Chefs Dave Caldiero and Anita Eisenhauer along with some farinata and beer.

As you would expect, Italy is filled with the best pizza you’ll ever eat. I was surprised to find another yummy food baked in a  wood fired pizza that I had never heard of before.  Farinata is a thin, crisp pizza like pancake composed of chick pea flour, water and olive oil.  It is cooked in a special copper pan in a super high heat oven.

At Terra Madre, I was fortunate to share a room with Chef Anita Eisenhauer, a professor at the CIA (Culinary Institute of Amercia, that CIA!). She invited me to come along to dinner one night to a downtown Turino pizza joint known for it’s farinata.  We met up with Dave Caldiero, one of Anita’s former students who has two restaurants in Hawaii. Dave had the inside scoop on this place because he knows a very cute little old Italian woman who spends the colder months in Hawaii, she and Dave are pals.  A number of other folks from Slow Food Hawaii and Slow Food Oahu joined us along with Martha Franklin, a chef from Montpelier VT who teaches at the New England Culinary Institute and Jan Poppendieck, professor of Sociology at Hunter College and author of Free for All: Fixing School Lunch in America.  This was typical of the meals I enjoyed at Terra Madre: unique and amazing blends of people from all over the world along with delicious food.

Farinata was also available at the Salone del Gusto in the “street food” section. Here is a short video that another Slow Food delegate shot of the process of making farinata.

Matcha Tea

Based on the blog posts I’ve been writing about coffee in Italy, you might be surprised to learnt that I’m really not a coffee drinker. I detoxed myself off of coffee back at the turn of the century (1999) and only drink it on rare occasions when I’m driving long distances. In the weeks before my Italy trip, I drank some lattes and other coffee drinks to build up my caffeine tolerance so I could enjoy some coffee in Italy without bouncing off of the walls.

My drink of choice is tea. Japanese tea in particular, I love Sencha, Kuchikia and especially Matcha. I learned about the health benefits of green tea years back at one of Andrew Weil’s Botanical Medicine conferences in NY. As you’ve probably heard, green tea is loaded vitamins and phytonutrients. As Dr. Weil taught us, most teas are of poor quality, this is why I’ve always gravitated towards Japanese green tea. Eden Foods makes a nice organic Sencha tea which is available in most health food stores.

Matcha is different from regular green tea. It is made with very specific tea leaves that have been covered a few weeks prior to harvesting, to slow growth and thus produce a greater share of amino acids.   When it comes to nutrient and antioxidant content, some say drinking one cup of matcha tea is the equivalent of drinking 10 cups of regular green tea

I was lucky to find an importer of good Japanese tea at Salone del Gusto last week. What a hoot, he spoke English with an Italian and Japanese accent!  He set me up with some Grade 1 top of the line primo Matcha tea powder.  Just a teeny pinch whisked in some warm, not too hot, water makes a smooth really tasty drink. Smoothest matcha I’ve ever had.

Cioccolata Calda

One afternoon while sipping my cappuccino at a nearby cafe,  a delegate from Vermont introduced me to an amazing Italian drink: Cioccolata Calda. The translation is  hot chocolate but it is nothing like the  watery kind we drink in the US. Hot chocolate in Italy and many parts of Europe is thick, almost the consistency of pudding, and hot, hence the word “calda”. Its not nearly as sweet as what we drink in the US, but it is totally dense chocolate deliciousness. Topped off with a touch of whipped heavy cream that is slightly sweet, this drink is pure pleasure.

I had no choice but to order one of my own.  I played tourist and whipped out my camera for a play by play photo shoot of the scene behind the bar.

Cappuccino at the Rome Airport

After spending 10 days far away in a country that really knows how to do food right, I’ve headed back home. A 4am cab ride to the Torino airport in which I took a short flight to Rome airport. At the Rome airport, I thought it was time to have my last cappuccino in Italy. After 10 days of thoroughly enjoying coffee in this country, I knew the routine. Pay at the cashier and belly up to the bar with your receipt and enjoy a delicious cup of espresso with frothy steamed milk made right in front of you in a ceramic cup.

Imagine my disappointment when I was given a cappuccino in a lousy red and white cup.  Major bummer.  This was nothing like the drink I’d had when I landed in Milan last week.  I guess it was just as well since I needed to come back down to reality. Once home, there would be plenty of paper cups.

Stay tuned, I’ll be posting  both words and photos about the food and drink I enjoyed during my adventure to Terra Madre.

Mikey doing battle at the Pantheon

Thirteen is a tough age. You’re no longer a little kid, but you’re not yet an adult either. We took our youngest daughter, thirteen, along with us on our Italy trip for a couple of reasons. One- to show her there is a big big world out there beyond suburban NY. Two- to give her a realization of the fact that the US is a very young country compared to the rest of the world.  And, three- to expand her palate beyond the usual food she’s been eating.

