Dandelion Greens

If someone had told me, almost 20 years ago when I first moved to southern Italy, that you could just walk along the side of the road gathering the weeds that grow there . . . and then take them home and eat them, I never would have believed them. I'm a city girl, you see, the kind who thinks of going to the supermarket for food rather than going directly to the source.

My mother-in-law Eva, who is now practically bed-ridden, never went anywhere without a plastic bag and a small knife in her pocket. Just in case she sighted some good-looking plants along the side of the road. She would cry out, "Oh, look, some nice dandelion greens!" and get busy choosing the good ones, discarding the bad, and filling up her bag with her treasures.

I thought she was nuts. I'd never seen anyone do anything like that before!

But, she is from a different world than me, completely. She was born in 1923. People in southern Italy still travelled in horse-drawn carriages for the entirety of her youth. She was a young woman when her town was occupied first by the Germans and then by the Americans during World War II. Her family were large-scale farm owners and over her lifetime she has been both relatively rich and relatively poor. She is accustomed to southern Italian rural logic, often rooted in ignorance and superstition, but also based on solid values like waste not, want not.

Eva - circa 1943

We can no longer take those walks in the country with her like we used to, but sometimes we go out into the countryside behind my house with our plastic bags and little knives to look for dandelion greens. I know it makes my husband happy to be doing something that he used to do with his mother, and my sons enjoy having that connection, too.

I'm still hopeless at identifying the weeds from the edible greens, but our sons seem to have inherited her eye for it.

Sun Therapy

Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny and relatively warm day. We took full advantage of it by inviting friends to lunch and eating outside in the backyard. Our first outdoor meal of 2011! Even Piedina, the dog, had a smile on her face.

We have all been facing various troubles recently: minor health complaints, family issues, you know, that other stuff life is also made of, although we try our best to forget. A few hours of chatting, eating good food and drinking some fine local red wine was just what the doctor ordered.

As you can see, there was a lot to eat and drink, but we had no problem making short work of it.

Piedina was happy to be cuddled and snooze in the sun.

I took the opportunity to try to figure out the camera option on my new smartphone. I'm afraid the phone is much smarter than me. I just keep poking at it, though, to see what will happen. Am I the only one who finds today's instruction manuals somewhat less than helpful? I guess I've just got to get my intuitive skills up to speed. My kids have no problems with new technology, put anything in their hands and five minutes later they know how to use it to send guided missiles to bomb the school or write them electronic notes excusing them from not doing their homework...

did you notice that boy is barefoot?!

At last, time for a nap...oops, spoke too soon...dive-bombed by a blood-thirsty 11-year-old wanna-be vampire!

Happy 2011

I spent New Year's eve at home with family and friends...a lovely evening that almost didn't happen!

We have all been sick for more or less for the past week with a nasty intestinal flu that left most of us with little or no desire to eat or drink...and what is an Italian celebration if not a celebration of food and drink? My husband and I dragged ourselves out and about to do the shopping, moaning and groaning all the while about how we felt and about what a pity it was that we were not going to enjoy the evening's feast.

Call it off you suggest? No way, that would be a solution for lesser mortals. And besides, we had invited a whole bunch of people over...it wouldn't have been right to leave them in the lurch on New Year's Eve.

Here I am with about 3 inches of makeup shoveled on to make myself presentable. One "good" thing...I lost three kilos in 3 days of stomach flu! Hee hee, but really, that's no way to lose weight!

in order of height...

Our meal was fish-based, but we combined the traditions of the Italians, Americans and Russians present.

An array of international appetizers

Broiled bass on a bed of creamed peas

I survived the evening and even managed to eat a few bites of this and that and toasted the new year with half a sip of Prosecco! I'm planning to leave all traces of that flu way back in 2010.

Let's hope 2011 is a good year for you, me and everyone! Happy New Year!

MISO!

While I am support raising I thought it would be good to learn a bit more about the food of Japan. Because, well... other than reading, cooking is my favorite thing to do.

Today I made Miso soup, which is one of my favorites. Why? Well... It reminds me of Japan, that's why. And it is so very tasty.

But before I can talk about Miso, I really should give a nod (well more than a nod) to Dashi stock, without which I couldn't make Miso Soup.

Dashi stock is actually a base for many Japanese recipes including another soup that I very much love with Udon noodles, and chicken, and egg.... nummy. But that's another show...

So Dashi is made from of Konbu and Bonito flakes. What are they you ask?

Well Konbu is a type of dried seaweed that is rather thick and hard. It is very different then Nori, which is the seaweed you see on sushi.

