Farmers' Market

A Raleigh c'e' un piccolo mercato dei contadini.. certo, non paragonabile con Porta Palazzo, ma molto grazioso, e ci sono davvero solo prodotti locali. D'estate quindi c'e' una grande varieta', mentre d'inverno si trovano solo cavoli, patate, zucche e rape.. solo?!?
Una cosa che ho scoperto qui e' che queste verdure esistono con delle varieta' infinite che in Italia non ho mai trovato.
Inoltre, qui hanno l'uso di mangiare tutte le foglie di ogni tipo di cavolo o di rapa. Per farvi un esempio, vi mostro una foto di alcune di queste foglie:

Potete vedere spinaci (beh, questi sono famosi anche in Italia..), e poi 'Mustard greens', 'Turnip greens' e 'Collard greens'. Ho scoperto un sito che mi ha permesso di capire come si chiamano in Italiano queste verdure.. ma non me ne riesco a capacitare fino in fondo:
Apparentemente, 'mustard greens'='foglie di cavolo cappuccio', e 'collard greens'='foglie di cavolo verza'.. in realta', se guardate bene, i collard greens non assomigliano per niente alle foglie della verza.. i collard greens sono grandissimi e piatti! E non sanno di cavolo verza.. 'Turnip greens' sono invece le famose 'cime di rapa', in Italiano.
Oltre a queste foglie che vedete in questa foto, ho visto anche 'Kale greens' (foglie di cavolo riccio??), e 'Bok Choi' (foglie di cavolo cinese)!!! Mi sono ripromessa di provarli tutti, poco per volta. Per ora, il collard greens e' quello che mi piace di piu', ed e' anche una delle poche verdure che le persone del Sud degli USA mangiano :)

In alto a sinistra, potete intravedere due tipi di zucche invernali: 'Acorn squash' e 'Spaghetti squash', cioe' 'zucca ghianda' e 'zucca spaghetti'. La prima deve il suo nome chiaramente alla sua forma, mentre si puo' comprendere il nome della seconda solo se la si cucina. Infatti, una volta che la zucca e' cotta (al forno, o bollita), e aperta a meta', si scopre che la polpa e' fatta di tanti fili gialli, che si separano semplicemente 'grattando' la zucca con una forchetta. Il risultato, in effetti, ha un aspetto molto simile ad un piatto di spaghetti. - La prossima volta che la preparo faro' una foto, cosi' mi crederete.. :)

I was very honored that someone actually asked me for a translation of this post. :) So, here it is, more or less:

In Raleigh there is a small Farmers' market.. of course it's not comparable with Porta Palazzo (an open air market which is in Turin, the largest one in Europe!), but it's very nice, and there are really only local products. In summertime there is a great variety, whereas in wintertime there are only cabbages, potatoes, squash and turnips.. only?!? I found out that these vegetables exist in a number of varieties that in Italy you cannot find at all.
Moreover, here people eat also all the leaves of all types of cabbages or turnips. As an example, I put up the picture of some of the leaves.
You can see spinach (ok, these are well-known also in Italy), and then mustard greens, turnip greens and collard greens. I found out a website that gives the translation of these vegetables in multiple languages. Nevertheless, as for collard greens, the vegetable that I knew with the corresponding Italian name doesn't have leaves that resemble at all to collard greens.. so they are still a mistery to me :)
You can also find other leaves that are not shown in that picture: kale greens, and Bok Choi. I'm going to try them all! For now, collard greens are the ones that I like best, and it's also one of the few vegetables that people from the south of the US eat :)

On the upper left corner, you can see two types of winter squash: acorn squash and spaghetti squash. The first name is clearly related to the shape, whereas the second one can be understood only if one cooks the squash. In fact, once you cook the squash and open it in the half, you find out that the pulp is made of many yellow strings that you can pull apart simply by passing a fork through them. The result is in fact similar to a dish of spaghetti. Next time I make it I'll take a picture, so you'll believe me :)

Ethiopian restaurant 'Abyssinia'

