Happy Halloween!

Auguri di Halloween da Ciambellina e Fiona!
(Questa gattona sonnolenta si chiama Fiona, nel caso che non avevi capito).

Il Biscotto Americano

Voi in Italia vi potete vantare di piatti gustossimi come gli spaghetti alle vongole; il risotto alla milanese; e la bistecca alla fiorentina. Per mangiare, c'è anche la gorgonzola, la schiacciata e il bombolone.

Per quanto riguarda la cucina e la buona tavola, siete messi bene.

Ma c'è qualcosa, forse una sola cosa, che abbiamo in America che è un capolavoro gustoso.

Vi presento i biscotti con scaglie di cioccolato -- il biscotto classico americano (Da noi si chiama il chocolate chip cookie).

L'ho trovato qualche volta quando vivevo a Firenze, e i blogghisti italiani hanno pubblicato parecchie ricette in rete. Ma non è un dolce molto comune da voi. Da noi, invece sì. Io auguro che almeno una volta abbiate occasione di gustare questa delizia americana.

Semplicissima da preparare: ci vogliono la farina, due tipi di zucchero, il cioccolato, l'essenza vaniglia (estratto) e poche altre cose.

Io li preparo spesso d'inverno perché col loro profumo in aria, la casa sa di infanzia, ed il sapore non delude mai. Difatti, faceva un po' freddo l'altro giorno, e mi avanzava un po' tempo e quindi mi sono messa a fare i biscotti. Guardate la foto insù.

E poi oltre al caffe latte che preparo tutti i giorni, è una delle poche cose che faccio in cucina che fa impazzire al Nostro Inviato.

Infatti lui fa parecchio il goloso quando li preparo e mangia qualche biscotto ogni giorno. Va a finire che si ingrassa ma a me non importa. L'importante è che gli piacciano.

Sto leggendo: "Il Segreto di Luca" di Ignazio Silone

Food, glorious food -- Weekend edition!

Ciambellina and Il Nostro Inviato were very busy in the kitchen this weekend.

Take a look at what we cooked up! (Or ate; we are not against eating good food other people have made).

From the top, Farro salad with Fried Cauliflower and Prosciutto. A bit of an unusual recipe, in large part because the star is farro, or spelt -- something we don't eat much in America. 

The fried cauliflower were delicious, though it wasn't easy to reach the high-frying temperature needed.

Poi: pizza fatta in casa -- homemade pizza. The photo is not the best but the homemade crust, the thickly-cut prosciutto and the caramelized onions were indeed the best.



We washed it all down with a bottle of Planeta La Segreta 2006, which is from Sicily.

Last but not least, gelato. Yes, Italian ice cream -- and my favorite flavor, no less: nocciola (hazelnut).


For you local folks, I bought it at Your Dekalb Farmers Market, which I dare say may be a bit like Eataly in Torino, except there are foods from every corner of the globe, and lots of local produce as well. Not sure why, but the Ciao Bella brand uses the plural of the word (nocciole), which I have never seen in Italy.

But the gelato is good! And you can't beat that name (you could translate it as, "Hi Gorgeous!").

Somehow we still found time for a spin in the Little Red Car. The weather in Atlanta lately has been absolutely fabulous -- Alfa Romeo convertible weather, as you can see.



Buon appetito!

NYT: Italy's Premier Riding High

The New York Times had an interesting and frightening article the other day on the expanded power -- on top of already expansive power -- the financial crisis has handed Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Reading it, I started humming the Simon and Garfunkel tune, "Still Crazy After All These Years."

The link is below but to get just a taste of Il Cavaliere, read the beginning of the story:

"This month, as markets plummeted and investors panicked, Italy’s billionaire prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, watched shares in some of his own companies nose-dive 40 percent. Yet he seemed buoyant as ever, reveling until dawn at a disco in Milan after returning from a meeting with European leaders on how to tackle the financial crisis.

“If I sleep for three hours, I still have enough energy to make love for another three,” the newspaper La Repubblica quoted him as telling the younger crowd.

The link is below.

