learn to cook-class 2. carciofi fritti.

Fried artichokes (carciofi fritti) are damn fun. first because they make me think to a line like “fried atichoke at the bus stop“, which in turns makes me think to some old-fashioned Bmovie. secondly because of the frying: a bedrock in a chef’s skills’ set.

What you need (2 persons)

-4 artichokes

-1 small bag of baking power

-2 eggs

-flour, salt and nutmeg

-1 frying pan, a bowl

here we go! take the articokes and wash them. cut the stalk and pull the first hard leaves away. done that, cut the upper part of the leaves: basically, trimm the artichove. once cleaned up, put them in a little bowl with cold water.  take the bowl, place 2 or 3 spoons ot flour, a teaspoon of salt, the two eggs (without shell!) and the baking power: mix together with a fork, and avoid lumps. (HINT! never put first the shelled eggs and only afterwards the the flour- which is a move also known as the lump curse; HINT! if the compound is not liquid enough add some tap water. ideally, the compound should be a little less dense than yoghurt). let rest for 10 mins. in the meanwhile, fill the frying pan with 1/2 cm of oil and bring it to boil. take the artichoves and dry them out with some kitchen paper. cut each of them in 4 cloves, dip them well into the compound and place them in the frying oil (HINT! the oil has to be frying: to check, drop a drop of compound in it, to see if it’s hot enough) . turn them around when they become gold brown, as to fry each side. once done that, take them out of the pan, and dry them from the excess oil in some kitchen paper. if the oil evaporates away, adjust the quantity by adding some other. sprinkle the nutmeg and a tavola!

Accompanying thought: i so feel starving while i write these recipes. 

question to you:

seriously, do you re-heat the coffee in the microwave? more generally, how do you think the way we eat inluences our social relations? did fast food impair the quality of social life and the advancement of social knowledge by reducing the time we spend communicating and being involuntarily  exposed to different strategies of living?

italian word of the day: “Lo zio”

“zio” is the italian word for uncle. nevertheless, it has two more interesting uses.

1)”zio” in the forms of “hey zio”, “bella zio” etc. is a totally redundant expression to appeal to a person, present to the conversation or missing. the closest translation in English would be “the pal”, or  ”hey you”, but both do not capture the joking spite that marks the interactions that the Italian has with both friends and strangers. the stock phrase “zio, peró!”, for instance, beautifully expresses the sense of distress that Italians tend to feel when they are not given the option to freely express themselves: for instance, think about those waiters that serve costumers in the right arrival order, disregarding the gracious felxibilty with which the Italian has skipped a queue. in that occasion, our Italian will probably gesture frantically something with his theatrical hands, and release his disappointment in a “zio, peró!”

2) “Lo zio” is also a proper name. Being usually one of the infancy friends of the Italian, “Lo zio” features almost every small-medium size peer of friends (5-20 persons). there is usually no more than one Zio per group. The root of this tradition is not well proven, but stories are told that originally the first “Zio” was the oldest guy in his peer, and hence got called accordingly. The “Lo Zios” do not come in a pre-specified format, but, differently from the other friends, usually can be seen sporting the same scooter and the same modest girlfriend for years. some suggest that one can find the gene “Z” in the DNA of the “Lo Zios” around the world.

i take my rights in sweden

the right to show up at the office at 10:00

the right to leave for a coffee at 10:15

the right to work hard at noon and turn down lunch offers before 1:00pm

the right to not socialise at pre-specified times

the right to organise a party the morning of the party

the right to throw a party with no organized games

the right to throw a party where people do not bring their own drinks and keep their shoes on

the right to eat a kannellbulle for breakfast

the right to not compile a zillion of privacy-eluding questionnaires

the right to exploit my physical appearance to make things easier

the right to shout when i support my team and the right to laugh out loudly in the tube

the right to not dress in all black

the right to have a man whose hips are broader than mine

the right to work overnight and have extended working days

the right to show up at the office on Sundays and holidays

the right to deviate from the mythical median voter

the right to thank a country that let me speak out

 

a relaxed way to fly

now, i do refuse to fly ryanair, or any other low-cost flight company for that matter.  not that i am against saving money, and not that i am particularly wealthy as to consider a lufthansa flight to be “on average, much chepaer than i would have expected” (overheard conversation, lufthansa lounge, dec. 2007). but i have my reasons:

1) time is money: ryanair airports are advertised to be in Venice!, London!, Paris! the truth being, they are at least 40 mins from the city center. 40 minutes. twice, of course, because you have to go to the airport and go from the airport of destination to the city. add that you have to check in at least 30 mins before the gate closes and that you have to wait 15 mins for your luggages -optimistic estimation, at least when you travel to mediterrean countries-. potential delays, say 30 minutes. assume away all other sources of delay- potentially they affect normal companies as well- flying ryanair you have to lose 80 mins for airport connections. with a normal company, these connections take mostly 30 mins.

2) money is money: luggages are not included in the cost of the ticket. are you kidding me? do you think i can travel with a handbag? oh sure, i can shop clothes at my city of destination. make the economy spin! tickets back and forth from these airports in no man’s land are extremely expensive. do i really want to pay the right to take a scant bus which arrives directly from the 80s? a cab, a cab, my kingdom for a cab!

3) sleep is money: have you seen the low-cost flight schedule? insane.

