May 2012
11 posts
5 tags
Tower of Pisa - A short Investigation
Like many, I have always been fascinated by the famous leaning tower in Pisa. I wanted to understand more about the tower and the city from which it derives its name in preparation for a future visit. So, I did some quick research and found that the history of the construction of the tower is very involved and quite fascinating. I tend to like facts and figures, so my apologies in advance if...
4 tags
Round trip of the tomato - from America to Italy...
In my previous article about tomatoes (http://blog.madeinitalymall.com/post/18259071363/are-tomatoes-italian), we learned that the tomato is indigenous to South America and that it spread throughout the Americas before being taken to Europe by the explorers. In an interesting twist, years later the tomato then returned to America in the form of tomato paste that was shipped from Italy to the...
7 tags
Slow Food Day in Italy - May 26th
Riccardo Astolfi ‘s recent article provides us an excellent introduction to what to expect on the occasion of the second annual Slow Food Day in Italy. This celebration in Italy is part of a series of events that occur all year around the world as part of the Slow Food Movement , which we are featuring here on our blog. For example, we recently collaborated with the Slow Food International press...
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Trastevere district in Rome
Since Trastevere was such an integral part of my experience while I was working in Rome, I wanted to know more about that district. It might seem strange that I have spent so much time there and yet I don’t have that many specific recollections. Honestly, that is because my Italian colleagues and I usually just roamed the district, choosing our destinations on the spur of the moment. I...
6 tags
All reviews about Italy are wrong
I look at the product reviews every time I shop either in the shops or on the internet. Unfortunately they are really not very reliable, although I select the “real” ones (at least I hope so). I like to hear what people have to say (some of them are very entertaining). We know that there are plenty of firms specialized in producing this kind of “fabricated stories” on...
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Slow Food President Carlo Petrini to speak on May...
On the Made in Italy Mall blog, we are subscribed to a number of newsletters that provide updates on all events around the world surrounding the Slow Food Movement. We recently received two announcements related to this topic. We will publish an article soon about Slow Food Day in Italy on May 26th. We thought it was worth re-publishing this article which we received from the Slow Food...
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Legend lives on in Italy
The classical tale of the brave Knight saving the damsel in distress from the evil dragon lives on in some frescoes which survive today in Italy. In fact, the legend of St. George, the holy knight who rescued the princess from the terrible dragon, has given birth to a rich subject for iconography that was widespread within the figurative arts during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
(Courtesy...
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Simple Insalata Caprese - vegetarian appetizer
We have been presenting some pasta dishes, side dishes and desserts that fit a vegetarian diet. I thought it would be nice to add a really tasty and easy to prepare antipasto (appetizer) to the list. I had often ordered this salad at restaurants because it is not only naturally vegetarian, but also fairly low-calorie. So, I decided to try making it at home and discovered it is pretty simple...
3 tags
Italian recipe as lifestyle
Many people raise the question as to why I publish Italian recipes, since my knowledge about Italy is quite a bit broader and I could write about any number of other interesting topics. Moreover, as CEO of a shopping mall, they expect me to care more about business or “other stuff” considered to be much more valuable.
From their perspective, they’re very right. It seems they...
2 tags
Lost, and found again, in Italy
A friend of mine was travelling on the night train to Venice and had a mishap that fortunately was resolved successfully, thanks in part to the kindness of an Italian couple from Milan and the clear-headed thinking of my friend and his travel partner. This story has always restored my faith in humanity. It illustrates genuine Italian hospitality, but also contains some important object lessons...
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Shoes: strong tradition of Italian artisans
Whenever I travel in Italy throughout the artisans’ shops, I really notice the strong historical legacy of these people by looking at their workshops.
The attached picture is of a shoe repair shop in the South of Italy that gave me the spark to write this article.[[MORE]] I’ve never seen something similar to this workshop in my travels around the world. I’m not talking about...
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International Worker's Day
International Workers’ Day (also known as May Day) is a celebration of the international labor movement and left-wing movements. It commonly involves organized street demonstrations and marches by working people and their labor unions throughout most of the world. May 1 is a national holiday in more than 80 countries. It is also celebrated unofficially in many other countries. While it is...
April 2012
13 posts
Exclusive Italian architects
I just read in an Italian newspaper (ilsole24ore - Ecco perché la corazza dei grattacieli più high tech del mondo è fatta in Italia….) that the Italian architect Renzo Piano has designed The Shard in London, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, reaching up 308 meters (1010 feet), which is ready on time for the 2012 Olympic games. The building has been made by the Italian Permasteelisa (recently...
