Category: Food

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Gelati

Somehow, during my last visit a couple weeks ago, I managed to spend two nights in Rome without tasting gelato, and despite giving Gabe a hard time ever since, he did not allow Katherine or me to have Gelato outside of Italy. My first taste of Italian Gelato came our first night in Pisa from a small place called De Coltelli (www.decoltelli.it). The gelato was delicious, creamy, rich, naturally colored, and perfect on a warm evening. I still remember starting with pistachio and chocolate, and then going immediately back for strawberry and peach. I am someone with an ever-present sweet tooth and a constant craving for diary (despite being a bit lactose intolerant). Therefore, ice cream and gelato always seem like the perfect snack. In the “The Docle Vita Diaries”, Cathy Rogers and Jason Gibb describe Italian gelato.

“Why is ice cream so much nicer in Italy? I mean, isn’t it just milk and then stuff that you can get anywhere like nuts and chocolate? Is it, like the coffee, something to do with having fancy machines that just do the job better? Or is there something they’re hiding? Because you go into one of those awful British or American places and the ice cream is just horrid by comparison – vulgar, crude, not even tasting of what it’s mean to. The Italians aren’t averse to the odd horrid flavour – a bright blue one named after the Smurfs that tastes of nothing on earth, at least nothing this side of Belgium– but at least it seems they’re choosing to do it, rather than doing it because they don’t know better.”

Gelato from Pisa

As an American talking gelato, I feel obliged to at least briefly discuss some of the differences between gelato, ice cream, and sorbet. I will start with good ice cream, and by good ice cream, I mean the kind that doesn’t use condensed or powdered milk. Good ice cream is made with fresh cream, eggs, and natural flavors. Ice cream is also overrun, which means that air is whipped into it, and the more overrun an ice cream, the softer and lighter it will be. Some ice creams even have extra air added to it; however, these ice creams would no longer fit under my category of “good” ice cream. Gelato, on the other hand, holds a minimal amount of air, and this accounts for its high density. As far as differences in recipes go, gelato will usually include more egg yolks and milk, and a little less cream. The fat content of gelato, because of the reduction in cream, is less than that of ice cream; however, because it is less overrun, it still maintains that very rich and creamy taste. Finally, sorbets are just fruit, sugar, maybe some lemon juice, and water, the amount of which can control the intensity of the sorbet.

Gabe is taking me on a gelato tour of the best spots in Rome in between visiting his favorite churches, plazas, and vistas around the city. We have already begun this journey, and will continue it when we return to Rome before traveling to Sicilia. I will rate, rank, and record this avventura del gelato upon its completion.

“Italian ice creams tastes so good it almost manages to convince you that it’s good for you.” -Rogers and Gibb

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Back in Rome

I feel I just left Rome the other day, but in fact, I have been bicycling in France and WWOOFing in Tuscany since I was last in Rome. That said, time that flies is the best type of time, and the last two weeks have been more than memorable. We separate from Katherine at the Cecina train station as she heads to the Pisa airport to return to London and we train back south. As we sit on the train, we feel the temperature continue to rise for each latitude line we cross, and by the time we are in Rome, the heat is intense.

Roman Street

While in Rome, we are staying with Sam, one of Gabe’s very good friends he made while living here over the last year. Similar to Gabe, Sam also lives next door to the Pope. The first night we are back, the two of them have a kitchen reunion and they whip up some delicious pasta with home-made sauce. I learn what real al dente means — there is actually a thin layer of white, uncooked pasta in the center of the noodle. The trick is taking the pasta off before it is done because it will continue to cook in the sauce before it is served. The meal is delicious and we top it off with a small glass of grappa that Gabe and I brought back with us from our time on the farm.

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Under The Tuscan Sun

As I knew I would be traveling to Tuscany to work on a vineyard, I felt it was appropriate to read Frances Mayes’ book “Under The Tuscan Sun.” Mayes, between her descriptions of buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned house, describes her experiences of working in the garden and dealing with the locals. Most of the book was a bit flowery for my taste; however, as I did have grounds to relate to it, I made it through the more ornate descriptions of the food and the land. In addition, for a bit of advice in working on a vineyard, I found the below quote:

“Besides the practical, a host of enduring superstitions determine the best moment to pick or plant; the moon has bad days and good. Vergil, a long time ago, observed farmers’ beliefs: Choose the seventeenth day after the full moon to plant, avoid the fifth. He also advises scything at night, when dew softens the stubble.”

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10 Germans, 10 Cats

“Here we are in the middle of Tuscany, surrounded by forest, having sausages, salads, and wine with ten Germans and ten cats.”

About halfway through the evening, Gabe turns to Katherine and me and recites the above quotation. It may have been the wine or the many mosquitoes or maybe some allergic reaction caused by the litter of cats or maybe one too many sausages or even maybe the lack of English around the table, but whatever the cause, we all started laughing to the point of tears.