Italy’s Crisis Has Premier Riding High
By RACHEL DONADIO
Published: October 22, 2008
Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is getting a boost to his political fortunes from the economic crisis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/22/world/europe/22italy.html?
partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Wine Library offers free shipping for Aglianico Sannio

The Wine Library, that crazy wine supermarket in New Jersey that's run by the zany Gary V. (who's been getting a lot of attention lately), is offering free shipping tomorrow on an Aglianico that Ciambellina actually bought a case of earlier this year.


Villa Carafa Aglianico Sannio 04

I can wholeheartedly recommend this wine! Particularly at $14.98. I don't know why I did not write about this wine previously, but I would suspect it's because of the low quality of the photo I've posted here!

I am so pleased that Aglianico is getting the attention it deserves. More importantly, it's available in many places now in the U.S. -- or just order it from The Wine Library. This particular wine I did not drink when I was in Campania last year, but we tried many other Aglianicos, and they did not disappoint.

I do not lend Ciambellina's endorsement lightly. I have shopped at the Wine Library, ordered wines from this store and built wonderful Christmas baskets of goodies at this store.

The folks who work there are the type of people who find a great wine in YOUR budget. One of those stores where they greet you right away and ask you if you want help. If you don't, no problem. If you do, you will be treated right.

As Gary V. notes, this particular wine was not tested by the New York Times for its article on Aglianico in September (which I wrote about). But I would guess that's because the NYT typically skews more expensive. They are only going to include one wine in the $15 range, and they chose a different one.

For more information, visit http://winelibrary.com or call 888-980-9463.

Wine Library
586 Morris Avenue
Springfield, NJ 07081

Dove abito ora: Halloween Parade

C'è una zona di Atlanta dove tu puoi vedere un po' di tutto sempre, tutti i giorni all'anno. C'è sempre un po' di caos lì.

I punk, i ragazzacci che fumano le canne, i rasta, le lesbiche che odiano gli uomini, le persone coperte di tattuaggi, i ragazzi col orecchino per il naso -- ogni tipo di persona c'è in questa zona (il quale mi piace moltissimo -- voglio bene a tutti).

Allora, potete immaginare com'è per la festa di Halloween, l'unico giorno da noi quando tutto è lecito? Che si fa quando gli è permesso di scatenarsi?

Vi faccio vedere.

Sabato io e il Nostro Inviato siamo andati ad una sfilata per la vigilia di Ognissanti (tenuta in anticipo, non so perché, ma ormai qui in USA si festeggia la festa di Halloween quasi tutto il mese d'ottobre) in questa zona della città (si chiama Little Five Points), e non eravamo delusi.

C'era veramente tutto -- anche la musica tradizionale di una sfilata americana (cioè, c'era la banda liceale che marciava in corteo -- vedete la foto in fondo).



La cosa che mi rallegra è la grandissima fantasia della gente. Che bello!



Oh and strike up the band!



Happy Halloween ragazzi!

Alla ricerca dei motorini @ Atlanta

Domenica il 5 ott., all'incrocio fra Oakland Ave. e Woodward Ave., Atlanta, Ga. USA!

Il Nostro Inviato è bravo!

Il Nostro Inviato recently returned from a trip to Milan and he did not disappoint little Ciambellina.

Like Babbo Natale, he brought back all of her favorite things!

Looking at the photo, you can see I've hit the jackpot of Italian culinary, periodical and grooming treasures.

Left to right, among the items you see are tarallini (a dry, olive-oil based snack that comes from Puglia); La Settimana Enigmistica, the most awesome puzzles magazine I have ever seen (and so widely available in Italy -- on the newsstand, bought by everyone); lots of wine; two types of coffee (Segafredo, which is a large national brand and Chicco D'Oro, which I have never had); foot cream from L'Erbolario Lodi; and Vie Del Gusto magazine.

Seriously folks, these are my favorite things.

I want to draw your attention to something that may strike Americans as unusual.



It's vino sfuso. It's bulk wine that has not been bottled ... and it comes in a little box! Apparently Il Nostro Inviato sampled so much of it while he was "shopping" that he felt compelled to bring some home.

