Life...Italian Style

A Simple Thanksgiving for 50

Choosing which holiday to spend in which country can be difficult, but after 3 years, I've got it down:

Christmas: USA - Umbria is so lacking in Christmas spirit that it makes me almost miss the commercialism of America, plus, you can't beat shopping the Christmas sales when you are buying with the Euro! 

New Years: Italy - I love the big multi-multi-multi course end of the year dinner! (skip the cotechino though....)

Easter: could go either way - I can definitely live without Easter breakfast in Umbria - a hard boiled egg, salami, lamb-innard stew (which I like, but not first thing in the morning), and the dry dry dry Pizza di Pasqua, which looks like a delicious cheese brioche, but its the driest, worst bread in the world.  Lunch/dinner is another story - whole baby lamb or goat roasted over the fire, fried artichokes, more innard stew, and lots of other good stuff! However, I do like a good honey baked ham, easter baskets, and all things easter bunny!

4th of July:  another either way - obviously the spirit lies in America, but its fun to try to recreate here in Itay - plus it gives Italians a chance to eat a real burger, not the weird gross little patty things they have here.  (and of course the burgers are good - Americans only know how to cook and eat hamburgers anyway, right? McDonalds, right???)

Halloween:  USA - its a new holiday here - and there are no mini-Snickers.

Thanksgiving is one of the holidays that I don't mind spending abroad, because I've found that Italians get just as excited about it as we do.  Who doesn't love the sight of a giant stuffed turkey???  This year at Trattoria Basilikó we even had a turkey carving race!

Here's what you need to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for 50 in Italy:

• 45 pounds of turkey
• 2 old hens for broth
• 10 pounds of butter (unheard of in olive oil-only umbria)
• 12 liters of heavy cream
• 3 loaves of Pugliese style bread - the saltless bread of umbria will not work for stuffing
• 13 pounds of cippollini from Cannara for creamed onions
• 25 pounds of potatoes for mash (actually, more - Italians eat mashed potatoes like they are going out of style)
• 11 pounds of brussel sprouts - special request item
• 10 pounds of sweet potatoes, or "American Potatoes"  - another special request item - and they only have the white kind
• 20 pounds of whatever root vegetables you can find - difficult because everything has the same name - rape (RA-pay)
• cranberry sauce - sent from USA - enough for personal use only - the thought of eating any kind of jelly with meat makes Italians absolutely sick!
• 6 cans of pumpkin puree - also sent from USA - there is no differentiating between different kinds of squash here in umbria - every type is called zucca - trying to ask for butternut or delicata or kabocha is futile - don't even try for sugar pie pumpkins - if they exist here, they exist only to be carved on halloween!
• a good egg nog recipe - the Italians were so-so about the egg nog, some liked it, some just didn't get it - the only person who loved it (and finished off everone's glass at her table) was a tall, thin, model-like girl from Romania - you never know!

Will Oldham/ Bonnie Prince Billy is eating at Basilikó tonight!!!!

I can't believe someone I like is actually playing in Foligno - I'd better watch out for flying pigs.....

Libera-azione - il 25 aprile a Foligno!

Happy Italian 4th of July!

Today is Italian liberation day and there is a festival in Foligno in collaboration with Libera Terra, the anti-mafia group that also makes organic pasta....and preserved eggplant....!

Here's a link to the program in Foligno today: http://www.arciperugia.it/?p=436

2 Events this Week at Basilikó!

L’Orto Bio Logico Ariel e la Trattoria Basilikò presentano

DALL’ORTO ALLA TAVOLA
Una serata BIO-LOGICA
alla scoperta dei sapori provenienti dalla nostra terra

protagonista: il CAVOLO NERO

insalata di cavolo nero con caprino del pastore
involtino di cavolo nero
“caldo verde” zuppa portoguese
gratìn di cavolo nero

€ 30 (compreso vino, cibo, discorsi, tutto!)
Mercoledì 25 febbraio
Ore 20:30

********************************
La Trattoria Basilikò in collaborazione con Bengodi
E La Cantina Zaccagnini presentano

“La Montanara”
Alla scoperta dell’ Appennino Abruzzese
   
Ventricina del Vastese
Pecorino di Farindola
Crostini alla Chietina
Pallotte Cace e Ove
Pizz’ e Fojie
Pecora al Cotturo
I Bocconotti
*******
€ 30 a persona
Tutto incluso

Venerdì 27 febbraio
Ore 20:30

Prenotazione Obbligatoria!

ITS OBAMA TIME!!!

For all of the Americans living in and around the Umbria area, there will be an aperitivo party at Winner in Foligno to watch the inaugural speeches.

Party kicks off at 17:00 with Joe Bidens speech, Barack scheduled to speak at 18:00.

Obviously everyone is welcome to continue the party at Basilikó!

But will there be a Turkey???

ahhhh...the burning question these days.....

I am planning to have a 4th of July party at Basilikó this year just for fun, and because lots of our customers are curious to try "real American food."  However, 90% of Italians that I have spoken with seem to think that no American holiday is complete without that mythical "Thanksgiving Day Turkey" - its the stuff dreams are made of  - and they all want to try it.

