And now, about food!

The food in Northern Italy is fantastic. It tends to be simpler, with three to five ingredients in most dishes. Some typical items are Tortelloni, tortellini, polenta, risotto and of course a lot of different pastas.

Typical or "tipico" dishes would be Tagliatelle with ragu, tortellini con brodo, tortellini con burro e salvia.

The ragu is a mix of ground beef, ground pork and spices with olive oil (no tomatoes).  Tortellini comes from one place locally-Valegio- unless you make your own. Valegio makes amazing pasta and imports their Tortelloni and tortellini into the city fresh daily. All the small markets carry it in bulk and you can buy it by the serving. You have to be able to describe how you will serve it, with broth (con brodo) or as a primi (first course) with butter and sage. Both are local specialties. 

A disclaimer on the photo below.  It is not a typical dish with Tortelloni. It was explained to me after I sent this photo to our friends, that you are only to use the tiny tortellini in soup. It sure did taste good as pictured though!

Lamb is very prevalent here in spring. We have had it several times in several dishes. I'm looking forward to braising some lamb shank soon.

The fresh fruit and veg is just amazing.  There is a huge selection in the various markets here- there are three I shop from all within half a mile of our apartment.   I'm also growing fresh herbs on our terrace and using them daily on whatever dishes I come up with.

 There is a lot of condiment use here, all from local produce.  Sun dried tomatoes in oil, black olive pate, olives, pepperoni (here it means roasted red and yellow peppers in oil).

My first experiment was with reconstituting sun dried tomatoes.  I had tried many times at home to do this with mixed results, usually too salty or too leathery.  I followed the instructions of a local and came up with the best marinated sun dried tomatoes ever.  The secret is to cook them briefly in a mix of white wine and water (50/50), then lay them out to dry on paper towels for about an hour.  After that you layer them in a jar with your choice of herbs, thin slices of garlic, capers etc.  The finished product is ready to eat in 24 hours and after the tomatoes are gone, the oil is divine for dipping crusty bread.

One evening we were invited upstairs for dinner with our friends parents (they live just above us).  It was a Calabrian meal- her father is from the south.  The antipasti included a black olive spread they called pate.  I asked our friend Chaira if she could give me the recipe and she says "my mother will teach you".  Two days later the doorbell rings- here is Chiara's mum with a big jar of black olives in hand.  She gestures upstairs and I follow her up.  In the kitchen she takes out a blender and two paring knives. We sit in companionable silence as we pit the entire jar of olives into the blender jar.  She then adds three large cloves of garlic, peeled and quartered.  She gets a bottle of olive oil from a cabinet full of bottles- all different sizes and shapes- the oil comes from a local collective they belong to so no labels.  Into the blender goes a big glug of the oil- probably at least a cup.  Pulse, pulse, whirl- add more oil from the top.  Pulse, pulse, whirl and by the time we are done she has added about 1/2 liter in total.  The pate is smooth as silk and fragrant from the olives and garlic.  She spoons some of into a small jar for me and sends me back home.  Since she doesn't speak English and my Italian is still very bad we don't converse much, but the companionship was wonderful and the cultural exchange will be a bright memory for me.

Every day I look for something new or an old favorite with fresher ingredients.  I'm sure there will be more food posts in the future.

Watching Sports in Italy- an adventure in geekdom

Have you ever tried to watch a game on TV (you pick the sport) only to find that your access to it is blocked?  By the network, your cable provider?
Picture coming to Italy, armed with a brand new Laptop, a cable package that promises you can see "your shows" on your devices and a love of European football (soccer).  We arrive during some of the most exciting League matches- English Premiere League, Champions League.  
So the first game we try to watch we find that our access is blocked.  We can't see it on Xfinity because we are "not in front of our home TV"; DUH!  So we try Fox Sports, NBC, CBS, ESPN- all blocked content.  
We ask our Italian friend and he says almost all the football games are on packages that have to be bought through one cable provider.  He can't even watch the Champions League matches because he subscribes to the "wrong" cable provider (which he does because it carries Italian Serie A, which is obviously most important to him).
Everywhere we go we hit a brick wall- "Access Denied"  or "Content not available".
I do Google searches, I check Wiki everything, I am SURE there has to be a way to do this!!!
Finally, I phone a friend in the USA.  "G" tells me that we need an US IP address.  As soon as we arrived and logged onto the local WIFI we got a new IP address based in Italy.  This allows blockage of content.  It also was preventing us from doing some basic housekeeping tasks like paying bills (some of our accounts at home would not let us in because they didn't recognize the Italian IP address).  He then explains how to change our IP address so that it appears our computers are still in the US.  A VPN or Virtual Private Network. This allows us access to US websites and also- Voila!!  Sports!  Many people use these to keep work information secure- I certainly have and Robb still does but it never dawned on me that we could get one as individuals and get the same kind of security! 
Now don't go thinking this was the final answer.  The Virtual Private Network we bought allows our computers to appear as though they are in the US, however there were still challenges to actually watching the games.
English Premier League (EPL) games and Champions League (CL) are carried by different networks.  Fox Sports 2 Go is how we access CL, NBC sports live extra has EPL.  When the time comes for NCAA basketball, we will need CBS Live.  Guess what- they ALL charge for the mobile services.  Fox is the highest at $19.99 a month and that is just for soccer!  CBS is $5.99 a month for all sports they carry- the MOST important of which will be the NCAA championship.  NBC has no fee but the screen is full of ads, and there are a lot of commercials we have to suffer through.
Now on to the geek part.  Luckily we have an HD TV here so I can hook up the computer through an adapter that allows us to stream the games onto the TV screen.  Depending on the WIFI signal this works pretty well.  If the signal is struggling (all the time it seems) we have to turn off almost every other WIFI device in the house (2 iPhones, 2 iPads, a netbook and our Apple TV- I told you it was geekdom!).  
What is the final outcome you ask?  We can watch all the soccer we want, and we are cautiously optimistic that we are going to be able to watch the NCAA tournament.  What more could a girl want in life?