Uno degli aspetti positivi degli Stati Uniti e' che si puo' mangiare cibo etnico molto piu' variegato e autentico di quanto si possa trovare in Italia. Penso che ci siano due motivi per questo: 1) Negli USA ci sono comunita' straniere veramente numerose - soprattutto, nella zona dove sono io, cinesi e indiane. 2) La cucina americana in se' non ha delle specialita' eccezionali, a meno che non si voglia mangiare il cibo tipico del Sud - che pero' e' grassissimo, e non penso che consumarlo spesso possa essere molto salutare.
Insomma, da quando sono qui, ho sperimentato cibo _veramente_ indiano, cinese, thai, messicano, coreano, giapponese - consigliatomi da amici delle rispettive nazionalita'.
Ieri siamo andati a mangiare in un ristorante etiope, che gia' conoscevamo, che e' fantastico.
Il cibo viene servito in comune, al centro del tavolo, su un grande pezzo di 'pane'. Questo tipo di pane si chiama Injera, ed e' piatto e spugnoso e un po' acido. Il cibo si raccoglie dal piatto centrale con questo pane - non vengono date forchette.

Adoro le verdure -c'erano lenticchie di due tipi, collard greens, cavolo, fagiolini, insalata.. deliziosi.. e abbiamo anche preso dell'agnello e del manzo. E' un cibo buonissimo ed e' molto conviviale. Il posto ha un ritmo africano, che puo' un po' urtare i clienti affrettati: il cibo viene preparato sul momento, quindi ci vuole circa un'oretta prima di riceverlo.
Ma cosa c'e' di piu' bello che essere seduti intorno ad un tavolo in compagnia di persone simpatiche?

So, for the people who live in Raleigh: the restaurant is highly recommended. You can eat both spicy and non spicy food. The portions are really big - 3 entrees for 4 people were perfect. Don't go there starving or in a hurry, because it takes a while before getting the food.

Un'altra mini ricetta eclettica

Just a quick recipe that I prepared a few nights ago, before getting to some more serious stuff :)
So, I still had some cilantro that I bought for the Thai dinner and forgot to use.. :) - and I remember that once an Indian friend of mine gave me a very good recipe that asked for it.
The name of the Indian recipe is Papdi Chat. The real recipe asks for chickpeas (either you buy them in a can, or you have to soak them and boil them), yogurt, cilantro, coriander, fresh ginger and lime juice. Finely cut the ginger and the cilantro and crush the coriander - choose the amounts depending on how much you like the different tastes. Add this paste to the chickpeas and the yogurt. In the end, you have a sort of dip that you will eat with the Papdis, which are a type of 'fried crackers'.
I didn't have time to buy the Papdis - and I decided to add a finely cut cucumber. The result was then an interesting fusion between the Indian Chickpea Chut and the Middle Eastern Tzatziki (which is originally prepared with yogurt, cucumber, and garlic). Per i miei lettori italiani, potete trovare una ricetta dello Tzatziki sul sito di ComidaDeMama.

We really enjoyed it as a side dish with some whole grain crackers:

Some more scientific links

My dad is a mathematician, and he regularly updates this 'Math News' kind of blog, where he puts some of the news that come out on newspapers and websites and concern Math . This is in English, and lots of people like it.
Ha anche un 'Blog matematico', in cui spiega in modo divulgativo interessanti problemi di teoria dei numeri. E' in Italiano, ed anche questo e' molto apprezzato.

I hope some of my readers who are interested in science will check them out!

Is there any hope?

Oggi e' stata una giornata alquanto terribile dal punto di vista lavorativo.. nulla di cio' che ho provato ha dato risultati utili..
L'unica cosa che mi ha confortato e' stato guardare fuori dalla finestra, e vedere un albero coperto di fiorellini rosa in pieno inverno.. Domani portero' la macchina fotografica e faro' una foto.
Dicono che Raleigh sia famosa per le sue 'due primavere', una delle quali invernali. In effetti, questo e' il mio secondo inverno qui, e avevo notato gia' l'anno scorso che alcuni alberi iniziano a fiorire ora. Ma quest'anno, quest'albero davanti al laboratorio e' completamente in fiore!
Insomma, guardarlo mi da' speranza :)

-Ecco qui la foto: potete vedere come tra i fiori si intravedano le foglie secche dell'albero accanto. Stare sotto l'albero a fare la foto mi ha riempito di gioia..

