Italian food

San Lorenzo Dinner at the Symposium Quattro Stagioni: Aperitivi

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Much of the action at Symposium takes place behind the large, curved bar in the dining room, where patrons are welcome to lean over, watch, and ask questions.
barFrom the time we arrived, Danilo was busy preparing five different nibbles for the aperitivi di benvenuto. The spoonfuls shown above, designed to be reminiscent of “an American cocktail of the 70s,” were an orange cream enclosed in a liquor-flavored gelatin resting on a strawberry cream.
danilo
Above you see on the left vetrines containing truffle broth and slivers of sea urchin (the fishiest seafood I have tasted to date). These were later topped with an onion cream.

The bowls on the right later contained fried quail’s eggs with an olive topping; I don’t remember what the orange sauce was.

Not shown is a vetrine of venison with a watermelon sauce, a most interesting combination of flavors (not so surprising to me – I often serve meat with fruit, though watermelon wouldn’t have occurred to me!).

We washed all this down with San Lorenzo’s Franciacorta docg Brut Millesimato 2003 – a nice dry bubbly.

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Italian language

Italian Animal Idioms

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In Italian, as in any language, there are many popular sayings and metaphors using animals, based on human perceptions of those animals’ lives and habits.

Cats

It seems that, in Italian culture, the distinguishing feature of cats is their greed for food.

Non c’e’ trippa per gatti

“There’s no tripe for cats.”

This is used when there’s absolutely no hope that you’ll get what you want. I suppose tripe is considered something that cats would like, but humans (at least some Italians) also like it, and are not about to share it with mere felines. At the European football championships in Athens (spring 2007), a group of Italian Milan fans unfurled a banner saying (in English) “There’s no tripe for cats,” meaning that there was no hope for the other team to win, though probably only the Italians understood it that way.

Tanto va la gatta al lardo che ci lascia lo zampino

“The [female] cat goes so often to the lard that [sooner or later] she will leave her little paw [print] in it.”

In other words, the cat is so irresistibly attracted to the lard (to eat it), that sooner or later you will know exactly whom to blame: a habitual malefactor will eventually be caught. This reflects the fact that many criminals don’t seem to have much imagination, but keep exploiting the same formula over and over again, which makes it easier for the good guys to catch them.

Dogs

Dogs are known for not having easy lives. Which is certainly true in Italy – urban dogs become neurotic cooped up in tiny apartments, and when out for their walks are the targets of hatred from non-dog-owners, who know that most Italian dog owners will not clean up after their pets, rendering city streets disgusting and parks hazardous for children to play in.

Every year thousands of dogs (and cats) are abandoned on the roadsides by families who are going away for the usual long vacation and can’t think of anything better to do with them. At this time of year the newspapers are full of pious “moral campaigns” pointing out that this is hazardous to humans as well as cruel to the animals: lost dogs wandering onto highways cause traffic accidents.

It’s not surprising that in Italian, as in English, people refer to…

Una Vita da Cani

“A dogs’ life.”

Dirlo ai Cani e Porci

“Tell it to dogs and pigs.”

To broadcast something, probably someone’s personal news, to every possible listener, no matter how unlikely to be interested.

Birds

Conosco i miei polli – “I know my [own] chickens”. Used when you know someone so well that you can predict how they will behave in a given situation. My own speculations on the origin of this phrase.

I know I’m missing more animal idioms – feel free to add!

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Woodstock School

More Reasons to Send Your Child to Woodstock School

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I thought of a few more answers to the question: Why send your child to Woodstock School?

The Natural Environment

The photo above was taken from the top of the hill above school at dawn on a November morning. Need I say more? Look through the rest of the Woodstock section of this site, as well as the early part of the travel blog from my trip to India with my daughter two years ago, and you’ll see more of the extraordinary beauties of Mussoorie.

People tend to come out of Woodstock with a profound appreciation for – and desire to protect – the beauties of nature. A number have been inspired to make a career of it.

Extraordinary People

Another reason to send your child to Woodstock is that it produces some extraordinary people – and the ones on that page are just (some of) those who have an online presence that I can link to!

International Community

Though the specific demographics have shifted over the years, Woodstock has always been an international community made up of students and staff from dozens of nations, races, traditions, and religions. In such a context, you learn to get along well with everybody, to be sensitive to cultural differences, to find divergences stimulating rather than threatening.