German Dinner Party Table

Ursula and Sigismund had invited the family staying at their nearby guest house and we all enjoyed a great meal of many different salads, sausages, and ribs. To help prepare, the three of us set the table and cut up the fruit for two large bowls of fruit salad. We did not know what to expect from the evening when it began, but it will forever be a fun memory from our stay on the farm.

Sigismund working the grill

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Frederica and The Tuscan Pool

While sitting around the dinner table, I spot some white umbrellas on a nearby hill and optimistically think that these umbrellas must mean that there is a degustation. I convince Gabe and Katherine to take our next day’s afternoon excursion past said umbrellas, and although it appears to be more of a private home than a vineyard offering wine tastings, our plan is to walk up to them and let me introduce Gabe, who can speak great Italian. We walk the front path as they all stare in our direction, and as soon as I get close enough, I ask the obvious question, “Do you speak English?” They respond with a confused no, and to introduce Gabe, I simply point at him and explain that he speaks Italian. Before long, we are talking with the family from the house and are soon invited inside by Frederica (the daughter) for tea, snacks, and popsicles. We sit in the kitchen of this recently remodeled beautiful Tuscan home and start learning about each other’s lives. Frederica is currently studying linguistics in Pisa, and as a result, her English is great, although she still prefers to speak Italian with Gabe. Using my Spanish, I am able to understand most of what is transpiring, but I have more difficulty participating save for small phrases now and then.

After about an hour and a half of getting to know each other, I look at the time and realize that we are late for dinner on the farm, and given that the farm is run by Germans on a strict schedule, we start mobilizing quickly. As Frederica is walking us out, she tells us the story of a past run-in with Ursula and Sigismund, and we are immediately able to relate to her description of the many cats, the house, and of course, the couple. Finally, at the very end of our visit, she invites us to use the pool later in the week. This invitation generates one of the largest smiles on all of our faces given the high afternoon temperatures.

We return to the farm about 10 minutes late for dinner and are concerned what Ursula will say. Gabe and I run right up to the dinner table while Katherine goes downstairs to freshen up. Ursula indicates that our tardiness is not a problem and even gives us permission to wash up quickly. But when we return to our room, we convince Katherine that we missed dinner, Ursula is angry with us, and we will need to figure out what we want to do for food. We continue with this ploy for about 5 minutes before we start laughing and explain that if we don’t go upstairs to dinner soon, we might in fact miss it all together. Katherine sighs not knowing what to do with us and we all make our way to dinner.

When the next afternoon rolls around, we all grab our bathing suits and towels and head back over to the beautiful house with the white umbrellas and swimming pool. Frederica is not there, but we say hi to the rest of the family, and find comfortable lounge chairs near the pool. The rest of the afternoon is spent jumping in and out of the water interspersed with sunbathing. We decide that this Tuscan lifestyle might be easier to become accustomed to than daily work in the vineyard.

Afternoon excursion in Tuscany

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The Road to Riparbella

Although we enjoy the quark, potatoes, bread, and tomatoes so readily available during meals on the farm, Gabe and I decide we should consider venturing to the nearby town of Riparbella to supplement our diet with some more fruit and vegetables. We hear that we can make it to town via bicycle, so we naturally borrow bikes from the farm and start naively on our way. We wait until about 5pm to try to avoid the heat of the day, but unfortunately, we aren’t entirely successful. After crossing several undulating hills, we hit the main road and optimistically look up the hill and think that we’re almost there. We start climbing the hill, and as we round every corner we prepare ourselves to see this small town. Eventually after about 20 corners and much climbing, we see a sign welcoming us to Riparbella. Unfortunately, the sign appears to be more of a tease than a welcome because we still only see more climbing leading to another bend in the road. Nonetheless, we rejoice at the sight of the sign, take a short break, and attempt to remove some of the sweat from our faces.

Riparbella sign

While waiting at the Riparbella sign, we watch other professionally dressed bicyclists in much lighter and higher-tech bicycles struggle up this same hill. Although we are not maintaining their pace, we still feel better knowing that we are not the only ones suffering. Eventually, we convince ourselves that this next corner will in fact be the last corner, we mount our bikes, and we continue forward. The next corner was not the last, but after only several more turns, we find the town, and more importantly, we find a small market. First thing, we find water to start re-hydrating ourselves, but as soon as we feel the warm bottle, we are less excited. We grab the water for later, but at the moment, find a refrigerator with cold beers, and we share one of the most refreshing beers I’ve ever tasted. The taste isn’t even mind-blowing, but the circumstances are perfect.

We purchase a backpack full of vegetables, water, juice, and some drinks for later, and we then walk around town with our beer and water. Satisfied with our completed mission, we remount our bicycles and enjoy the downhill ride with wind in our faces. We get back to our room, immediately re-shower, get ready for dinner, and then rehash our adventure to Ursula. She claims that she had warned us about the hill and that no other WWOOF-ers have ever attempted that ride before. Gabe and I look at each other, smile, and change the conversation.