Why don't Europeans like Americans?

I get this question all the time. Along with statements like "I won't go to .....(fill in the blank), because I heard they are mean/rude to Americans.

I have been traveling to and in Europe and Eastern Europe now for a long time- close to 20 years now and I can count on one hand how many times someone has intentionally been rude to me or us as a couple "just because we were American". I have lost count how many times I have seen traveling Americans be rude, albeit sometimes unintentionally to those serving them. 

Americans talk a lot about how people from other countries need to learn English, yet when we travel, the most effort I usually see is a pocket dictionary. The worst is screaming at a waiter, sales person, taxi driver to try to make them understand. 

Today we saw the worst kind of American visitor. He pushed past us at the door to get into a busy restaurant ahead of us.  He then loudly ordered his food and wine in English.  They then proceeded to talk loud enough for the rest of the place to hear, mostly in "leadership" buzzwords and cliches. They competed for the attention of each other, never stopping to breathe and talking constantly over each other.  Every time the server approached the table, they ignored her unless they wanted something. As the meal progressed and the wine disappeared from their glasses they just got louder and more competitive. This was a man and a woman who appeared to be new business acquaintances.

It was horrible. It was also kind of like being in a Woody Allen movie. The angst from the man especially was almost visible.  

I know first hand how hard it is when you don't speak the language. However I always make an effort and it is always rewarded with kindness. I don't get offended if it's pointed out to me that by now my French, Italian, Polish should be better than it is. They are right.

We are an abrupt culture by nature. Always in a hurry.  It's not bad, necessarily- just who we are. If we could just slow down and enjoy a place. You're on vacation in a beautiful place. Enjoy the church you are in before you rush off to photograph the next one. Talk to people about their town, learn a few basic terms, tell them how much you enjoyed your meal.  

Even if people can't understand you it's no reason to be rude, shout or ignore them.  

So that's my soapbox, born of yet another Ugly American sighting. 

Don't be afraid other people in other countries will be rude to you. If you are nice to them and at least try to navigate the language you will be surprised how gracious people really are. They will also make much more of an effort to help you. 

Sunday Dinner in Italy- with a minimalist kitchen!

Our cuchina (kitchen) is a tiny galley space with very little equipment in it.  The place we are staying is a B&B with a shared kitchen so there is stuff to make coffee, tea, toast, etc. and there are plenty of beer and wineglasses.
We have purchased some additional items like sharp knives, good corkscrew, veggie steamer and grater but it still is very much a minimalist kitchen.
Inspired by all the "one pan dinner" recipes on Facebook, I decided I would try my hand at making one with fresh Italian ingredients.  Here is the result, and the recipe to go with it.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin Medallions, Roasted Mushrooms and Fennel, Brown Butter with Sage Pasta and Tomato & Basil salad.

Use 1/2 tbs fennel seed, toasted in a dry frying pan until just browned and fragrant.  Be careful not to burn them.  Grate or finely mince 2 cloves of garlic.  Place the fennel seed, garlic, salt and pepper to taste and 1/2 C olive oil in a small bowl.

I used about 3/4 lb Pork tenderloin cut into 3/4" medallions. Pat dry with paper towels and place in a large plastic bag with the fennel seed mixture.  Using the outside of the bag knead the meat until the spices adhere and the olive oil is absorbed.  This can be done ahead of time or just before cooking.  I added a fresh sprig of rosemary.

