What Fills My Plate

Ciao! Big News!   The circus came to town!  Starbucks has just decided to put a coffee bar in Milano.   Well, okay, not so big news, this huge corporation, making millions of dollars, are only putting in one bar.  Just one.  Not a big expenditure this plunge into Italian coffee world.  Not much of a risk!  Only one?  What gives?!            The opening is rumored to be February 1.           My Personal Choice Back when Starbucks was deciding to move abroad the corporate big shot  made the smart decision to avoid Italy like a case of herpes.  He saw that coffee is a lifestyle here.  Italians treat coffee and coffee time much different from Americans.  They are hard core.  The prices that Starbucks will ask will not be accepted.  The size of drinks will not be accepted.  The sugary blends they pass off to sugar hungry Americans will not be a...

   Getting Along With Others Istanbul    I write about food.  I like to cook.  I like to find the history in food making.  But, it’s not all about food.  Living abroad in Italy has afforded me a better view into the window of the world.   A lot of times I am able to  discover interesting and humorous trends and customs that have evolved through history.    A Shock To Sit Down It’s a real jolt to the mind to discover the  communal toilets of Ephesus in Turkey.   My mind just cannot imagine Paul, from the bible, sitting there next to 8 or 9 strangers.  But then it caused me to think back to my father and his story of never having indoor plumbing until he joined the U.S. Navy.   He always added little snippets about the hurried trips through the snow during the night, using old catalogs for toilet paper and some sort of mention about dried corn cobs.  I can appreciate my home’s small yet f...

Caped Crusaders of Folk Music This weekend we were rewarded by hearing some old Italian musicians squeezing their accordions and playing some Veneto  folk tunes.  We watched as these two accordionists, old geezers my age, were accompanied by a  large group of blacked caped men, some in masks,  belting out song after song as they strolled along the calli (street in Venice).  Their folk tunes seemed to be  known to many bystanders who then proceeded to join in with the capesters.    cymbals adds some rhythm Decked out in long black capes, called tabarros, the group centered itself in the middle of the Campo San Bartolomeo (Venetian piazzas are called campos).  Singing with gestures of hands in the air, and some smiling like a prankster, they proceeded to entertain themselves and everyone else.  There were several guitarists amidst the  singers and one fellow with a face of concentration playing a drum which made me thi...

When I was a little kid I would bug my father for money to buy souvenirs.  I was driven to bring something home, an acquisition that showed “I was there”, while my father was driven to keep my hands out of his pockets.  This is when I would hear his voice explaining once again to me that all that stuff was made in “Japan” and completely worthless.  Nowadays it seems that all the souvenir stuff found in shops around the world is made in China.  Here, Venetian souvenir shops have things produced in China, and many of the shop owners here are Chinese.  These are popular by tourists thinking they were made in Italy. Now that I am way past that ignorant stage of  youth, what does an old American tourist like me bring home to Italy from a short trip to England?   My main strategic approach to shopping abroad has two items always on my list.  This  is limited only to what I can carry back in a small carry-on.  (No liquids, etc.)  My...

Pheasant For Dinner Meet my Italian friend Sergio.  You see a man who has experienced a hard life but can still find a smile.  At first he seems a complicated man, until you know something about him.  He has faced many challenges, and through a strong will he overcame them all.  I sat one day during pranzo (lunch) at his home while his wife hand rolled pasta to make a northern Italian lasagna, called pasticcio.  It was amazing to see her roll the entire slab of pasta on her thin rolling pin and then release it with a backward roll.   When you first see Sergio you might think he is not Italian.  He is quite tall and slender.    He has a lean but  slightly muscular body for an old guy.  He smiles when he is confused or cannot hear and then he just breaks out in a smile.  He dresses casually and often wears his hunting vest (he is an excellent marksman with a shotgun).   The most notable thing about Sergio is...