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The Vineyard Schedule

5:45am – Wake-up

6:00am – Breakfast of muesli, corn flakes, whole milk, tea, coffee, and bananas

6:30am – Work in the vineyard. Everyday, the three of us spend four hours in the vineyard performing two tasks. 1) We wrap vines back along their supporting wires and posts, and 2) we prune around the grapes so that they could receive more sunshine during the day.

Me in the field

Gabe and Katherine in the field

10:30am – We play a couple games of Scala 40, an Italian card game that the three of us begin to really enjoy.

11:00am – Yoga session led by Katherine.

12:00pm – Rotate through the shower and prepare ourselves for lunch. Gabe occasionally misses his shower opportunity because an unmentioned member of Team Degustation takes very long showers.

1:00pm – Lunch. Lunch begins sharply at 1pm and we are not to be late as it is the biggest and most important meal of the day. Meal favorites included quark, potatoes, mad cow butter, pineapple, spinach, eggs, potatoes, and sausages. Conversation is usually lively and topics range from salt fields to dormice.

2:00pm – We wait out the hottest part of the day in our lower level rooms where the temperature is milder. We pass the time with books, cards, and naps.

4:30pm – Excursion time. After becoming a little antsy, the late afternoon typically includes excursions, which can be grueling uphill bicycle rides to the nearby town of Riparbella, a jaunt over to the neighbor’s pool, or just a walk around the nearby area.

7:30pm – Dinner. The time of dinner is more flexible as we were explained it is okay to be 5 minutes late. This is a lighter meal accompanied by wines from the vineyard.

Sunset from Tuscan farm

9:30pm – The day wraps up with a couple card games, maybe a crossword or two, and then setting multiple alarms so that we would be able to start the routine over again in the morning.

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The Leaning Tower

Similar to the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa begs for perspective photos, and this time the temptation was too much to resist. So after a delicious pizza dinner topped off with creamy gelato, the three of us make our way across the entire town (which luckily is very small) to its famous tower. The much anticipated landmark did not disappoint. It is beautifully lit up at night so that it starkly contrasts with the night sky.

Without even realizing what we are doing, the three of us start the typical photo shoot of leaning against the tower, holding up the tower, etc. And as if we needed more encouragement, behind us gathered a small group of tourists who were overly impressed by the outcomes of these photos. Our 24 hours in Pisa starts off very well.

Tower of Pisa 1

Tower of Pisa 2

Tower of Pisa 3

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Paris and Constance, Part II

When determining the best way to get from the Saumur in the Loire Valley to Cecina, Italy, we figure out that training back to Paris, then flying to Pisa, and eventually training to Cecina is the best route. Once the path is settled, we start finding accommodations. We email back Constance, whom we had rented the art studio apartment from on our way out. She responds that her apartment is booked but that we can stay with her and her daughter in their own Paris flat. We arrive at the flat, settle in to her children’s rooms, and ask how much we can pay for the room. She explains to us that she cannot charge someone to stay in her flat and we are made speechless by her generosity. We had chatted with Constance over tea and snacks for about an hour when last in Paris, and all of us got along very well, but this act of kindness was so far and beyond anything that we expected.

Gabe and I stay in her son’s room, which was better decorated than I have or ever will get my room. He had historic coca cola bottles from all over the world to go along with his guitar collection, bike parts, music posters and great sports memorabilia. Gabe and I were impressed by the son’s room. In the evening, “we” cook dinner. The “we” deserves to be in quotes because there were a couple conflicting kitchen philosophies melding. I stick to opening up the wine and cutting up a couple vegetables and then I stay out of the way. That said, the vegetable medley we had hit the spot. We had eaten a lot of cheese and a lot of bread, but our diet had been missing those colorful vegetables. While we wait for the vegetable medley to bake, we play Crazy Eights using Katherine’s seemingly made-up rules. (We later confirmed that there are a lot of possible rules that can be used in this game, and Katherine happened to be using at least semi-true rules.)

In the evening, Constance is somehow able to convince Katherine that she should go out. Before Constance’s help, Gabe and my powers of persuasion were being tested. We have a fun time, return before its too late, and wake up to Bach playing and a table set with croissants, jams, juice, and tea. As a thank you gift, we give Constance some nice tea and several jams; however, there was no gift that could show how appreciative we are for Constance’s generous hospitality.

Despite loving Constance’s flat, the three of us did explore the city some.  We walked around, enjoyed the park outside the Louvre, swung by Notre Dame, and tasted fun snacks including crepes from a small street side window and macaroons from Laduree.

Flat in Paris

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Ode to Cheese

Camambert, Brie and Roquefort,
Chevre, Boursin and Munster
So many types, they’re hard to sort
And after time, they’re only a blur.

And when inside France,
Not any bread will do.
We never took a chance
And had baguettes brand new.

All I need is cheese and bread
My preference of course being goat
And with shops so widespread
The meal becomes almost rote.

more cheese