I used a disposable foil baking pan (because it what I had!) with olive oil spread liberally on the bottom.
Then I cleaned and trimmed fresh button mushrooms cut to approximate size and sliced a small fresh fennel bulb.  Toss these with more olive oil, salt and pepper.  The fennel bulb is all the spice you need.

Put the veg on one side of the pan and the meat on the other.  I added a float of red wine to the bottom to keep the pork moist at high temperature.  We have a convection oven so I preheated it to 450 and put everything in at the same time.  Cook 15 min or until the veggies are browned and the meat is at 140 using a meat thermometer.  It will continue to cook after you take it out so don't leave it in too long.  You can also grill this or saute it in separate pans if you want to brown the meat.

While the meat is cooking, halve cherry or grape tomatoes, tear a liberal amount of fresh basil and combine with salt and pepper to taste.  Dress with Balsamic vinegar and Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Set aside.

Boil the water for the pasta as you make the salad.  Cook 100 grams of pasta per person.  I prefer to use pasta that will hold onto the sauce like Rotini or Farfalle.  Heat a frying pan with a good size blob of butter.  At least 1 tbs.  Bring the butter to brown swirling it to keep it from sticking or burning.  Add fresh sage leaves or dry sage.  The sage will quickly absorb the butter, pull the pan before the fresh sage turns brown.  Drain the cooked pasta and add it to the frying pan with the brown butter, stirring to coat.

Pull the meat from the oven, plate the meat, veggies and pasta and serve with an Italian red wine.  I suggest a nice Ripasso.  Buon Appetito!!!

One hour to drive 5 miles....The Italian travel visa adventure.

How hard could it be?  We discovered we need travel visas to live in Italy for 7 months.  There is a visa called Elective Resident, so we thought that would fit the needs of Robb's sabbatical.  Next we contacted our usual Visa Travel service and they inform us they can't issue visas for Italy.  We have to go "in person" to the Italian Consulate for our region which turns out to be Miami. 
This begins to resemble Dante's Inferno and all the different hells.
First we had to find the right link on the internet to get us to the Miami Consulate.  Then after several tries and emails back and forth with them because they do not answer the phone- ever, I finally get an appointment window from 9:00 am to 11:45.  They are open from 9:00 to noon so I'm not thinking this is a great step forward.  We fill out the most arcane form for the application.  It seems that this form of visa is primarily used for weddings, family reunions and mission work...none of which apply so we end up leaving half of it blank.

Next comes the drive to Miami from Jacksonville.  We reserve a hotel room 5 miles from the Consulate so we can be there early.  As we drive into Miami the traffic becomes incredibly dense.  We decide to go to the Consulate first to make sure we can find it the next morning.  We locate the building and find where we would park and then hit the GPS for the hotel.  We have to take surface streets, but it's only 5 miles away- should be about 15 minutes according to Google Maps.  Hahahahaha.....the longest 5 miles of our lives- it takes over an hour.  Good thing there was a bar at the hotel. 

Next morning, we head out and it takes 15 minutes to get to the Consulate.  in the morning light with no traffic it's almost pleasant.  Arriving 45 minutes early we end up in the first group to go up for our interview.  The first two people are picking up their passports with their new visa.  The guy in the office digs around in a huge white bin and fishes out their paperwork.  Now we are up.  We tell him what we are applying for and he takes our passports and checks the photos.  Then he explains he will quickly review our form and after that it will go into the queue to be analyzed and researched.  "When do you leave?" he asks.  We tell him and he says well....it could take up to three weeks..to process.  He then gives us back the forms and has us complete some sections under the family reunion part.  He tears everything into parts and staples things together.  He collects $250.10 and says "OK- you are done."  The whole thing takes about 10 minutes.  Now we have the 5 hour drive back home, but at least there is no real traffic. 

We get in the car and look at each other- 10 minutes?  All that driving and frustration. 

Airports and animals...

Who looks closely at all the things in airports?  I'm learning they are treasure troves of marketing art, kitsch and wildlife.  I know everyone who travels has seen the sparrow in the rafters of an airport terminal somewhere in the world- but did you know Charles de Gaulle has sheep?  In between Terminals 2A and 2F there is a moving sidewalk.  As you float along outside the window is a grassy slope with a family of sheep.  They have a nice little place to sleep and eat and a fairly large grassy area to hang out and feed.  You can even smell them as you go by and yet most people don't appear to even notice them!

 

Below levels, on the bus line from Terminal 2A and 2F is a rather astonishing hot pink steer fiberglass statue.

 

In the green space between the Airport Terminal and the Hilton Hotel is a huge rabbit warren.

 

 

 

 

Then of course there is the Frederic Chopin Warsaw Airport.  Here I found an amazing amount of marketing kitsch that turns into some interesting edited art photos.  Legos and the Zubrowka Bison.  What a combination!