Bad experiences in Italy - Chapter I
Awhile ago I had a conversation with a nice American gentleman who was robbed while traveling in Italy with his wife on a first class train in the North of Italy. Thieves took a few thousand dollars, his passport, and other personal documents when he “left” his belongings at his seat to go eating at the dining car. Although this bad experience happened few years ago, he’s still...
3 tags
Kefir bread with chestnut honey
I was perusing the latest set of recipes on Riccardo Astolfi’s site and found this unusual and intriguing bread. I love kefir, but I had never really given much thought to the idea that both bread and kefir involve leavening. This bread, that is born of experimentation, illustrates the full range of possibilities that exist to make bread.
(Photo courtesy Riccardo Astolfi)
For those of you that...
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Definition of Wine (Chapter II)
I am guessing that I might have introduced some confusion in Chapter I.
In my experience, the only way to clear up the confusion is to identify where the problem lies. The main problem is that the wine business is [[MORE]]a bit ”messy” and confusing!
THEY want it that way. Who does? The marketing kingpins of the wine industry do. They know, scientifically, that in a confusing...
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Italian Wines? Seriously! (Chapter 1)
I started truly appreciating wine thanks to a good friend of mine who introduced me to it some time ago. That was when I learned that only a friend can really introduce you to wine.
(Photo courtesy of Azienda Agricola Fontanavecchia)
While I am passionate about Italian wines and wine making, I have a conflict about expressing myself here on the blog on these topics[[MORE]]: I find it difficult...
5 tags
Villa Borghese - an oasis within Rome
With all of the many historical sites, wonderful restaurants, and other distractions of Rome, it is easy to overlook the wonderful gem of the gardens at the Villa Borghese.
(Photo courtesy of ItalyGuides)
I know it is easy to overlook because it has happened to me.[[MORE]] Even though I have visited the gardens before, I did not make it there on my last visit to Rome. I was reminded just how...
4 tags
Visiting the Uffizi in style
Have you ever been caught in a long line while traveling and had no idea how long you would have to wait?
…and then wished you had a way to avoid the long line?[[MORE]]
It turns out that I found a way to save myself from the experience of a long wait at the Uffizi museum in Florence by doing a little research ahead of time.
Having traveled in Europe a fair amount over the last few years, I had...
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International furniture show in Milan
Where is the largest international furniture design show held every year?
[[MORE]]
The answer is not too surprising. It is in Milan, Italy.
This year the Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2012 will be held at the Milan Fairgrounds in Rho. The show has its origins in 1961 as the Salone del Mobile Italiano as a forum for Italian design, but in 1967 the scope expanded to become an international...
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Finding The Last Supper - well worth the search
The first time I visited Milan, I was on a business trip. It was one of my first visits to Italy, and like many inexperienced tourists, I somehow expected huge signs pointing me towards The Last Supper. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
It turns out that the famous painting is housed in the monastery at the Santa Maria Delle Grazie [[MORE]]church, which is on a side street fairly...
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The Trastevere district in Rome - a rich...
When I worked in Rome, I was fortunate because I worked with a team of Italian consultants from all over Italy, most of whom wanted to go out for dinner after work. We usually ate dinner in the Trastevere district in Rome. The name of the district derives from the Latin words “Trans Tiberem”, meaning across the Tiber.
Every evening our group would meet at the Cinema Farnese in the...
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Easter Monday is Picnic Day!
La Pasquetta is Easter Monday in Italy. After a solemn Holy Week, and the traditional celebrations of Easter Sunday, Easter Monday is a day to go out and have some fun!
For many in Italy, it is a day to have a picnic. What better way to savor the soft spring sunshine[[MORE]] than to be out in the countryside, or – if you’re staying in the city– in a glorious park such as the Borghese Gardens...
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Italian ceramic products - following the Italian...
In a time when the trend is towards mass-produced consumer goods, Elisa Giampietro, an Italian ceramicist, quietly bucks the trend, creating beautiful, hand-made wood stoves in the tradition of the Castellamonte area of Piemonte - Italy.
The design principles behind the Castellamonte stoves are based on hundreds of years of tradition in Italy, yet it is a product that is distinctly modern...
March 2012
13 posts
6 tags
The cinquecento and Italian Design
Have you seen the new Fiat 500?
It is a shiny little apple of a car with retro styling inside and out, two-tone seats, a fabric roof (if you get the convertible version), and plenty[[MORE]] of zoom. It is just so much fun. Fiat has kept all the charm of the original design, and masterfully updated it for modern drivers.
