Italy’s Parliament voted unanimously this summer to recommend that UNESCO list the Mediterranean diet as endangered, so that it might be protected and preserved as a part of cultural heritage. I’m interested in this public declaration, in part, for its semantic implications. Can a diet be treated as an aesthetic or religious object, or as [...]
Archive for October, 2009
the Mediterranean diet as cultural heritage
Posted in Cheese, Dairy, Drinks, Fruit, Grain, Pasta, Philosophical, Seafood, Sweet Things, Trends, Vegetables, Wine, tagged agricultural biodiversity, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, Bioversity International, Diversity for Life, Italian food culture, Mediterranean diet, roving locavore, UNESCO Italian diet, UNESCO Mediterranean diet on October 31, 2009 | 3 Comments »
What’s not to love about farro?
Posted in Grain, tagged American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat locally, eating locally, farro, farro recipes, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, locavore Rome, Rome locavore, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on October 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Farro. It is one of the oldest domesticated crops. One of its varieties, emmer wheat, has been found in archeological sites dating back 15,000 years. For millenia, farro fed the peoples of the Mediterranean and the Near East as a daily staple. What is it? The short answer is that farro is a variety of [...]
Italy’s small fields
Posted in Shopping, Trends, Vegetables, Wine, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, Rome sustainable food on October 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As we rode the train north-east, from Rome to Venice, we passed through Italian regions famous for their food and wine. And really, which ones aren’t? One sight that struck me again and again was the smallness and odd shapedness of, and variety of growth on the fields. They reminded me of Vermont. Why is [...]
back from Venice
Posted in Baking, Bread, Drinks, Ice Cream, Meat, Nuts, Pasta, Restaurants, Seafood, Sweet Things, Water, Wine, tagged American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, Anice Stellato restaurant, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, Paradiso Perdito restaurant, Venice food, Venice restaurants on October 27, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Going to Venice for a long weekend is like being transported to a different realm. In this immersed city, we immersed ourselves in grand-scale Renaissance art, long winding walks, gelato, spritz (Amaro—a bittersweet red liqueur—and prosecco), and seafood. What everyone says about the acoustics stands out as a strong sense memory: without the sound of [...]
off to Venice
Posted in Sweet Things, Trends, tagged agricultural biodiversity, American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, Diversity for Life, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, locavore Rome, Rome locavore, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on October 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Tomorrow morning, transit workers are striking across Italy, but we have 9:50 tickets to Venice. Word on the street is that we’ll be fine. Eight of us from the Academy are renting an apartment for the weekend. I won’t be bringing my computer, and will probably not be blogging. But not to worry! I’ll be [...]
coffee, cookies, faux pas, and a self-portrait
Posted in Dairy, Drinks, Nuts, Sweet Things, tagged American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, locavore Rome, Rome locavore, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on October 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
These are complex subjects in Italian life. There are many tacit rules that guide coffee culture (observance of which would be to the benefit of American coffee drinkers). One rule, which I just broke—knowingly, so does that make it ok?—is that no milk should be consumed after lunch. A cappuccino, or a caffe con latte, [...]
3 liquids
Posted in Drinks, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, locavore in Rome, negroni on October 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Olive oil, coffee, negroni. They may not all be essential, but they are omnipresent. Start the day with coffee, brewed in a bialetti, and poured into a mug of warmed-up milk: Sometime during the day, eat a meal involving big glugs of olive oil: salad, pasta, soup, pizza bianca? Late on, pour a negroni: equal [...]
delicious day
Posted in Shopping, Sweet Things, Vegetables, tagged American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, Dolci Desideri, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, locavore Rome, Rome locavore, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on October 18, 2009 | 1 Comment »
What a Saturday! Jack and I started the day with Harry and Ramie at Dolci Desideri: cappucini and cornetti (one with marmalata, one whole wheat with bitter honey) for the moms, frutti di bosca (wild berry) muffins for the boys. Then, in the 39-degree-Fahrenheit chill, we walked around the block to the outdoor market on [...]
random sightings and a bad meal
Posted in Restaurants, Shopping, tagged agricultural biodiversity, American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, Diversity for Life, eat locally, eating locally, Galleria Borghese Caravaggio show, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, locavore Rome, Rome locavore, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on October 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Everyone says it’s impossible to get a bad meal in Italy. That’s not true. After spending a wonderful morning in the galleries of the Museo Borghese, feasting our eyes on the Caravaggios, like his “Self Portrait as Bacchus,” and on the sculptures Bernini carved—improbably rendering marble as smooth and pliant as flesh—we took the bus [...]
pignoli
Posted in Nuts, tagged American Academy in Rome, Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, locavore in Rome, locavore Rome, pignoli, Rome locavore, Rome sustainable food, roving locavore on October 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The other day, Jack and I went to a corner of the Bass Garden far away from the windows of the library. We sat down beneath the olive trees and umbrella pines, and started to pick through the grass for pine nuts. They kept falling from the trees as we foraged. There were so many, [...]