Dischi volanti e quantum computers

Tonight there wasn't too much left in our refrigerator.. mostly, some stuff that I bought for emergency cases. But in the end, what I made turned out really good, so I want to share it with you.
I called it 'Flying saucer' for how it looks like:

If you want to make it, you need to have some tortilla bases - in this case, I had a spinach tortilla that Crissy once suggested to me, and that you can find at Whole Foods. Purtroppo, non credo che questo tipo di tortilla si trovi in Italia.. non sono sicura se si trovano nemmeno le tortille normali.. boh?
Then, you need to have some cabbage (also an old one is fine), and some canned tuna. How much? Well, it depends on how many people want to eat it.. for four people, half of a small cabbage and two tuna cans will be fine.
Put some olive oil in a pan, fry one garlic clove, and add the finely cut cabbage, the tuna, salt, hot pepper if you like, some vinegar (I'd say three tablespoons for four people). Cover it and let it cook for half an hour. Taste it, adjust salt, and if you like, add some soy sauce and also, tonight I added some maple syrup. Let it cook for another half an hour, add pepper, and this part is done.
In the meanwhile, you will prepare the rice. This was quite easy for me, since Lucas's sister nicely gave us a steamer, which does it all by itself.. so, for the brown rice that I used, 70 minutes cooking were fine.
Then, since I still had some basil from the Thai dinner and I didn't want to throw it away, I decided to make some pesto to add on everything. If you don't know how to make pesto.. well, it's quite easy, and again, there are many possible variations depending on what you have in the fridge. The only necessary thing is basil :)
Tonight, I put the basil, some almonds, a garlic clove and some old and hard asiago cheese in the blender, chopped it finely, and added some olive oil and salt. The original recipe calls for pinenuts instead of almonds and romano cheese instead of Asiago. If you don't like garlic, you can do without. Pour the mixture in a bowl and cover with extra-virgin olive oil.
Ok, you're pretty much done now.. Heat up the tortilla for 30 sec in the microwave, and put the cabbage/tuna mixture on top, then the rice, then pour a little pesto sauce on top, and if you like, add some pieces of raw tomato..
The result was really delicious. You can eat it all wrapped like a burrito (like Lucas did) or with fork and knife (like I did...).

So why was there quantum computing in the title of this blog? Well, because during the dinner we actually talked a lot about nerdy things :) - from perturbation theory to quantum computing.. So, Lucas is skeptical that quantum computers will ever work.. More or less, he said, it would be too nice if they did, since so many difficult things could be easily solved - like the many-body problems that he's working on, meaning that he would be out of job :) :)

Due interessanti telefonate - 2

The second interesting phone call that I wanted to mention was with a college-mate of mine, Eugenio, that I hadn't heard from in a long long time.
It was an interesting chat about science in Italy, Europe and US. He's now in the Netherlands, doing his Ph.D. on a cutting-edge NMR-based technique that they are developing to study the photosynthesis centers in plants.

We both observed how different is to do science in Italy or abroad. One of the main points is that abroad, you're really left to your own initiative, whereas in Italy professors follow you step after step.. we both like having more freedom better, and also, it's quite amazing how efficient things are here (or in Netherlands, as he was saying).. you order a reactant, and it's in the lab the day after.. Also, English language has the nice characteristic that there's not really a formal way of approaching people (like the 'lei' in Italian or 'vous' in French), so that makes you feel all the time at the same level of the professors that you're talking to.

Still, some other differences in culture and vision of State made us prefer Italy to both US and Netherlands. In the Netherlands, for example, people seem to have a lot of fun going to pubs and getting drunk, more than talking to their friends - Eugenio was saying..also, he was saying that it's a great country until you're young, but the State is not very concerned with the needs of old people.
I'd say that here in the US, the Social system would have so much to learn from Italy, from children care to health care to education..

Eugenio said something that made me think: he went to visit Washington a few years ago, and he was amazed by the contrasts between the Mall and the poor surroundings.. so he said: in the US, I think you can live well if you don't look and hear what's around you. This kind of strucked me - I try to be aware of what's going on around me, and still manage to live well my life. It's true that the contrasts between rich and poor here are much stronger than in Italy.. maybe, I don't see them so much because I live in Raleigh and not in Washington DC. Also here, though, for example, racial segregation is visible - just go downtown and you'll notice it.

Due interessanti telefonate - 1

I'll write this in English even if the two phone calls were both in Italian, because my two friends had some interesting thoughts that I wanted to share with everybody.