3) mental serenity is money: psychologists cost. anger management courses cost. think of this when you endure the boarding of a ryanair flight with non-assigned seats at 6:00am. experience the bloody and rutless struggles for life, just like during the barbarian invasions. manly combat the human mass stupidity to reach the window seat. show off your biceps and challenge the fundametal laws of physics creating room where there is not to fit your hand luggage.

now. you may wonder what is a relaxed way to fly…

question to you:

do you think men are discriminated against women?

would you agree that a man is socially forced in a inverse-chauvinistic position when he is expected to pay dinners on a date (regardless of his income)?

learn to cook- class 1. tagliatelle alle zucchine e gamberetti

there is no better way to start up this course than with the zucchine and gamberetti pasta: it s quick, it s coloured and it s fancy.

what you need (for 2 people)

-3 medium size zucchine

-150 gr fresh pasta all uovo (tagliatelle)

-1 pack of fresh gamberetti, i dont know, it could be 200gr., without shells

-a frying pan and a pot

-sea salt, 1 lemon and, optional, saffron

Start by chopping the zucchine. not finely, but make slices thick 2-3 mm. heat up some oil -DO NOT FRY- with 1 or 2 pieces of garlic, peeled from the dry skin and pierced several times with a fork, NB: do not cut the garlic (you will have to remove them later on). when the oil is warm, place the sliced zucchine, salt, and let cook at a medium heat (3 or 4 over 6) untill they become soft. This may take 15 to 20 minutes, but if they get ready before, do not hesitate in taking them off the cookers. In the meanwhile, take the gamberetti, and throw away the water they come in. put them in a pot with the juice of a squeezed lemon, and let them rest for 5 mins. after this, quickly fry the gamberetti in the zucchine, max 1 min to avoid the texture to dry too much. once done than, fill the pot with water: if you cook 150 gr pasta you need at least 1.5 l of water. when the water boils (NB: with bubbles!) throw in first a fist or two of salt, then the pasta. rinse to avoid the pasta to stick to the bottom of the pot, and adjust the heat to avoid the white foam. cook according to the instructions (NB: fresh pasta cooks from 2 to MAX 7 mins), and taste from time to time. take the pasta away from water, throw it in the frying pan with the zucchine (not on a cooker!), add 2 spoonful of oil and the gamberetti, mix together and a tavola!

optional: you may want to add saffron. it does not alter the taste much, but it turns the pasta in a professional bright yellow.

add the saffron (half or one a teaspoon) to the oiled pasta but before the zucchine and gamberetti. do not add the saffron to the zucchine: that would make your zucchine of a autumn green and leave your pasta the way it is.

 

learn to cook- say hi to our new category!

do we believe in stereotypes? YES WE DO!

say hi to the new twice-a-week posts on how to cook as a real italian.

what you need:

-a patient and moderately hungry guest

-a decently furnished kitchen

-some basic skills

-reasonably expensive ingredients (do not cheat! quality matters)

-some time.

what you will get:

a dinner for two, some precious tips and a few words or two on generalities.

italian word of the day: dai/ma dai

“dai” or “ma dai” is a stock phrase that is highly context dependent. here follow its most common usages:

1)”you know that they charged me 2000kr for the phone bill this month?” “dai?!” = surprise, moderate interest, curiosity

2)”i just cant recall where i put the usb that you lended me” “ma dai!” = annoyed, moderately angry

3)”i can not come tonight” “dai, cazzo” = annoyed, highly angry, potential opening to a more complicated fight (applies especially to women)

the most curious feature of this word, though, is that it is pronounced the very same way as the verb “to die”. this obviously leads to sevaral misunderstandings within an english conversation. most of the partecipants, in fact, are not used to the innate tendency of the Italian to occasionally drop italian words among the english ones. therefore, they quite commonly get that the Italian is wishing them sudden and unexpected death. the misunderstanding, moreover, tends to perpetuate itself in time, because the partecipants in the conversation usually get scared by the release of perceived aggressiveness of the Italian and do not ask for further explanations on the death curse. Some think that many famous fights between Italians and Foreigners are due to this.

A TRAVELLER’S GUIDE: stockholm- brunch at brasserie elverket

so, it depends what do you mean by brunch. personally, i have a penchant for rich and lavish ones, with large and wide tables of colurful trays, cold, warm, steaming hot, and so on. with a special emphasis on the desserts selection.

well, Brasserie Elverket is not like that. which does not necessarily imply that it is a scant brunch- just, in a minor key. The buffet is actually limited, and some classics are noticeably missing (grilled tomato, where art thou?); when it comes to sweets you do have a choice: brownies -wait a second, aren’t exactly those for sale at the COOP?- and self-made waffles. Not that i have stong feelings against waffles, but if i go to a brunch, i definetively do not want to cook myself. and i want even less to queue for more than fiftheen minutes to prepare myself a waffle, especially given my poor cooking skills.

I shall say that the inner room is very nicely decorated and the ambient is overall pretty cool. shame that the tables outside are actually on the street, and are bunched together as a tight bunch of roses. to get to my chair i had to undertake a cross-country race among the other custumers’ chairs.

conversation highlights: on how the sweds inhale when they pronounce the word “hyes”, and on the connected misunderstanding that arises in foreigners, who understand these aspirated sounds as displays of fear/disgust/sheer surprise.