Month: February 2015

Let’s Grow Mold Together

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The setup for Day 2. In honor of Valentine’s Day, I had to include a food pun. This week our Masters class had 2 Cheese Tasting sessions with quite possibly the most eccentric food expert I have ever encountered: a little man named Cristiano de Riccardis. I would highly highly highly recommend you watch the link I just included there so you can: 1. Hear his voice 2. Die of laughter 3. Die again of laughter 4. Re-watch the last 10 seconds a few times So I have to say, cheese has really only come on my radar in the last few years, or more specifically, when I moved to a little town in a dairy producing state to study Latin American Politics. I slowly but surely realized that I really heart goat cheese thanks to the case at the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-Op. Apart from knowing what I like and don’t like, I lacked the vocabulary to really evaluate a cheese and also the crucial knowledge of when you should eat the rind and …

A Snow Day Excursion (Sort Of…)

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Le dolce at the charming, traditional Piemontese spot in Cherasco: Osteria La Torre. It snowed/rained yesterday! Our Biodynamic/Viticulture class was cancelled (because the professor was sick, not because of the snow, though I’m sure the Italians are freaking out about their driving abilities currently) and so I embarked with 3 friends on a lil’ excursion over to Cherasco– the town on top of a hill about 20 minutes from Brawhere almost everything always is closed. So I have to say, if there are any Slow Food spies reading this website, I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this…but I liked it better than Boccondivino AKA SF HQ. It was just so cozy and delicious. We were the only table of guests in there for a while and ordered two of each course, chatted, had a jug of wine and just generally enjoyed each other’s company for about 3 hours. Oh Italia. This cheese cart was looking quite fierce, but I’ll have to go back another time… As has been the case since I arrived in this little corner of the …

A Field Trip to a Farm

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Andrea (confusing I know, but it’s a masculine name here) AKA the owner of the farm told us that not many people would buy little lettuces like these guys in a supermarket. I would. This week is all about sustainable ag. Our professor did her Ph.D at Berkeley and I think I could have guessed that just based on what she was wearing to lecture. In a good way. She’s quick and full of powerpoint slides. Yesterday we all loaded on to quite the plush little coach bus for a field trip about 30 minutes from school to l’Orto del Pian Bosco–one of the only organic farms in the area and one of the vegetable suppliers to the CSA in town. I was surprised to hear that the farm was maybe on the large side of small (about 10 hectares) but Andrea said that he really just has to work with that much land that to ensure he has enough good product to sell. He was very upfront with us about the economic and bureaucratic challenges of his business (it …

Sunday Funday

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Activating my Vitamin D stores with my dear friend Urmila. Not pictured: Brazilian music and the chefs debating the optimal hammock hanging height. Today has been quite the day. First of all, the thermometer hit 10 degrees! (Celsius, obviously.) That meant the North Face jacket could stay in the closet as I walked down to the Gastronomic Society, a Middlebury-esque social house of sorts where currently only 2 individuals live, but are both very interested in hosting food-related events. Last week I went to a taco/cerveza night and today I went for brunch. We arrived quite early (still not sure where the Italian threshold for lateness is) and decided to move our table outside while we enjoyed our fruit salad and cappuccinos because, perche no? After a little bit/a lot a bit of sunshine and some conversation about our plans for the rest of the day, I set out for an adventure on foot. A little selfie never hurt anybody. I walked for about 3 hours along muddy roads and driveways, under bridges and along vineyards to a town …