Always on the side of egg

A writer special for me. His speech at Jerusalem Prize, Israel's highest literary honour for foreign writers.

From Haruki Murakami

I have come to Jerusalem today as a novelist, which is to say as a professional spinner of lies.

Of course, novelists are not the only ones who tell lies. Politicians do it, too, as we all know. Diplomats and military men tell their own kinds of lies on occasion, as do used car salesmen, butchers and builders. The lies of novelists differ from others, however, in that no one criticizes the novelist as immoral for telling them. Indeed, the bigger and better his lies and the more ingeniously he creates them, the more he is likely to be praised by the public and the critics. Why should that be?

My answer would be this: Namely, that by telling skillful lies - which is to say, by making up fictions that appear to be true - the novelist can bring a truth out to a new location and shine a new light on it. In most cases, it is virtually impossible to grasp a truth in its original form and depict it accurately. This is why we try to grab its tail by luring the truth from its hiding place, transferring it to a fictional location, and replacing it with a fictional form. In order to accomplish this, however, we first have to clarify where the truth lies within us. This is an important qualification for making up good lies.
Today, however, I have no intention of lying. I will try to be as honest as I can. There are a few days in the year when I do not engage in telling lies, and today happens to be one of them.

So let me tell you the truth. A fair number of people advised me not to come here to accept the Jerusalem Prize. Some even warned me they would instigate a boycott of my books if I came.

The reason for this, of course, was the fierce battle that was raging in Gaza. The UN reported that more than a thousand people had lost their lives in the blockaded Gaza City, many of them unarmed citizens - children and old people.

Any number of times after receiving notice of the award, I asked myself whether traveling to Israel at a time like this and accepting a literary prize was the proper thing to do, whether this would create the impression that I supported one side in the conflict, that I endorsed the policies of a nation that chose to unleash its overwhelming military power. This is an impression, of course, that I would not wish to give. I do not approve of any war, and I do not support any nation. Neither, of course, do I wish to see my books subjected to a boycott.



Finally, however, after careful consideration, I made up my mind to come here. One reason for my decision was that all too many people advised me not to do it. Perhaps, like many other novelists, I tend to do the exact opposite of what I am told. If people are telling me - and especially if they are warning me - "don't go there," "don't do that," I tend to want to "go there" and "do that." It's in my nature, you might say, as a novelist. Novelists are a special breed. They cannot genuinely trust anything they have not seen with their own eyes or touched with their own hands.

And that is why I am here. I chose to come here rather than stay away. I chose to see for myself rather than not to see. I chose to speak to you rather than to say nothing.

This is not to say that I am here to deliver a political message. To make judgments about right and wrong is one of the novelist's most important duties, of course.

It is left to each writer, however, to decide upon the form in which he or she will convey those judgments to others. I myself prefer to transform them into stories - stories that tend toward the surreal. Which is why I do not intend to stand before you today delivering a direct political message.

Please do, however, allow me to deliver one very personal message. It is something that I always keep in mind while I am writing fiction. I have never gone so far as to write it on a piece of paper and paste it to the wall: Rather, it is carved into the wall of my mind, and it goes something like this:

‘Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.’


Yes, no matter how right the wall may be and how wrong the egg, I will stand with the egg. Someone else will have to decide what is right and what is wrong; perhaps time or history will decide. If there were a novelist who, for whatever reason, wrote works standing with the wall, of what value would such works be?

What is the meaning of this metaphor? In some cases, it is all too simple and clear. Bombers and tanks and rockets and white phosphorus shells are that high, solid wall. The eggs are the unarmed civilians who are crushed and burned and shot by them. This is one meaning of the metaphor.

This is not all, though. It carries a deeper meaning. Think of it this way. Each of us is, more or less, an egg. Each of us is a unique, irreplaceable soul enclosed in a fragile shell. This is true of me, and it is true of each of you. And each of us, to a greater or lesser degree, is confronting a high, solid wall. The wall has a name: It is The System. The System is supposed to protect us, but sometimes it takes on a life of its own, and then it begins to kill us and cause us to kill others - coldly, efficiently, systematically.

I have only one reason to write novels, and that is to bring the dignity of the individual soul to the surface and shine a light upon it. The purpose of a story is to sound an alarm, to keep a light trained on The System in order to prevent it from tangling our souls in its web and demeaning them. I fully believe it is the novelist's job to keep trying to clarify the uniqueness of each individual soul by writing stories - stories of life and death, stories of love, stories that make people cry and quake with fear and shake with laughter. This is why we go on, day after day, concocting fictions with utter seriousness.

My father died last year at the age of 90. He was a retired teacher and a part-time Buddhist priest. When he was in graduate school, he was drafted into the army and sent to fight in China. As a child born after the war, I used to see him every morning before breakfast offering up long, deeply-felt prayers at the Buddhist altar in our house. One time I asked him why he did this, and he told me he was praying for the people who had died in the war.

He was praying for all the people who died, he said, both ally and enemy alike. Staring at his back as he knelt at the altar, I seemed to feel the shadow of death hovering around him.

My father died, and with him he took his memories, memories that I can never know. But the presence of death that lurked about him remains in my own memory. It is one of the few things I carry on from him, and one of the most important.

I have only one thing I hope to convey to you today. We are all human beings, individuals transcending nationality and race and religion, fragile eggs faced with a solid wall called The System. To all appearances, we have no hope of winning. The wall is too high, too strong - and too cold. If we have any hope of victory at all, it will have to come from our believing in the utter uniqueness and irreplaceability of our own and others' souls and from the warmth we gain by joining souls together.

Take a moment to think about this. Each of us possesses a tangible, living soul. The System has no such thing. We must not allow The System to exploit us. We must not allow The System to take on a life of its own. The System did not make us: We made The System.

That is all I have to say to you.

I am grateful to have been awarded the Jerusalem Prize. I am grateful that my books are being read by people in many parts of the world. And I am glad to have had the opportunity to speak to you here today.
(Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1064909.html; photos are found on internet)

About Haruki Murakami

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/murakami/site.php?id=
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/m/haruki_murakami/index.html

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Shibuya at Parma。New Year’s eve fireworks

Among all the dishes, sushi has always been the special one for me. When I was in Hong Kong, I have to eat sushi few times a week. But in Italy, it is really difficult to find good ones.

Milan, Florence and Turin, these 3 important touristic and commercial cities, one can find many Japanese restaurants there and it is comparatively easier to find a fairly good one.

A year ago, I found this new Japanese restaurant by coincidence when I was refilling the car at the 24-hour natural gas station in Parma, the restaurant is just opposite to the station. My passion for food and for trying new restaurant encouraged me to give it a try without hesitation. That is how the relationship started between Shibuya and me.


Frankly speaking, the food in Shibuya is not surprising fabulous. But the sushi made by their sushi chef is very nice, at least much better than many other Japanese restaurants in Italy. The raw seafood are fresh and the price is affordable. I asked the owner and learnt that the sushi chef is from Singapore where he got many years of sushi-making training. That is why they are particularly serious on ingredient selection; the seafood should be fresh enough.

Fresh seafood delivery on every Tuesday and Friday, so if you like Toro sushi (the fatty belly of tuna) then you have to wait for these two days. Raw shrimps, scallops, grilled eels, and tempura shrimps sushi are nice too. Other than those, they have a nice collection of sake.

The hot dishes other than sushi are fair, I recommend you focus on their sushi menu.


After the dinner, we went to the house of the friend of Corrado. At the New Year’s eve, twenty of us young people, obviously, were playing something dumb and exciting: the Firecracker! Everyone got their firecrackers from the Chinese store. That night, Dario’s 8-euro firecracker beat everyone, it was just like the million-dollar fireworks!

That night, we played bingo and Poker until 5 o’clock in the morning. 2010 started in this way. And I am looking forward to my trip back home.








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Soften the opponent jaw with a tasty chicken leg

We have a wonderful proverb ‘soften the opponent jaw with a tasty chicken leg.’It means to bribe someone with small gift. But why chicken leg? Because the thigh is the softest part of chicken and we enjoy them with pleasure. Imagine a hot debate in which neither side wants to cede the other is right. At this point, one of them pulls out a tasty marinaded chicken leg. The marinaded chicken leg is light brown, bright and juicy. Imagine having this chicken leg in front of the mouth of your opponent, a nice smell of spices from the thigh exudes meat juice. At this point, your opponent will not want more debate. No more space in his mind except have a bit of this chicken leg, and he will do what you say.

The real charm of the marinaded chicken leg is that it seems greasy from the outlook but this sensation disappears altogether in mouth. Only the meat juice in the mouth, then the fragrance of chicken, the meat is so tender but still chewy. To make good marinaded chicken leg, young chicken is needed. In the old days, at my grandmother's house could always find tender chicken leg because they used to breed chicken at home. Chicken were raised in a bamboo cage and were fed only rice, since they could not walk a lot, their meat was very soft. However, it is difficult to find chicken like that now.

Besides finding right chicken, it is very important to make good marinade liquid. The liquid is made with water, salt, sugar, star anise, cumin seed, dried tangerine peel, soy sauce and rice distilled liquor. The dose of each ingredient depends on the family. The chicken is bathed in the marinade liquid until it is cooked. Important to note that the liquid is hot, about 70°C, but not boiled. The chicken is then cooked slowly at low temperature. In this way, the meat is soft and can hold within itself all the sauce.

There are those who say to use the same marinade liquid for several years. Soy sauce and water is added after being used every time. For this reason, a chicken leg may have within it the intense flavor of many others.

Ingredients for marinade liquid
5g star anise
5g Sichuan pepper
4g Cloves
10g fennel seeds
4 bay leaves
10g Cinnamon
1 piece dried tangerine peel (can be found in Asian stores)
2 liters of water
2 tablespoon white sugar
10 tablespoons soy sauce

Preparation of chicken thigh marinade
Boil all ingredients together. When the liquid boils, lower the heat to the lowest and put the chicken leg into the liquid. Make sure the leg is completely covered by the liquid. Turn off the heat when the liquid starts boiling. Leave the lid closed for several hours. The dish is ready. You can try to bribe someone!


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Egg Tart Hong Kong style

Merry Christmas to all who love food! A Hong Kong style egg tart for you as a gift (but make it with your own hands)!

Living in a foreign country, when I want to have a piece of Hong Kong style Egg
Tart, there is no way to find them. Even if there are many delicious desserts Italy, still cannot replace the Hong Kong style egg tart in my heart.

The egg tart well made, can have a diameter greater than 5 inches and can be eaten in one bit, or two only if you have small mouths. The crispy base is the short pastry, the filling is egg custard with light yellow colour and the flavour is milky. All that melts inside your mouth together. The more I think of the egg tart, the more I feel homesick and make me one.

Making Hong Kong style egg tart is not as easy as it seems. The pastry base cannot be too thick, otherwise it would be like eating cookies and pudding, but if it is too thin, it would break easily and the filling would leak out. To make a right filling, the ratio of eggs and water is very important. If the water is too little filling becomes hard, if too much, the filling becomes watery.

The ingredients to make the egg tart can be easily found everywhere: butter, fresh eggs, milk, flour, icing sugar and water. I have no problem to find them in Italy, and indeed there is an advantage. The milk in Italy, in fact, is raw milk and fresh, whereas in Hong Kong there is only skimmed and pasteurized. Then in Italy, you can also find fresh eggs from local farmers. These are high quality ingredients to make egg tart .

