Un incontro sul lago

One week ago I was walking around Lake Johnson as usual. I was talking in Italian with Lucas, and with Stefan (my adviser, who's learning Italian, and that we met by chance). A person came by and approached us.. He was Italian! It's interesting how coming from the same country suddenly makes you feel close, even though obviously you don't know anything about the other person. This is the reason of the Italian dinners, and of other friendships that I started over here. Anyway, this person had a very professional-looking camera, so I asked him if he had his pictures online somewhere.. and he has them! He's not a professional, but in my opinion his pictures are really wonderful.
So, you can look on his website and see pictures both from Raleigh and the Triangle and from Italy and Europe. So I believe my readers will be interested in giving a look at it..

Oggi e' il complanno di Lucas

Well, try to translate the title of this post - then you'll know why this day is important!
Anyway, Lucas and I went to a really nice restaurant to celebrate: Tasca Brava, in North Raleigh. It's a Tapas Restaurant. Lucas and I love tapas and last time we had good tapas was more than one year ago for my birthday in Chicago. In case you never heard this word, 'tapas' are small dishes - the size of an appetizer, so to say. So, basically, you try as many as you feel like. They can be cold or hot, meat, fish, veggies, and so. They come from Spain, but undoubtely, you could make Tapas from any type of cuisine. Still, if you go to a Tapas restaurant, usually you expect Spanish cuisine.

The owners of this place, husband and wife, are Colombian (although his parents are Spanish), and they know what they are doing! We spoke a lot to the husband (who's also the waiter, whereas she's the chef). He's a really nice guy and loves the food and the wine and the coffee he serves. Btw, about coffee: they roast their own and we had a pretty lively discussion about caffeine and roasting of coffee. :) He's really good at making you want to try his stuff :) - so in the end I decided to try the coffee, even though I was afraid I wouldn't sleep tonight.. but he may be right: I'm already sleepy now and I think I will probably sleep, coffee or not. :)
To speak about the food: we had the soup of the day (with coriander and cheese), then a sort of roll with Chicken and Ham, slightly spicy, then a really interesting croquette dish, coming from Columbia, with peanuts and a spicy sauce, then green beans battered and fried to dip in some interesting sauces, and some wonderful cod served in a pastry with a sauce that reminded me tremendously of 'merluzzo alla livornese' :). Everything was very good and well taken care, also in the presentation.
So, just to make you feel like eating this food, here is a picture of the cod:
In the end, I really liked this place, and both the owners, and I loved to talk to the guy. It's expensive compared to our standards (but I must say, we didn't really pay attention to the prices of what we ordered: so, together with what I already mentioned, we had two glasses of really good wine, and a rum and raisin dessert, plus, obviously, the coffee - total: $68 taxes included). But really, for a nice occasion, it's very much worth it. And the atmosphere and the music is very nice. They have live shows on Saturday, he told us.
Allora, ancora tanti auguri amore!

Bugfest

Every year in Raleigh there is the 'Bugfest' around this time. I never went there before and I thought this may be my last (sigh) occasion to visit it. So, Luisa, Jorge and I went. It was held at the Natural Science Museum and surrounding square and roads. I really really enjoyed it and I recommend anyone (children and adults) to go visit it next year! There were many bugs, alive and not, from all over the world, and very nice and competent people explaining about their habits and life. You could also touch some of them..
and eat some others!!! Yeah, you wouldn't believe, but this is what I actually ATE:


Bean and worm salad, bean and cricket dip, ant-chillada, quiche with larvae and ants in amber... It was quite hard to start, then I decided that it wouldn't kill me if the other people were eating them.. I couldn't really taste the larvae and crickets, but the ants gave a sort of acidic addition to the chicken/cheese dish, and the worms had a very distinguished smokey flavor. The worms were the most difficult to eat - not for the consistency (they weren't soggy or too crunchy) , but just because it was a flavor that I never tasted before, and I didn't feel very well thinking that it came from the worm. :)
For the rest, I found out that the Natural Museum of Science is absolutely wonderful and I would like to go back there soon. They have a wonderful collection of plants, animals, dinosaurs, fossils... This guy is the most complete Acrocanthosaurus ever found:
When we went there, there was also a Seashell exposition, so I will finish this post with some more beautiful pictures than the ones of the bugs :)
You could buy those shells and many others.
Whereas this won the first prize for a seashell artistic composition.

