Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Vids of the Tower

By popular demand (ok, just by Emily's request) here are the videos of us in the Bologna tower:



Update from the kitchen

Today I was especially in the mood to cook. We don't have an oven or even a sautee pan yet, so we have been making things that we can cook with the saucepans or stock pots that are here in our little furnished apartment.

Still energetic from the nice cappuccino that Paul made at breakfast, I made us mushroom risotto for lunch using dried porcini. I don't have too much experience with risotto so it was a good little challenge.

Here are the mushrooms we bought and here they are soaking, along with the vegetable stock I made to add to the rice.





Following are the aromatic vegetables cooking and the finished dish. Overall we really liked it. I am still learning what the optimal texture is for risotto. This may have been a little thick but the flavor was great.







At dinner I made a simple chicken soup, which somehow turned out to be the best one we can remember. We used a half chicken from the Tunisian butcher who has a shop across our piazza. This little halal Italian bird was super flavorful. We have noticed that the chickens sold here are much smaller. Is it because they aren't raised with hormones, they are younger, or they are a different variety? Or a combination of these factors? The nice chicken combined with the fresh tagliatelle made for a very memorable soup.


I wish I had time to cook like this every day. Luckily there are leftovers.

Radicchio and Pistacchio

Here are my new favorites in terms of radicchio and gelato. Is it just me or is there a resemblance? Am I picking my favorites based on color preference? Aesthetics aside, the gelato shown here is amazing. The flavors are pistacchio, amarena (sour cherry) sorbet, and amarenada, which is cream with sour cherries, nuts, and chocolate.

*About the radicchio, I am not entirely sure that beauty below is in fact radicchio and not lettuce. I need to ask around. If anyone knows, please chime in.



Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Ham from Heaven, and Bologna the city (not the meat)

Culatello. Cool-ah-tell-oh.

The name means "little butt", and the Parmigiani are connoisseurs of it. It's the king here, not prosciutto.

Unfortunately because it's still produced using traditional (read: "unsanitary" by U.S. declaration, although it's been consumed here for hundreds of years and doesn't make anybody sick) methods, it's ILLEGAL to export to the U.S.

Culatello is about 100 Euro/kilogram over here, and the typical one is 3-5 kilos and about the size of a small football. A $400-$700 football after conversion - and keep in mind, we're in the epicenter of where it's made. Emily and I bought 4 paper-thin slices, for which we paid about $6.

And after sampling with some pears and parmigiano-reggiano cheese, I can say this - they know what they're doing over here.


The other day we went to Bologna, to check it out. It's much bigger than Parma, and is the site of the world's first university which is still one of Europe's largest.

Since we arrived at about 1pm, we started off with lunch.

For an appetizer we shared some fried carciofi (artichokes):


Emily had tagliatelle with ragu Bolognese:

And I had coniglio (rabbit) with black truffle sauce and polenta:


It was all very good, and after the accompanying full bottle of red wine we were ready to explore!

First we walked over to the Piazza Maggiore, which is basically the center of town. There is a HUGE church there:

It seemed like everywhere we looked, there was amazing architecture in Bologna.

Check out these marble sculptures in front of a random building - they were incredible.

I also saw a LOT more motorcycles and scooters there than I've seen in Parma or Modena, which was exciting for me:

After some quick cafe macchiati, we got adventurous and climbed to the top of an ancient tower that dominates the city's skyline...it was only 3 Euro!

Rickety old staircase of the tower - trusting your life to this thing as you climb several hundred feet up is even scarier than it looks:

View from the top, the gigantic building is a church from the 1500s

Did I mention that these towers lean? A LOT? This shot is looking straight down at the neighboring tower - it's not open to the public, for obvious reasons.

After the tower, we'd had enough excitement for a while and decided to check out what Bologna is really famous for - the food, of course. The various markets there were incredible.


Frutti di mare....yum.

On one street there were several outdoor fish markets, quite different than Parma as we've only seen a few fish markets here. There were SO many varieties of fish, most of which we had never heard of before:

This just about sums it up, doesn't it?

Stopped by the Piazza Maggiore one more time on our walk back to the train station, it was gorgeous at dusk. We loved Bologna!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Beware of Microwaves

As I am sure you can tell, we love the food in Parma. This is not to say, however, that you can't find a disappointing meal. We certainly shouldn't try to romanticize every eating experience.