Ingredients for short pasrty:
Plain flour 225g
Butter 125g
Icing sugar 55g
1 egg

Ingredients for filling:
3 eggs
white suger 110g
warm water 225g
fresh milk 85g
vanilla extract half tea spoon

Preparation of Hong Kong style egg tart:
1. Leave the butter at room temperature until it becomes soft. Mix the butter, sugar and egg to make the dough. Then add the flour gradually and knead for several minutes.
2. Divide the dough into small balls (the amount for the tart mold), then roll out the dough round in shape and thin about half centimeter. With your fingers, give the dough the shape of the mold.
3. Prepare the filling: dissolve the sugar in warm water.
4. Mix the eggs and fresh milk. Then add the sugar water and stir. The filling is ready.
5. Pour the filling into the mold.
6. Put the tarts in a preheated oven at 200 ° C for 25 minutes.








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Seafood restaurant。Sushi。 La Mandragola

I keep searching a good seafood restaurant. This statement from a Hong Kongnese sounds awkward. At home, if you want eating seafood, just put on your flip-flops then go downstairs and walk for few meters, there will always be a seafood restaurant nearby. When we said seafood (in Chinese we said ‘Sea fresh’, we mean really fresh one and actually live one.

I have been staying in Italy for 3 years, and I am still searching a good seafood restaurant. Maybe because I am in the North, if I want to find seafood fresh as those in Hong Kong, I need to go south, Sicily. Ah Yes! In Hong Kong, everything is so convenience. You can always find what you want.


But isn’t that Italy is a peninsular? Italy is surrounded by Mediterranean Sea, how come it is difficult to find good seafood? I have asked the same question many times to my Italian friends, however, there is still no a precise answer. In Italy, seafood can be fresh (preserved at frigde temperature), defrosted or frozen but never sell alive. On the other hand, fresh seafood are always very expensive. Maybe because of money, seafood is not popular. And maybe because of that here in northern Italy, it is not easy to find chef know cooking good seafood.

How expensive are they in Italy? For example, in Hong Kong, we usually go to SaiKung for seafood dinner, where customers can choose seafood alive in many different small aquarium. Then the customers can decide how to cook the seafood. For 4 persons, about 8 big dishes of seafood (including lobster, clams…) also the drinks, it costs about 100 euro in total. Instead, in Italy, if I go dine outside for seafood, I have to go to restaurant a bit high class and elegant, each single dish costs at least 15 euro. So a dinner for 2, from starters to second courses, you will receive a bill of about 100 euro, but the quality varies from place to place.


In recent years, sushi is a fashion way of eating in Italy. Many Japanese restaurants owned by Chinese were opened. But now, those new ones are owned by Italians. Anyway, it is very difficult to find an original Japanese restaurant owned by Japanese in Italy.
In a conservative town like Mantova, there you can only find traditional restaurant serving Mantovano cuisine. Creative, new or foreigners’ cuisines are almost zero. But now, there is change. In the last month, there is a new franchised sushi shop owned by Italian, their fan page on Facebook has more than 4000 fans.

We went to try out this famous sushi shop in Mantova one Wednesday last month. Modern interior design, like eating in a spaceship. Once I entered the shop, I scanned immediately the sushi bar table where is the high altar for sushi chef, there I saw 3 young Chinese chef making sushi. Maybe it was Wednesdays, the shop was quite empty. I ordered the basic sushi: salmon, tuna, eels. (we had like 12 pieces a bottle of still water and a beer and eventually it cost 32€)

From the moment we ordered till we left was less than 30 minutes. The girl at the cashier looked at us worriedly and asked, ‘Everything okay?’
I thought it was not their fault. If they never had the original sushi, they couldn’t know what is sushi! However, I do not expect that they opened 4 franchised shops in northern Italy with this level of food quality. I am sorry to say, the eels tasted plastic, the fish tasted nothing and the sushi rice tasted like sticky rice, they have the same texture as the rice in the rice cake.

Though we have some bad experiences, our appetite is still good. We have heard a good seafood restaurant from Corrado’s auntie whom lives in Guastalla. ‘La Mandragola’is just 15 minutes car distance from our house. But they never appeared on any famous national guidebooks, neither information on internet, only words from mouth passes by the locals. From 2001, the couple have opened this restaurant at the angle of Guastalla with an orchard.

We came here to try last night at 8.30.

Once we entered the restaurant, a young waiter came to us to greet us. He brought us to the waiting area and 2 glasses of Procesco, spakling wine for aperitivo. Then, he brought us the menu and the wine list. While we were having our aperitivo, we could choose what we want to eat. After we ordered, waiter brought us two little cups filled with polenta and meat sauce.

When we were relaxing in the waiting room, the waiter was preparing our table. So that when we took seats, there were already everything we ordered, the water, the wine and the homemade bread. This type of service is a new experience.


I ordered:
Starter
Cashew Scallops Braised with Porcini Mushrooms and Olive Vanilla 13€

The scallops are so fresh! And it is cooked perfectly, just done. In the month, you can taste the meaty scallops with porcini and the flavour of leek, so delicious! This is my dish!

First Course
Barley risotto with Sicilian red shrimp 13€

The freshness of the shrimps can be noticed easily, especially from its colour. The speciality of this dish is that the chef replaces rice with barley to make traditional risotto. With little soup that cooked with shrimps. The head of the shrimp was the highlight. Very tasty!

Second Course
Mille-feuille of seabass with winter vegetables 16€

In Europe, seabass are usually served without skin, but this dish is an opposite to the norm, the seabass is grilled with fish skin and they taste really good. Delicate flavour of seabass melts with the sweetness of the winter vegetables.

Corrado ordered:
Starter
Smoked goose breast with salad 12€


First Course
Small ravioli of tuna with octopus on pumkin sauces


Second Course
Tuna steak-cut with radicchio, walnut and apple 16€


For pairing wine, Corrado chose the white wine Gewurztraminer 2006 of Elena Walch from Alto Adige.
They have a nice collection of wines in the wine list. I realized later that the owner is also a Sommelier, that is why.
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Snow at home

Snowing!
This morning I woke up and looked out the window, it is all white outside. Snowing!
The snow hides the confusion of the ongoing rennovation work in the old house.
We and the cat stay well in the house, in front of the fireplace while it is snowing outside. The colder the outside, the hotter the inside.

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Wine of Soave。The soul of restaurant

Our blog is blank for a month, the fact is that we have been studying a lot and trying to settle tasks in this month. In the process of preparation of our restaurant, every single thing, even the most trivial one can give incalculable influence on the finished result. We continue to read books, travel around to try food and wine, practice the recipes, then we observe the styles, prices and customers groups of other restaurants. It takes much time studying the market, but it is essential. Even if we have many good ideas, at the end, opening a restaurant is a business, costs, prices, and competitors all these necessary evils we need to understand and digest.

All these information that we are gathering now will help us to write the soul of our restaurant: that is obviously the menu and the wine list. To reconcile our ideas with those necessary evil into a list is not an easy task.

Don’t know how many times that I have been to some restaurants whose wine list was written unclearly. In the list, there were only names of wines and prices, while harvest years, producer and grapes types are not mentioned. Another time it happened to me that I have chosen a wine of 2006, but finally the waiter brought a bottle of 2008. As a customer, I felt cheated, and I thought that these managers do not know the products they sell.

To avoid ourselves falling into this level, we prefer putting products that we know in our menu. Even if you cannot personally visit all producers of our products, but we study their production, or we are in contact with them. Furthermore, we must first taste all the products that we will propose. I think that customers will feel the care of these details in the menu and in the relationship with the managers.

I am convinced that this is the fundamental difference between an ordinary restaurant and a good restaurant.

After visiting Soave last week, this concept has become even clearer.
It was a beautiful day. It was a clear day after a foggy and rainy week. In one hour of drive between Suzzara and Soave, the sky was so blue, like a garden full of blue daze, without clouds and Mount Baldo could be seen clearly was covered with snow.



The street in the old town center of Soave is neat and clear, the sun was shinning on the old stones, made them shiny. Dried bunches of grapes were hanging above the ancient gateway as if saying to those arriving, ‘watch out! you are entering Soave, the city of wine.’ Through the narrow streets of the old town, we arrived a wine house where our friend Giovanni is working for the Soave Consortium(Il Consorzio Tutela Soave). Giovanni has blond and baby soft hair and young appearance, but when he starts talking the wines of Soave, immediately transforms into an old scholar and explains to us everything from geography of the territory to the production speciality of each wine-making company. He is our teacher and following his advice we go to visit 2 producers.

Locating at Costalunga, the ‘I Stefanini’ vineyard started to bottle their wines in 2003. They used to sell their grapes to the cooperative winery 50 years prior to 2003. Although they have a relatively short production history, they have an important past work experiences in grape fields. Perhaps for that reason, their Soave Classico Monte di Fice 2007 is awarded ‘3 glasses’the best valutation in a 2009 national wine-guide.

Producer Valentino looks robust, square face with a pair of thick and black eyebrow, there is no doubt in his eyes. He explained to us with great patience on their production process and their terrior. He said, ‘Before the 90s, many companies in Soave made wines in bulk, quantity was the sole objective. But the volcanic soil in Soave has great potential and gives our wines great character ... we use stainless steel for fermentation and wine making, we believe in our quality, but still it needs more time to change the previous image of Soave Classico wine.’

The golden color of their Soave Classico Monte di Fice, clear, bright and elegant, it is the exact opposite to Valentino’s tough outlook . In the mouth, you can feel lots of mineral flavour in the wine, almost metallic, it reminds me so of Sicilian white wine from the volcanic soils of Etna. Its elegant outlook does not hide its strong character, same as its producer.

The vibrancy of 'I Stefanini' is very different from that precisely feminine, flavors of grapefruit and flowers of the Soave Classico Monte carbonate from ‘Suava’ vineyard. Two wine-making companies produce wines with flavours so differently even if they are only 15 minutes away by car in distance. This is an important character of the Soave wine-making zone. In only 10 meters away, there are several crus and the grapes are different.

‘Suavia’was already owned by Tesseri family since 1887. At that time, they sold their grapes to cooperative winery. It was in 1982 that the owners decided to change and created their own label. Now the company is run by two of the four daughters. The cellar is locating at the beautiful hillside facing the peaks of Mount Carbonare, on which some of the vineyards owned by ‘Suavia’ have the greatest elevation of the entire denomination of Soave Classico.

We arrived 'Suavia' at 11am. The sun was shinning on the slopes of Mount Carbonare, it looks like the silhouette of a girl. Meri, was one of four daughters, came out to greet us. She has fair skin color, just like the color of their wines. Although this was the first time we met, we had an hour-long chat before we started wine-tasting. In the conversation, Meri gave me the impression of being liberal but conservative. She was very open to learn everything in the wine field, but true to the traditional taste of the Soave Classico, created from the territory and closely linked to it, the climate and the personality of the producer.

Before we left, Meri gave us an advice. 'In the future, you may meet people with superficial knowledge of wine or gastronomy, but feel themselves experts. Do not be offended, but be well-prepared of yourselves. Explain to them with your knowledge, you will see that those who really love food, will let go their egos and listen with pleasure. '

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Tailor。Identity

I understand more each day that builder is a job very philosophical. If, for a moment, take your eyes off the muscles of the builders and the heaviness of their work, what remains behind is actually very delicate and philosophical. In recent months, builders have demolished all the old walls they could, remained only a shell. Then, they built new walls, and now they are cutting the new walls.

Yes! Demolish then build, and demolish again. It is like making clothes, the builders made the fabrics and then it is the turn of the tailors. Plumbers and electricians arrived with the scale in their hands, they measured the walls and made signs of the walls with spray where the cuts will be made. The signs have filled the house. And then, the builders have to cut exactly the signs on the walls.

Here it is, the work of builders is not rigid as it seems, but very delicate and needs to create an organic space for humans.

But what kind of space we want to create in the old house? Same for the clothes, everyone has their own taste. This month, we heard many suggestions and made serious conversations to answer this question. After listening to each proposal or new idea we were getting closer to the finish. The question: ‘what kind of space we want to create?’, No matter what type of design to follow, the space we have is small and the furniture that we can use to fill it will be more functional than pure decoration.

