Alba & Out!

I think this may be my last post from my trip abroad. It has now been two weeks since I have been home, and I think it is time to hang up the hat on this one. It has been delightfully busy since I have been back, and should have posted this a long time ago. But there was just one more excursion that I must write about. Just an hour away from Torino, where all the Slow Food activities took place is a town called Alba. Alba is known for one of my most favorite foods, the white truffle. But, it is also nestled in between some of Piedmont’s delicious wineries.

Hills around Alba

Dad and I had the very fortunate chance to go along wine tasting with Ron, with some of our friends from Lagunitas Brewery,  who had their beers proudly on display in the Salone Del Gusto. We left Torino on a cold and rainy day, and carefully followed their car up into the hills above Alba. Our destination was Pietro Rinaldi, a family-run operation since the 1920’s. Monica and Paolo, the owners and operators, opened up their home for the tasting and lunch. They served a delightful yet simple meal full of yummy antipastos and pasta.

Outside their home, the dog is in the wine barrel

Homemade ragu

Cheese, a mix between sheep and cows milk, with homemade jams

Along with the food, we tasted six of their wines and thoroughly enjoyed them all. 

Four of the Six

They take pride in what they make and really like to have fun with the wines. They were all fabulous, and I really enjoyed their 2009 Moscato called D’Ampess, which they explained meant its liking meeting a friend you haven’t seen in a long time. 

Naturally, since we were in Alba, we had to have some of their infamous truffles. We had dinner the night of the wine tasting in the middle of the heart of Alba

The Main Church

I had nice pasta called Tajarin, an egg pasta that is a favorite in the area. It is a perfect accompaniment to the truffles, I just only wished I had more truffles!

Bringing them out to the table

Box of truffles!

Check out a similar  RECIPE here

The next day was our final day in Alba, and Dad’s final day in Italy. I sought out the truffles again and we managed to find a wonderful restaurant in a back alley called Osteria La Libera.  We walked right in and immediately got seated for their lunch service. For starters, Dad ordered a GREAT crudo.

The kitchen

THE crudo

For the main coarse, I ordered, of course, another pasta with truffles. But this was completely different then the night before. First, it had oodles and oodles of truffles on it, shaven right in front of me, so they we fresh. Second, it was one ravioli, stuffed with a pecorino and spinach. And third, it had an egg on it, so once cut into, egg yolk just oozed down the sides. Fantastic!

The smell of these guys permeated the whole restaurant

Shaving away

Helllloooooo Truffles

As if lunch couldn’t get any better, we got dessert, and it was just heavenly. Dad ordered a pannacotta that he argues is one of the best, if not THE best one he has ever had. I ordered a chocolate soufflé with a fabulous cinnamon ice cream (my new obsession) and some caramel. YUM

Pannacotta

Souffle

Oozing with chocolatey goodness

It was the perfect way to end the trip with Dad. We packed up the car and he head back out to the West Coast of California, while I headed up North to Switzerland to meet up with Lexi again. The food was uber expensive so Lexi and I cooked in our really awesome hostel.  It was really good food that we made, but what was missing with the foods was replaced with views. Just fantastic!

Interlaken

Interlaken

"Hello Swan!" Cue Sex & the City 2 reference...

Hiking in Grindenwald

Gettin' in touch with the locals

Lexi & I in Interlaken

Hellooooo Glacier

Montreaux

 And that’s it! I left Switzerland for two nights in Milan, which I wrote about here. I couldn’t believe that my trip had ended and to be honest, now that I have been home for two weeks, it seems so surreal that I was there. I had so much fun, met so many amazing people and most of all, ate some REALLY good food.

But really, that’s not it! Well it is for Europe, but my adventures in food (& wine) are still continuing up in Northern California and beyond. So stayed tuned for them. This area has so much to offer, to see and explore, and to taste. So really, I’m just getting started….

Salone Del Gusto

Salone Del Gusto is the partner-in-crime to the previously mentioned, Terra Madre. It is an unbelivable event of food, wine, and beer. Vendors from all over the world bring their goods to showcase, share, and enjoy. If you play your cards right,  as in you carefully make your way through US Customs, you can even bring some of the fabulous food home. The Salone is special becuase you get to talk to the farmers themselves. And if you can't speak to them directly by some sort of language gap, you get to speak through the food, "Mmmmm" + a Great Big Smile is nearly the same all around the world-that food is GOOD.

The majority of the Salone Del Gusto are people from Italy who take the short trip to Torino. They bring with them Salumi, Buffalo Cheese, Crazy Turnips, Olives of all Kinds, and just about every kind of Italian food, wine and beer you can think of.

Not Just Your Mozzerella- All Different Kinds of Buffalo Cheese

Turnips-As Big As My Hand and DELICIOUS with Some Olive Oil Drizzled on Top!