Il decalogo

Lucas and I just finished to watch all the episodes of 'The Decalogue', by the Polish director Krystof Kyewloswki. I was really touched by it, and in particular by a few of the movies.
It was originally a TV series: ten movies as the ten commandments. The movies, according to the director, don't have a direct relationship with the commandments, although they do vaguely follow the order that they are expressed in the Catholic version. Still, most of them actually have many more than one theme. They are all provocative, and poetic at the same time. The theme that binds all of them is that they depict the lives of people who live in different apartments built in a few of those huge buildings omnipresent in the big town suburbs. In one of the movies it's explicitely said that it's amazing how many interesting stories develop in those buildings. So, in the end, it's a series about humans, their feelings, the relation between humans and God, the fundamental questions that we all face, issues that we all could have to deal with, if we were put in some contexts. I don't want to spoil the vision of the movies by writing exactly what they are about here, but if someone wants to know more or has already seen the movies and wants to read about some symbols and so, there are some very interesting descriptions on Wikipedia, both in English and in Italian (the latter much longer than the former). If you want to choose only a few movies to watch in order to decide if you'd like to see the whole series or not, I'd suggest watch 2, 4, 5 and/or 6.

Baby shower

Since I don't think my Italian readers know what a baby shower is, I'm going to explain it for them here.
Un 'baby shower' (lett. doccia del bambino) non ha in realta' niente a che vedere con acqua e lavaggi di bambini :). C'e' un tipo di festa in inglese che si definisce 'shower', e che in realta' si riferisce al fatto che il festeggiato viene coperto da una 'doccia' di regali. Un 'baby shower' e' una festa di questo tipo che viene offerta in onore di una donna che sta per partorire un bambino.. gli invitati portano dei regali per il bambino nascituro. Questo e' cio' che io sapevo prima di andare ad una reale baby shower..
Ok, so, I guess every American knows what a baby shower is. Still, what I had understood of a baby shower was not exactly what I saw. First of all, I didn't know that a baby shower was only for girls. Instead, it is. Also, I didn't know it was a tradition to have games.. and apparently, this is a fundamental part of the party!
Well, anyway, a few weeks ago we had this baby shower that I still didn't speak about for my dear friend Yan Li. She's actually going to give birth any time soon, now. It was a nice party, and she was indeed showered with gifts.
I had some problems during the games.. I really didn't know all the words related to the baby world in English, so.. but I actually managed to guess close enough how big the waste of Yan Li was, making a belt of toelet paper for her... ehm....such is life. :)

Un blog con foto e pensieri interessanti

I recently visited this 'blog of note': strangers among us.
I also do 'people watching' (NB per gli Italiani: non sono una guardona!! In inglese c'e' un termine per tutto.. people watching e' osservare le persone - suona simile a bird watching.. ma c'e' un interesse diverso nell'immaginare le vite delle persone rispetto a quelle degli uccelli, per quanto interessanti anche queste ultime possano essere :) ). I try to capture some pictures of interesting people here and there, but I never did it so systematically. I think it's a nice idea to share on a blog.

Hackosphere

I just found this wonderful blog, which will be very useful to all bloggers. He has really neat options to use if you want to improve your blog features.
I just put the peek-a-boo option for the labels. Try to click on my labels and you'll see it at work. I'm now going to label all my recipes. I hope sometime we can have a 'sublabel' option, so I can categorize them. :)

Due libri provenienti dall'Oriente

I really believe that knowledge brings to understanding, and that this should be sought in every aspect of our life. I was saddened when I read the words that the newspapers reported today about the Pope's mention of the bizantine emperor and Mohamad.. I am Catholic, and I feel unconfortable when I see something like that. I cannot understand very well, considering that so many efforts of the Church are spent towards improving the dialogue between countries and religions. Wasn't the dream of John-Paul II to have a meeting in Jerusalem with a Jewish Rabbi and a Muslim religious authority? Anyway, I hope that we will continue to promote dialogue and understanding, especially in this moment where so much hate is present in the world.

