La Vendemmia

Between the last week of class and the beginning of my internship, I had a week free. Over here, September and October mean one thing...Grape Harvest! So, I finally used my WWOOF (http://www.wwoof.org/) membership and found a cantina that needed some help. I traveled back to Piemonte to a small town called Canale, half way between Asti and Alba, a prime wine region, with a colleague-friend. We stayed with the agronomist of the vineyards for about 5 days and we worked HARD- we received room and board as pay. Some days we put in 8 hours in the vineyards and it still got pretty hot in the afternoons. I can't remember the last time I felt as dirty as I did at the end of a harvest day, with the dirt, vegetation, sticky grape juice, and sweat covering every inch of me. I also can't remember the last time I slept as well! Nor the last time I have been so sore! But I met some great people and I feel like I have a new appreciation for the wine making process and the price of a bottle!

Step 1- Collect empty crates and space them among the rows where you anticipate needing them.

Step 2-Pick grapes, shearing away the dried and over/under ripe seactions from the bunches.

Step 3-Place grapes in crates. Once full, haul to the end of the row where they can easily be collected.

Piemonte

Over the last few weeks, I have taken my final stage of the year (to Piemonte) and completed my classroom hours. Piemonte is a region in the far northwestern corner of Italy. Torino is the largest city and the whole region has quite a lot of French influence. Apart from this, it is one of my favorite regions. It is renowned for its wine, including Barolo, Barbaresco, Moscato d'Asti, and many others. It is also the capital of the white truffle, Italian rice production, and home to many wonderful gastronomic traditions. My class traveled there for 4 days...needless to say we ate and drank very well! As the grape harvest season is here, we passed kilometers and kilometers of huge green vines loaded with beautiful, deep purple grapes. At the end of the stage, we atended the annual Slow Food Cheese Festical in Bra, where the Slow Food headquarters are located.

We ate a lot of cheese on this trip. Almost every meal replaced the meat course with a cheese plate.

At the cheese festival, I took a seminar on American Cheese and Beer. It made me proub to be an American...we are producing some GOOD cheeses

Hobnobbing with Carlo Petrini and other Slow Food big wigs.

Our visit to Aquerello Rice included a tour of the very well preserved barracks that the migrant rice workers used in the past. Primarily women worked the rice fields who came from the south every year for about 6 weeks.

I don't want to eat rice again for a LONG time. We were served nothing but rice for 3 meals in a row. Here is a sampling of 3 different varieties, served with what else but rice beer.

Osteria Francescana

Chef Massimo Bottura explaining his creations

This past weekend, I experienced perhaps the most interesting meal of my life so far. An example of the main strength of the university- CONNECTIONS- my colleagues and I enjoyed a private lunch at a restaurant ranking 13th in the world on the Pellegrino list. Chef Massimo Bottura, who visited the school in July, opened his restaurant, Osteria Francescana, exclusively for us. We enjoyed a 10 course meal with 3 wines, and were given explanations by the chef for each dish. We were 11 in number, there were 6 waitstaff. The meal was followed by a Bottura led tour of the restaurant, including his own private office and experimental kitchen. Though I have certainly read and studied it, this was my first actual encounter with molecular gastronomy (a growing movement which combines food memories and cool science to create mind blowing, convention altering dishes.) I will NEVER forget this meal!

The unassuming entrance...they were waiting for us at the door when we got out of the taxi.

Bring it on! Myself, Morimi, and Mandy waiting for the show to begin.

Interpretation of a Mortadella panino (or Bologna Sandwich). Mortadella mouse, gnoccho bread, powdered pistachios.

Foie Gras popsicle, coated with caramelized hazelnuts and almonds, with a 40 yr. old apple balsamic vinegar filling.

"Earth", lots of braised leeks, porcini, and truffles.

Parmigiano 5 ages, 5 ways.


Pasta e Fagioli

Ravioli filled with Lambrusco steamed cotecchino and black lentils.


Veal cheek with jus, over potatoes, with clorophyll on the plate.

"Garden," a surprising, yet aptly named sweet and sour vegetable palate cleanser.