Three days in Rome gave her more than enough art, history, museums and churches of all sizes. And enough pasta to keep a kid who is still a bit of a  picky eater satisfied.  (Yeah, I know I said the other day I’ve got to re-think the label “picky eater” but for right now that term is going to have to stay until I find a new word that fits.)

After taking an evening high speed rail to Florence last night, we are now in a completely different part of Italy. Of course there is plenty of art and history but there are more attractions for a thirteen year old. We spent the afternoon on a bike tour all over the city. The narrow roads are perfect for bikes, our guide gave us  short and sweet snippets of history along the way. The menu in Florence is a bit different than Rome. For one thing, there seems to be more meat: I had osso bucco with polenta for dinner.  My 13 year old eater is adjusting. Slowly. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?

This morning, we are hopping a train to Montevarchi to spend a full day shopping for fresh food, cooking and eating it all.  I hope that this will be the turning point that will inspire my daughter to eat more adventurously as she learns first hand from a cooking teacher other than me about the wonders of Tuscan food.  After all, kids who grow food and/or cook food are way more likely to eat that food.

Stay tuned, I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Cappuccino at the Milan Airport

After trying my best to sleep on the long flight from NY, I knew I’d need some caffeine for the last leg of the trip to Rome.  I stopped on my way to my connecting flight at the  Milan airport for a quick cappuccino.

Unlike every other airport I’ve been to before, this coffee was not “to go”. It was served in a ceramic cup. Like all the Italians at the coffee bar, I stood at the bar, sipped my cappuccino. Slowly. What a treat that cappuccino was. When you stop moving your feet and stay in one place, you actually really appreciate your drink.

Most Americans drink their jumbo coffee drinks in paper or plastic cups. Fast. Often in motion while walking or driving somewhere. How different it can be to stay in one place, just for a few minutes and actually be with your coffee. This cup was smaller than the “tall” size at my local Starbucks and oh so much more satisfying than any cappuccino I’ve had to drink at home.

While sipping my drink, I watched the staff collect the empty ceramic cups and load their super speedy wash machines. There were no over flowing garbage bins filled with paper cups. Less trees destroyed to make paper cups that are used just once. This system has got to be better for the environment.

I’m looking forward to more cappuccinos in the days ahead.

My Picky Eater E-book

I recently became involved in an interesting online conversation about the word “picky eater”  with some mommy bloggers.  Christina Le Beau who has a blog,  SpoonFed. wrote a recent post that makes the argument that labeling kids becomes a crutch for parents and sets up a self-fulfilling prophecy. Plus it minimizes the very real food issues that some kids do have (allergies, sensory issues, etc.).

I’ve always felt that language is really important. I’ve written loads about how the food industry runs the show by controlling the language. I believe strongly that labels are for jars, not people.

It’s probably not a good idea to label a child as a picky eater. I’ve had more than my share of both personal and professional experience with kids of all ages who are not adventurous when it comes to food. I’ve written a great little E-Book called Winning the Picky Eater War……maybe I need to look at changing that title.

Let’s talk personal here. I’m the mom of three amazing and beautiful daughters, ages 20, 18 and 13. The two older gals could almost be considered Foodies. They love to eat, they love to cook.  But my 13 year old continues to give me a run for the money. While I’ve declared victory from time to time and she does eat way more veggies than she used to, I would still classify her on the picky side.

Sadly, compared to other kids her age, she IS more adventurous than many. That is the really scary piece that my mommy blogger friends might not realize. Picky eating behaviors, or whatever we should be calling it, are now extending beyond the toddler years into the tween, teen and even college age. My older daughters tell me stories of the peers who eat nothing but junk. Imagine a 20 year old ordering pasta with butter, how crazy is that?  What do you call that? Picky? Dare I say “stupid”?  What these kids are missing out on is huge. There is a whole wide world out there filled with amazing, delicious food.

This is one of the reasons she is accompanying me and my husband to Italy this week. There aren’t any chicken nuggets in Italy, right? She’ll experience a wonderful “slow” food culture first hand. We’re even going to take a full day cooking class in Florence.

In addition to the art, the history and the language, I hope my daughter finds herself inspired to expand her palate while on this trip.  Stay tuned for more photos and recipes. My plane leaves in less than an hour!

Ciao!

Carlo Petrini

Once upon a time in the late 1980′s a man named Carlo Petrini organized a bold and powerful campaign against McDonalds.  The fast food chain was planning to open a branch of the golden arches near the Spanish steps in Rome. Carlo and his pals brandished bowls of penne past as weapons of protest and the Slow Food movement was born. He issued a manifesto which was a response to fast food, fast life, non sustainable farming and the erosion of local communities.