Over the last 15 years, I have eaten outside home at least 10 times per week, and when I was away for work, I ate out every day. I have tried many things: from 3 star Michelin restaurant to street food. Now that I have to open a restaurant, I ask myself again and again: "What kind of restaurant I want to do?".

‘Let’s do white walls’ or ‘let’s have the wooden flooring’ all these endless discussion do not response to the question. There are thousands and thousands types of design and each of them favour someone and disguise someone.

From the moment we decided to open a restaurant, I have the same question mark in my mind: ‘Of all the places I have eaten over the past 15 years, what I remember the most?’ The restaurants that make me want to return is not for the Design they have, but the ones where I ate well or had an interesting chat with the owners, where I spent a pleasant evening with friends.

The memory, the environment and the spaces of a restaurant is created by people and the food. The identity of our restaurant will come from our character and our dishes. And ... design? Well, any design you will ever have, you can’t eat it.



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Cut a big piece of barbecued pork!

At home, when mothers scold their children, they always say, ‘it would have been better to give birth to a big piece of barbecued pork instead of you! At least now, I could eat it instead of being annoyed!’ Don’t know how many times I have heard this phrase, and every time I hear, I feel closer to this tradition national dish - Barbecue pork.

I still remember when I went to work in Wanchai, I loved going to a shop called ‘Zai Hing’. Their barbecued pork is with 30% fat and 70% meat, slightly burnt. Every bite, I thought of the words of my mother and I could not help to agree with her more and more. It is indeed a very good pork barbecue. Perhaps it is true, better the pork than having a daughter like me.

Since barbecued pork is my favourite dish, I always sneak around looking for the finest barbecued pork in town. At one point I discovered that many of the barbecue pork shops are not as good as they used to be, and the meat became hard as wood. The problem is that Hong Kong people are not eating pork fat anymore, so farmers tend to breed pigs with as little fat as possible. The taste of pork barbecue is changed.

On the other hand, there are shops that seek to reduce costs by using food colouring to imitate the original red colour of the dish. The typical red-brown colour of barbecued pork is given by a marinade with red yeast rice and soy sauce, where it is soaked for hours and hours.

It is already difficult to find good barbecued pork in Hong Kong, in Italy, it just simply does not exist. But what can I do if I want to eat? I have to work, I have to make on my own, there is no choice. To make the barbecued pork, meat from shoulder area is used, because it is soft and fat. But this time, I saw a nice piece of pork neck (capocollo) with nice marbling. To make barbecued pork, it should be cooked in big piece without cutting into slices.

Get a kilo of pork neck meat and cut it in half. To make barbecued pork at home, it should be boiled first in boiling water until it is about 70% cooked. Then it can be marinated. The reason why the meat has to be cooked in boiling water first is because it helps the meat to lose a large amount of oil. Thanks to this, when the meat is then grilled over fire will remain soft and will not become hard.


(I used organic soy sauce from Taiwan.)

After it is cooked, cut it into slices and serve. The best way to enjoy barbecued pork is with plain rice. It is just delicious!

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II. Another side of the World

When you are occupied by your routine, do you ever think about what is happening in another side of the world...?

In Pakistan
When we think of Pakistan as a very conservative country, certainly not think of, Ali Saleem, a transvestite who hosts a famous talk show. With this program, Ali has interviewed many of the most important politicians of the country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/world/asia/03karachi.html



In London
If in any corner of your city, one day, suddenly, there are flowers, then perhaps it means that the group of Guerrilla Gardening has past by. The Guerrilla Gardening is an open group, it's green enthusiasts who have decided to interact positively with the urban space through small acts of demonstration, what they call green ‘attack’. Guerrilla Gardening is opposed to urban decay actively acting against the neglect of green areas.


In United States
Tired of the usual TV programs? The site, Fora TV, collects unmediated videos and transmits them for free to the world. The era of television is going to be at sunset.

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San Benedetto Po 。Town festival

Sometimes, photos speak better than words.

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Another side of the World

When you are occupied by your routine, do you ever think about what is happening in another side of the world...?

Ukraine
The champion of the television program ‘Ukraine's got is talent 2009’is Kseniya Simonova, an young artist.


United States
Technology brings wisdom. Now, we no longer have to be physically within the walls of university but we can study from home. Site ‘Academic Earth’ has collected many videos of lectures from various prestigious universities. Me and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is just one click away.

Watch it on Academic Earth

Holland
Project21, in collaboration with two Japanese designers Yuri Suzuki and Masa Kimura to build a breakfast machine. Like the one of Pee Wee in the film, and it is really going to work!

(the video is in Dutch, but at least you can see the machine)

The video below is for those who never seen or does not know Pee Wee! After you saw the breakfast machine of Pee Wee, surely you will want one too!

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Farmhouse Nascondiglio di Bacco

In October, the wine producing area in the middle of Tesino and Tronto valleys, near Ascoli Piceno, the hillside looks like waves, they are all brown, brown of the bricks. I like going visit the vineyards in this season because it is the time right after the harvest. The whole area is producing wine and in every corner can smell the fragrant of wine; it is also nice to have walks, I can pick (surreptitiously) and eat the leftover grapes in the vineyard.

I went to Ascoli Piceno this time to visit my friends. Two master program classmates. Dwight from United States and Raffaele from Ascoli Piceno, they got a farm after graduation, and started to produce organic wine and olive oil. Dwight has left his job as a surgeon and his cosmopolitan life, and came to Italy for a master in gastronomy. I never asked what had prompted him to change life in this way, as there is no need to ask. When I saw the straw hat on his head, and he was telling me full of happiness, ‘now, on my business card, my title is Farmer.’ I knew that he is doing something he likes.

The farmhouse Nascondiglio di Bacco, as the name says, is truly a hidden place. The perfect place where the god of wine Bacchus can avoid its obligations, and spend time with Dwight, Raffa and their guests happy moments and in return by giving them his most sincere alcoholic spirit. Here, in the morning the vineyards and olive groves fill the sky, while in the evening there are only stars and silence. Legend says that the Sabine, an ancient tribe from the central Apennines followed a woodpecker and arrived in this beautiful hidden valley. Perhaps because of this legend, perhaps due to the magnificent landscape, perhaps the special silence or perhaps all of these, here, one can really breathe a mysterious atmosphere.

After having taken the wrong way for several times, we reached the farmhouse at 7 pm but it was so dark that I could not see an inch from my nose. From far, I saw a ball of black fur coming toward us, it was Bacco! Black golden retriver of Dwight. I was really curious to see how the farmhouse looks like run by two big boys. Soft yellow walls in the living room blends well with the dark wood furniture, next to the entrance, there is a sand pendulum, then a gray couch. There are many small religious decorations, brought by Dwight from the states. The style of the rooms is simple and elegant. The terrace is my room is larger than the room itself. But the biggest surprise is that the style of the farmhouse that runs by 2 guys is pure southern France.

That night I slept very well. As I wake up, I went on the terrace watching the panoramic scene of Tronto valley, with the song ‘Breathe’ of Pink Floyd in my mind.
Breathe, breathe in the air.
Don't be afraid to care.
Leave but don't leave me.
Look around and choose your own ground.

Long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be.

Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down it's time to dig another one.

For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race towards an early grave.


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Steamed eggs

At home in Hong Kong, steamed egg is a perfect dish when we need to add some more food for dinner suddenly when there are few more unexpected guests. Just an egg from the fridge, then you can make a plate of steamed egg for 2 people. From the moment you break the eggs to the final product requires only 10 minutes. It is a dish with delicate taste, nice colour and fragrant. Even though steamed egg looks very easy to do, there are many people do it wrong, or like soufflé, or have many small holes on the surface.

The perfect steamed egg should have the colour as yellow as chrysanthemum, then with the texture as smooth as Japanese silky tofu with delicate aroma of eggs.

At Friday farmers' market, many local farmers come to sell their products. There is a stand where the farmer sells poultry and eggs. I bought two dozen eggs and spent only 2 euro, 6 for making salted eggs, 3 for fresh pasta, one for steamed egg. Those fresh eggs look all different, the shells are so thin that when you break them you can hear a sound like when you break the caramelized layer on the surface of creme brulee. The yolks are golden, beautiful.

To make a dish of steamed egg smooth as fresh Japanese silky tofu, the first step is to whisk the eggs until you can see bubbles, this process is important not only to mix the yolks and the white, but also (we say) to awake the eggs. After that, add a little oil and continue whisking, the oil is to make the egg smooth. Then, add water and salt. The amount of water is very important. Remember not to throw away the shell of the egg, so it can be used as water measure. For each egg needs one and half shell of water. Then steam it for 3 minutes and is ready to be served.

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Grape Festival at Bondeno

Innovation does not mean breaking with the past. But to integrate itself to an established value of bond among people, places, stories, objects and events that have defined.

。where: Center of Bondeno - Court Matilda and Piazza IV Novembre
。period: late September and early October every year.
。Events: Selection of the three most beautiful female in autumn, crushing grapes with feet, exhibition of medieval workshops, production of Lambrusco, etc..


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The terrace and Captain Bottazzi (by Paolo)

‘Captain’ Bottazzi said: ‘the delivery will be ready by a week or at the most ten days.’

For nearly a century the attic was left in the dark, and for another century the attic will remain in the dark, covered by the new roof guaranteed by all.
But for the first ten days of October 2009 ... sun, sunshine and light for those stones that never saw and will never see again. For the walls that just released from the burden of stone and wooden beams; for those floors never swept or cleaned; for those spaces that is free from thousand objects witnessed those memories and events is now preparing to welcome a new life.

There was also full moon to ensure maximum nightlight, creating unnatural shadows in the labyrinths of rough walls, and faded age-old dust.

But captain Botazzi said that is possible, there is the terrace and there will be, the roof will not return to cover the whole house. A portion of the attic will have the light of the sun, moon and stars, will have rain and snow, will collect yellow leaves from the far brought by winds. There will be, I hope, a nest of swallow that is missing from too many years.


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via Zonta 1970 (by Paolo)

Time does what it should; passes.
Sixty years, three thousand one hundred weeks, about seven hundred and thirty moons, some good, some not.

In a few days, the house at via Zonta will have a new roof and more.
Old eyes will indicate you the new routes, friendly voices will whisper the past stories, then they will tell you: - Now it's your turn, go forward, we have already given, we have had a lot. Do not stop listening to the sounds of a bygone time. Your eyes will be our eyes, your words, your gestures will be ours, we will walk at your side within these friendly walls that you have curved at your needs, we'll listen to your laugh, your sighs, your thoughts. We still feel like standing in front of the big gate to see who comes, and to greet whoever comes out like the old guardians. We will not find our living spaces anymore, but you do not have to care. Go ahead, even for us.

Corinna, Gildo, Velia, Gilberto, Paolo, Nicoletta and Fufi.
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Swallow

it is free at last
at the roof between cement
trapped for thousands of nights
dazzling sunlight
strange air
it is free at last
lying on the familiar roof
lack of courage to take off
freedom is better... o
better under the roof?
lying here
seeing far, remote
but forget the feeling of
the feet touching the earth
it is free at last
it's time again
learn to walk



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Under the same roof

sun after the rain on the roof
on the cement floor, disordered
many nails
rotten apricots
fallen leaves, pieces of bricks
are spread under the roof
the forgotten moment
is kept in the corner of the books, silently
tomorrow the roof will be demolished
demolish the memory of 90 years
create a space
for the future to take root


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Beauty Contest

(Graziella Sarto, the winner of the contest)
To participate in this beauty contest, pretty face or good-looking is not required, no age limit, or level of education. No one is asked to dance on stage with all the eyes of the public on their breasts or their ass. Everyone can participate.
Today, I am here in Piazza Garibaldi of Suzzara and I am one of the judges of this contest.

