Snow Day

Wednesday was a snow day. We got the memo about 4 hours too late. This is not to say we didn’t know about the foot of snow outside our door, or that instinctively we didn’t want to stay home. We just found out a little bit too late that much of the Emilia region followed its instinct and stayed home while we ventured out for a 4 hour journey to get to an appointment - I had a lunch meeting in Modena with two faculty members at the nutrition department of the medical school. They are acquaintances of my former boss and advisor from USC and may be my secondary affiliates for my research project here in Italy. In order to get to Modena, we left the house around 8am; after a quick cappuccino at our favorite bar, we walked 10 minutes in the snow to the bus stop in Parma, took a bus to the train station, and then waited an hour in the cold for the train to Modena, which was delayed due to the snow. Following the hour long train ride, we waited for a bus in Modena and took a 20 minute ride to the medical school, where we arrived just in time at noon. As I had planned with my contact, upon arrival I called her to let her know I was there. She said in surprise “You are in Modena???? I thought for sure you would stay in Parma with this snow. I am at home snowed in so I can’t meet you today.” Right! I should have known!!! Not wanting to be the wimpy Californian, I wasn’t going to call the meeting off for snow, but now I know that I definitely should have called her in the morning to make sure she was going to be able to get to work.

Despite what could have been seen as a wasted trip to Modena, Paul and I made the best of it after a few minutes of moping. Unfortunately we were stuck with having lunch at the hospital cafeteria as Paul had already ordered a pizza there as he planned to wait there for me while I had my meeting. The food wasn’t stellar, but I was happy to see that it was more appetizing, healthy, and civilized than what I’m used to in a typical hospital cafeteria in the States. To go with the pizza, I ordered a big plate of contorni, or vegetable side dishes, including broccoli, artichokes, Brussel sprouts, and chicory, and a small bottle of wine, which was served with a real wine glass. Then we hiked around Modena in the snow and saw the charming centro storico and the duomo and learned more about the prized balsamic vinegar (aceto) produced in the area.






Luckily my next meeting which was yesterday (Thursday), was not cancelled and I was able to get to know my primary mentor at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Colorno, which is a small town outside of Parma. More to come about that soon. For now here are some pictures of the beautiful campus.

Life in Italy

Paul here. We've had some time now to settle in a bit more; we're finally over the wicked jetlag and starting to adopt the Italian pace of life.

That is, the pace of two people who don't have jobs, or any real responsibilities to speak of, at least not yet. Our days consist largely of walking around exploring, snacking, and taking pictures...I imagine that would probably be pretty nice anywhere, at least for a while.

I've quickly learned that it's best, no, make that ESSENTIAL to keep an open mind when moving to a foreign country. Many things take getting used to because they're different.


Not better, not worse, just different.


For instance, bus tickets are bought at any one of a number of government-run "Tabacchi" tobacco stores. And you can buy a cell phone and plan from the post office, which is the same place you apply for your Italian social security number! Still sounds strange.

Other things, are definitely better. Like the fact that bars here aren't seedy, dark, and full of alcoholics, rather they're cheerful, popular, classy places that everyone frequents as a sort of social pit stop. Drinks are cheap, and they all serve free snacks - I'm not talking about sketchy cups of salted peanuts here, I'm talking about real treats like little cones of salami and cheese on toasts, delicious finger sandwiches, and fresh green olives!

And finally, yes, some things are definitely worse. Now you have to understand, I'm allowing for different tastes and preferences here, but there's just no arguing about some things. Allow me to illustrate.

Take a look at our humble toilet here:














Innocent enough, right? Kind of stylish, even, in a minimalist sort of way. But lift the lid, and it's a different story:















Now if you study things closely, you're probably saying to yourself, "wait a second, Paul. I'm no toilet engineer, and I only have a layman's knowledge of human anatomy, but doesn't that hole look a little, well, OFF? Shouldn't it be a lot farther back?"


To which I reply - YES. YES, it ABSOLUTELY SHOULD BE.


I'm sure you get the idea, so that's enough about that. I won't even discuss trying to fit in our uneven-floored shower-basin-thing. Constant curtain contact is unavoidable.



















So on that note, everyone at home, I hope you enjoy your bathrooms today. Take the time to appreciate them, because they deserve it.

Oops!

