Aperitivo

Aperitivo is as much a part of Italian culture as a siesta is. As you walk down a typical city street, you will pass numerous cafes, bars and restaurants, all the stores that offer little treats throughout the day--pastries, appetizers, snacks, etc.--which cannot be carried over to the next day. No one wants to throw these out, so they offer: "buy a drink and eat all you want." Some places take this a step further and make special aperitifs, and others even have hot foods like pastas and risottos, etc. Aperitivo can be offered any time after 4 and it might go as late as 9 depending on where it is (and how late the owners feel like working that day!). It could almost be compared to a cocktail hour, except that it is just a normal, everyday occurrence. People stand around socializing, sometimes inside the given establishment, more often, on the sidewalk (or even the middle of the very small streets).
Across the nation, the favorite drink for aperitivo is prosecco. It is a sparkling white wine, similar to champagne, but without the price tag and produced in Veneto (the “state” around Venice).

For budget travelers, this can also be a cheaper way to eat out and get great local food.

Gelato

Basic recipe:
450 ml (2 cups) milk
120 gr (4 oz)sugar
200 gr (7 oz)fresh cream
5 egg yolks
a pinch of vanilla (they have powdered vanilla and real vanilla bean, not the extract)
5 gr (1/6 oz) glucose (not essential if the gelato is consumed immediately, which isn't hard to do)

In a bowl, whip the egg yolks with the sugar. Then pour in the cream and vanilla and mix well. Heat to just below boiling, then cool. Pour the mixture, once cooled, into the ice cream maker and freeze.
Enjoy!

This is just the basic recipe, so flavor it as you will. Everything can be a gelato flavor. Everything.

Pastry Shop

Sponge Cake:
for a heavy sponge (or a pound cake)- 1 part eggs to 1 part sugar to 1 part flour
for most sponge cakes- 2 part eggs to 1 part sugar to 1 part flour
if adding baking powder to batter: 2 tsps to every 12 eggs
add butter for flavor; heavier sponge; to extend shelf life

more egg yolks makes a denser sponge
more egg whites makes a lighter sponge
too little sugar makes it tough
improper folding makes it fall or leaves pockets of flour
too high in glutens (different types of flour: cake flour/ bread flour/ starches) makes it rubbery

Mousse:
Ganache + whipped cream

Bavarian Cream:
stirred custard+gelatin+whipped cream

Amazing discovery of the day:

Bechemel Sauce+ Garlic+ sun-dried tomatoes+ pasta= meraviglioso

Bechemel:
3 T butter (or olive oil)
2 t flour
1 cup milk (or cream)
3 cloves garlic
few sun-dried tomatoes

Heat the oil and the garlic, add the flour. Mix and let it thicken for about 30 seconds. Add the milk and cook over low heat until thick, add tomatoes.
Serve over pasta of your choice.
Loverly! Enjoy!

Finals: Chocolate Artistry:

Three types of cacao bean: Forastero, Criollo, Trinitario

History of chocolate: For centuries, if not millennia, the cacao bean was kept tucked away in Central and South America. Although the precious bean was restricted to such a small sphere of influence, it played a huge role in the local culture. For the Mayans, who were the ruling tribe in this area, the cacao bean was the economy. It was used as money. It was used in religious ceremonies, as a status symbol for the royalty, and even in wedding ceremonies. The Aztecs, later, discovered the bean, and did much trading with their southern neighbors in order to experience this wonderful elixir.
Chocolate, as we moderns would think of it, in a hard, bar shape, was not produced until much, much later. At this time, the cacao bean was used to make a frothy drink. It was not until long after being brought to Europe that chocolate metamorphosed. Christopher Columbus stumbled upon the bean, but it did not really have much impact in Europe until Hernando Cortez began establishing trade relations with the Aztecs. The Spanish then began to plant the cacao beans in their other colonies along the equator. It was the Spaniards who first added sugar to the chocolate drink of the Mayans. Thus chocolate begins its multi-national transformation into an international sensation.
In 1615, Maria Theresa of Spain married the king of France. At this point, the love of chocolate really began to spread. The French aristocracy loved the drink! A frenchman later opened a chocolate house in England, and the drink made its way from a favorite of the elite to a favorite of all. Chocolate became very popular, but it was still expensive. The French and Spanish planted cacao trees in all of their colonies that were capable of growing the beans. Then, with the onset of the industrial revolution, production became cheaper.
The industrial revolution did more than just ease the time and expense of producing chocolate, though. It also made significant innovations in the way we consume cacao. In the early 19th century, a Dutchman began making powdered cocoa by extracting the cocoa butter. Then, an Englishman took this powdered cocoa and added the cocoa butter back into it to produce the world’s first chocolate bar! The swiss (Mr. Nestle) then gave us milk powder and, with it, milk chocolate.
[Chocolate has a history with slavery. When the Europeans first became entranced with chocolate, they traded with the mesoamerican indians for the bean. As the demand grew, they enslaved the indians and forced labor on their chocolate plantations. This caused a drastic fall in the indigenous population. In order to sustain their lifestyle of chocolate consumption, they transported slaves from Africa to continue work on the plantations. John Cadbury led the way in condemning this. He encouraged other chocolate producers to abandon the plantations using slave labor. Slavery was officially outlawed in the late 19th century. Legislation was enacted in the early 20th century to boycott any plantation proven to use slave labor.
Most people think that slavery is a non-issue in this modern day and age. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In the Côte D’Ivoire, most especially, there is rampant use of slave labor–child slave labor, at that. More than forty percent of the world’s chocolate comes from West Africa, where over 100,000 children are subjected to long hours, little food and little to no wages. Many of these children are believed to be victims of human trafficking. The famous chocolate companies of Hershey, Nestle and Mars all use chocolate from these plantations. These West African countries have not been boycotted solely because chocolate is their economy. A boycott would result in the collapse of their economies. The farms who cannot say that their fields are free of child-labor, though, can be boycotted. Fair trade chocolates and chocolates with a single origin label are free of this taint.]

How chocolate is made: The Cacao pods are harvested from May to June and October to November. The pods are split open and placed in piles or in boxes and left to ferment for 3-9 days. This removes the bitterness. The beans are then spread out on bamboo matting and sundried. They are then packaged and sent to manufacturers. Once there, they are first cleaned. Then they are roasted in large cylinders in much the same way coffee is roasted. The beans are then cooled quickly and the shells are removed. Next, the beans are ground to produce two elements: cocoa liquid (chocolate liqueur) and cocoa butter. The liquid is pressed to removed the cocoa butter, and the residue left is sifted into cocoa powder. Now that the cacao bean is all separated, is must be put back together in order to become chocolate. This process is called conching. The cocoa paste and the cocoa butter are mixed together with sugar and whatever else the company decides to add, and the chocolate is then kneaded for 42-72 hours. The chocolate is then tempered and shaped into bars.

Melting Chocolate: Water vapor can make double boilers a poor means of melting chocolaet. If you choose to use a double boiler, be sure that the bowl the chocolate is in is bigger than the pot of boiling water, so that the steam does not escape. Forty to forty-five degrees celsius is sufficient to melt chocolate, 45˚ is the perfect melt, at 60˚ you have burnt chocolate. Tempered chocolate should be between 28˚ and 31˚ (C). To temper the chocolate: melt chocolate (in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds) to 45˚, pour 70% of chocolate onto a marble surface, spread and let cool to 26˚-28˚ mix back into the rest of the chocolate (for 1 minute) and bring to 28˚-31˚.
Tempered Dark Chocolate: 30˚-31˚
Tempered Milk Chocolate: 28˚-29˚

Ganache: La Crema Principessa
It has a short shelf life, 15-90 days. Main ingredients: cream, chocolate, butter. (invert the recipe for a nice sauce) To lengthen the shelf life, add alcohol and glucose.
300 grams Dark chocolate
150 grams cream
20 grams butter
(30 grams glucose and 5 grams alcohol)
You can do just about any flavor in the world with this basic recipe. Ways to variate:
Infusion: option 1) put, for example, lavender in cream and let sit for 12 hours in fridge
option 2) add lavender to cream, bring to boil, let sit for ten minutes, taste, boil again if
necessary, remove lavender.
powders-add directly to the chocolate
pieces-infusion
liquids-add to cream

How to make milk chocolate: 1 kilo white chocolate + 80 grams dark chocolate or cocoa paste

Chocolates are 85% filling, 15% chocolate shell

Cremino:
Cremino originates in the Piemonte (Piedmont) region of Italy. It is White chocolate and Milk Chocolate mixed with hazelnut paste, and layered.