From far, you can see many people crowded in front of the 9 participants of the contest. No bikini and no makeup, the girls are rolling up their sleeves, each has a long wooden roll as tall as them in their hands. The eldest participant is more than 60 years old.

We, 5 judges, have the marking scheme in our hands. The organizer explains to us the 8 criteria to be assessed for scores: appearance, colour, scent, manual dexterity, consistency, cooking resistance, taste and retention of sauce. Indeed, they are not the assessment criteria for judging the girls, but the tagliatelle they make!



The tagliatelle is a traditional dish of northern Italy, is said to be originated in Bologna in the fifteenth century when the chef Zefiro, inspired by daughter of Duke of Ferrara, her blond and long hair, invented a new way to cut the lasagne dough for her wedding feast. Tagliatelle was served with meat sauce. Following this happy intuition, tagliatelle with meat sauce became a very popular dish throughout Bologna.

The contest is called to start by the host, the girls put on the chopping board flour and eggs that provided by the. They are mixing up the ingredients to form dough with little effort. The dough is made from 500 grams of flour and 5 eggs. It is not easy to mix and knead the dough to get a rice-paper like, thin and transparent texture.

It is not easy even to give votes as well. The first 4 parameters: appearance, colour, aroma and manual dexterity, involving the production on raw product. It does not matter even if the dough is with holes, however it is important that with no white dots. The white dots is coming from the continuous addition of flour during the kneading because the dough is too moist, in fact, that means the proportion is wrong. Also, if someone adds oil during kneading means the dough is too hard. With all these little tricks, you can see their skills. The traditional tagliatelle should be neither too wide nor too narrow: should be more or less 7 millimetres.

After evaluating the raw pasta , we have to try the cooked one. We go to a kitchen that set up for this occasion next to the church and that begins our hardest job: try all 9 plates of tagliatelle. The traditional sauce to eat with tagliatelle is definitely the meat sauce, which is prepared by a chef who is invited by the organizer. He is going to cook all the 9 dishes for tasting. At this point, we need to assess 4 components: consistency, cooking resistance, taste and retention of sauce. With the same cooking time, you can tell the resistance difference of the texture among 9 plates of tagliatelle. The longer the pasta resists in boiling water the better the quality. Then, it is important also to determine the absorption capacity of the sauce, because it would not be good to have pasta and sauce separately.

After 3 hours, the winner is: Ms. Graziella Sarto of number 7. She will represent Suzzara for the next national contest in Bologna! Hurray!














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Gordon Ramsay and Baiyun chicken feet

I just saw the new television show of the famous British chef Gordon Ramsay - The F Word. In one scene, Ramsay brought 3 Chinese dishes to do a ‘blind testing’ for a customer who claims to love Chinese food takeaway.

This English customer is a classic chubby boy with red hair and green eyes. When he laughs, he hits the table and chair. Ramsay covered his customer’s eyes and then made him taste the first dish: you can see perfectly well that is Baiyun chicken feet. Ramsay took one from the plate with his hand and put it into the mouth of his customer ... the chubby boy started to scream as he chewed and said, ‘is that a rat?’ Ramsay replied to him and said, ‘that’s chicken feet!’(but I was screaming in front of the TV: not just any chicken feet, it is ‘Baiyun’ chicken feet dish!) the chubby boy threw up immediately (into a bucket prepared right next to him), his other chubby friends sitting by his side made a disgusted face. After the chicken feet, followed by simmered duck tongue and steam fish.

The customer saw the steam fish that looked tasty and seemed he was eager to try. At that moment, Ramsay screamed, ‘The Chinese think that the fish eyes is the best part! Come on, try it too!’ With a nasty grin, Ramsay then picked up a spoon approaching to the fish head and dug out the fish eyes mercilessly, even if the fish meat looked great, he wanted only the eye and certainly not priced for the taste. The conclusion, obviously, could only be one, ‘How can Chinese make such horrible food!’

I understand that food quality in many Chinese restaurants in Europe is rather disappointing, but if Chinese restaurants suck does not mean that Chinese cooking is disgusting. If Ramsay has ever seen the happy face of Mr. Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, while eating chicken feet or egg tarts in a tea restaurant in Hong Kong; Ramsay might have realized that Chinese cuisine is not horrible. However, a chef should not have any kind of prejudice. Indeed, if he had the slightest interest in understanding the delicatessens or cultures of other countries, he could have explained to his customers rightly with a tasting of dishes prepared in both traditional and disgusting way. That would be much more persuasive, not just a show that wants only to please the public by proposing nonsense and inaccuracies.

About the Baiyun chicken feet, the name originates from the Cantonese cold dish: Baiyun pork feet. This is a kind of preparation that the feet are cooked in boiling water until soft. Then the well-cooked feet is put in a solution of sugar and vinegar, pork feet become soft but chewy, taste sweet but slightly acidic. When the price of pork went up, the housewives replaced pork meat with chicken but kept the same method of cooking. So, this type of chicken feet is called Baiyun. Regarding the word ‘Baiyun’, people said that it derives from the Baiyun Mountain in Guangzhou. In the original recipe of Baiyun pork feet, in fact, the water that used to rinse the pork feet after boiled to soft was from Baiyun Mountain. The pork feet was rinsed by water from Baiyun mountain for several hours. The reason of using mountain water was because it gave not only the right consistency to the meat, but also washed away the fat.

Now it's hard to find someone who still uses water from the Baiyun Mountain to prepare this dish, and indeed many added chemical preservatives, that is why the meat is tough and the flavor is weird. I was not surprised to hear the customer say, ‘it tastes like rat!’

If Ramsay had tasted the original dish of Baiyun chicken feet, or if he had known the traditional preparation, there might have been less misunderstanding. Unfortunately, it is now more difficult to find Mountain water without pollution than convincing Ramsay.

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A vineyard without address

At the end of July, on the distant island of Sicily, it is really hot. The furious afternoon sun is falling on my head inexorably. In front of me is the shoal between Marsala and Trapani and the famous salt mine. The salty small hill with this heat is like in the Sahara desert. The sunlight reflects from the white sale into my eyes. Now, I finally understand why the Sicilian sunshine is so famous for its heat. It hits the nerves and the only thing I can think of is a bath in the sea. Unfortunately, the sea is a mirage beyond that 2000 hectares salt mine.

Instead of going to the beach, I decided to come to the Trapani salt mine and get some sunburn, is just for one person.

‘Nino, could you tell me the exact address of your vineyard? I have my navigator that will take me directly to your cellar!’
‘um…(after 10 seconds, finally..) the navigator is useless, because there is no address. All roads are excavated. Maybe it is better that we meet at the coffee shop next to the salt mine.’

I look at the old windmill from far, it is still working and producing salt grains. While the world is heading rapidly towards high technology production, in Sicily, there are producers who return to nature. While many wine companies spending a fortune in marketing try to brain wash the people: tasting section, advertising and gifts.

While the leader of marketing is that of the market, there is always some unleashed wildman like Nino, who does not follow the trend and pays attention only on the health of the grapes.

Without a nice suit like many winemakers, Nino, with his short pants and sandals, walks confidently. His tanned skin is the result of the work outside in the vineyards. Just become thirty, Nino seems very shy with his eyeglasses. If he had fair skin, he should look like a scholar. Seeing him, you would not think that Nino is winemaker.

Without an expensive car, Nino drives a red Fiat Punto 1993. We get on and pull down the window and immediately, we go to the vineyard without addresse.

Left salt mine and proceed towards inland passing through many cultivated fields and gravel roads. After the small hills, suddenly appears the greenly vineyard planted with Zibibbo, Grillo and Catarratto: three indigenous Sicilian grapes variety of the Marsala, Trapani and Pantelleria areas. The taciturn Nino becomes a talker in his vineyard.

'Taste the grapes here! Just eat them! The Zibibbo grapes are very sweet compared to others. Here, we do not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers, you can eat without worrying'. The heat in the air becomes only a memory, Nino brings us around enthusiastic like a child. He chose not to follow the modern winemaking processes and chose not to hire external oenologist. Perhaps because his father used to make wine, and Nino got to know well the subject since he was kid.

Nino tells me that a bottle of good wine can tell story, the story of the land, the climate, the grapes quality and also the personality of the producer. So Nino decided to produce his own way. Abandons the modern standard and uses organic farming without using pesticides against diseases. For fermentation, he uses natural yeasts and no temperature control, to produce a wine that brings only authentic flavours of the land. With local Zibibbo grapes, Nino produces a dry wine instead of the famous sweet wine (passiti). After the harvest the grapes are not dried, but immediately presse to produce wine. His Zibibbo white wine has golden color with the unmistakable scent that emits every Zibibbo, but without the typical sweet taste of the sweet wine. You can taste almonds, lily, and bitter chocolate inside. Although many making wine as Nino does, but only few can do it so good. The real difficult thing is to maintain good quality grapes without using chemicals and manages to obtain a flavour not too muddy, rough or grassy.

The quality of grapes determines 70% of the wine fate. No good wine without good grapes, that is for sure! However, without using of pesticides to make a good wine, the producer needs to bear high risk with great attention in agronomic practices, thus the production quantity is always limited.

‘Look at these leaves, they are full of stains. They are ill. I have involved an entomologist for a research on how to cure this disease without using pesticides. This land has been abandoned for so long, and we gave it a new life. The wine is going to tell you all this story.’

Perhaps because Nino is a graduate in Political Science, or perhaps because he comes from a farmers family, or perhaps he is very stubborn that made him decide to return to his homeland and work for those people who likes his wine. Nino does not intend to compete with anyone. He is not interested in selling from than the others. He only wants to work with people like him who share the same ideas, and create a small space. On our way back, Nino tells me again, 'Never lose your dream.'

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The festival of listening

Festival is not just about putting together the public and making noises, or having live music on every corner or throwing oranges and tomatoes. A festival can be about listening and can be enjoyed in peace.

Since 1996, every first week of September, Mantova (located 20 km north of Suzzara) is filled with travelers from all over the world, but it manages to retain its tranquility. You do not see overwhelming publicity and numerous stands dotted around the city, but you can feel a new atmosphere around.

This is the strength of Festivaletteratura (Literature festival).

This literature flair has developed in Mantova with a long time. From middle age to Renaissance, Mantova has always been an important place in literature and has often been the scene in many masterpieces. For example, of Shakespeare. After Romeo killed Tebaldo Capuleti, he was sent into exile in Mantova, and when he returned to Verona, Juliet had already committed suicide.
Dante, in his most famous masterpiece was guided through hell to purgatory by Virgilio, a famous poet from Mantova. Andrea Mantegna, a prominent artist of the Renaissance to the service of the noble family of Gonzaga, he built a huge series of artworks at the absolute level. In July 2008, Mantova is elected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ancient architecture between Piazza Erbe and Piazza Sordello, works like a perfect time machine. As I walk, I immerse myself in history and I am brought back back to reality only by the cobbled streets that tickle my feet. At 8 pm, there is a queue in front of the Palazzo Ducale, but the atmosphere is relaxed. Near 2000 spectators gather and await the Chilean writer Luis Sepulveda (Lucio). The evening is pleasant with fresh wind and the first fallen leaves, announcing the end of summer. In Piazza Castello, the amphitheatre hosts all the audience; they are concentrated and are eager to listen the stories of the author. The famous Chilean author goes up to the stage with causal wear, I think he has an informal style. Lucio sits down and begins to smoke, slowly but continuously. His voice is gentle but strong and has a Spanish accent. Everything he tells is funny, but always hits the main point of the discussion. All his speech has a clear moral. Listen to his words is like reading his book that he discusses core principles and presents his ideas with firmness but also with great ironies. His voice is like the sound of Gong, smooth and strong.