Uploaded the wrong video last time....THIS is what we really woke up to:

La Neve

Update: it's SNOWING today!  A lot!!!  We woke up to this:

Almost a week

We have now almost been here for a week. It is a Sunday, which seems like an especially relaxing day of the week here in Italy – almost nothing is open and very few people are out. We went to church this morning hoping to meet a few friends. Everyone was very welcoming and the pastor even had us stand up and introduce ourselves. It helps that the church was tiny. There aren’t many protestant churches in Parma, or in Italy in general, and at this church there were maybe 30 people max. On the way home we saw that all of the bars and shops were indeed closed, with the exception of one nice pasticceria near our piazza where we had a cappuccino and cornetto. None of the markets are open, so it is important to shop on Saturday to have food to cook for Sunday.


Yesterday morning we went out and joined the rest of Parma in shopping. There was a huge outdoor market of clothes and housewares that went on for blocks in the centro storico (historic center) and a few stands selling fruits and vegetables and cheese. We are still figuring out if there is a bigger weekly outdoor market for food. I asked a few older women about this in the morning while we were having our cappuccinos at a local bar and they said that there wasn’t much out yesterday, likely because it was cold and drizzling outside. Here is a picture of one of the few produce stands we found, where we bought some eggplants and want to return for some artichokes next week as they looked great.

We already have a few favorite spots for buying food. One is a salumeria where they also sell wonderful homemade pasta. Last Wednesday we shopped there for the first dinner we made at our new place and we tried some of the tortellini di zucca (pumpkin) e di erbetta (swiss chard). Both were excellent and I want to learn how to make them from scratch.

We also found some beautiful artichokes at a nearby produce market which we cooked according to the directions of the woman selling them and they were delicious.

The lettuce and radicchio are fabulous and abundant as well and there are types that I have never seen before. Wanting to learn new recipes, I have been asking everyone about how they prepare things and also I found a few cookbooks at the library about the foods of Emilia-Romagna. We made a recipe for lentils with pancetta (Italian bacon) that turned out great, and gives a nice little twist to how I would normally make lentils.

Now we are eating almost exclusively at home (except for some snacks) and trying to prepare as much as we can using ingredients and preparation techniques from the region. I can’t wait to cook with some new Italian friends though, as there is so much I want to learn firsthand.

One thing that is hard to stay at home for is breakfast, considering that the coffee is so excellent. Although we have everything we need here in our little furnished apartment to make cappuccinos, we have been eating out most mornings. No matter where we go, 2 cappuccinos and 2 pastries seems to cost 4.80 euro, which seems like a great price considering how excellent they are. I rarely eat pastries in the States, and whenever I do, I always am left wishing that I hadn’t eaten one. Here, the pastries are very light and small, and leave you wanting more rather than feeling weighed down. My favorite so far was a whole wheat cornetto (horn shaped pastry similar to a croissant) with apricot marmalade. We already have a favorite café right by our house. If we walk by the window they wave to us, so one morning when we were considering trying a different place, once we got the friendly wave we realized that we prefer going where they know us and where we already feel welcome. Also we see the other local shop owners come in and out, and we recognize and great them as well. No one takes coffee to go, so the café is truly a place where people congregate and socialize. It is nice to not see people walking around with disposable cups on the street like you do in the States. I certainly don’t miss seeing those Starbucks Venti cups everywhere.

Since we go everywhere on foot, we only buy a couple of things at a time, which allows us to decide that same day what we feel like eating. I knew that this type of shopping was the European tradition, but what I didn’t quite realize is that if you are shopping on foot, this is naturally the way you shop anyway, as there is only so much you can carry. It seems like there are many people who are still shopping daily at the small specialty stores here in Italy, especially in the centro storico. Last week we had to venture outside of the center to visit a government office to complete some paperwork. Near the office is a huge supermarket called Esselunga. We stopped in to check it out and found that it is similar to a mega-market like the grocery section of a Walmart. All of the produce was prepackaged much like you would see at Trader Joes so you can’t touch or smell anything to see if it is really fresh or not. You can even take an electronic scanner with you as you shop and charge your credit card as you go so you don’t have to wait in a check out line at the end. The quality of the food did look better than what you see in the States at a market of this type, but this type of market represents exactly what I don’t like about the food system in the States and why I wanted to come to Italy in the first place. However it seems like perhaps this type of shopping is becoming more popular here in Italy. There were many people with very full baskets who looked as if they were shopping for the entire week or even longer. Considering we are on a tight budget living on my scholarship funds, even though it goes against my Slow Food values, I will admit that it was tempting to buy a few dried goods, but we resisted and decided to patronize only the small markets. Here is a picture of part of the pasta aisle at Esselunga, which you can see is enormous.

I wonder if Esselunga is open on Sunday? I bet it is. But I like the Italian tradition of relaxing and taking a break from commercialism.