500 grams chocolate
400 grams hazelnut paste

temper to 22-24˚
alternate milk and white chocolate layers e presto: cremino

Sacher Torte: Sacher Torte was invented by a sixteen-year-old apprentice chef, Franz Sacher, in Vienna. It is a light, spongey cake with apricot jam in the center and a dark chocolate icing. It should be served with unsweetened whipped cream.

Praline: In Italy, there are praline and there are praliné. The latter (praliné) are what we in the South would call pralines. Sugar-coated, toasted nuts; we use pecans, they use hazelnuts. Praline, though, are any hand-made candy. Praline Fiorentine are basically little chocolate rounds with an assortment of nuts and candied fruits on top.
Andrea Bianchini: http://andreabianchini.net/

Next, Pastry Shop.

C'era una volta...

...two girls, namely Katie and myself, traveled from Padua to Verona. Shakespeare really seemed to like these cities. Here you have Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Romeo and Juliet and others, I'm sure. This happened to be very fitting, though, as it was just a few days prior to "Shakespeare's birthday" or the day that is celebrated as such. I won't go into my opinions, just now, on the identity of the Bard.

We arrived in Verona late evening. We found our little Bed and Breakfast, and set out in search of supper. It was very late, but we found a most amazing little restaurant still open, Ristorante S.Eufemia. It was situated in a little alleyway with a perfect little gate setting off the outdoor seating with lanterns hanging around the tables. We peeked inside, but the place seemed empty. I asked the man at the doorway whether they were still open, and he issued us in and sat us at a table. We had the entire place to ourselves. We ordered quickly, not wanting to keep the family that seemed to be running the business out any longer than need be. Risotto with tartufo nero and Prosecco. We felt like royalty.
As we were wandering around Verona, we came upon a most remarkable sight: a Roman road, in the middle of a Verona road. The piazza had a gaping hole in the center of it, where there was an ongoing excavation of a Roman road which appeared to be connected to the building next to the piazza, one wall of which was an ancient Roman wall.

Our Bed and Breakfast was interesting. Everyone shared one bathroom. Everyone. And Bed and Breakfast might be a generous description. Anyway, the breakfast part of our accommodation was provided by a cafe down the street. As we were sipping our cappuccinos and enjoying our brioche, we watched the locals in the cafe. The proprietor was a young woman, around 30, and as she was bustling around, taking care of all her customers, a delivery man came in with a bouquet of flowers for her. We were quite surprised by this, but the locals knew this to be a common occurrence. They remarked on how pretty today's flowers were and how lucky she was, but we could not hear why they said she got these flowers every day. She treasured them up then finished serving the customers before she could go off in search of a vase. We couldn't help but speculate on her life and who might be sending her these gifts. As the delivery man passed by the door again, she called him in to ask what kind of flowers these were. On the wall, hung a picture of her with friends and she had a ring on her finger. Is she married to a florist, or is he just a real romantic? Certainly one of the best people watching experiences thus far.


After breakfast, we walked towards the Castle S. Pietro, but on our way, we ran into more Roman ruins. They're just all over the place. So we stepped inside the old Roman amphitheater turned convent.

Then we finished our hike to the top of the hill to the castle and had a wonderful view of the city of Verona.
Verona is probably most famous for being the fictional residence of Romeo and Juliet, or the real residence of the fictional characters, rather. Verona has capitalized on this distinction, and has set aside houses for both the Capulets and the Montegues. La Casa Giulietta is covered completely in names and hearts and locks and other such declarations of eternal love. Inside, is the headquarters for the Juliet Club, which is a group of women who reply to the thousands of letters that are mailed to Juliet every year. In whichever language you write your letter, is the same language in which they reply to you. Then, every year at Valentine's they pick their favorite letters they received that year. (Club Juliet)
We then walked through the market, around the arena (where, mind you, Rod Stewart will be performing live this summer) and towards the train station, where we caught a train to Bologna.

"There is no world without Verona walls..."

"...hence banished is banished from the world..."

"...every cat and dog and little mouse, every unworthy thing live here in heaven..."