In another part of town, in the splendid setting of the two centennial and baroque Theatre Bibena, audience is listening to the astronomer Jacopo Staude. He is telling a story 400 years ago, calmly and wisely, that Galileo was able to improve the telescope, and how Galileo used it to observe the universe and was able to collect all his observation results in his book 'Starry Messenger'. Obviously Jacopo also demonstrates the sad fate of Galileo.

Ancient architecture and modern life, literature and culture, speakers and audience all mix together and together, they form the Festivaletteratura.

Tonight no political forum tv program, no vulgar variety show, just one speaker with one microphone.　The Festivaleteratura is like the refreshing autumn breeze that carries away humidity and leaves the skin dry and fresh. So nice!







Link
。Official website: Festivaletteratura
。Offical video clips
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An ideal home

(photo from New York Times)
Last week, the postman distributed Ikea catalog to all the families of Suzzara. The catalog is full of beautiful pictures and different combinations of furniture. It has become a gossip magazine that many families discuss about during the meal. And I discover something interesting: reading Ikea catalog is no longer an exclusive activity for women. Even men do not read newspapers anymore after lunch, but IKEA catalog. Like Corrado’s brother, Daniele, who has never been to IKEA megastore and after read the whole book, he said: 'let me know next time you go to IKEA, because I need something as well.'

Here it is. The power of IKEA strategy. Create the need of shopping and make you want to wnat to give a new face for your house. It creates hope that 'everyone can have an ideal home'. It is this hope produces millions of admirers for IKEA style.

During the renovation of our old house in Suzzara, I read almost all the magazines, books, articles and websites with the same hope in mind: to create an ideal home. After seeing number 2068 photo on internet, I asked myself again, 'but what is an ideal home?'

Mr. Dan Philips from Texas, sixty-seven year-old, has a clear idea: the ideal home is made of recycled material that even less wealthy families can afford. In 1997, Dan has mortgaged his house to open a construction company in order to build home for those who could not afford. 80% of the material used comes from the trash of other construction sites. Until now, Mr. Dan Philips has already built 14 houses. To reuse these debris and giving them a new life requires great deal of spiritual creativity. Dan believes that repetition creates pattern, for example, many old shingles are joined together to make roof, hundreds of corks forms the flooring while bottom of the glass bottles can be a door. Many of these small ideas come from one principle: attractive and affordable home is possible.

In 2004, Mr. Philips started working closely with the city officials. Together they set up a warehouse to store recycled building materials. An economic incentive encourages the industry to donate the materials rather than send them to landfill. Companies can save money by donation tax deductible and dumping costs, in the meantime, Dan and other charity organization can reuse the material to build houses for low-income families, is a reform of win-win situation.

Mr Philips and his warehouse (photo frm New York Times)

(photo from New York Times)

The floorings made by corks and cement (photo from New York Times)

(photo from New York Times)

The ceiling made with frames (photo from New York Times)

Reading Reference
。2 September 2009: New York Times, One Man’s Trash
。Phoenix Commotion, Mr Philips construction company
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When western foodies meet Taiwan food

[The article is published on ‘Organic Lifestyle Magazine’ in Taiwan]
Traveling with 15 international students of the University of Gastronomic Sciences from Europe to Taiwan. We started the study trip from the east of the island to make a round-island journey. In 12 days, we have experienced and have seen so many things that maybe even many Taiwanese have never seen. The specialty and the diversity of Taiwanese local ingredients, in addition to the hospitable character of the Taiwanese people, have enabled us to enjoy the best of our trip eliminating language barriers and allowing us to feel involved in different serious and constructive discussions culture. I would like to thank again all the Taiwanese friends who have supported our work, in particular, to my fellow master program classmate, Andy Chou, who is responsible for the organization of this study trip/stage.

I have read many articles about our stage in Taiwan. Many of those focused on angles like 'Tourism', 'taste and approach to gastronomy Taiwanese' or 'Taiwanese cuisine in the eyes of Westerners'. But few have addressed the underlying principle of the stages of our university: the research of food production and application in science.

[taste is subjective, what counts is the scientific theory behind it]
I still remember a comment by a student from Piacenza, Giacomo, has raised a heated discussion. He said: 'Why Chinese cuisine has no dishes sequence? Dishes are served together, the flavors mix together and we can not recognize the taste of each dish. Instead, the sequence is very important in Italian cuisine as they believe that allows eaters to taste coherently.

This comment has raised different responses, some of them agreed. Others, instead, believe that the Chinese way of eating, sitting around the table is more free and democratic, is also more suitable to family gathering. This discussion is not only of 'cultural and custom difference', but also a foundamental theoratical variance between two places. The fact that the students have participated in scientific courses like sensory analysis in which they learned the sensory areas of the taste buds in our tongue. Indeed, several areas of the tongue perceive different flavors. From here generate the concept of the serving sequence of dishes in Western food culture. Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin was the first gourmet in the eighteenth century expressed this concept in his physiology of taste.

To provide students an all-round study, first-year students are required to follow a series of course for instance chemistry, biology, sensory analysis, culinary history, economics, statistics and agriculture. Study of food science can not remain confine to the ivory tower, each student must participate annually 5 Stages based on different themes. Then third-year students are sent to countries outside Europe, like Taiwan, Japan, Canada, Mexico, United States, Australia, Cuba, etc.. Here students can discuss directly with producers and understand the real world that lives outside the walls of academic. Thus, they are able to study with a more all-rounded mindset.

[Doubts and preparation before departure]
It is not easy for these 15 international students to know thoroughly about Taiwan in 12 days. The design and organization of the program is very crucial and was done by Andy. He understood that was the first time these students came to Taiwan and it would not work by feeding them rigidly the information about Taiwanese cuisine. It would be better to find similarity of the ingredients in both countries for comparison. For example, preserved fruits in Taiwan versus 'Mostarda' (preserve made from candied fruit in grape must or sugar with mustard)from Lombardy province, fruit vinegar in Taiwan and the balsamic vinegar in Italy, the indigenous distilled alcohol and the Italian wines, different types of rice and cooking methods, or olive oil versus tea-seed oil.

Study trip preparation before the departure began in February. When 15 students were noted that they were assigned to the group in Taiwan, some came to my office and asking questions like 'is vaccinations required to go to Taiwan?', Or 'I do not like Asian cuisine, those Chinese restaurants in Italy are always making spring rolls or raw fish.'

Some students who went to the field trip in Japan the year before, asked me if Taiwan and Japan were similar and whether two programs have several repetitions. These questions are really normal, because Taiwan is very little known in Europe and I always answered with jokes, 'Do not worry, there is no influence breakout in Taiwan yet, but I suggest you do vaccination against eating too much.'

To clarify all the doubts is important to start with a serious accademical preparation with a list of reference readings. However, there are very few institutional publications in western language on Taiwanese cuisine, those could be found on Internet are only articles from blogs which can not be used as references for university research. Given that Andy shas decided to involve some professors from local universities and several producers with whom we produced and translated a 33-page reading material. This material is divided into two parts, first is a general introduction to Taiwan history, geography and culture, and the second presents in detail the products that we were going to visit during the stage.

[Tasting good soy sauce - from earth to tasting]
Both me and Andy is graduated from the University of Gastronomic Sciences, and therefore we know how important it is to give students the opportunity to see the real situation where products are made and the taste of them. May is the month of harvesting for many products we were going to study during the trip. In Yunlin province, we visited two factories producing black soybean sauce where we have seen 4 major production process: boiling the seeds, mold growth, fermentation and extraction, in addition we were also taught the difference between yellow soybean sauce and black soybean sauce.

The temperature in the small mold-growing room, especially in May, can reach 40 degrees celsius. But that did not stop the students from asking more questions and eventually we stayed over an hour inside that room. Agostino, a student from Milan, asked the soy sauce master: 'Why don't you plant your own black soybeans here, instead of importing from the United States? Wouldn't it be so much easier to control the quality of raw materials? '

The master nodded then shook his head, 'it is a good question. 10 years ago there were many black soybean fields outside, but now, they are turned into profitable crops. A kilo of black soybeans can sells for $ 20 while cultivating bellfruit makes 10 times more profit. So no one wants to grow black soybeans anymore '. This response was followed by a heated discussion on the development and revolution of agriculture.

After visiting, followed by an interesting blind tasting section. Without knowing what kind of soy sauces we would taste, students had to guess the best quality soy sauce out of 3 samples. Eventually, more than half of students got the right answer. And we learned that the yellow soybean sauce which could be find easily in Europe is produced in an industrial way with lots of chemical and low quality. Those students who guessed wrongly were reluctant to say, 'There is nothing I can do as I'm too used to the taste of the low quality soy sauce. '

In Taipei, Andy has scheduled a visit to the tea farm and the students had the chance to harvest tea leaves together with farmers in order to understand better the tea production. Then, for the tasting, we were divided into 4 groups and were taught to prepare, and the way to enjoy a cup of tea. Students imitated the master sitting cross-legged until they could not feel their legs anymore. Some girls tried to imitate the gesture of the masters and made tea, but their movement were a little clumsy, and the boys were making fun of them saying the girls were not elegant enough. Eventually, we realized one thing: there is a philosophy behind a cup of tea.

I still remember how David, an Australian student and a freelance journalist of Vogue magazine, replied to the journalist's question 'what kind of tea you prefer?'. He said, 'Oriental Beauty is my favorite. It is the mysterious charm of oriental attraction. The mystery is that we do not usually have an opportunity like now, to visit a tea farm, to harvest and to prepare the tea along with the tea farmers, while at the same time, there are experts next to us who explain and translate everything to you. Now, I will take the Oriental Beauty home, I will study again, and I will prepare myself the tea. The I am going to do a thesis on Tea '.

[Promoting Taiwanese cuisine is independent from the study of Gastronomic Sciences]
David's response inspired me. Perhaps the promotion of Asian cuisine has always been based on the dish itself and the flavour. Sciences that govern the production is taken in little consideration. This stage actually also provides an opportunity for producers to see the cuisine from a different point of view and allows them to try to explain their products in a scientific way. Taiwanese producers are not accustomed to this type of presentation and has not been easy for them to explain or discuss the production too technical. Andy is attributed to all the assistance to the producers with lots of modification on their PowerPoint presentations.

I still remember when we were in the rice distillery, students have raised so many technical questions, such as temperature and duration of fermentation and distillation, unfortunately there were no definitive answers. Furthermore, we discovered that there are many gaps in the food classification between Taiwan and the international standard. In Taiwan, any alcoholic beverage called 'wine', but in the West, 'wine' referes to alcoholic beverage made from grapes(excluding spirits). So, there is always confusion on the publications translated into English.

To encourage producers to improve their promotional strategies, we encouraged them to present their products in English. It does not matter if their English is not perfect, what really matters is that they begin to understand how they can promote their products abroad and make up for the lack of information on Taiwanese products in international market. Meanwhile, producers should start research on production technology to improve their products. In future, the promotion of Taiwanese cuisine should not be separated from scientific study.

[The end of the stage and the journery in Taiwan]
I have been living in Italy for almost 3 years and I think increasingly that Taiwan and Italy are very similar. People of both countries are genuine and cheerful. The Taiwanese like the Italians treat foreigners as family members, open up and make them feel at once as their friends. After 12 days in Taiwan, the journalists who followed our trip, the volunteers and the producers have quickly integrated with our group. Even those Taiwanese whom we did not know but offered us drinks in the evening. We have become a big family, without restrictions of nationality or hindered by language barriers.