Today, Slow Food, is an international organization that is active in over 150 countries. Here in the US, Slow Food has over 200 chapters, I am a proud co-leader of the Westchester/Lower Hudson Valley Chapter of Slow Food.  This weekend, I had the fortunate opportunity to her Carlo Petrini speak at NYC’s new hub of delicious food, EATALY.

Here’s a taste of what Carlo spoke about.

Its very important to increase the dialog between science and traditional knowledge. I am reminded of  this often by my clients who have gotten lost in “nutritionism” and health claims and find themselves utterly confused when it comes to what to eat. Traditional food and culture has as much to teach us as high tech science does, perhaps even more.

Politics from grass roots movements move slow like a snail but go on and on. Small things bring great changes. This is part of what I try to impart to school food advocates who contact me through the Better School Food website. By taking a stand, we shift the culture of food in a school. And yes, the pace may feel snail like at times, but it makes a huge difference in the long run.

Carlo said that the two foundations of Slow Food are:

#1 Affective Intelligence this is intelligence that comes from the heart. Because we are a heart centered organization, many people feel compelled to get involved and volunteer. Being involved with Slow Food is a delicious form of activism, everyone loves to connect over a meal.

#2 Austere Anarchy I personally love the word anarchy which can be defined as a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government.  What Carlo said was we have the freedom to do anything. Slow Food chapters can do what they like. You can visit the Slow Food USA website to see the wide variety of events happening all across the country.

After Carlo talked, we ate. And ate. Amazing bread from Wild Hive Farms drenched in olive oil. Fresh mozzerella, crisp salad with pickled carrots and beets, varieties of fresh pasta, wood oven fired pizza, and of course, wine.  No one was counting carbs, that is not on the Slow Food agenda. Everyone was talking about farmers, Italy and the upcoming Terra Madre 2010 event instead.

This was a wonderful sneak preview of the adventure that I’ll be embarking on later this week as I leave for Italy en route to Terra Madre 2010: a world wide meeting of farmers, artisan food producers, educators and food activists.

Ciao for now!

Tonight, I attended a screening of this film that highlights the dark side of our over-achieving communities.  I live in a highly competitive town where kids are under played and over scheduled. Most are tutored and just about everyone is on some sort of travel team for sports- regular ol’ AYSO soccer is just not good enough!  High school is one big race to the “best” college, parents cough up mega bucks for SAT classes, college advisers and community service opportunities that will make their kid look good on applications. Kids take multiple AP courses and have no scheduled lunch period so they can squeeze it all in. The movie portrayed my community very accurately with success being defined by what college you go to along with an overemphasis on making money. Two of my daughters have been through this high stress high school and I’m just not certain I can muster up enough energy to put my third one through this gauntlet. Stop the merry go round, I want to get off!

The message in this movie is less homework and more family dinners. It will take some swimming upstream and there is no easy fix. How to get off this treadmill and raise a happy, motivated and creative human being? How do we re-define success and make happiness as important a metric as math scores?

This is one reason I’m taking my daughter out of school for a week long illegal absence and bringing her with me and my husband for Italy.  I hope she’ll learn more in 5 days visiting Rome and Florence than she will in 5 days of middle school.

Why would I take my kid out of school to go to Italy in the middle of October?  I have a good excuse! I was selected by Slow Food USA to be a  US delegate to this year’s Terra Madre event in Turin, Italy. Terra Madre is an international conference of over 7,000 food producers, cooks, educators and activists. Every four years, network delegates come together to discus global food sustainability issues.  My hubby, who is a whiz at playing the frequent flyer game, came up with two free round trip tix for himself and my daughter  so we decided she could play hookey and come with us on an Italian adventure.

If you have kids in school, even if they’re only in elementary school, this movie is worth your time. Hopefully you can set up a screening in your school district and have a meaningful community wide conversation afterward.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stock

The weather has turned chilly, fall is finally here. Last night, after  my hubby grilled up a beer can chicken on the grill, I knew it was time to start making soup. Good soup starts with a good stock.  The best stock is made from real ingredients. My secret weapon for making outrageously easy and delicious stock is my slow cooker.

Two important ingredients in my stock are apple cider vinegar and sea vegetables. The vinegar helps to pull calcium out of the bones.  I add sea veggies for additional trace elements and  minerals. I use a blend of sea veggies from See Sells Seaweed who harvests seaweed off the coast of Maine.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stock

Ingredients:

carcass of roasted chicken

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 onion cut into quarters, skin included

1 carrot, coarsely chopped

a spoonful of sea vegetables (i.e. kombu or  wakame)

fresh filtered water

Load up the Slow Cooker, turn it on low, let it do it’s job over night.

Want more super easy, super delicious Slow Cooking recipes? I created a short and sweet cookbooklet that is filled with some of my most favorite slow cooker recipes.  In keeping with the slow theme, its not an instant download E-book, its a small simple booklet that I sent to you via snail mail (aka the US Postal Service). You can order it on my website by visiting my products page, click HERE for more info