In today’s globalized world, this is perhaps the most important kind of education any school could hope to provide.

You’re an Alum Yourself

A very strong reason to send your child to Woodstock, obviously, is that you yourself went there and loved it. I don’t have exact statistics (have asked the school), but it seems that a large proportion of alumni do send their children (and/or grandchildren, nieces, nephews, children of friends…) to share in this extraordinary experience. Some don’t quite manage to get their kids there for whatever reasons (finance, geography, lack of interest from the kids themselves), but they try, and some regret it all their lives if they don’t succeed.

The case mentioned earlier of the German boy who found Woodstock online and decided to go there is actually very unusual: people most often end up at Woodstock because of word-of-mouth recommendations from alumni and former staff. My husband accuses me, with some justice, of trying to “proselytize” Woodstock to everyone I meet. Well, that’s what I do with things I’m passionate about: I talk (and write) about them.

Now it’s your turn: if you’ve already decided to send your child to Woodstock, why did you? If your child has already gone, did the school fulfill your expectations for him/her? If you’re thinking about sending your child, what else would you like to know?

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living in Italy

Hot, Hot, Hot!

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Several large Italian companies have instituted a new energy-saving policy for summer: no ties. Open shirts (presumably without jackets) will mean the menfolks can live with less air conditioning, saving on electricity costs and environmental impact.

Al Gore, giving a speech in Rome on the day of the Live Earth concerts, missed an opportunity to embody this philosophy: he was dressed in a suit and tie, and sweated like a pig on stage. I guess no one told him that Italians don’t crank up the A/C nearly as much as Americans do (even before these new ideas came along).

i’m all for it – I always thought ties were fairly silly anyway, though I do understand that for some men they’re a chance to add a touch of personality to the otherwise dull male uniform. But not everyone is happy. Enrico saw an article in the Lecco paper that a local tie manufacturer was furious – if this goes on, his business will be ruined. Which leads me to wonder: how is the tie industry doing in the US these days? Surely the office casual revolution of some years ago pretty much killed it.

It seems to me that in the US nowadays, ties are most often worn by politicians and bankers. Wearing a tie may become a status statement: “I can wear a tie because I can afford a lot of air conditioning.” Which will, in turn, get flipped around by the environmentally-conscious: “You wear a tie, you must be wasting a lot of energy on air conditioning. And I’ll bet you drive a Hummer, too, you asshole.”

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Italian culture

Where Italians Go on Vacation

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Someone asked on Frommer’s: “Where do Italians go on vacation?”

The majority go to the beach. For at least a century, a seaside vacation has been considered healthful: during the Fascist period, ocean front “colonies” were built, where urban children could be sent to escape the grime of the cities.

The month-long summer vacation is still a reality for many Italians, who transfer their families (often including one or more grandparents) to a seaside hotel, apartment, or a trailer and tent in a campground. Even if Dad’s working, Mom and the kids will be there, with Dad perhaps driving down at weekends. Many families own second homes at or near the seaside, so take their vacations in the same place, year after year. It seems to be part of Italian culture to crave the comfort of familiarity and routine, even when you’re away from home.

Italy is a long peninsula, and also owns a lot of islands in a range of sizes, so there are plenty of beaches to go to, depending on your tastes and the size of your wallet. Choices range from the upscale, such as Portofino, Sardegna’s “Emerald Coast”, and Capri to… places that normal people can afford.

For family reasons, most of my Italian beach experiences to date have been very much in the affordable category, in Abruzzo on Italy’s central Adriatic coast. Having grown up in Thailand when it was still an unspoiled tropical paradise, I was astonished the first time I saw the Italian idea of a holiday beach: row after row of umbrellas, so close together that you could barely see the sand between them. I never have learned to see the charm of this.

(^ The photo at top shows a relatively roomy beach, by some Italian standards!)

Far from being relaxing, Italian resort towns are usually buzzing with activity: from early morning until late at night, you see (and hear) everyone (old and young) out and about, swimming, sunning (yes, tanning is still considered healthy here), strolling, chatting, eating gelato, being “animated“, until late at night. At least the afternoon siesta is held sacred!

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Deirdré Straughan on Italy, India, the Internet, the world, and now Australia