Landed at Turin airport, while the hostress passed me the luggage, I heard some answer 'Xie xie': thank you in perfect Mandarin. Out of curiosity, I turned my head, it was my students responding impulsively. We looked at each other and laughed. 'Yeah. I'm still in Taiwan. '

Students are being interviewed by journalits

Seems like a bit too many

The tea master

The soy sauce master with his barrel

The black soybean is covered by a layer of salt inside the barrel

The mold is growing on the surface of black soybeans

The black soybeans after 7 days

Fish market - Tunna auction

Tunna!


Bamboo

Bamboo right after the harvest

The harvest done by students

The puff pastry

The delicious fish

Strange vegges

Cute Taiwanese baby (yes! baby! only one year-old)


The bathroom of my hotel room in Taichung…
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Colony Collapse Disorder

In 2006, many honey bees have disappeared from hives in the United States; in 2007, 33% honey bees disappeared in Great Britain. Honey bees abandon the hives, leaving the larvae and the queen and no dead bodies can be found in the hives. United states was the first country declared Colony Collapse Disorder CCD. The cause of this syndrome is not yet clear. Some say that it is due to too much pesticides is used, so that in France and Italy, has banned the use of the pestisides GAUCHO (containing the active substance Imidacloprid)produced by Bayer, Germany based and the largest pesticide production company in the world. Some say that the cause is linked to infection of pathogens while others claim that the radiation from mobile phones do make the bees get lost on their way back to the hives.

The cause is not yet established however many honey bees continue to die, also many crops those are linked to the fate of the bees. Like apples, pears, strawberries and many other crops that depend on the pollination for reproduction. At this rate, there will be a negative effect on the food price. Experts have begun researches and finally in August, a group of entomologists lead by Prof. Steve Sheppard from the University of Washington obtained a new result that successfully narrows down the possible causes of CCD.

Source: Research News, Washington State of University

Date: July 29 2009
“One of the first things we looked at was the pesticide levels in the wax of older honeycombs,” Sheppard said.

Using combs of CCD-affected colonies supplied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, his group discovered many contained “fairly high levels of multiple pesticide residues.” Subsequent experiments showed that bees raised in those hives “had significantly reduced longevity,” Sheppard said.

The researchers noted that the types of trace chemicals found in the tested honeycombs included insecticides, herbicides, miticides and fungicides.

One easy method of addressing such chemical contamination is for beekeepers to change honeycombs more often, Sheppard said. In Europe, for example, apiarists change combs every three years.

“In the U.S., we haven’t emphasized this practice and there’s no real consensus about how often beekeepers should make the change,” he said. “Now we know that it needs to be more often.”

Another aspect of Sheppard’s work – being conducted by WSU graduate student Matthew Smart – focuses on the impact of a microsporidian pathogen known as Nosema ceranae, which attacks the bee’s ability to process food. Many beekeepers have considered it to be “the smoking gun” behind colony collapse.

“Nosema ceranae was only recently described in the U.S., the first time in 2007,” Sheppard said. “But while no one really noticed, it has spread throughout the country."

He said Smart surveyed numerous bee colonies in both the Pacific Northwest and in California, and found the new pathogen to be very widespread.

Sheppard’s earlier research found the pathogen to be a tough bug to battle. Of 24 hives checked in early 2008, Nosema build-up was high in a majority of the bees sampled. Beekeeper Eric Olson of Yakima, Wash. said he treated his hives with a mega-dose of the antibiotic fumagillin, but was surprised by the results.

“That should have caused the Nosema to either disappear or at least go down,” Olson said. “But instead, the levels went up.”

Further Reading

• September 2 2009: New York Times, Saving Bees: what we know now 
  
• August 24 2009: Time Magazione, New Clues in the Mass Death of Bees 
  
• December 10 2008: The Oxford Times, Disappearing Honey Bees 
  
• March 27 2007: National Accademics, Colony Collapse Disorder and Pollinator Decline, by Professor Berenbaum, Professor and Head, Department of Entomology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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Festival。Parmigiano Reggiano。Stricun

Eat Drink Play Enjoy, you can probably summerise the Italian lifestyle with these four words.

In Italy, each village has festival or carnival, and in those festivals, there are always food stalls and games stands. By the end of August, Italian say goodbye to their longest holidays of the year, but that does not mean Italians would return to work gladly, even the following September is the busiest month of biggest festivals.

Palidano, is located 5 km from Suzzara: you can arrive in 5 minutes by car, 15 minute by bicycle or 50 minute on foot. Every last weekend of August, the 'D'Pepa' festival will be held there which lasts four days. Not only tasting local dishes like Mantovano style risotto, braised pork feet, polenta or Lambrusco, you can also visit to the old production technique of Parmigiano Reggiano 50 years ago.


Today, even if the dairies producing parmigiano reggiano in an artisanal way, however the boiler no longer uses the wood fire to heat the tank instead, steam is being used. Every year by the end of August and the begining of Septmber, the cheese masters gather at the square outside the restaurant Pepa. Here, you can find the old boiler that was used once.

The skimmed milk is poured in the evening in this typical copper boilers with inverted bell-shaped. It is extremely tough to heat up the tank with wood fire, especially in summertime. The masters do not seem to suffer from the heat and continue stirring with a stick and then add calf rennet. When the milk reaches 52 degrees celcius, the masters put the fire off with water. The milk starts coagulating in about ten minutes, and the curd which forms is then broken down into minuscule granules using a traditional tool called “spino”.

Then, the cheese mass is removed, with deft movements, by the cheese maker.
Cut into two parts and wrapped in typical cloth, the cheese is then placed in a mould which will give it its final shape. In the old days, wood mould was used while today it is replaced by plastic.

A certified Parmigiano Reggiano must pass through numerous controls and a minimum of 18 months of ageing.

The Parmigiano cheese just produced can also be sold immediately, but in this case, the cheese is not certified to be called Parmigiano Reggiano cheese but Stricun. This is a soft cheese with nice fresh milk flavor. To have a taste of this delicious Stricun, only in the parmigiano reggiano production area.


the cheese masters and the typical copper boiler with inverted bell-shaped

the masters put the fire off with water

Tagliato in due parti

it is wrapped in typical cloth

the cheese is then placed in a mould which will give it its final shape


Fresh Stricun

New and old mould



Polenta and the pork feet

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Godzilla in the garden

At 2 pm, Godzilla appeared in the garden, its roars ruined the tranquility.

Godzilla with his giant body tried to enter the gate, but it was too big and was blocked. He could not move or turn around and the road was blocked off. Godzilla tried again with different movement in different angles, finally he entered the garden.

There he arrived the back entrance of the house. Godzilla slowly stretched his 5-metere long arm to reach the roof of the old house, I thought of alien attack.

At that critical moment, the building worker Paolo Bottazzi appeared on the roof, like Haran Banjo, the Captain of Daitarn 3. Captain Bottazzi commanded and Godzilla was hynotized and obey his orders. The long arm was reaching close to the roof tiles and suddenly slow down and passed through the attic windown into house. Godzilla began to spin his rope with red and white stripes... Then, 'Wrooooar!' his roars filled the sky. The cement then came out from the hand of Gorzilla and filled up the house.

Finally, Captain Bottazzi and his team are back to protect the house from the monsters. The long holiday is finally over.

GODZILLA


The long arm of Godzilla

Captain Bottazzi appeared on the roof to protect the old house

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La Leva Calcistica della classe 68

To remember the game on August 29, the Derby at San Siro, AC Milan against Inter.
For the first time in my life, I shoot and edit a video, using 'La Leva Calcistica della Classe 68'of Francesco de Gregori as background music. Because I really like the lyrics, and I like to translate it to all of you.


Francesco De Gregori
La Leva Calcistica della classe 68
Sun on the roof of the buildings under construction
sun beating on the soccer field
and the ground and the dust that the wind blows
and then maybe it's raining
Nino walks like a man
with a pair of hard rubber shoes
twelve years and the heart
full of fear
but Nino is not afraid
to miss the penalty kick
it's not from these details
you judge a player
you see a player by courage
by altruism and by fantasy
And who knows how many you have seen and how many
You'll see, sad players
who have never won
and they hung up their shoes to some
type of wall and now they laugh in the bar
for ten years they are in love with a woman
who they never loved
who knows' how many you have seen
who knows' how many you will see
Nino understood from the very first momeny
the coach seemed to be pleased and then
put his heart inside his shoes
and ran faster than the wind
hooked a ball that seemed bewitched
near the foot remained stuck
entered the penalty area without looking
and goalkeeper let him pass
but Nino not afraid to shoot a
penalty kick
it's not from these details
you judge a player
you see a player by courage
by altruism and by fantasy
The boy will become even though with narrow shoulders
next year, he will play
with the jersey no.7
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The red hands

[This article is published in a Taiwanese magazine, 'Organic Lifestyle']

This year, it is still cold at the end of March, I heard that the Alps and central Italy is still snowing. At the moment of changing seasons from winter to spring. Like this morning, rainy, windy and cold, animals are still hibernating and I just want to stay in the bed. In this moment, Corrado comes and pulls off the blanket to make me work in the garden, he says: 'We're all out and doing something really fun, something you love so much. Put on an old shirt and come out. '


Here I am in the garden and heard Corrado shouting: 'Come and help us!' He is coming out from the cellar in shortsleeves shirt with a case of glass bottles in hand. On the other side, there is Paolo, Pietro and Chiara, father, brother and nephew of Corrado, they are all bringing out some other bottles. As soon as Paolo sees me, he brought me straight to the cellar. There are 14 carboys of 28-liter all with sign Lambrusco on it. Lambrusco is the sparkling wine they drink at all meals.


Lambrusco looks like grape juice to me. While the world outside is paying tribute to the famous wines like Barolo and Montepulciano, the families in Po valley are drinking Lambrusco everyday. I thought that maybe because Lambrusco is economical, and became so popular here. Until one day, in the family of Po valley, where the mother has prepared salami, Parmesan cheese, Parma ham (which are all fatty and salty foods), once I tasted these starters, my throat started sending out a message 'I want to drink something sparkling and sour': it is just like after having roasted pistachio you want to drink beer, like after a bath in the sea, you want to takes a shower to remove all the salt on your body. At that moment, you would not hope to drink wines like Barolo and Montepulciano, but a glass of Lambursco, swallow it and wait for a hiccup with the smell of pork. Then lean against the couch happily and prepare for the next slice of salami. Until that moment, I really understood why Lambrusco is so important in Po valley.

Thinking of lunch, salami and Lambrusco, more motivation to work. In the narrow cellar, there are so many empty bottles, about 800. Each bottle has a different label, some still keep intact, others already broken that you can see they have been reused more than once. The neck of the bottles (even empty ones) is closed with cork.

In the garden, Corrado and Paolo are trying to raise a 30-liter carboy on a table, it seems very heavy. After the carboy stays still, they remove the cork and you can smell the wine coming out. Corrado then pulls out two plastic tubes. He puts one in the first carboy, and connecting it to the second carboy. The second tube enters the second carboy and connects to a small macchine called 'riempibottiglie' in Italian, it means top up bottles. The shape of this riempibottiglie is very strange, looks like a flush. The other part of riempibottiglie has two iron pipes.

Once Corrado sucks the iron pipes, the wine starts passing from the first carboy, through the plastic tubes to the second carboy, then arrives at riempibottiglie and comes out from the iron pipes. Seeing that happening, Paolo starts explaining the principle of 'communicating vessels', Pietro and Chiara immediately join the debate.

When the wine comes out from the iron pipes of riempibottiglie, Corrado immediately strech out his hands with empty bottles to receive the wine and fills them up. When they are full, he passes them to Paolo by his side. Paolo closes the bottle with a top and presses it with a presser to seal it. The whole system begins to function.