"and may look on her, but Romeo may not; he is banished...
And say thou yet, that exile is not death?"

The declarations of the modern-day Romeos and Juliets cover the walls inside and out:
(Shout out to the Bard for providing the script for this post)

Bicciclete en Lucca

Lucca was a favorite Tuscan city of Napoleon. He gifted it to his sister, and it was later given to his widow. [If anyone knows anyone in the business of giving out cities, please do let them know that I'm interested.] It is because of Maria Louisa that Lucca's city walls were converted into a park. The walls had never really been needed for defense and so the park was a welcome change. It was a beautiful Easter Monday when we arrived and locals and tourists alike were wandering around the city walls.
We rented bikes and joined them in the leisurely enjoyment of the day.

After each city someone asks us, "What's your favorite?" And after each city our favorite changes. We've developed a way around choosing favorites, though. Rome is a favorite for history, Florence for art, Venice for beauty (man-made), Cinque Terre for beauty (natural), and Lucca for families.

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre is a beautiful area of Liguria where the mountains meet the sea.

(These are in no particular order)

Vernazza Harbor

We took a picnic on our hike, Foccaccia with Pesto and a bottle of white Cinque Terre wine, oh so Italian. We stopped in an olive grove that had a nice view of the sea and Corniglia, the next town.

Parlare con il mi'amore sul la Via dell'Amore

Giovedì 25 Marzo

Can anyone guess the significance of this day? I should imagine not. We do not typically place the celebration of the new year any later than can be allowed for the Chinese new year. The Florentines, though, until the year 1750 celebrated the coming of the new year on the 25th of March. This is also the Feast of the Annunciation (precisely nine months before December 25th. Now it all makes sense!).

Most Florentines these days don't even seem to know this is a holiday for them, but if you make your way to the oldest Renaissance piazza, it is not so quiet as it usually is.

Today, on this feast day of the annunciation, it looks like a little carnival, with everything from fried things and hot dogs to lampredotto sandwiches. I actually ate a lampredotto sandwich.. something I'd said I wouldn't do upon first hearing of it. It's not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Italian delicacies, but as it is a Florentine favorite, I had to try it. With the presence of lampredotto, you'd probably already guessed that Italian fairs don't quite look like Mississippi fairs. The sweet tea is replaced with bottles of wine. Cheesy fries are replaced with a selection of locally produced, artisan cheeses; the funnel cakes with schiaccata bread. The chicken-on-a-stick is replaced with prosciutto, or the whole pig...

There were plenty of goods for sale, also. I stopped at the first booth to buy some kitchen towels. There was such a variety of little booths, though: the stand with artificial flowers; a hippie stand, too, with clothing and such; a little man selling cd's out of the back of his van; the Native Americans selling, well, Native American things; and the cheap make-up booth. There were a few that were not quite so out of place like the woodworker, but for the most part, it was a strange combination of a carnival, a renaissance re-enactment and a flea market, with some Native Americans thrown in on the side.



My school had sent out an e-mail letting us know there would be a parade, but as it was past the scheduled time, I'd begun to think they'd been misinformed. We were just about ready to leave the festivities, having had our fill of Italian fried foods, when we heard trumpets and drums. What more do you need to have a parade, I ask you? Women in long, renaissance-period dresses with flowers in their hands, and men dressed in renaissance suits complete with feathers, tights, and cute little matching shoes.


They marched through the piazza and across the crosswalk and right into the church. We, naturally, followed them inside. The nave was now bursting with colors and feathers, but there was a steady stream of people heading further into the church. We followed, once again, expecting a further continuance of the renaissance-clad procession. Instead, we found that we were intruding on mass, and not wishing to be disrespectful, retreated back to the nave. The sea of colors was still waiting right there. We snapped a few more pictures and returned to the carnival outside. A few minutes later, the drums and trumpets started up again and the procession left in the same manner as they had arrived.

Happy New Year!

I fully believe Venice is the most picturesque city on earth.

I don't think I'm exaggerating this claim either. Because I am not perfectly qualified to make this statement, having seen very little of the world's greatest cities, you may doubt me, but I stand by this belief until someone can prove to me otherwise.