Vino sfuso has not undergone many of the standardizing processes such as bottling and pasteurization that ensure quality and are hence part of Italy's wine certification system (DOC and DOCG, for example). That means it's an adventure (and a cheap one at that).

The wine shop in Milan where he bought the vino sfuso -- La Vineria -- is on Via Casale in the Navigli section of Milan, which is a cool, gentrifying area of the city that's centered around an old canal.

The wine shop, which vigorously defends bulk wine and calls pasteurization and other standard wine processes unsafe, has received attention from lots of magazines in Italy. You can visit the shop's Web site here http://www.la-vineria.it

And here's something else he bought there:



A bottle of 2007 Oltrepò Pavese Bonarda. We first drank Oltrepò Pavese when we visited Milan back in 2004. It's just a wee bit fizzy and a whole lotta wonderful.

I will wrap up this post here. Time to enjoy all of my wonderful regali!

Umberto Eco @ Emory (lecture 2)

Umberto Eco gave the second of three lectures at Emory University in Atlanta Monday:

 
"Author, Text and Interpreters." 

He elicited frequent laughter from the good-sized crowd, particularly when he described a common interaction he has with translators of his books.

Eco, (seen at center in the photo above, speaking with Italian professors following the lecture) said a translator will often contact him to say a particular passage is ambiguous.

Eco said he can respond in one of three ways. First, he said, he might say, "Oh excuse me, please disregard. I'm glad you discovered that -- it was a mistake." (The academic crowd laughed wholeheartedly hearing this response because Eco, author of Foucault's Pendulum and The Name of The Rose, is known for writing books that have myriad meanings and literary allusions that reference ancient Latin, the Bible and countless other texts.).

Or he can respond, "The ambiguity is intentional."

Last but not least, he said, he may respond by saying the ambiguity was unintentional but as a reader he finds it "intriguing" so please keep it in the translated work!

He said readers "find" meanings in his texts that he does not intend. He has often tried to explain why a particular meaning does not make sense, in the hopes of dissuading them, but he finds, "I was wrong!"

In my previous post on Eco's appearance at Emory, I neglected to write about the lecture series, which is named for Richard Ellmann, the distinguished biographer of James Joyce and a one-time Emory professor.

Ellmann's biography of James Joyce is considered the gold standard for biographies and an essential text for anyone with any interest in the Irish writer. I have the book at home -- I borrowed it from my father as a senior in college when I took a course on James Joyce, and, woops, just never gave it back.

You might think how interesting could a biography be? Read this one and you'll find out.

Thanks for reading!

Ciambellina: Why the changes?

Hi,
I'm following up today with an English version of a post I wrote yesterday about changes on Ciambellina.

I've added links to Amazon.com and I want to explain why.

I had noticed on sites such as http://parisbreakfasts.blogspot.com/
that bloggers were posting images of the things they loved, and I wanted to do that!

I finally stumbled upon the Amazon Associates program and found out that one way to post such images was to provide links to these products on the Amazon.com site.

That means two things. First, I'm able to show you what I love about Italy and also show you the path to buying these things, if you're interested. Some of these items are hard to find in America, and it's cool to know you can order them through a trusted site.

It also means if you were to buy something, I would receive a portion of the price.

But it's important to me to state that that was never my goal or interest, and I have no expectations that anyone will buy any of these things. Showing pretty pictures of cool Italian stuff was and is my goal. Perhaps there is another way to do it, and if you have suggestions, let me know.

In any event, I hope the semi-commercialization of the site does not offend you, and you are perfectly within your rights to totally ignore the links. But do me a favor, and just look at the pretty pictures!

Because when I look at them -- the cover of my book on Boccioni, the jar of honey, my beloved Italian coffee-maker -- I feel good!

Thanks for your understanding and continued support.

Ciambellina: Lavori in Corso

Cari lettori,

Voglio accennarvi alcuni cambiamenti effettuati sul sito di Ciambellina, e voglio anche spiegarmi un po' perché ho effettuato queste modifiche.