So, on Friday, I heard my friend Cinzia from Turin. We always have very good conversations on the phone, to make up for all the nice ones that we used to have when I was in Turin.
We share many interests, and we often end up speaking about philosophical questions.
This time, she wanted to tell me something to think about, and she specifically asked me to bring up this topic with other people.. so that's why I'm writing it here.

She reported a sentence that she read, written by M.me de Stael: "Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner" - she said it in French.. It means: "Understanding everything is forgiving everything". And she linked it to other thoughts, from Dostoevski to Terenzio "Nothing that belongs to humans is foreign to me", or in Latin: "Homo sum: nihil humani a me alienum puto" . So, basically, we share in ourselves a part of every human behavior, from the noblest to the most horrible. Actually, that reminded me of something that Lucas mentioned to me a few times, ie, those experiments that they did in some schools, where they showed that the most normal people could turn into torturers, just playing a game-role where the school was devided into prisoners and guards.
So, why meditate on this? I guess my life would improve, if instead of judging people/society, I tried to feel close to others, whoever the 'other' that I have in front is.
This kind of reminded me about death penalty, also.. I cannot imagine that last Friday, at a few miles from my home, a guy was killed by lethal injection by North Carolina State, and so, by all of us.

Uno dei molteplici usi del Seitan

I once made a very simple soup for a friend of mine, and she was surprised about how good and simple it was.. so, I decided I will just post here and there some super easy and quick recipes - nothing special, but maybe if you don't think about it, you don't know how to make it.

This is a version of soup similar to the one that my friend liked. Basically, the idea is that you boil some water, put some vegetables into it, depending on what you have in the fridge/freezer, add some spices and then, the important point is to add something nutritious into it.
Last night I used Seitan.

Credo che i miei lettori Italiani non sappiano bene cos'e' il Seitan.. e' un sostituto della carne, fatto di glutine, che qui vendono a pezzi immerso in acqua. L'ho scoperto grazie al nostro amico Portoghese, e da allora ho provato a prepararlo in molti modi. Daro' altri suggerimenti in futuro.
Una zuppa e' un possibile uso.

In last night's soup, there was also pasta (a mixture of shells,
conchiglie, and pieces of lasagne), and hot paprika, and some basil leaves. It turned out quite good and it was perfect for my sorethroat. We also added some pieces of Asiago cheese, which was really nice.



To give more taste to the soup, one can add some Vegetable bouillon (dado vegetale), or before adding the water, stir fry some onion and add some canned tomoatoes.

Breakfast after Mass

It's Sunday, and I really like to go to the 9 am Mass at the Dogget Center, here in Raleigh.
I'll post also something more serious about it later, but for now, I wanted to tell about this funny thing.
Usually someone brings some food after the Mass, to share together with a cup of coffee or juice. I like this friendly moment of the day, so yesterday I decided to contribute and I made a cake to bring. I had some sort of All Bran cereals that I don't like too much, and I already tried to make a cake out of them, following a recipe that I found on Kellog's website. Since it turned out quite good, I decided to try another one, again from that website.
The cake was the Pineapple Upside Down Cake:

(Ok, the picture is not great).
Anyway, everyone liked it.. and found it very 'different' from the other types of cakes that usually people bring.. in fact, it was not as sweet as the typical American cakes. So, they all asked me if it was some sort of family recipe that I brought from Italy!! It was quite amusing to tell them where I found the recipe..

Children of Heaven

I will open my movie suggestion section with this movie that I watched yesterday while I was laying semi-sick on the couch..
Vlasta suggested this movie to us, and Lucas gave me permission to watch it even in his absence.

It's the cutest movie I've seen in a while. It's set in Iran, and it's about a boy and a girl, about 10 and 6 years old, and how they manage to share one pair of shoes without having to tell their parents that the boy lost his sister's shoes.
Now, said like that, it seems really stupid. Instead, the movie has a lot of very poetic scenes, and shows the contrasts of the Iranian society through the eyes of the children.

I really loved the movie, and I strongly recommend it to everyone who likes poetry and beauty. I'll try to keep an eye on Iranian filmaker Majid Majidi from now on.

