’t in the position the French are in, where they gotta dumb down their wine and sophisticate up their marketing in order to beat Spain in the International Competition to Sell More Wine to Americans Who Don’t Like Foreign Tasting Wines.
Mmmm, globalization is soooo nice.
Ice Cream - A Focal Point for Our Indulgence · Jul 3, 11:08 AM by James Martin
I used to think that vacationing for a living was the coolest thing a guy could do.
Now I’m not sure any more. You see, I’ve just met Bruce Weinstein, who happened to be in California for the kick-off of National Ice Cream Month for the California Milk Advisory Board. Bruce is the smiling food guy over there on the right. He’s the author of “The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More”
Yes, Bruce makes, tastes, and practically lives ice cream for a living. How cool izat?
Bruce has written lots of “Ultimate” cook books, but “The Ultimate Ice Cream Book” tops the list. A quarter of a million folks have it on their shelves.
“Ice cream is the one big indulgence we won’t give up,” Bruce told me.
And how. Even though cooking “lite” is all the rage—and Bruce has filled hundreds of magazine pages with recipes that wring the calories out of both common and fancy food—all that sacrifice gets negated by our penchant for desiring fancy ice cream dishes. Americans eat 25 pints of the stuff annually. California produced 130 million gallons of ice cream in 2007 to meet the demand. Yup, we’re number one.
Personally, I’m all for indulgence. It’s even better when an expert on ice cream makes you something to indulge in. In this case, it was a Cable “Car”-a-mel Sundae. Bruce scooped some vanilla and some dulce de leche ice cream into a dish, then let a generous stream of caramel sauce find its to a soft landing on the ice cream and finally topped the whole thing off with handful of salted peanuts and a maraschino cherry.
Yeah, not bad.
Ok, so you’re thinking, “what’s this got to do with Italy and Gelato?”
Well, here’s the thing: Bruce did write a book that focused on such topics as ice milk concoctions—which is what Italian gelato is, really. That book carries the unweildy title of “The Ultimate Frozen Dessert Book” and doesn’t sell as well as the ice cream book.
Bruce sees a couple of reasons for this. One is the title, which doesn’t really mention concoctions like gelato except in the longer title. The other is that he found he had to add just a little cream to the gelato to make it taste like gelato.
Turns out that Italian cows produce milk with more fat content naturally.
But when you think about it, the difference between Italian Gelato and American Ice Cream—both symbols of the democratic pursuit of happiness in their respective countries—is the same difference you see in the pizza. Italians love a few, distinct flavors, with every element contributing to the whole. Americans like that pile-it-on thing. The more stuff on the pizza (enough so that you have to bolster the dough) the better. Who cares if you need a fork lift to get the sucker outta the oven!
You know what? I’ll let you in on a little secret. I like it all.
I leave you with one of those only-in-America stories that will warm the cockles of your heart. QVC (one of America’s shopping channels) once offered The Ultimate Ice Cream Book on its network. The book started selling slowly, until a couple folks called in and asked, “Does the book have any low fat recipes?”
Bruce mimics flipping the pages. “Yeah, there are a couple.”
After that question was answered the book took off. They sold 7500 copies in four minutes.
Ok, so promise you won’t blame me for your indulgent hunger. Remember: there are low fat recipes in The Ultimate Ice Cream Book. Just like the copy of War and Peace you have on your shelf that you haven’t read yet, it’ll make you feel good that you own such an object with such valorous recipes in it, even as you make yourself a creamy, gooey, sundae…
The California Milk Advisory Board has free recipes from Bruce Weinstein and others. Search for Ice Cream over at: Real California Milk
Bruce Weinstein’s Books
How Wine Should Be Served · Jul 1, 08:51 AM by James Martin
Those of you who read this blog more than once in a blue moon know that I am not a fan of formal wine service. I like the cork popped and the bottle plunked down on the table and left for me to handle.
But what if I find myself in a restaurant with a Sommelier? What if the restaurant insists I order the wine through the Sommelier?
I still don’t like it. But sometimes I want to get the most value out of the meal and the wine, and if I’m reviewing the restaurant I want to know how good the staff really is. So, I test them. I tell the Sommelier exactly the kind of wine I’m thinking of, or exactly the place I want it to come from.
Believe me, I’ve been quite disappointed at times. In Ragusa the sommelier was tardy on several occasions, so folks didn’t get wine until after the first course was at the table. When I mentioned local wines, the Sommelier simply pointed to a section of the list, shrugged, and walked away, leaving us to fend for ourselves.
Of course, there are good Sommeliers and bad. But what of the best? What kind of competition do they have to endure to get a reputation as someone who knows every little thing about a bottle of any wine?
Here’s a very interesting article on the Best World Sommelier Competition of the WSA
Interesting. But I wonder, is the detail a master Sommelier is expected to know going to make you really enjoy the wine picked for you?
I dunno. I’m still way too much of a heathen. Get me some local stuff. Put it on the table. Back away slowly….