Foodie Warsaw

I'm finding my way here with what I think is noteworthy about a place I love- Warsaw is complicated.  It's old and new, it's fashion and food and traditions. 

There are so many big cities that all feel a bit the same.  Warsaw is always changing and becoming something new so it never bores me to be here.

Here are some of my favorite places to eat and drink in Warsaw:

Winestone in the Hotel Mercure Warszawa Grand.  A great little wine bar and café.  My first visit to Poland the only wine I could find was Hungarian or Georgian.  Now there is French, Australian and California wine available.  This café even has a Sommelier.  Pretty impressive change in 12 years!  If you are hungry try the Angus Filet with Fries and Blue Cheese dipping sauce.  They also have a very impressive selection of Vodka- of course!  would you expect anything else?

Blikle Café and Bakery on Nowy Swiat; since 1869 this chocolatier has been in business.  They were forced to close during WWII but have been continuous ever since.  Try the Hot Chocolate, Hot Wine, Potato Pancakes or a slice of cake.  Everything is excellent.

LaVanille Cupcakes, incredible Black Currant Cupcakes, a modern twist on a traditional favorite.  And they have good old Red Velvet Cake!

 

Last recommendation is for Trattoria Rucola.  A modern/traditional Italian restaurant.  Many varieties of pizza and pasta.  The key point here is fresh.  Made to order pasta and pizza with very fresh local ingredients.  Most of the herbs and greens are grown right on the front patio as you enter the restaurant.

Now of course, the obligatory paragraph about Wodka. There are the well known brands like Chopin and Belvedere and both are very good.  If you want a “real” Polish vodka experience you have to try Zubrowka and Zoladkowa Gorska. 

Zubrowka is the Bison Grass vodka that is made in the north.  The vodka is distilled with a blade of Bison Grass in the bottle.  It is a very light shade of green and tastes of vanilla and cream.  It is best served by the shot ice cold or in a traditional Polish Apple Punch of Zubrowka, apple juice and lime slices over ice.  Zoladkowa Gorska is a bitter herb and orange instilled vodka from the same region of Bialystok as Zubrowka.  The difference is that Gorska is spicy in nature and is just as good warm as it is ice cold and it is a nice sipping vodka. Both of these vodkas are available on line from Wines4Today.com if you want to try them without going to Poland!

From Minionki Cheetos to traditional Polish Potato Pancakes, you can find anything to suit your appetite in Warsaw.  In the past the restaurants were either Traditional fare; lentil or tomato soup, Chicken or Pork cutlets (usually deep fried) and lots of different ways to eat cabbage and boiled potatoes.  The other option most of the time was Pizza or Italian food which is still very popular here.

Sushi anyone? 

 

 

Warsaw Day 2

 Warsaw Street art has been around since the end of Perestroika in the 1980's.  It was a popular outlet for color and art given so much of the architecture was concrete and glass block. 

 

The beginning of the Italian Adventure

 
In September, my husband Robb and I found out he had been accepted for a research sabbatical in Italy for 7 months. What a huge change this is making in our lives.  I quit my job (early retirement!) at the end of October and the time since then has been spent preparing for the adventure.  This blog will cover a lot of different topics from our trip starting with the preparation trip we made in November.  I finished working on the 30th of October and flew to Warsaw to join Robb on a three week trip ending in our city in Italy- Verona.




I just arrived in Warsaw last night and already it feels like home again.  I love this city-!

My first visit I remember thinking it should be in black and white like the old 40's movies with everyone in long wooly coats and furry hats.  I could not have been more wrong.  Fashion is the ticket in Warsaw.  There is an astonishing number of ways to wear scarves and there are hats- many different types from real fur to fedoras.  Walking in Warsaw is much like being in Paris- everyone dresses to be seen.

Today I walked from Hotel Mercure Grand around my neighborhood.  I love this area, it combines local with global.  There is everything from Polish linens and antique jewelry shops to designer brands like Zegna, Tods, etc.  Not to mention every possible place to eat. 
Within one block of the hotel is a killer cupcake place, an Udon shop, Italian and Chinese.  All very different from the Poland I first loved 12 years ago.  Back then all you could get was Nescafe instant coffee- now there is a coffee chain on every corner including Starbucks! 
The EU has made it's mark on the country with globalization, and progress after the fall of socialism has been incredible.  It is now the healthiest economy in Europe next to Germany.
Later today I will post some photos of local street art.  Graffiti was the original way to decorate the soviet style buildings of old and it is still a thriving art form.

The city is slowly redecorating itself with new architecture and remodeling of what's left of the old buildings.  It is the one of the best walking cities in Europe- I feel so safe here.