Pietro, Chiara and I have brought all the 800 bottles out in the garden. The bottles should be checked before use. Chiara, thirteen year-old, is already able to do that: first look carefully if there is mold or water inside the bottles, then smell them if they stink. Because the bottles have been reused for many times. Each time a bottle of wine is finished, mamma Paola has to rinse it, and leaves it dry naturally.

Bottling is a traditional family activity in the Po valley, all family members participate. This activity takes place in late March, because after the harvest in September, it takes 6 months for the first fermentation. Then, the second fermentation, which requires at least another month, occurs inside the bottles. In March, families buy the unpacked wine in bulk from wineyards, and bottle them at home. March is the right time because it is still cold and dry and avoid risks of pollution and mold growing in the wine. Although bottling is fun, it would be much easier to buy packed wines in the store.

'It's true what you think. We can buy everything in the stores nowadays. But if you take a second and think how much waste you have made ... For example, our family has 7 members and we drink about 2 bottles of Lambrusco each day. In a year, we need 800 bottles. Those you buy in the store costs 3 euros each, but they are low quality. If you buy good ones, it will cost you 5 or 6,000 euro per year. In comparison, buying unpacked wine from the wineyard we know well costs 1 euro 20 cents per litre and about 750 euros for a year. It costs 7 times less than buying packed wine in the stores. 'Says Paolo. I am really impressed.

'Then, let's take one step forward, if I bought wine in the shop means that we are going to throw away 800 bottles each year. 10 families throw away 8,000 bottles. We prefer to spend a day like today, joking a bit to kill time and we can fill our 800 bottles for the use of this year, we save our wallets at the same time our land.'

The image of the mountain of bottles scares me. Many times I hear people talk about complicated concepts to save the environment, but a traditional family activity like this one seems to have more significance. Nothing new, no need special skills, including thirteen year-old Chiara is able to do so. It seems that I have understood something: sustainable development of a society is not mere philosophy, but it builds up drop by drop.

'To the table!' Says mamma Paola, at the same time, the smell of pork is coming out from the window. We stop working, and look at our hands, they are as red as Lambrusco. Who cares! Now, I just want to sway in the sea of Lambrusco.

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Fresh red with a big smile

Many people do not even consider it as wine, others do not bear the idea that it can be red, served cold and with bubbles. Some even said that they prefer Coca Cola more.


But all agree on one thing: Lambrusco is better than any other wines that can enhance the flavors of its land. As a family does every day, Lambrusco can be found side by side the local food on the dinning table. Everything (like the people) on the table has an established role. Lambrusco is able to play well its role without being too overwhelming. Its modesty makes it being appreciated by the families.

Imagine that you still have in your palate the taste of salami, parmesan cheese and a slice of spalla cruda, the heat of a slice of grilled polenta covered with melted pork fat. At this point you feel thirsty. A sip is not enough. You need to drink! Open your mouth, swallow again and again.

Now, if you fill up a glass of Lambrusco, you will see how it becomes your friend immediately. It smiles to you with a nice red foam which lasts the time of a smile.

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Music from the ruins

If you think that we are rebuilding a house just to open a restaurant and bed & breakfast, or to fix the house, or perhaps to find a lifetime job, then you only see the result.


Opening a restaurant is the secondary aspect, the main one is to create an interactive platform among gastronomy, art, literature and culture - a space that grows together with the community. Today, Nico and Roberto has taken the first step towards the realization of this idea. They called a group of young people over to the old house: his 3 daughters, fifteen of Conrad's brother Peter and his friend Gianluca to do a small concert in the ruins.

We came to a room, now, full of dust, concret and armor support, where was once the living room full of books. We have put 3 chairs, and the young people start taking their place to play music. This room will be the dining room for customers, library and performance area.

The music spreads slowly from the ruins.

Note
The idea of doing this small family concert in the ruins is from Roberto (Corrado's uncle). The idea is inspired by a video on youtube: Beethoven's 'Egmont' Overture by Celibidache and the Berlin Philharmonic in 1950, at the ruins of the old Philharmonie in Berlin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3346Dq9fXM

Some years later followed an inauguration concert in the new Philharmonic hall. And we, in our small hall, we propose to gather the same group of 'artists' in a year's time, when the reconstruction work will be completed, we are going to make an opening concert for the restaurant. (A year later, Pietro, who is leaving in a few days for a year studying in the states, will be back at that time for the concert.)











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Suzzara (Amy)

I never thought that one day I would stop in a place 18 times smaller and less densely populated than Hong Kong. Suzzara, a name with the tones Z and R. The two tones perhaps are the most difficult to pronounce for Asians, we probably would forget this name after repeated 50 times.


My deepest image of Suzzara is the smell. Suzzara is always full of different smells. In early June, across the Po Valley is full of the smell of manure. It is like my body has become manure as well. During the passage across the countryside by bike, I can see green then brown colors on the farmland, the farmers are spreading manure. Then suddenly one day in late August, the smell of manure disappears and is replaced by that of hay.

On Saturday morning, I used to go to Piazza Garibaldi for breakfast and food shopping. My nose follows the smell of coffee and cakes that brings me to via Montecchi, the Grand Café. I always order a cappuccino and a slice of traditional cake, elvezia. Here, you can find the best coffee in town and the home elvezia filled with zabaglione, beautiful yellow, with a good smell of egg yolk and Marsala.

I love to go to the little cheese shop, la boutique del latte from Gran caffe by bicycle. The smell of cheese comes out slowly from the halfly-opened door. The smell is so complicated, is a blend of Parmesan cheese, stilton and gorgonzola. Every time I pass by, although I do not need to buy anything, the smell always drives me crazy and gives me the urge to have a taste of cheese.

With the summer heat, our bodies follow natually the direction of coolness. A fresh breeze of fresh fruit aroma coming from the direction of 'Fiore gelateria'. You can always find the gelato shop full of people with Pino's gelato in their hands. Then, I like to go from here to another part of Piazza Garibaldi, where many Indians live; because there is always full of curry fragrance which spreads from the Indians houses. The smell is a mixture of oriental spices like fennel seeds, ginger, pepper and chillies. Every time I pass by, it gives me the urge to get into their house for a curry feast.

Also, my favorite farmhouse Rossi. Here, I can buy pork meat, beef, free-range chicken, goose, deer, rabbit, donkey, fresh eggs and different kinds of cakes. The farm is just in the outskirts of Suzzara, once you pass the roundabout, you will arrive a country road with lots of green, you can actually smell the farm from there. Rossi is the only family sized farm with a certified inhouse slaughter. Fortunately, it is within 5 minutes cycling distance from our house.

This aromatic image of Suzzara is very sophisticated. It is a complicated smell with many components but only without those familiar unpleasant smells of car discharge or polluted air from big cities.

la mia bicicletta

il mercato contadino ogni venerdì

Elvezia e caffe

3L Gran Caffe
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Suzzara (Corrado)

Travelling is definitely one of the best things in life. Not a holiday, but a journey.

A journey that takes you away, that lasts a long time and that immerses you in a long period of new experience, excitement, friendships and independence. Travelling can become like a drug and become addicted never feels enough, or feels depressed if cannot leave.

But what is the most beautiful part of a journey?

It is definitely the return. Go home.

For me to go home after a long trip has always meant to go Suzzara. A small village on the river bank of Po in the lowland of Mantova. The climate in winter is harsh and rainy, always foggy with grey sky. In summer, terribly hot and humid that empties the streets and fills up with mosquitoes. What is then so beautiful in Suzzara that gives me the emotion to come back every time? My dining table, family, friends. These things alone might be an answer but it would be too simple to stop here.

Although more than once I want to run away as far as possible, in other countries I can always find things that remind me of my land: sunset of the Hawaiian Islands can be as beautiful as the one over the river Po. The artistic and cultural atmosphere in many cosmopolitan cities can be found here the big cities next to my hometown, in Mantova, Parma and Verona where can enjoy the same atmosphere but with the size of a bicycle. The most exclusive gastronomy experience in Manhattan reminds me of that little shop of cheeses in Suzzara where you can find many authentic cheeses from different angles of the World. Thanks to the farm that still breeds animals traditionally, we can be a witness of those flavors nearly extincted.

For years I roamed around the continents trying to discover the world and now that I learn to excite myself by rediscovering the flavors, gestures, habits and places that surround me.






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Destroy and Construct

Destroy requires little time. On average, 9 hours work per day for 15 days, that is all necessary to destroy completely the interior of a 350-square-meter house with three floors. It remains only the shell.

Lately, I was watching the workers breaking everything inside house, then moving one after another wheelbarrow full of broken bricks from the house to the truck. Every time I see that, I cannot stop thinking of the preparation of stuffed duck(if ever the workers knew how to make it...).

Before putting the stuffing inside the duck, you must remove the bones, while at the same time you have to keep the duck shape. You must be very careful not to break the skin when you are removing the bones, otherwise the stuffing could come out from the holes.

It is important to know exactly what you want to do before the demolition, otherwise, not only losing the stuffing, but also ruining the duck itself.



In 15 days, the house remains the shell



After demolition

After construction









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The ceiling bricks

After having heard so much about the ceiling bricks finally appeared. The original ceiling bricks were removed one by one two months ago.
They are really removed one by one. Maybe because I am used to seeing many tall buildings built and died quickly, I never thought that someone could take out the bricks one by one from the old ceiling, and then scrape them and wash them one by one and then re-use them.

Maybe I am used to seeing things done in haste, and used to see things being thrown away without consideration. When I heard from father of Corrado saying that he is going to clean every bricks for reuse, I thought he was joking.




In these two months, I was watching Corrado and his father cleaning the stones and renovating the old front door. I saw them working under the sun, sweating, and listening to the radio while sanding the wooden door and clean. Sometimes they are chatting, joking with the neighbors whom passing by. They are manged to entertain themselves to make this hard work become more fun. Finally, they clean all the stones and they are ready for reuse.


Yesterday, Corrado and workers have taken away the old ceiling timbers. They set the new timbers with cement and started placing the old-but-clean bricks.

After having heard so much about the ceiling bricks, finally it is done.



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Destroy

It took us 6 months to empty the house. Finally, the reconstruction work can begin. The buidling workers have brought so many heavy equipments, start demolishing the house all day, every day. The noise of the jackhammers fills the sky, then the sound of the broken bricks collapsing to the ground. Every time I heard a brick falling down, I feel like it falling on my heart that always becomes heavier.

The house

The garden

via Zonta 19

Entrance of the house

The living room after war




The bathroom
Equipment

Demolish

Wait

Slit
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Last day of work

Above my desktop, there is a World map. Every time I write articles, chat with friends on internet or write my diary, I am always stunned by that map subconsciously; imagine the sun and the beach in Brazil, imagine how nice to sleep with the Eskimos in their icehouses, imagine walking to the city of Machu Pichu, or eating ramen by the streets of Tokyo, or going back and forth on a tuk - tuk in Bangkok. Sometimes, a strange idea will come out from my mind: next month I will go to Romania and wander the country.

I do not remember from when, in which year, which month, I no longer feel the same when I look at the world map. The feeling is like standing in front of the famous painting 'Monalisa's smile', I would probably give a close look with great admiration, maybe would also take 2 pictures, then moving on to appreciate other paintings. The feeling is, no matter where I go now, indeed any place is the same.

What really matters is with whom you live together, work together. Even if I could live in the most beautiful place in the world, but surrounding by insurance consultants, whom try everyday to convince me to buy their insurance packages ... so what is the sense?

Today is my last day of work, I resigned again. Say goodbye to a nice group of colleagues, thanks to them, Italy is more beautiful.
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Stuff

How much stuff can you accumulate in a lifetime?

If you had a whole life time to organize your stuff, you would probably become more chaotic. Until one day, someone does not have anything to do with your life, who comes to your house and starts throwing away your stuff. What remains then is really precious.