Alla colonna destra del sito, ora potete vedere dei collegamenti al sito Amazon.com dove i lettori possono guardare e persino comprare dei libri, film, ed altri oggetti italiani che mi sono cari.

A parte, importa nulla a voi in Italia che seguono il sito, perché sono prodotti molto comuni che voi potete comprare ovunque.

Ma volevo dirvi che non ho impostato i links per guadagnare, anche se mi è possibile guadagnare se qualcuno dovesse comprare un prodotto che accenno qui.

Io volevo semplicemente far vedere le cose italiane che mi stanno al cuore, e avevo osservato tal immagini a diversi altri siti (per esempio, qui: http://parisbreakfasts.blogspot.com/) e quindi ho indagato un po', e ho scoperto che se stabilisci i collegamenti con Amazon.com, puoi riscuotere il 4 per cento del prezzo dell'oggetto.

Ma non è il mio scopo guadagnare! Il mio scopo è far vedere, soprattutto ai lettori americani, il miele e i libri e i film e gli artisti italiani che adoro.

Penso che spesso voi italiani siate ignari di quanto affascino gli americani prestono ad oggetti italiani!

Succede spesso che amici e conoscenze ci chiedono un consiglio per il vino o formaggio o altre delizie italiane.

E allora, questa nuova rubrica (divisa in due tra le cose più ricercate che mi piacciono personalmente e le cose un po' più comuni) è il mio modo di non solo spargere la voce che, per esempio, il miele di castagno che viene da Toscana è favoloso ma anche accennare dove lo si può comprare e quanto costa!

Vi ringrazio e spero che continuate a frequentare Ciambellina!

Umberto Eco in Atlanta

Umberto Eco, the well-known Italian author of "The Name of the Rose" and "Foucault’s Pendulum" and a professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna, has been tapped to provide a series of lectures at Emory University, which is in Atlanta.

You know, where I live now. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

The lectures take place this Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Is Ciambellina going to the lectures? Is the Pope Catholic? (Very Catholic, last I checked).

Here are some details from Emory's press release:

Eco's lecture series is titled "Confessions of a Young Novelist," a way of letting his audience know that he has been writing novels for a relatively short time, says Ronald Schuchard, Goodrich C. White Professor of English, who directs the lecture series named for the late literary scholar and Emory Woodruff Professor Richard Ellmann.

"I don't think people have heard Eco talk this way before," Schuchard says of the lectures. "It's an exciting first for Emory to have him come and tell us about his writing life."

Eco's first lecture, "How I Write," will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5 in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, followed by a reception on Patterson Green, adjacent to Goizueta Business School.

Monday's lecture, "Author, Text and Interpreters," is scheduled at 8:15 p.m. in Glenn Memorial Auditorium. Tuesday's lecture, "On the Advantages of Fiction for Life and Death," will be at 4 p.m. in the Schwartz Center, followed by a reading and book signing beginning at 8:15 p.m., also at the Schwartz Center.

Admission is free to the public.

For more information, see www.emory.edu/ellmann

Sei Toscano se....

(Ah the legacy of Jeff Foxworthy!)

Dalla nostra amica, Ilaria, che è toscanissima!

Sei Toscano se.... ("You're from Tuscany if....")

Sei Toscano se...ti scappa detto un: 'maremma maiala!' anche quando non dovresti.

Sei Toscano se ... hai sempre la battuta pronta...

Sei Toscano se ... sei stanco della 'coha hola con la hannuccia horta horta'...

Sei Toscano se.. mangi i crostini neri fatti con i fegatelli...

Sei Toscano se.. oltre alla C strascicata, basta muoversi di qualche chilometro per sentire l'accento che cambia: si passa da un 'boia deh!' di Livorno, ad un 'icchè tu vvoi, icchè tu dici...' di Firenze, ad un 'maiala!' di Siena..ad un 'Alò' di Arezzo e chi più ne ha, più ne metta!..

Sei Toscano se.. sai fare le imitazioni degli accenti della tua regione..

Sei Toscano se.. riesci a sdrammatizzare tutte le peggio situazioni con una battuta...

