Food culture study - Italian food. Field trip day #1.

 So now that the year is coming to a close, I'm finding myself with a lot of vacation days left to burn. I took every Friday off from October 9 to the end of the year. 

For the first 5 weeks, I took an Artisan Breads class. This put me half way to my goal of getting a Baking and Pastry certificate from OCC - Farmington Hills, MI.  (If you want to do something like this I highly recommend it. It's totally exhausting but at the same time worth it.)

The next 8 Fridays plus today being Veterans Day, gave me some time to do something that makes me happy. Food, in general makes me happy. But I needed to be more specific. After introspection, I found myself lacking in knowledge of History, Geography, and Social studies. These are subjects I didnt love in school. And I didnt want to start doing them now. 

But being a foodie, I wanted to study food. Not just the food, but in each region who eats what, and why. For example, why is Italy known for their pasta? (Durum wheat is a major crop there, which makes Semolina flour, which makes pasta).  And learning these things, I will by default learn about the geography, the history and the social and cultural aspects of food. 

I first looked at all the cookbooks I have that are in any way Italian and reviewed the ingredients, the recipes, and the stories. I tried a meatball recipe and messed it up (added the wine both the meatballs and the sauce, when I shouldve just added to the sauce oops). But it was still pretty good. 

Then today I took my first field trip - to Nino Salvaggios and to Ventimiglia. This was a dry run for when I begin my friday field trips. 

I made up rules and then crossed some out. For example, I thought it would be romantic to take all backroads and no highways to each store, so I could experience the towns in our area. Well that was a mistake! I ended up behind a hearse for 8 miles, and the road was so congested, we were maybe going 20 mph. Took forever! (No, I'm fairly certain I didnt crash a funeral procession, he was by himself. But I am certain there was a casket in the back. So what does that mean, dear readers? Because I dont know, and I'm not sure I want to)

Some rules that stuck were: Bring water, bring sunglasses, bring trail mix, make sure the car is fueled up, go between breakfast and lunch but avoid lunch rush if the place serves subs or something. Go to 2 stores for each trip. Buy up to 25 dollars worth of stuff each store but dont go out the door without buying anything. Take notes. Enjoy it, dont rush. 

Today's trip was a success. It was a sunny warm day for November and I was supremely happy to be free to do whatever I wanted for those few hours. No one to tell me no. 

At Nino's I walked in, and immediately saw a turkey made of butter. I had to get it! Then I saw some thanksgiving napkins. I got a very orange small squash, i forget what it was called. Maybe some form of hubbard? Then I went into the meat/cheese area and got rope cheese. My grandma Andrews used to buy this. I love it. I wandered around a bit more, but that's all i got there. 

At Ventimiglia, I got some fresh pasta, some kind of pork belly like thing with thyme and oil, and I got some speck. I'd been watching videos today and this guy got a sandwich with speck on it (think like a thinner kind of proscuitto when looking at the whole chunk of meat before its sliced). It makes for good sandwiches. 

Speck

I got home around 2, and starving! So i made a spec sandwich with provalone and some artichoke pesto that i already had. And then noshed on rope cheese and some chips. 

What a great day. Can't wait to do it again. 

Vicky