Above: Some of the classic foods that American Jews eat for the Passover. Matzah (unleavened bread) is described explicitly in the Bible. Gefilte fish, a type of ground fish loaf, actually has nothing to do with the holiday but it is a tradition for Jews of Central European descent to serve it with the Passover … …read more
If you ever traveled to the Italian regions of Marche (Marches), Umbria, or Abruzzo, you know that part of their charm is how underdeveloped they are. Especially when compared with the once pristine wine growing areas of the north, for example, where industrial expansion has radically reshaped the landscape over the last three decades, these … …read more
Yesterday, the New York Times reported the a most astonishing, although not surprising, statistic: “Over the last two decades, Monsanto has genetically re-engineered corn, soybeans and cotton so it is much easier to spray them with the weed killer [Roundup], and some 220 million pounds of glyphosate [the herbicide used in Roundup] were used in … …read more
Earlier this week, I was a presenter at a major Italian food and wine fair in Houston where I live. The marquee event of the festival was a seminar on Carbonara, including a talk on the origins of the history of the dish by me and my colleague Chris Reid, a food writer for the … …read more
This week, I wrote a post for the Houston Press on a proposed bill that would change the way wine is sold and distributed in the state of Texas where I live. The new legislation was put forth by a lawmaker from the Dallas area. If the bill were to pass, it would lift a … …read more
Above: Gianni Martini, owner of the Sant’Orsola winery group (image via Dario Ujetto and the Eat Piemonte blog). “A rose is a rose is a rose,” wrote Gertrude Stein famously. It was just one of the many expressions of her fascination with repetition and the way it shaped the “meaning of meaning” as some have … …read more
This week, I found myself writing a — how else to put it? — lugubrious post for a client of mine in Prosecco country. My post was a bullet-point summary and overview of a lengthy Italian-language blog post by an Italian writer who specializes in agricultural journalism and marketing. In his post he countered claims … …read more
The other night, in an effort to avoid watching the depressing news coming out of Washington, D.C., my wife and I stumbled upon the 1997 action-thriller movie, “Air Force One” with Harrison Ford and Glenn Close. At a certain point in the story, news of the president’s planing being highjacked is “broken” by CNN. A … …read more
Above: “[The Murder of] Paolo and Francesca,” painting by 19th-century Italian artist Carlo Arienti (image via Wikipedia Creative Commons). Unless you entirely missed out on the Western canon, you have surely read about Paolo and Francesca, the star-crossed lovers who Dante and Virgil encounter in the fifth canto of the Inferno. It’s one of the … …read more
osteria, Italian for tavern or inn, more commonly used today for restaurant, often in the country and generally a venue where traditional and locally specific dishes are served. The word comes from the Latin hostes in the sense of guest, stranger, or foreigner. One of the most memorable experiences from my first stint teaching at … …read more