Sei Toscano se.. alla fiera mangi i brigidini...

Sei Toscano se.. a Natale mangi cantuccini e li inzuppi nel vin santo.

Sei Toscano se.. pensi 'noi in toscana abbiamo tutto, mare montagne colline'...

Sei Toscano se.. ti senti orgoglioso del tuo accento, anche quando ti prendono in giro...

Sei Toscano se.. pensi 'eh, ma noi si!!! noi parliamo l'italiano, l'italiano puro!!!'

Sei Toscano se.. sai che tra livornesi e pisani c'è l'odio...

Sei Toscano se.. tutti ti fanno i complimenti per l'accento...

Sei Toscano se.. dici A ME MI...

Sei Toscano se.. ti vanti di esser della stessa regione di Ceccherini, Nuti, Pieraccioni, Benigni, Dante e Leonardo...

Sei Toscano se.. quando ti dicono 'Voi toscani non avete un dialetto', tu rispondi in dialetto stretto e loro 'un'intendano nulla'!

Sei Toscano se.. quando ti imitano nel modo di parlare, rispondi con un sorriso: 'E un ti riesce, gnamo, t'insegno io..'

Sei Toscano se.. almeno una volta da piccolo sei andato al Carnevale di Viareggio...

Sei Toscano se.. dici 'ma che ssei grullo?'...

Sei Toscano se.. mangi i cenci...

Sei Toscano se.. esclami 'SIE!' quando qualcuno spara una cazzata..

Sei Toscano se.. i verbi li dici a metà o li abbrevi: FO, VO, VEDE', ANDA', VENI' ecc ecc...

Sei Toscano se.. dici 'I su fratello', 'Mi mà', 'I mi babbo' o 'Mi pà', 'I
mi amico'...

Sei Toscano se.. dici 'CHETATI!' parecchio convinto invece di 'stai zitto!'...

Sei Toscano se.. chiami la sigaretta 'CICCHINO'...

Sei Toscano se.. mangi le Pappardelle Al Sugo di Cinghiale o di Lepre...

Sei Toscano se.. sai fare sempre casino, metti allegria e sei molto accogliente con le persone...

Sei Toscano se.. chiami 'CENCIO' lo straccio per pulire...

Sei Toscano se.. chiami 'GRANATA' la scopa...

Sei Toscano se.. quando non te ne importa nulla di una cosa dici: 'MA M'IMPORTA UNA SEGA'...

Sei Toscano se.. soprattutto sei fiero di esserlo!!

-30-

Today's Dante Moment of the Day

We continue our journey with Charon, the white-haired ferryman, who has attempted to block Dante's way through the Underworld. Virgil, Dante's trusted guide, says not so fast Charon.

E 'l duca lui: «Caron, non ti crucciare:
vuolsi così colà dove si puote
ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare».

Quinci fuor quete le lanose gote
al nocchier de la livida palude,
che 'ntorno a li occhi avea di fiamme rote.

Ma quell' anime, ch'eran lasse e nude,
cangiar colore e dibattero i denti,
ratto che 'nteser le parole crude.

Bestemmiavano Dio e lor parenti,
l'umana spezie e 'l loco e 'l tempo e 'l seme
di lor semenza e di lor nascimenti.

Poi si ritrasser tutte quante insieme,
forte piangendo, a la riva malvagia
ch'attende ciascun uom che Dio non teme.

Caron dimonio, con occhi di bragia
loro accennando, tutte le raccoglie;
batte col remo qualunque s'adagia.

Dante's Inferno, Canto III, 91-108

Our last Dante Moment of the Day came on Sept. 2, if you want to see where we left off.

Noia o disappunto

noia o disappunto
Inserito originariamente da g_u

Ho trovato questa foto oggi sul sito fotografico, Flickr. C'è da dire che a volte la vita è veramente dura. Su, coraggio!

Il Tempo di Morire

C'è voluta solamente una decina di anni ma finalmente Il Nostro Inviato ha capito che Lucio Battisti è bravo e che la sua canzone "Il Tempo Di Morire" è mitica.