Chocolate-Cherry explosion

Deconstructed Zuppa Inglese, a popular trifle dessert from the area.


And of course coffee to end the meal with petits fours

I say tomato...

Parma, roughly sharing a latitude with the state of Maine, has a much later growing season than what I'm accustomed to at home in Houston. While this time of year, the tomato plants in Houston are on their last leg, the tomatoes here are in the prime of their lives. Surprisingly, Parma is the Italian capital of industrial tomato production, with the headquarters of the leading company being only a 10 minute drive from my front door step. A few days ago we went on a tomato stage, a day of two extremes. In the morning we stopped at Stuard, an organization devoted to preserving both ancient and modern seed varieties. We were given free grazing privileges in their experimental tomato fields, or rather, during the field lecture, the more horticulturally inclined of us wandered off to explore, taste, and gather. I filled my bag, which I had brought in hope of this chance, to the brim with all sorts of interesting tomatoes mostly for the purpose of collecting the seeds. This was the exciting part of the day for me.
In the afternoon, we visited the aforementioned industrial processing company. The only comment I have about this is that I will now do everything in my power to never have to eat a canned or processed tomato ever again...

My field selections, hopefully none of which are hybrids!

The space-saving, less smelly method of preserving tomato seeds involves scooping them out and fermenting them in jars.

I had to improvise by cutting off the tops of water bottles to use as fermenting vessels. Now I wait for yeasts and bacteria to do their magic!

Summer Break

I'm back home after enjoying my summer vacation, hanging out in the stagnant heat of Colorno with only a fan to keep things tolerable. First was Greece, joined by my parents for 2 weeks then left to enjoy an extra week solo. As always, great food and honest wine, beautiful scenery, and the sea which is the deepest indigo blue imaginable. During the week I was by myself, I set up camp on the Cycladic island of Sifnos. Just me, my tent, lots of books, and the beach. It was a new experience and very enjoyable. It definitely honed my survival skills!
After a long flight back to Italy and one day of rest, I headed to Croatia to meet a friend whose family is originally from there. We traveled for about a week and a half all up and down the Croatian coast, spending ridiculous hours on long haul buses, and eating lots of interesting food. Croatian food is a very odd mix of Italian, Eastern European, and a little bit of Turkish (maybe). I think my favorite thing was the strudel that could be found everywhere, filled with a slightly sweet mild fresh cheese. Add a cup of coffee and you have a complete breakfast!
I've now returned to Colorno to roast..err...rest a little before class resumes on September 1. I'm also taking this down time to glean recipes off of my Israeli roommate.

My home away from home in Greece.

Okay, well, I have a bad habit of forgetting to take pictures, so hopefully once I steal some from friends, there will be a few more added.

July

This month has flown by! It got started with a 10 day trip down the Tiber River, from the very south of Emilia-Romagna to Rome. It was filled with lots of memorable occasions, mostly meals, and a great crazy bicycle tour through Rome that definitely gave me a different perspective of the city.(I would highly recommend it, led by "legambiente") Then a few weeks of class, lots of gelato to ward off the heat, and plenty of papers to write. One of the highlights has been a lecture with Massimo Bottura, owner and chef of the 13th best restaurant in the world, Osteria Francescana in nearby Modena. We got to ask questions and observe the construction of dishes (and tasted them too...incredible). Mom and Dad arrived a few days ago, we had a nice weekend in Le Marche, and now they are stay here in Colorno, trying to find stuff to do. We leave Thursday for Greece.The best fig I have ever tasted, right off a tree in southern Lazio.

Porchetta: whole deboned pig, stuffed with wild fennel and garlic, reconstructed and roasted on a spit. YUM...

The traditional bagpipe of Lazian shepherds.

Birthday

After returning from Friuli and a fast week of class, we had a weekend then departed on out next stage. This wasn't just any ol weekend though. I turned 24 on Saturday and celebrated with an American style cookout. We found an old grill rusting under the stoop of my apartment building and we were able to find just about everything else we needed to throw a pretty good party. All day long we ate hamburgers, drank sangria, and hung out. This day made me realize how thankful I am for the great friends that I have made here. They really made the day special for me!My Masterpeice