Slicing Up the Salumi

Cheese, Cheese and More Cheese

Salumi with a Special Garlic-Aglio di Vassalico- from Imperia in Northern Italy

Salumi and Porcetta

Olives! My Favorite

The rest of the area is dedicated to other nations around the world. Just as in Terra Madre, native and indigenous people from all over the world bring their goods and hope to share their experiences with you.

Oysters and Game Poultry from the UK

Talo Tortillas from Mungia, Basque Country, Spain

Austrian Pigs- "Vooly" aka Woolly Pigs

A Woman From Pokot, Kenya Selling Jewelery and...

Ash Yogurt. Made from Goat or Cow's Milk it ferments in a Gourd for a Few Days. The Cow is for Men and the Goat's kind is for Women and Children as it is more Nutritious. The Ash is added after all the fermentation

Several Goods from Afghanistan, I tasted "Uvetta abjosh di Herat" or Raisin of the Herat

As mentioned, the event is about bringing and sharing knowledge to everyone. While this was important for all of the food exhibitors there, it was especially important for the Presidia Projects. The Presidia Projects are the ones that specifically target foods that are nearly extinct.  The Project funds and helps small Artisan producers get their food back to market. I tried some, but could not make it to all the booths that were there. Some interesting booths- the Talo and Yogurt listed above, Stracchino Cheese from Northern Italian that dates back to the 10th Century, Pit Cabbage from the mountainous Eastern Austria, Frentano Sausage from Central Italy, Slatko Plums from Goražde, Bosnia, and Pahmir Mulberries from Tajikistan. I could tell you special things about all of these wonderful products if I had the space to do so. This project though, keeps the biodiversity of our food system functioning, and is so very important for the generations to come. Loosing these breeds and these traditions is not worth the chance.

We didn't get to bring much home, except for this fabulous creature Dad squeezed into his luggage and home. He bought it from a nice Italian lady who answered our questions about what the heck it was.

Turns out, it is called a Zampone, or a stuffed pigs trotter. If you find one of these around here, you can find a recipe here. But we were told it is normally served around Christmas and New Years in Italy. Our taxi driver that night was also giving a ride home to his Mother. We should her this Zampone and she was more than thrilled about it, apparently it is quite the delicacy. So, who's coming to Christmas dinner? :)

Terra Madre

I apoligize for not writing this post sooner. But, with traveling one last week, and a very hectic first week home, I didn't want to write the post and not give it the true attention it deserves.

Very rarely are people able to attend an event that give them chills down to the bones-chills that are awe-inspiring, that make you want to achieve more, that make the world seem okay again. I have been more than fortunate to have this experience twice-in 2008 and again just two short weeks ago. Terra Madre, and its sister event, Salone del Gusto, in Torino, Italy are two of those events that make you want to act and really get out there. Terra Madre is an all-out food event. Slow Food international brings together 5,00 farmers from all over the world (over 150 countries) to talk, to converge, to exchange ideas, and most importantly, help bring a solution to the broken food system we have in place.

Opening Ceremony-Africa

Opening Ceremony-Americas

Quite a Crowd!

Opening Ceremony-Europe

Founder, Carlo Petrini, Speaking at the Opening

There are people in their traditional dress, with their traditional foods, and their traditional ideas that WORK, so long as agro-business farms and devastating environmental changes don't barge in and render their practices broken as well. Delegates from countries from Africa, South America, and far-out reaches of Asia and Europe seek help and guidance from the new systems in place. Whereas people from the overdeveloped 'West' seek to bring their land and concurrently their food back to the people and the land.

The conference takes over the speed skating rink from the 2006 Olympics for seminars, lectures, and an overall communication space for all the people involved. Attending some of the seminars, I filled my small notebook with ideas, inspirations, devastating statistics and their hopeful solutions. Some thoughts I wrote down:

• Good, Clean, and Fair Food should be a universal right of EVERYONE, not just the elite
• Get Your Hands Dirty and Your Hearts INVOLVED in Your Food
• If You Eat, YOU Are An INVESTOR. You Are Investing in YOUR Body and YOUR Earth, So Invest Carefully
• See Each NEW Person as a New Link, a New Connection to Saving Our Food
• Fight For the Future as YOUR Asset
• Terra Madre is the "Woodstock" of THIS Generation-Use It to CATAPULT Change in the World
• See Food as the "Rocket Fuel" to Pleasure
• Food is the STRONGEST Element of Them All-It is a Backbone to Nature, the Spirituality of Everyone, and the Happiness in the World

And people from all over offered their projects-from a Wisdom Wall in the UK which promotes a conversation with the past generations of food providers, to  Greening the packaging of food as well as making it healthier at amusement parks in the Netherlands. Then there are the basic projects-get food to people who are starving. Which is creating gardens, building schools, and teaching basic food production skills so that everyone can have a dinner.

The YOUTH Food Movement Meeting-Awesomeee

Carlo, speaking to the Youth

This 'Slow Food' movement is a movement that should be more popular. It is simple-eat well, you'll be well and the Earth will be well too. I don't see anything wrong with that.