Gliel'ho detto che la canzone piace alla nostra amica Ilaria, e credo che l'abbia finalmente convinto che la canzone è forte!

Chissà? Forse fra poco capirà che la canzone "L'America" di Gianni Nannini è altrettanto mitica!

Nota bene: Il Nostro Inviato è partito l'altro ieri per Milano. Gli auguro un buon viaggio e aspetto con anticipazione quali regali lui riporti a casa.

Il libro che sto leggendo: La Bella Figura di Beppe Severgnini

Cantina Venosa Vignali Aglianico Del Vulture '03

The Wine Library, in Springfield, N.J., sent an email this morning saying the New York Times' article on aglianico helped the retailer move 85 cases of the Cantina Venosa Vignali Aglianico Del Vulture '03 before 11 a.m. on Wednesday (the day the story appeared).

That wine was the New York Times' top pick for taste and value. (I linked to the online story on Tuesday and casually mentioned that Ciambellina had been writing about aglianico a year ago!)

At $10, the Cantina Venose Vignali was the only wine tested that a "normal person" (i.e. someone like me) could reasonably afford on a regular basis.

Indeed, Gary V., a rabid football fan and the wine guru at the Wine Library says: "Out of the 10 wines that made the NYT list, the Cantina Venosa was the ONLY one that was under $20. In fact, we have it on sale for $9.99....The next best of the Top 10 list was $22 and they only went up from there!"

I think most people are looking for every-day wines. The special bottle of champagne or the $100 bottle of Solaia -- who drinks those wines every day? No one I am writing about. And I would guess most people have quite a few of the good bottles on hand.

I know at Casa Ciambellina, there are two bottles of champagne from France that have been chillin' like villains in the fridge for months.

But I digress!

If you want to order some aglianico from the Wine Library, call 888-980-9463 or go here http://winelibrary.com/

Stefano Ramunno, artista

A long time ago, I wrote a post about an artist based in Florence by the name of Stefano Ramunno.

He creates drawings and watercolors of some of Florence's most famous sites, but he does it with a bit of whimsy.

One drawing features the Duomo in the background, and a clothesline with a clergy's garments drying in the breeze in the foreground. I bought a bunch of small watercolors from him, some framed, some not, and I gave them as gifts or hung them around the house.

Reading back through old comments, I realized a Ciambellina reader very helpfully posted Stefano's Web site.

Here it is:

http://www.stefanoramunno.it/

His shop remains at Via Romana, 18-20r, Florence.

As someone who lived in Florence, I can tell you his works make the perfect keepsake. Here's a photo (above) of one of the works I bought from him.

Aglianico in The New York Times tomorrow

The Wines of the Times column tomorrow will feature wines made from the aglianico grape.

Hey, Ciambellina readers: you read about it here a year ago!

We drank a lot of aglianico in Campania last year when we were visiting the town near Benevento that was the birthplace of Il Nostro Inviato's grandfather.

The article even mentions a wine producer I wrote about a few weeks ago: Tormaresca (though the Times drank a bottle from 2003, not 2006).

It just shows that Eric Asimov and I are on the same page. Heck, we even attended the same college!

Anyway, here's the article:

Wines of The Times
An Italian Name Worth Practicing
By ERIC ASIMOV
Published: September 17, 2008
Aglianico wines, the leading red grape of southern Italy, seem to pass unnoticed by most people, which is a shame because they have so much pleasure to offer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/dining/reviews/17wine.html?ex=1379217600&en=0df158d5406a56be&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Nino Franco Prosecco is here!

By that, I mean Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco di Valdobbiadene -- one of my favorite, favorite wines, and one of Italy's best exports -- is for sale at Kroger.

You know, the run-of-the-mill, not in any way high-end supermarket chain.

That Kroger! I saw it today while I was picking up a few things.

As Bob Dylan said, the times, they are-a-changin!

Of course, a bottle at Kroger costs $15.48, which Ciambellina knows is not a good price. I've bought it at the Wine Library in New Jersey for around $13.90.

But still. It's one more step in the Italianification of America!

Let's hear it for the Bel Paese!