Bonito flakes (or katsuo bushi) are made by scraping shavings off of the Dried Bonito fish... It's not all as simple as that, something else happens with them but suffice to say, Bonito flakes are little papery thin bits of fish.

So what you do to make Dashi stock is place a piece of Konbu into some water and let it soak for a bit. Then you boil the Konbu which makes your house smell a bit like the seashore.

After it boils, you turn off the heat, add the Bonito flakes and let it steep for 5 minutes.

Then you have Dashi stock. HOORAY!

Then to make miso soup, all you do is put some of the stock in a pot, bring it up to a boil and add a bit of miso paste, stir it around and serve. I like putting tofu in my miso soup because it is tasty (actually, tofu doesn't taste like much of anything on its own...)

BUT MERLIN! You cry, what is MISO?

ah, miso is fermented soy beans (and a few other things) that's made into a paste! it comes in different colours "White" "Red" and "Blended" (which is a mix of the two)

now, yes for those of you who know their stuff, normally you don't use red miso in miso soup, because it's a bit saltier and more assertive in flavour... well, I bought this huge bag of it without thinking a while ago and I'll just use it until it's gone.

so there you have it. If I make soup again, I"ll be sure to take a picture so you can see!

(P.S. I bought these at my local Asian supermarket. It's a very fun place to go and find new things to eat! Find one near you and give it a try!)

Priceless Picks

They found food pictures I took at Nougatine on Flickr, sent me an email asking if I'd like to get paid. I said sure. They told me which pictures they wanted to use and told me to write a small blurb about the place. After they edited my copy, they gave me a bunch of release forms to sign. A month later, a check came in the mail. For my vanity's sake, I've been checking priceless.com every now and then to see if my entry has been posted. Sure enough, a few months later, here it is:



Do a search on "nougatine" to get to my entry. For some reason, they stuck the location in China.

China, Beijing - Day 2

Tour of Tian Tan, Food at Three Guizhou Men, Hutong Almond Tofu


We were both massively hung over from the night before. After attempting to get up several times, we finally managed to leave the hotel around 1PM. Lunch was at a restaurant we randomly picked (well, not so random, this one had the most locals eating in it) across the street from the hotel. We had bokchoy with mushrooms and a beef and tomato casserole.
The original plan was to go to the underground city that the communists built during the war but a quick call to Sindy changed that. Sindy and Dan had been at the Forbidden City for the last few hours and were heading to Tian Tan (Temple of heavenly peace) after some food. We decided to meet them at Tian Tan instead of the underground city as it was more historical (and touristy). After a 15 minute cab ride, we arrived at the Tian Tan complex south east of the city center.


Tian Tan was where emperors came to pray. It’s a large complex that stretches a couple of football fields.


The main points were the alter, the small round temple and the large round temple. There are gardens surrounding the giant path ways leading to each. It took us about 2 hours to reach the main attraction, the large round temple, from the entrance.


The sun was setting and Tian Tan was closing shortly after we reached the end. Dan and Sindy never made it as they couldn’t catch a cab by Tiananmen Square after lunch.


On our way back to the entrance, we were greeted by what seems to be tenors singing songs from the cultural revolution era. It was groups of people congregated in the park leading to the entrance.


They were just hanging out in the park on a Sunday afternoon singing songs, playing chess, kicking hacky sacks and playing badminton.
By the entrance we met a girl from California who suggested that we check out the “pearl market” across the street. The “pearl market” was more like a giant department store/flea market with different floors selling different stuff: 1st floor: electronics, 2nd floor: clothing and shoes, 3rd floor: jewelry, basement: pearl. The setup is stalls and counters after stalls and counters selling similar things. I picked up a LED flash light after some hard bargaining.


Lori made reservations for us to eat at a minority food restaurant called Three Guizhou Men. It’s a pretty classy restaurant decorated by a lot of modern Chinese art pieces (this place was opened by an artist). Sindy and Dan brought their friend Rich (who works in Beijing). The food here was amazing. The most memorable dishes was the spare ribs (spicy and falling off the bones. pictured above) and the quail soup (flavorfully clean, perfect for an unexpectly cold Beijing night).


For dessert, Lori took us to Alba Café located in an area where they converted Hutongs into boutique shops (similar to Houhai but less touristy). The café was housed in a converted Hutong. We sat at the attic area upstairs which only fits a table of about 6 (so we had the whole upstairs to ourselves).


The almond tofu here was amazing: very dense, lots of almond flavor.

We (Simon, Sindy, Dan and I) ended the night with a full body massage at DragonFly in Sanlitun.

Full set of Beijing pictures here