It is me, that does not have anything to do with your life and now, I am in your house. Without any restrictions of your memories, I am going to categorise, discard and empty your stuff. I know that will take a long time but certainly less than what you spent to accumulate.

I know I am going to throw away so many things that you would rather keep, but I promise I will treasure all your books, classify them and spare them for those in need. I think your books will enjoy this way.

I will go against your will, and open the door of your secret room where was shut out from sunlight for the last twenty years. This room will become the entrance of the first floor, everyone has to pass here to get into the house.

Maybe now you can not hear anything anymore, yet I can still imagine your memories here though I am not part of them. In your secret room, I found your university thesis and many military reviews. Inside a drawer, I found a book cover with the face of Hitler, but it was no longer frightening because you covered it with a volume of Sturmtruppen to exorcise the figure. In your studio, I found so many decks of playing cards, 9 out of 10 were new. In the freezer, I found a piece of pork covered with mould. In every corner of the house,　I found a pair of leather shoes with good style, good brand with original boxes.

I seem to search through the debris of your life the pieces of your personality.
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The first stage

The difficult part of handling choices in life is not taking them, but to realize them.

Now we have the first problem to solve: does law allow us to transform the house into a restaurant? I try to find out the answer from this engineer sitting in front of me. Today is the first working day after New Year holiday, he is turning the pages of the documents slowly, seems to be still on vacation.

He lights a cigarette, then looks at us and turns another page. Finally, takes a breath and says: 'Mmm ... it's the house at Via Zonta ...'

He has not yet finished the sentence and turns his head away towards the computer to find some other information. He takes out some documents, looks at the map, then blows somke in the room and says, 'you can do that, but it depends on the space for parking.' This answer surprises me.

I am a local Hong Kong, and never thought that a permit to open a restaurant can be connected to the space for parking. The engineer tries to explain the relationship between the capacity of the restaurant and the number of parking spaces.

Fortunately, Via Zonta is a main road. There should be enough parking spaces. So we solved the first problem.
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Another Idea

Leali family perhaps is a family with the most ideas in the world. A week after decided to renovate the ground floor, Nico suddenly came to our house one afternoon and said:'I have an idea!'

'Another idea?! That is what we are missing now! 'I said to myself.
'Let's make also a bed and breakfast. Ground floor will be the restaurant, first floor with 3 rooms for guests and the loft will an apartment for two of you. Since we have to restructure, I can ask for a bigger mortgage and we can fix everything! 'said Nico with her eyes pumping out.
After a moment of silence, we looked into each others eyes. Then, Paola, mother of Corrado broke the silent as she could not hold back a big smile and said, 'what a great idea! It's always been my dream! How fantasticoooo! '
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The decision

After a week of tossing and turning over the bed all nights, we made a decision.

To incentivise Nico in making investment, Corrado and I repeated the Chinese feast 2 days ago. Nico has invited her friends. It was a very cold winter day before Christmas. For this occasion, I made traditional cantonese style pork barbecue with a little modification. Instead of using pork shoulder meat, I used the pork neck meat because it is more chewy.

After the feast, we discussed our project with lots of enthusiasm. Nico has become the owner of the house after Mr. Gilberto passed away.

The problem is that this house was poorly maintained. In the past 10 years, Mr. Gilbert lived alone in that house and after his illness was turning severe and limited his movement, Mr. Gilbert moved from the first floor to the ground floor. Since then, both first and second floors have remained unused.

If the house is continued to be neglected for another five years, it will have more problems. However, Nico's daughters are still small and they are living in another house they owned. Obviously they do not need another house now and in the next 10 years. Now, the dilemma is: restore the house for however the size makes it difficult, or wait until her children grow up and rebuild the house when they need it, but who knows when it will be ... the house will become very old and will be impossible for the reconstruction.

Given the dilema, our project is probably the best solution. And, certainly my barbecue pork also helped to convince Nico of our idea.

It was an opportunity fallen from the sky. This Christmas, we made the decision.
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Another sleepless night

It is another midnight, another sleepless night.
Too many unexpected things, too many problems.
Could I become a chef? ?
Could I be able to tackle?
Am I able to transform my interest into career?
Without the preparation in traditional cooking school, could I be a professional chef?
Am I going to lose all the savings of Nicoletta?
Will the restaurant close down immediately after opening?
... What can I do?
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A watched flower never blooms, while a carelessly planted willow grows into shade

It happens very often: what you do not expect develops naturally.

I promised mother of Corrado a while ago that we finally decided to do a Chinese dinner at the end of this month. Cooking may seem easy, but for me, instead, I take it very seriously, as if it were a deal worth one million dollars, and think of the menu all day.

Making a Chinese feast for a group with lots of cooking experience is a real challenge, I can not be relax. The first problem I tackled while organizing the menu was the sequence of courses.

Chinese cooking does not give many importance to this factor, but in Italy, even when eating at home, people always follow this precise order: appetizer, first course (pasta, risotto or soup), second (meat, fish or vegetables), dessert and lastly a cup of espresso with a cigarette. The sequence from delicate flavor to strong is very important, the Italians are convinced that in this way, they can taste more flavors comfortably.

Eventually, I decided to follow this idea to plan my menu.

Italians love appetizer with strong flavour, such as ham or salami and I decided to make spring rolls and stuffed chicken wings as appetizer. Actualy, I thought about making spring rolls even before organizing the menu. As it seems to me that the Chinese restaurants in Europe are unable to do anything but spring rolls, but that does not mean that they can do it well. The spring rolls prepared in many Chinese restaurants here are very greasy with thick dough and you can not taste good stuffing. Since all Chinese restaurants make spring rolls, Europeans probably think that in China this is the national dish. Therefore, I want to prepare the spring rolls in traditional way in order to allow my guests to understand the authentic taste and at the same time, explain to everyone that the spring rolls are not our national dish, and we do not eat them every day!

For the first course, I have proposed the Chinese dumplings in broth. The filling of the dumplings was minced pork with local cabbage. All dumplings are made by my 10 fingers (plus Corrado's 10), from flour to final product. The broth is a traditioanl 'Cantonese'speciality, made with pork bones and chicken boiled for 5 hours. Then, second course is plain, simple steam local free-range chicken. For dessert, I have prepared Shanghaiese sticky rice dumplings stuffed with sesame and peanuts .

Bread and coffee is always on the Italian dinning table, but in this case, I replace them with steam white rice and tea. The wine however is irreplaceable. The wine, though not very common on the Chinese dinning table, can be a good food-pairing with chinese dishes. As I love drinking wine and luckily I have many opportunities to try many good wines that goes very well with Chinese dishes.

This time I chose a Sicilian wine, white, organic and made by a friend of mine, Grillo of Trapani. His Grillo is delicate but strong: it opens in the mouth with a floral flavor, the wine seems easy but after a while, you can taste an intense and lingering taste of almonds. Use this wine to pair with my asian food is just fabulous idea.

Around mid-day, the guests are entering. We have 16 guests this time and they are friends of Corrado's family, one of them is a chef (cook for a chef makes me a bit nervous). And we prepared a menu for each guest. While I was finishing writing the menu, I thought of a name: Eat Drink Man Woman. Maybe because I have seen many times this film directed by Ang Lee, and every time I saw Chef Chu cooking, I just want to cook. Perhaps this impulse, encouraged me to write 'Eat Drink Man Woman' as the title of the menu.


To get the control of the kitchen from the hands of an Italian mother is not easy.
In order to be able to be stay alone in the kitchen, avoiding continuous passage of 10 people, I informed the guests before that the dinner is like eating out in a restaurant, I would be the chef and Corrado the waiter.

Guests are taking seats, chatting happily, rasing their glasses and toasting to each other. These sounds are like music to my ears. I do not know when this feeling is formed inside of me, I am very pleased to hear the laughs of the guests everytime I am cooking.

This is so strange.

The appetizer is served, spring rolls and stuffed chicken wings.
Some guests begin to eat the wings with their hands, some asking for help, 'Why without cutlery?' I replied with a big smile: 'No need! The spring rolls and the chicken wings are without bones. Don't follow table manner, eat whatever the way you want. Eating involving all 5 senses, use your taste, smell, sight and hearing at the same time touch the food.'

After the Q&A section is the moment of silence. Only the sound of chewing. Like a symphony that after vivacious part, returns to calm.

So that they have eaten for several hours. With the dessert together we brought also a questionnaire to the table. I said to everyone 'after a free meal now it is paid back time.'

The questionnaire was designed together with the menu sharing the same spirit: just for fun.

I inserted questions like: 'after eating, do you feel lacking bread or coffee?', Or 'when was the last time you ate Chinese food? What impression did you have? ',' Which dish did you like the most today? ',' Which less? Why? 'Etc..

The responses surprised me a lot. The dish less appearing was the dessert! The comments were more or less saying: it is not because it does not taste good, it was just the texture was so strange, I'm almost afraid to swallow.

Now that I know Italians do not like sticky things, such as sticky rice.

At the end, everyone encouraged us to open a restaurant. Some said that if we could make the food like today everyday, they could garantee certain amount of customers for the first 6 months.
The aunt of Corrado, Nicoletta, came in at the moment we were talking about these things. She heard everything and saw all the boozy faces of our guests, and suddenly shouted: 'Guys, you can open a restaurant in Gilberto's house. I still trying to find a solution to make use of it. '

Corrado and I looked at each other, a little surprised, but inexplicably happy. Panic. From this moment, the world seems a bit different.
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The beginning of the story...

The story begins with the end of Mr. Gilberto's life.

About this retired history and philosophy professor, Mr. Gilbert, there are many legends. People said he has read all his 3000 books more than one time; people said he underlined every pages he read; people said there was a secret room at the first floor of his house with triple-locked, where the sunslight is shut out in the last 20 years, only Sig.Gilberto could enter; people also said that Mr. Gilbert denied social life and lived alone in this house, lived alone in his world.

Two years ago, it was my first visit of the house. I was thinking about all the legends I heard while walking inside the house. My first impression was: 'Oh my God! What a mess!' Then, I was overwhelmed by waves of books from every direction, as if there were only books in this World. I wonder how Moses passed through the Red Sea and at that moment I felt like I were him, walking through ocean of books and suddenly the ocean was divided into two parts, leaving a passage in the middle, then a figure of an old man appeared at the end of the passage: it was Mr. Gilberto. I saw him walking towards us, then he said something to us but I could not understand anything. But Corrado, who standed next to me, seemed to understand everything and repeated to me in Italian, saying: 'He told us to follow him to his studio'.

Corrado touched my shoulder to reassure me, and spoke softly close to my ear: 'he had a stroke few years ago that limited his ability to speak. I understand that you probably find him difficult to understand. Anyway, he seems to have a good impression of you because the entry admission to his studio is reserved for few. '

I felt even more nervous after hearing that. Mr Gilberto walked slowly and bent over to himself, obviously he was suffering a lot from his illness. We went through waves and waves of books to reach his studio. Here, I saw no wall, only rows of bookshelves and full of books. I could not tell from where Mr. Gilbert took out two books, one about Tibet, another about Zen, then gave me the books and told me something. I was very surprised and did not know how to react. Corrado touched my shoulder again inviting me to receive the books, then told me that they were gifts from Mr. Gilbert, 'consider them as gift but remember to return them because he is very jealous of his books'. Actually, I was inhibited, and received the books like a robot. It was all so strange to me!

Then I forgot what happened next. I only remember 2 months after that day, I saw Mr. Gilberto by chance and he asked me about his two books.

These images of Mr. Gilberto kept reappearing in my mind in the day of his funeral. I saw his body in the midst of his books, until he was buried. Although Mr. Gilberto was not socially active, but today, many people came to his funeral.

Mr. Gilberto is gone, leaving behind his house and his 3000 books.
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