Now that I have a pretty good grasp on the language here, once people discover that I am american, they love to shower me with every possible stereotype that they know of, to show just how much they know about american culture and history.  Just to be clear, these are people who have never set foot in the United States, let alone have left Umbria.  Some of the most popluar, and my favorites:

1. the streets really are paved with gold!  they think all americans are rich - I constantly have to explain that most American tourists who visit Italy represent a very small part of the population, and are, in fact, a little better off than everbody else.
2. stickin' with that gold theme - the golden arches of McDonalds - my customers can't even imagine how I learned how to cook so well having only been in Italy for 1 1/2 years, and having grown up only eating "fast food" my whole life.  When I say that I have been cooking in restaurants for 10 years, and that the food in america can be really good, I get a confused look...
3. we have a great healthcare system in america just like in italy.  I don't have time here to comment
4. America is roughly the same size as Italy - they can't fathom that their country is about the same size as California, one of 50 other states - look at a map!!!
5. this one is great - over heard by my partner Cristiana in a pizzeria:  instead of water faucets, Americans now have Strawberry Coca-Cola faucets in their homes...cherry coke, maybe...but strawberry - does it even exist??? ;-)
6. America is a place of constant change for the good of everyone - a true democracy.  I'm not going to argue that things happen in America a lot faster than they happen in Italy, but we have had a monkey accompanied by the devil reincarnate in office for the past 8 years, and have managed to create another war without end or sense...seems like we are moving backwards.  Here in italy, the government wasn't working, so they just ended it and changed - no endless waiting like us (whether its good or not is subjective, of course, but its at least change).
7. and the giant turkey its on everybodys table, every holiday.  If I have Thanksgiving dinner at the restaurant, there is sure to be a line out the door.  And there are going to be a lot of disappointed faces this turkey-less 4th of July...

Best Line Ever!!!

true story...
One friend said to an acquaintance "Wow, you are so tan!  Have you been on vacation?"
The acquaintance responded "No, no....I think my after shave cream is turning my skin this dark color..."

Here in Foligno, there is practically a tanning booth on every corner.  And some cold January days, it just seems as if everyone has a mid-August, just off the yacht, sunkissed glow (except me, of course).  The Folignati are absolutely addicted to tanning booths, but no one wants to admit to actually going to one... and I never seen anyone in them...  I don't know -  its an after shave mystery....

The Year in Review...

One year and 2 days ago, I arrived in Italy and turned a new page in my life - looking back, its been quite a year!   In 2007 I ....

• moved to Italy
• learned to speak Italian, abbastanza bene...
• experienced a little culture shock
• survived working at Il Bacco Felice with Salvatore, and
• probably enlarged my liver a little doing so...
• turned the big 3-0
• adopted 2 kittens, Lilla and 'Cino
• took a month-long motorcycle trip, through the Balkans, and helped orphans in Montenegro learn how to cook (new years resolution:  finish writing about that)
• worked the Trampetti Olive Harvest , and learned that age truly is all in the mind
• got married!
• opened Basilikó Trattoria here in Foligno

to follow along visually, check out my Flickr photo site .

Buon Capodanno a Tutti !!!!

Basilikó is open!

  Basilikó Trattoria 

 

I am happy to announce that I have re-opened Basilikó Trattoria with my friend Cristiana Ciraolo.  Tomorrow afternoon we are having an aperitivo party to celebrate - if you happen to be in the Foligno area, please stop by!

Basilikó
Via Bagni 6, Foligno
0742 359690
basilikotrattoria@gmail.com

love and marriage (part 1)

I'm a little late in writing this, but, last week, Federico and I got married!   Don't fret if you weren't invited - no one else was either.  In order for me to stay legally (finally) in this country, and be able to plan my real wedding next summer, we had to do the "courthouse wedding" thing.  And it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be - I spent hours searching for information about documentation, and reading peoples horror stories on the internet - it made me really nervous...
We began our sojourn in Roma,  which I didn't mind at all because I think it's the greatest city in the world!  First, I had to go to the American Embassy in Roma to fill out a Nulla Osta ( Download NullaOsta.pdf ), which is basically just a sworn statement saying that one is free to marry.  Then the next day (all of this has to be done on 2 different days, because it would be too easy for the offices to coordinate and be open on the same day), we went to the Prefettura in Rome to have the nulla osta legalized.  This means buying the marca da bolla.  I hate buying the marca da bolla - it is a stupid little sticker that one has to buy at the Tabaccheria (cigarette store), costs €14.62, and makes everything "legal."  Then, at the prefeturra, they take the nulla osta, turn it over, stick the marca on it, then scribble something....and presto! you've got yourself a legal document.   Its insane that I had to go all the way to Rome to do this, but, at least I got a 2 day vacation in Rome.
Eating in the Eternal City... somehow this trip turned into the search for innards - and the Romans really know how its done.  We ate nervetti, I think boiled cartiledge from the shanks of the cow; tripa, cow stomach; coda alla vacinara, oxtail, technically not innards, but a little out of the norm; coratella con carciofi, all the innards from a lamb, stewed with artichokes; and animelle in bianco, sweetbreads fried and cooked in white wine.
Back in Foligno, we had to go to the commune , kind of like a town hall, to "announce the intent of marriage."  Before one can get married in Italy, banns have to posted, just in case someone has the legal argument against the wedding.  Here I ran into my only real problems.  Big ones too - the way my name is written.  My last name begins with McI... and this is strange for them here - big C or little c, space or no space between the c and the I...they were really giving me a hard time about this. Also, on my passport (as with most americans) is written my middle initial. This is another problem for them, because it doesn't really exist here.  It took a little while, but we got it all sorted out...
12 Days Later....  we got hitched!  Our friend Joseph performed the ceremony, and Massimo and Alessandro were our witnesses.   Its not so bad having a courthouse wedding in Italy, because like most things here,  its more beautiful - 16th century frescoed walls and ceilings, etc.  The commune of Foligno even gave me a bouquet of white roses.  A few glasses of spumante... and that was it!  I'm finally legal!