Anyway, long introduction to say that I just finished to read two very interesting books written by Oriental authors.
The first is called 'The White Castle: a novel', by Orham Pamuk (I actually read it in Italian. The Italian title is 'Il castello bianco').
This was one of my mom's gifts for my birthday. It's a very interesting novel, sometimes a bit hard to read, because the style of the author is very descriptive.. but probably very appropriate for the story. The novel is set in the XVII century. An Italian guy is made prisoner by the Turkish and is able to escape death by showing his knowledge in medicine (sometimes less real than what he pretends to have). He is taken as slave by a sort of scholar, acquainted with the sultan, who's fascinated by the books that he was bringing with himself, and by what he knows, not only as scientific knowledge, but also personally, as he lived in such a different country. They have a very strange relation, where it's not always clear who's the 'slave' and who's the 'master'. The 'master' decides that they have to find out the truth about men and themselves by writing together about everything that they did. This becomes an extremely defatiguating task, in the end, for both of them. At the same time, the sultan requires new ideas and books from the master, and he actually has the 'slave' write them for him. The two people, moreover, also look very much alike physically. So, one of the main themes is also the sense of identity/identification, and there is a very special ending that I'm not going to give away. In the end, I think the book had some extremely interesting ideas, and is worth reading it especially in this moment where the dialogue between Western/Eastern cultures (and Christian/Muslim in particular) seems to be so hard.

The second book that I just finished was a gift by my sister for my birthday. It was called 'The kite runner' by Khaled Osseini (Italian title: 'Il cacciatore di aquiloni' - and again I read it in Italian).
This book is absolutely amazing, and I would recommend it to everyone. It's not difficult to read at all, and it's actually hard to stop reading it. Although, it has some very rough scenes that can be disturbing. It's the story of a boy (Amir) that grows up in Kabul, Afghanistan. He is born in a well-off family, but his mother dyes giving birth to him. He loves and admires his father, but it's very difficult for him to gain his attention and esteem. He grows up with another boy (Hassan), who's an 'hazara', considered as an inferior race, and who's the son of the housekeeper. They are very close, but in his head, our protagonist is not completely sure he can call him 'friend', since he's from a lower class/race. On the contrary, his father treats him as a son, and is a very strong believer in people's equality, and he's a corageous man, never submitted to anyone, including the religious people who are slowly taking power in Afghanistan. The book goes throughout the history of Afghanistan, from the king to the occupation by Russians to the took of power by the Talebans. When the Talebans arrive and impose awfully strict and inhumane rules, the family escapes. But before this, some terrible thing occurs in the life of Amir and Hassan, that separates them abruptly, and burdens Amir with a huge sense of guilt. When the family escapes from Afghanistan, they go to California (close to San Francisco), and have to start a life from the beginning. The memory of Afghanistan tends to fade.
Amir grows up, gets married, and has almost forgotten Hassan until a phone call reaches him.. and he has to go back to Afghanistan. Read the book if you want to see how it ends. It's wonderful because it really makes you have a feeling for what the poor Afghan people have gone through in the last century of their history.. and also because it's a great description of human soul. We are forced to understand the reasons behind the characters' actions, and we don't know if we would have behaved differently in that context. And still, there are enough different characters to let you understand that actions are not simply driven by the cultural context. It's also a story of human growth, and it deals with the relation between man and God, and men and religion. I've been really touched by this book, and I really hope that at least someone who reads this post is going to read it.