It is a city unlike any other. There are no cars. Not one. All traffic on the bridges is pedestrian, unless you count the children with their three-wheeled scooters as other than foot traffic. As there are no cars nor roads, to speak of, there are ample wooden boats and canals. The public transportation system is a line of ferries. The taxis are gorgeous chestnut-colored boats. There's a fire-boat, and there are police boats. My favorite, though, was the long, thin, glossy black gondola. And what could make such an ideal little boat better but a gondolier in a striped shirt and straw hat (complete with ribbon) who sings to you? Meet Fabio. He's Venetian, born and raised and has been working as a gondolier for 23 years with 5 years of training before that. As we punt (that is the correct term, is it not?) through the little canals marked for gondola-traffic only, he explains little facts and tidbits of Venice to us, breaking his speech up periodically to act as the paparazzi for us. Under each bridge, he lets out a few lines of a song about Venice or gondolas or Italy which would reverberate perfectly off the stone then off the water again. Each passing gondolier greets Fabio with such joviality that I'm sure we've selected the best gondolier in Venice to be our guide. The gondolas come at a steep cost to their owners (around 20,000 euro) so they take very good care of them so as not to bump the walls or the other boats in the very narrow canals. Fabio seems quite used to maneuvering these streets, as he should be after twenty-eight years; he balances on one foot and kicks off the walls, all the while singing and smiling. He knows that he has one of the best occupations in the world--to tour daily one's favorite city and show others its beauty.

After our gondola ride, we made our way to Saint Mark's square. It was not flooded the whole time we were there. I'm not really sure whether to be glad of this fact or not. They had raised walkways prepared to lay out when necessary. As there was no water in the square, the sidewalk cafes, which can hardly be called such at those prices, had commandeered the area for their outdoor seating. One even had a grand piano rolled out for the entertainment of its patrons. The waiters stood there with their bowties... they were less inclined to convince people to join them for lunch than other sidewalk cafes. Usually, you see, the host accosts you and pleads with you and does his utmost to convince you either by way of flattery or other that you should stop and have lunch at his cafe. These on the other hand, act as if their livelihoods did not depend upon the tourists that flock to that square. It was rather pleasant to be able to walk by at a leisurely pace, though, which is impossible with the aforementioned type of host by whom you have to sprint in order to make it safely to the other side.


St. Mark is supposedly buried in Venice, hence the name of the cathedral. The cathedral was built sometime after the crusades had begun. As Venice is a port city, it saw many of the returning crusaders, who in turn, brought back ideas of art and architecture from the near east. San Marco is dripping with middle eastern influence, which really sets it apart from other cathedrals such as Florence's Duomo. The inside is covered from floor to dome(s) in tiny gold mosaics. On the terrace, there are four horses, which were brought over from Constantinople. These horses seem the height of Renaissance accomplishment, but they are not. They are, in fact, much older. Historians surmise they date back at least to the 2nd century AD but possibly to the 4th century BC. The method of casting these bronze statues was lost for centuries, as was the method of building a free standing dome (like the Pantheon) and the methods of concrete. Today, it seems, with all the added technology, we have lost more than just the methods but also the love of such things. In an age of creating things in the fastest and cheapest way possible, we have lost much of the beauty and grandeur that comes with doing them as they did of old.

I almost forgot. I found my favorite coffee shop on a little street in Venice. The middle of the street (there are no cars, remember, to get in the way) is the home of a fruits and vegetables market. The side shops are mostly selling Murano glass trinkets. And there, in the middle of it all, is my coffee shop. As you walk in, you see ahead of you the coffee roaster (a beautiful sight, but even better are the smells!), to your right are piled bags of coffee beans shipped from Costa Rica. The wall is covered in news and magazine articles attesting to the many perfections of this little coffee shop and relating stories of how they survive each time the waters of Venice flood into their little establishment. On the left is the bar where they have the coffee cups all set out already in preparation for the deluge of visitors who will soon set in. On the wall behind the bar, they have their different roasts on display, they have tea leaves in little jars and spices, all of which you can purchase by l'etto (100 grams). I had Venetian style coffee that morning: cafe (that is, espresso shot), cacao, e schiuma di latte (foam). Mmmmm.

I wish I could better put into words what Venice is like. A girl in Katie's language class said, "Venezia è come un sogno." We chuckled at the cheese embodied in such a statement, but having been, we have to agree: Venice is like a dream.