Thinking

Do you ever have the type of moments that I have? Moments that you think. Think. You think about everything and you cannot stop thinking. Often there is no real logic in those thoughts or you are not even really thinking about one thing in particular. Your brain just keeps on going. Thinking about work, about love, about life, about memories from the past, about dreams for the future, about what to wear today and where to go tomorrow. Thoughts very often seem to be coming based on feelings. Feelings that I cannot always find the right words for, but they are just there.

A Month Ago: celebrating Australia Day with a Fair Feed Breakfast

Thinking back of a lovely day in the park with a true South Aussie barbie brekkie...

Every year on 26 January Australian friends and family get together to celebrate being Australian, living their good lives in the land Down Under, and 'celebrate what's great about Australia'.*  It is a day to get together in parks and on beaches, to organise pick-nicks and barbies, or to attend one of the many events that are being organised in local communities. The Drover and I attended such a local community event, organised by Slow Food Adelaide & Barossa, where we did not only celebrate what is good about Australia, but also what is good about eating local food.

A morning in Port Adelaide

Port Adelaide - Torrens Island

I don't know what it is about ports, but for some reason I always really like them. Whether it is a small port where you mainly see small fishers boats or one of the biggest ports in the world (Rotterdam) full of container ships, there is a certain thing in the air that attracts me. Is it the feeling of being in a place where long journeys begin? Is it the feeling of being connected to the rest of the world, through boats and ships that bring goods from destinations far away? Or is it the smell of the water, the fresh fish and the sound of the birds that are flying around? Whatever it is, my joy of walking around a port was being confirmed again last Sunday, when the Drover and I spent a morning in Port Adelaide. This port is officially established in 1840, which was only four years after the foundation of the state of South Australia in 1836 - back in the colonial times.

Fish straight from the fishers boat at the Torrens Island Market

We started our journey by visiting the Torrens Island Market, a great little outdoor market with fresh produce from local farmers that attracts a very multicultural crowd of people. Although not all the produce seemed to be of the highest quality, the prices were incredible. I felt as if for a moment I was back in Italy on a local market, with the possibility to get a full bag of veggie goodness for not so much. We were a bit lazy in the morning so we were not the earliest visitors, and the quality of the produce that we saw was very mixed. But I strongly believe that if you make it to this market early (6am) you can get a lot of good stuff for your precious dollars!

People, places, products

It is February and the sun is shining on my face. It is warm outside, very warm. In the mornings I wake up of the sound of hundreds of birds and when I look out of the window I can see these exotic looking colourful birds flying around in the garden. In that same garden some beautiful plants are working hard to cope with the heat of the sun and to produce the most delicious produce for our daily meals.

That’s right, that doesn’t sound like the view that I would have from the apartment in our cute little hilltop town in Piemonte, Italy. Because there I would see the neighbours looking out of their window as soon as they noticed that there was life in our apartment (curious Italians!). The songs of exotic Australian birds have replaced the sounds of the church bells in La Morra. With mixed feelings and a bit of pain in our hearts the Drover and I have said goodbye to our lovely Italian friends and to the great Italian wine producers in ‘our’ town. It was time for a new adventure, and that adventure has started a few weeks ago here in Adelaide, South Australia.

Italian breakfast and the dynamism of a man

Did you know that it is possible to become a dynamic man, by eating biscuits for breakfast?

Italy would not be Italy without Mulino Bianco, a brand known for it’s biscuits that Italian mamma’s love to give their children for breakfast with a cup of warm milk or orzo (barley coffee) to dip them in. But according to Mulino Bianco, biscuits are just as good a breakfast for adults that supposedly become very ‘dynamic’ by having five or six Batticuori (beating hearts), Spicchi di Sole (patches of sunlight) or Abbracci (hugs) in the morning, combined with una tazza di caffè, a small tub of yoghurt and some fresh fruit. All the different packets of the biscuits have a suggestion for a real colazione all’italiana (Italian breakfast) that comes with one of the ten principles of the morning meal like ‘taste the flavours’, ‘start the day with warmth’ and ‘find your own rhythm’.

Curious as I am I wanted to know more about the story of these ten principles and thus had a look on the website. It turns out that Mulino Bianco has developed a model of the real Italian breakfast with the help of scientists from various disciplines. The model shows a food pyramid that has biscuits and breads (sweet breads are also part of their range of products…) at the bottom of the pyramid, therefore being the most important part of the meal. The biscuits are being followed by milk and yoghurt, fruit, hot drinks, sugar, honey and jam and at the small top butter. Not only can you find more information about the different categories of the breakfast pyramid, you can also learn more about the importance of love, trust, warmth, energy, care and the pleasure of starting the day with the family around the breakfast table. The project supposedly has ‘a great scientific and cultural value’ and gives guidelines to start the day full of warmth, pleasure and balance. Obviously this is exactly the way the Italians like it, seen the amount of choice in and the quantity of Mulino Bianco biscuits in the supermarket aisles!

Food and culture. Food and identity. Food and sustainability. Food and love.

In the spring of 2011 I moved from my hometown Gouda in the Netherlands to a beautiful hilltop town in the Langhe area of Piemonte, Northern Italy. Surrounded by vineyards and hazelnut orchards I was going to study Food Culture and Communications and I would become an expert in eco-gastronomy. Unfortunately things did not turn out to be what I had expected, and for various reasons I decided to stop my study programme. Making this decision was not easy, but luckily I was not alone in my hilltop town. The Drover, my boyfriend, private chef, baker and limoncello maker, came all the way from Australia to experience the Italian food adventure with me. He showed me that studying and learning is not something that you can only do in schools and universities: self-education could be the most interesting path to follow.

“How do you know all this?” is a question I have asked the Drover very often, when he was telling me another story or when he was sharing another bit of his knowledge with me.