Good bye to Marthalicia and Mariano

Before leaving to California, we met with Marthalicia and Mariano to say goodbye to them. We had a few nice evenings with them. One was at Fat Daddy's, where Trino was playing!
He and his band are really good! And we also had a good time playing pool. Here are the two sisters!

Then, we invited them at our place for some dessert. I made panna cotta and cannoli, and since they were very good, I'll share the recipe here.

Panna cotta ('cooked cream')
Italian version:
1/2 l di latte
1/2 di panna (da cucina va bene lo stesso)
1 bustina di vaniglia
1 bicchierino di rhum
100 g di zucchero
fogli di colla di pesce per 750 g liquido

Far caramellare 3 cucchiai di zucchero nel contenitore
Unire tutti gli ingredienti (tranne il rhum)
(la colla di pesce la devi fare ammollare un po’ prima, poi scolarla e rimetterla dentro)
Far bollire a fuoco lento sempre mescolando per 5 minuti. Aggiungere il rhum nell’ultimo minuto.
Versare sul caramello.
Variante al caffè: versare all’ultimo minuto ½ bicchierino di brandy, 1 tazzina di caffè (istantaneo anche) forte e un cucchiaino di caffè vero macinato fine.

English version:
Mix together 4 cups milk, 4 cups heavy cream (you can change the milk/cream ratio if you want it a bit less fat), 1 tsp vanilla syrup, 1/2 cup sugar, gelatine mix (I used an Italian version, so you should look on the American boxes how much you need for this amount of liquid). Bring to boil slowly and let cook for 5 min. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup rum to taste. In the meanwhile, caramelize some sugar on the bottom of a pan, and then pour the mixture on it. Let stand in the fridge overnight.
If you want to make a coffee version, add 2 shots of espresso together with the brandy.

Cannoli
I bought the shells. The stuffing is made by mixing with an electrical mixer ricotta, powdered sugar and some drops of orange blossom water. Ricotta/sugar ratio can vary according to taste. Then add some chocolate chips in it. And if you had some candied fruits, that'd be perfect.

Trip to California

I haven't posted in while, because we were out of town. I had some interviews in Berkeley, hopefully to get a post-doc there. I still don't know if I will get the position or not, but the trip has been really wonderful.
We had two free days, and on one of them we went to San Francisco. I loved it! It's one of the few towns that I've been in the US where I found some fascinating details in every place I walked... and we walked for many hours!
It's an amazing town, with so many different parts. I'll show a few pictures here, but please visit my picture website to see more.
Following our own visit.. here is the Market Square, and in particular, some strange Asian vegetables that I don't know the name of.
A lot of the stands sold Asian vegetables. In fact, in San Francisco there is the biggest China town outside China. Here is its entrance.
There is also a very large Italian community, so it's actually possible to drink a good caffe' or cappuccino.. But the nicest thing is the bay. And this is a view of North Hill (one of the many, many hills that San Francisco lays on).
We had a good lunch at a Chinese restaurant where they served 'Dim Sum', which I never had before: they pass around with carts full of steamed or fried little things, and you just choose what you want. It's quite nice :)... and our dinner was also wonderful.. if you want a really good Sushi, go to Sushi-Man (731 Bush Street). It was the best Sushi we ever had.
I really liked Berkeley too, and I think it would be nice to live there for a while. It's much smaller than San Francisco, obviously, but it has many nice residential areas, and a very nice downtown part. It's walkable everywhere, you can choose if you want to walk in smaller streets surrounded by small houses, with small gardens filled with amazing flowers, or on more busy streets closer to campus and downtown.. there are plenty of cafes and here and there you see people that seem like they just came out of the 70s. I loved it. I think I will fit there well. :)
This is just an example of one of the nice garden-houses:
And this is inside one of the cafes..
lost of really studious people!
Also the campus is very nice, there are lots of very old trees, such as in this eucaliptus grove:
There are also some quite impressive buildings:
So, let's keep our fingers crossed, and hope that the prof that I applied to finds some funding to hire me.. :)