The Mediterranean Diet - UNESCO World Heritage Cooking? · Jun 27, 12:32 PM by James Martin
Lots of folks think there are way too many World Heritage Sites. So, UNESCO has added a new category that’s not a place. It’s called “intangible heritage” and Italian Senators are pushing for the inclusion of The Mediterranean Diet into this category.
“The Mediterranean diet is a heritage that should be protected and shared,” said the presenter of the motion, ex-farm minister Paolo De Castro. ~ Med diet bids for heritage spot
Yes, I so agree. But I’m not optimistic.
Food, make that “good food,” comes from the soul. Industrial crap food doesn’t. Spending lots of government money applying and nurturing a proposal, even if it becomes something, is unlikely to change the flow of nutrition toward cheap, easily obtained, mass-produced, sugar and salt loaded industrial food as wages head ever lower.
You can declare Ravenna a World Heritage Site and have a reasonable chance of keeping the Bulldozers away from buildings containing ancient mosaics—but what do you do to keep alive a notion of good, healthy, natural food?
Remember that the answer has to take into account the work to prepare, shop, and remember traditions and recipes. You wanna know how Italians have done it over the years? Mom did it, or maybe grandma. If she wasn’t living with you, she brought stuff over. If she was living with you, she sat in the corner and nibbled bread dipped in a little sauce while the family ate a three course meal with homemade pasta.
Good luck preserving that.
It’s not like you can legislate grandmas to cook while the family wolfs down real food, to keep them off fried Mars Bars and Coca-Cola for supper.
“This is your intangible heritage I set before you. Take and eat!”
On the other hand, I’m hoping that ever increasing fuel prices will make the onslaught of Industrial food begin to collapse. There’s only profit in crap if the company producing it can get it to you cheap. Otherwise, that great stuff growing in the back yard beats it all to hell in every way.
International Food Crisis Summit Begins Obscenely · Jun 3, 03:41 PM by James Martin
“No one understands … how over-consumption by obese people in the world costs 20 billion dollars each year,’‘ the head of the Food and Agriculture Organisation told an international summit on the food price crisis. ~ (International food crisis summit begins)
So all these world leaders are going to get together in Rome to solve the food crisis in a world were the big boys find it necessary to spend 1.2 trillion dollars a year in weapons. The AP tells us that that these elite experts in world hunger are going to eat “Italian Specialties”
Like hell they are. The first dish on the list:
Vol-au-vent
Hmmm. There’s almost no way to make a French foo-foo pastry into a traditional Italian “specialty.”
But what the hell are they doing sitting down to a dish of puffed pastry anyway, even if the sin of calling it an Italian specialty is ignored?
In Italy, like in other places, cucina povera represents the incredible diversity of cuisine that people of scarce means developed to survive based on local and somewhat easy to procure foodstuffs that nobody with a bulge in his belly wanted to eat.
It’s time to celebrate their work and sacrifice. It’s time to put them on a pedestal instead of the fat bastards who push the obscene flow of food in the world toward countries promising low tax rates and other favors to corporate crap farms.
Hey, next time your summit comes to Tuscany, gimme a call. I’ll tell you where you can put your vol-au-vent. Then, when our bellies are screaming out to be fed, we can talk about really fixing this world.
Maureen Fant and Eating Like Romans · Jun 2, 04:30 PM by James Martin
Eternally Cool has a good interview with Maureen Fant, author of both cookbooks and books on how women lived in ancient Greece and Rome.
I (sadly) have to admit that this is the first I’ve heard of Ms. Fant, in spite of the fact that we seem to lead somewhat parallel lives, moving from archaeology to writing about food and culture in current times.
I went to her web page and found that we also share some of the same pet peeves. One is a proper disgust for the socialized mispronunciation of Italian words—as if saying them correctly in the US was some sort of punishable subversion of national pride. She (reluctantly, it seems) gives cooking classes:
The “lesson” that follows the shopping is thus an improvisational tour de force, not so much a class as a bunch of friends rolling up their sleeves and getting lunch together. But with me bossing everybody around. This makes for an intense encounter, during the course of which I berate them for mispronouncing bruschetta (it’s broosketta, puh-leez)
Hurray for her. And this makes me want to sign up for a consultation, pronto:
I can also offer private tutorials in Roman food ways (i.e., all theory, not cooking and eating, maybe a little drinking, though).
I’ll drink to that.
Oh, and her food blog tells you what’s fresh at the Testaccio market. Don’t you wish you were there? I do.
Sorrento and Limoncello · May 16, 12:09 AM by James Martin
Ok, I have to tell you, right now, the middle of May, might be the very best time to visit the Amalfi Coast. The weather in Sorrento is extraordinary and the air is perfumed by orange blossoms as it should be.
Of course, we had to taste some of the local specialties, starting with the amazingly popular limoncello. The limoncello from I Giardini di Cataldo is quite good. You sample it in the middle of a lemon and orange grove. There’s not just lemon, but a variety of flavors, my favorite being Liquore di Liquirizia, an intense, black licorice liquor. Second was Mandarin orange.
From there you can go to the Giardini di Cataldo gelateria and refresh your palate with a scoop of limone. Mmm.