For instance, let me tell you about what happened on Saturday at lunch...Paul and I didn't really feel like cooking. We were out in the center of Parma, not too far from our house, walking around looking for a place for lunch. It was around 2, so it was a little late for the lunch hour, and we ran into the same dilemma that we have had a few times now. Either you find something very very casual like a slice of pizza to go, or maybe a pizza to share at a pizzeria...or, you splurge for a ristorante where you order a couple of courses. Option one costs like 5 euro for the pizza max, or maybe 10 if you have wine. Option two costs at least 30-40 euro, if not more. We haven't found much in between these two options. Trying to save a little money, we thought that maybe we would just have a sandwich at a bar or a paninoteca, but really we were both in the mood for something more substantial, like a hot dish and a salad. We saw some people eating in a bar on a corner near one of the main sqaures, and when we went in, I asked just by chance if they had a lunch menu other than the sandwiches in the display case. The waiter said that they did have first courses at 5 euro each and salads, but that the menu changed daily and wasn't printed so the server would tell us about the options. This sounded perfect. They must have a little kitchen in the back we figured. Paul picked gnocci and I picked tortelli with radicchio, and we ordered a large mixed salad to split. We were so excited for our lunch to arrive, until we looked over and saw our waitress putting frozen entrees that looked like regular tv dinners into microwaves along the wall. Could this really be happening? Sure enough, we then saw her nicely plate these entrees onto ceramic plates and the prepacked, microwaved gnocci and tortelli came our way. We felt duped. The menu changed daily, huh? According to the whims of who swung by the grocery store frozen aisle? Anyway, we made the best of it. Lesson learned: if you approach a cafe for lunch, look closely.

If you see 3 microwaves lined up along the wall, as you can tell upon studying this picture, don't go there for lunch. In fact, if you see a microwave at all, beware.


Instead stick with the awesome pizza. See my favorites here from the place near our house. One has pumpkin and Parmesan cheese and the other just has tomatoes, olives, and olive oil, with no cheese. Price: 1.60 to 1.90 euro.

Or, save up and splurge a little to have lunch at a real restaurant. Or cook at home. Even better!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Pasadena vs. Parma Coffee Culture

Ordering a cappuccino at Peet’s in Pasadena:
Step 1: -Good morning
-Good morning, what can I get you?
Step 2: -A cappuccino please
Step 3: -What size?
-Medium
Step 4: -What type of milk?
-Whole
Step 5: -For here or to go?
-To go please
Step 6: -That will be $3.30
-(Hand over credit card)
-Debit or credit?
-Debit please
-Please enter your pin
Step 7: -Do you need your parking ticket validated?
-No, thanks.
Step 8: -Your name?
-Emily (mind you that my friend Claudia and I went to Peet’s at least twice a week for 4 years and they still didn’t know my name or anticipate my order, though I will admit that I didn't always get the same thing.)
-Thanks Emily. They will call your name.

Ordering a cappuccino at our favorite little neighborhood bar in Parma, Bar Gnocla:


































Step 1: -Ciao Luisa!
-Ciao ragazzi!
-Come stai?
-Bene, grazie, e voi?
-Molto bene
Step 2: -Due cappucci? (Cappuccio, literally meaning “hood” (or the plural "cappucci"), is how a cappuccino, or “little hood,” is often called in Parma.)
-Si, grazie
Step 3: -Vi porto al tavolo. (I'll bring it to you at the table.)

Step 4: Instead of paying when you order, if you are going to have it at a table rather than having it at the bar, it is common to pay when you leave. A cappuccino costs $1.40 and I haven’t seen anyone paying with a card, but rather with euro coins.




















While paying we usually chat with Luisa the bar owner and her employees about what we are going to do for the day or they teach us some Italian and we teach them some English. Because the ordering is so simple, it frees up time to chat about other things.
















Italian perceptions of American coffee:
While ordering coffee at various places including our bar we have also been chatting about the differences between American coffee and Italian coffee. A couple of the observations I have heard are “Americans drink a liter of coffee!” or “Americans drink coffee like it is mineral water. This can’t be good for you!” When a professor in Modena recently took me to coffee, when he asked me what I wanted and I said “un caffe macchiato,” his response was “brava.” I think he thought I would be ordering a caffe Americano (which I will admit I do sometimes order in the States). I doubt I will order that back at home again though. Now I think it would seem enormous. Before I didn't usually order something small like a caffe macchiato because I was sad when it was gone so fast, and I liked to have something to sip on while working or talking with a friend, but now I appreciate a simple espresso or macchiato much more. It is nice to have something small and strong with a great taste, which leaves you wanting more rather than wishing you hadn't had so much. Here is a picture of two caffe macchiati, which we like to have in the late afternoon. They cost 1 euro even each, or the same as a normal caffe (espresso), and it is nice to be able to just give a simple coin at the bar.

No joking around with the Parmesan cheese

When we first saw the size and quantity of the wheels of Parmesan cheese in the local stores here in Parma, we were shocked. And then we saw the size of the pieces that people were buying. No one is joking around here.

The small pieces you see at the stores in the states are more in the realm of what would be cut for a taste for a few people, rather than an amount to take home. The role of Parmesan and the quantity in which it is eaten was solidified for us today when our landlord came by with a gift. Mr. Franchini has cows, and he gives the milk from them to local farmers who use it for their cheese. Check out what he brought us! As I write, I am snacking on some prime Parmesan, by the hunk.