The original 500 premiered in 1957. Here is one of the first commercials...
Teatro alla Scala - a brief history
Seeing an opera at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan is on my top-10 list of things to do the next time I go to Italy. For some reason, a visit to the famous opera house has eluded me on my previous trips. But, the theatre is certainly one of the most important icons of the opera world.
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The theatre was inaugurated in 1778 and the premiere performance was Antonio Salieri’s Europa...
Easter dove - bread suggests a dove
It might look like a dove, but it is not.
[[MORE]]It is wonderful raisin bread molded into the shape of a dove for Easter. This recipe comes from Riccardo Astolfi, who offers us this simplified version of corvaccio (raisin bread) for the holiday.
For those that read Italian, here is the original article:
http://pastamadre.blogspot.mx/2012/03/corvaccio-pasquale.html?utm_source=BP_recent
Here is...
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Parmigiana di Zucchine: delicious vegetarian dish
After reading Lynn’s recent article http://blog.madeinitalymall.com/post/19237458535/adopting-an-italian-eating-style-in-america about adopting Italian vegetarian cooking techniques, I realized that quite often I prepare vegetarian dishes. Since I’m not vegetarian, that article reminded me that the majority of my favorite Italian dishes are “mostly vegetarian”. The...
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Is the Caesar salad Italian?
Growing up in Southern California, I had heard that the Caesar salad was named after the famous Roman emperor and that the recipe originated in Italy[[MORE]]. I had also heard an intriguing story that it was invented in Mexico. I decided to investigate further. It turns out that the history of the Caesar Salad is somewhat controversial. There appears to be one fairly prevalent version of the...
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Delicious spaghetti sciue`-sciue` in 5 minutes
In Italy, pasta is quite often a kind of “ritual” used to share a great time with friends. It’s surely the case with spaghetti sciue`-sciue`(pronounced shoowae-shoowae) from the Naples-Caserta area, which is where I grew-up.
Let’s pretend that suddenly you show up at my home unannounced, I’ll surely[[MORE]] prepare spaghetti sciue`-sciue`. The name means...
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A day like an Italian model
I travel quite often to Milan and from now on I will be sure that I don’t miss a visit to my hair stylist there!
[[MORE]]Lately, my life in Italy is becoming pretty busy when I visit. My priorities are my family, my relatives, and my best friends and, of course I can’t forget my MADEINITALYMALL business Partners and Suppliers, who are all very important to me. But there is one unplanned stop I...
How to make sourdough starter
I want to produce sourdough for myself! How do I make it?
[[MORE]]This recipe in this article is from Riccardo Astolfi’s web site and gives you all of the detailed steps you need to follow to make the sourdough starter. Here is the link to the article that he published in tandem with our...
“Eco-friendly” practices and Slow Food
How does the topic of “eco-friendly” practices relate to the Slow Food movement? What follows is a translation of an interview that sheds some light on that subject
[[MORE]]Essentially, our relationship to the food we eat has a direct impact on our environment. The Slow Food Movement emphasizes the connection to local food traditions, which in turn promotes more ”eco-friendly”...
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Puccini's international influence
The operas of Puccini are loved the world over. America is no exception to the rule. In fact at least two his operas, Madama Butterfly and Fanciulla del West have themes that relate directly to American culture.
[[MORE]]Puccini was born in Lucca in Tuscany, into a family with five generations of musical history behind them, including composer Domenico Puccini. From 1891 onwards, Puccini...
Adopting an Italian eating style in America
In Italy it is easy to find the essential elements of the classic Mediterranean-style diet. Why don’t we find that in America?
[[MORE]]When I worked in Italy over a period of one and a half years, I never had a problem finding food that was light and tasty in reasonable proportions. Yet, the last time I remember going to an Italian-American style restaurant with a work colleague for lunch the...
The Journey of Chocolate from America to Perugia
The roots of modern chocolate can be found in[[MORE]] Mesoamerica. The origins of the word “chocolate” probably come from the Classical Nahuatl word xocolātl (meaning “bitter water”), and entered the English language from the Spanish word chocolate, presumably based on the Nahuatl word.
Chocolate, the fermented, roasted, and ground beans of the Theobroma cacao, can be...
Anticipation of Spring - fresh flowers to...
There continue to be intriguing articles related to bread on the Pasta Madre [[MORE]]site. Who would have thought of adding dried flowers to bread? Inline image 1
Riccardo Astolfi offers this recipe to help ward off the veiled threat of snow that was expected in Bologna when he published this article in late February.
For those of you that read Italian, here is the...