Thai dinner

Ieri sera ho provato a cucinare Thai per un po' di amici che avevamo invitato a cena, avvertendoli che sarebbero state le mie cavie :)
Ma di solito, si fidano - bello avere una buona reputazione, eh? :)

Cosi', ho provato alcune ricette che ho trovato sul sito http://thaitable.com. Questo sito l'ho trovato grazie al fantastico blog 'ComidaDeMama', che invito tutti i miei lettori italiani ad andare a vedere. E' un bellissimo misto di vita e ricette, che in realta' mi ha ispirato ad iniziare il presente blog.

Le ricette che ho provato ieri sera sono state:
+ Tod Mun - appetizer - frittelline di pesce, potete trovare la ricetta in Italiano sul sito di ComidaDeMama.

For my American readers, I'll add a suggestion that ComidaDeMama gave to all the readers of her blog: if you can't find the fish paste, or you want to have it superfresh, and have a control over how spicy it will be, you can make it yourself.
Just buy about half a pound of white fish fillet, for example yesterday I used Tilapia. Put it in a mixer together with 2 tbs of fish sauce and one egg, and add as much curry paste as you like. Mix until it becomes a paste.

Comunque, le frittelline sono venute fuori assolutamente buonissime. Ho persino trovato le foglie della pianta di limone thailandese, che hanno dato un gusto interessantissimo, senza avere l'acidita' del limone.
Anche la salsina era buona - ho usato aceto balsamico invece che di vino bianco, perche' era cio' che avevo in casa :)

+ Chicken Curry - un misto di pollo e melanzane. Unico difetto della ricetta che trovate sul sito Thai, e' che consigliano di mettere troppa salsa di pesce, cosicche' alla fine si sente anche il gusto di pesce. L'ho fatto cuocere per circa un'ora e mezza, e alla fine la consistenza era stupendamente cremosa. Devo dire che questo piatto e' piaciuto anche piu' di quanto non mi aspettassi.

+ Pad Thai - un classico, con spaghetti di riso e gamberetti. Questo e' stato il piatto piu' difficile da produrre, per due motivi: uno, gli spaghetti erano veramente 'tangled', come la ricetta chiedeva, e mescolarli con il resto della salsa era molto difficile.. due, era difficile assaggiarla mentre la cucinavo, e cio' e' per me un handicap notevole.. Alla fine, ho aggiunto un po' di soy sauce durante la cucina, perche' mi sembrava troppo asciutto. Il risultato e' stato ottimo.

+ Pumpkin in Coconut milk - questo l'avevo preparato la sera prima. Mi sembrava che fosse troppo liquido e insipido.. la zucca in effetti non e' ben nota per il suo sapore.. cosi', ho deciso di aggiungere del riso e del latte di cocco. L'ho servito tiepido, ed era buono. Devo dire, pero', non credo lo rifarei, ci ha messo due ore per bollire e diventare della giusta consistenza.

Degno di nota, e' che non ho messo nulla di piccante in nessuna delle portate. Una delle mie amiche che avevo invitato non puo' mangiare nulla di piccante, e cosi' ho fatto tutto assolutamente senza curry paste. Ho solo messo un po' di paprica dolce nel curry, per dare colore. Il risultato generale e' stato ottimo, ed e' stato bello vedere la nostra amica dire 'Wow, per la prima volta un curry che non e' piccante!' . .. in effetti, era un po' una scommessa con me stessa, fare una cena Thai non piccante.

Beh, fine dell'intervallo culinario per ora.


As a summary, the non-spicy Thai food was good, and the Thai website is highly recommended to all beginners who want to try to cook Thai food.

Prova prova prova.

So, first of all I should choose if I want to write in Italian or in English.. I think I'll use both, depending on my mood.

I've been living in Raleigh, NC, for about one year now. It's not a bad place to be, especially because of the nice people that are around me, and because I like what I'm doing.
I'm working as a post-doc in Chemistry at NCSU, on RNA-mediated nanoparticle synthesis (wow, suona bene, no? :) ).
I like to study, read, play piano, sing, and cook. I love to have dinner with friends, and to walk around and hike.
My idea for this blog would be to share some things of my life that may be of some interest to people.. I'm thinking especially about books, movies, frustration and joy of research, feelings of happiness and melancholy as a foreign in a foreign land.. and recipes that I try and that I make up, hopefully all correlated with interesting pictures.

So, we'll see how long I can maintain this idea alive.. :)

Comments are welcome all the time.