February 2012
7 posts
5 tags
Italian Orecchiette e Broccoli in 10 minutes
Increasingly I have discovered that simplest things are more impressive than I would have expected. For example, this happens whenever I prepare simple Italian dishes for my friends.
(Photo by Anthony Le - attending this meal)
When I want to prepare something special for guests, I always seek the freshest ingredients. Recently, the beautiful green color of the broccoli in my shopping bag was...
Are Tomatoes Italian?
I heard from a friend that tomatoes came from America and then got curious to see if he was right. I found out that the evolution of the tomato is a somewhat controversial and very interesting topic. I will let you decide the answer for yourself. There are handful of facts and quite a few theories when it comes to the history of the tomato. One fact that is not disputed is that the tomato is...
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Venetian Carnival
When I was a graduate student in Paris in the early 90’s, my friend Joyce invited me to Venice to experience Carnival with her. She was an opera singer, living in
Rome, at the time. To discover Venice, with an insider, at the time of year when the city seemed so essentially itself, was truly delightful. Though it has been almost 20 years, my first experience with Venice, and Italy,...
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Spaghetti and clams in 10 minutes
Spaghetti and clams is surely the easiest dish to prepare, but for some reason it seems people just shake their head when I suggest that they can prepare it themselves. Perhaps that could be because there are some pretty terrible recipes out there from what I have seen so far!
Besides some small tricks that I’ll add here, the most important thing is the selection of the spaghetti and the...
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The Music of Bread - Excerpt from an article...
There were some interesting follow up articles after the Terra Madre events last year. One very intriguing article by Riccardo Astolfi, reflecting on the musicality of bread, caught our attention.
For those that understand Italian, here is link to the article. Contained within the link is a sound byte of the sound of bread....
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Madama Butterfly - inescapably gripping
What can possibly compete with the super-bowl for your attention? The inescapably gripping tragedy of a young woman who is robbed of her social position, her husband, her son, virtually everything… except her dignity.
(Photo by Duane Morris courtesy of the Portland Opera)
I attended the sold-out performance of Madame Butterfly by the Portland Opera on Sunday, February 5th at 2 pm. I found...
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Brief history of the Italian language
I finished my brief investigation into the history of the Italian language and found some interesting points. According to Wikipedia, when Italy was unified in 1861, Italian existed mainly as a literary language. At that time, regional languages were spoken throughout the Italian Peninsula, each with local variants. In modern Italy, the main language is Italian, a descendant of the Tuscan...
January 2012
6 posts
2 tags
Chestnut flour in Italian breads
How many of you have heard of chestnut flour?
I certainly hadn’t heard much about it until I read an article by Riccardo Astolfi on the Pasta Madre web site about this topic. I have been following along with the articles on their site since I became aware of it when we began our series of articles on the “slow food” movement. One of the main themes of their site is the preparation and enjoyment...
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Puccini - something for everyone
The opera music of Puccini offers something to every type of audience. As a newcomer to opera, Puccini’s music is accessible, beautiful and engaging. As a seasoned opera-lover, the music offers all of that along with the subtleties that are brought to the arias by the singers. I suggest that a good starting place to develop knowledge of opera would be with the operas by Puccini. Within the...
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Eating light - the Italian way
How many of you think of Italian food as being “heavy” ? Have you stopped to think about this perception?
The studies on eating habits have consistently indicated that a Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest ways to eat. Some of the key elements of that diet such as olive oil, whole grains, and tomatoes have been lauded for their effects on maintaining overall good health. It is...
The Costa Concordia accident
I have been deeply affected by the Costa Concordia accident, so I want to take this opportunity to communicate my thoughts on the blog.
First, I want to say that I am truly sorry for all the passengers involved in the terrible accident that happened onboard the Costa Concordia in Italy, close to Giglio island, on the 13th of January, 2012.
I wasn’t there; I do not have any business with The...
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Love Italy, but live in California
This was a question that one of my best friends asked to me not too long ago. Why do you love Italy, but live in California?
It’s not a tricky question. Actually, I think of it as a very spontaneous question. I’m investing all my time and energy to promote the beauty of Italy, but I do live in California. I’ll answer exactly the way I answered my friend:
The first spontaneous answer is based...
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The Caruso tradition continues
It has been ninety years since Enrico Caruso last sung, but his legacy lives on. First his son, and now his grandson, great grandson and his great, great grandson continue to keep his memory alive. His great, great grandson Enrico Caruso IV will be coming from Italy to sing at an upcoming event in Brooklyn.
The evidence of the legacy of Caruso shows up in a variety of interesting ways. ...