Confetti, canival, and children

February 12, 2008 · Filed Under Life in Italy · 4 Comments

It’s that time of year again. A time of children, and adults, in costume, and streets paved in small fragments of coloured paper. A time of processions and street fairs. Of cars covered in shaving foam and party string.

Yes, it the, for me, mysterious carnival season.

I don’t know what the appeal of it is, and I’ve never been able to get into to it. I feel no urge to dress up either. I guess you’ve really got to have grown up in Italy to understand and feel what the carnival thing is all about.

It’s all about religion that I do know, and this is possibly why I don’t find carnival much of a curiosity. This is odd, because I’m quite a curious person. My better half is not filled with carnival spirit either.

Indeed, my other half made a rather chilling observation, after having seen a procession which took place in these parts this evening. She said that all those people mindlessly chanting the same thing was frightening. Nope, as you might have gathered, she’s not into religion either, although she rather more direct in its criticism. She believes that it is little more than indoctrination.

Maybe she has a point, but I’m not sure I fully agree, or disagree with her.

I’ve got nothing against those with faith. If it works for them, fine, but please do not try and convert me.

When the time is right, I’ll convert myself. But it’ll take more than confetti covered streets to win me over.

Tags: carnival, children, confetti, fairs, in costume, Italy, odd, People, Religion, street fair

Christmas is a coming

December 11, 2007 · Filed Under Milan · Comment

It is. For some reason there seem to me more Christmas lights than ever this year. OK, so they are not the colourful Oxford Street type of lights, but they do add a little something. Even Corso Sempione - the wide avenue that points towards the Castello, has lights in the trees lining the road. Very pretty.

Then, last weekend there was the famous Milanese Oh Bej Oh Bej (”Bej” is pronounced rather like ‘bay) street fair/open air market. More the latter than the former. Technically this is not a Christmas fair, as it relates to the celebration of the patron saint of Milan, St. Ambrogio. However, because it held so close to Christmas, it had come to be associated with the festive season.

For the second time now, this fair has encircled Milan’s Castle, which seemed to be a better place for this huge street market than it’s former location down near the Catholic University. Only this year, the unofficial, but tolerated, unlicensed stands occupied the road in front of the Arena. This caused total traffic chaos last Thursday. One slight black mark against Oh Bej Oh Bej.

The other slightly negative aspect is the crowds. It would appear as though just about everyone in Milan, and most places around Milan, visit this fair. This is wonderful, and a shame at the same time. It is wonderful, because it is nice to see everyone there, but, on the other hand, it is a shame, because browsing the stands becomes just about impossible. This is a further shame, seeing as there is some interesting stuff, and plenty of Christmas present ideas.

On the subject of Christmas prezzies, Milan is a fabulous place for Christmas shopping - if you know where to go. There are so many interesting shops, selling interesting things that it is almost impossible not to find something, well, interesting, even for those ‘you never know what to get for Xmas’ types. The only trouble is that the choice can be baffling, and not knowing the city does not help either. So, to reduce the baffle-factor a wee bit, one shop which I have used on more than one occasion is De Wan, which is a minute away from San Babila.

De Wan looks as though it might be terrifyingly expensive, but it is not. It’s not cheap either, but the prices will not make your eyes water, unless that is, they have gone very upmarket recently. Although I don’t know, because I have not been there for a while. Anyway, if you are looking for stuff for wives, mothers, aunts, and grandmums, then it is well worth checking out. I like it because the things they sell are imaginative, and different from what you can find elsewhere. Their costume jewellery is well worth looking at, but then again quite a few things may well catch your eye.

If any other shops spring to mind, I’ll scribble something here.

Tags: Christmas, city, interesting, lights, Milan, present ideas, presents, shop, street fair

Gastronomic weekend

October 15, 2007 · Filed Under Italian Food · Comment

I kissed goodbye to my diet last weekend. The temptations of interesting Italian food just proved too darn strong. It all started on Saturday with a trip to our local rosticceria. There I found that they were doing wild boar cooked in a Barolo sauce. I simply could not resist the temptation and ended up with it and some polenta. It was delicious. The Wild Boar was tender and the sauce was exquisite. My other half and son, who are not partial to wild boar, had to make do with some ‘polpette’ - meatballs, and a courgette flower frittata - a type of thick omelette. I wanted to get them some lasagne and gnocchi alla Romana, but both dishes had sold out. And I managed to get to the rosticceria well before midday. Well, that was Saturday. The best was yet to come.

On Sunday we went to the Paolo Sarpi street fair here in Milan. I will admit to having been a little worried about the size of this fair in view of the ever diminishing number of Italian shops in Via P Sarpi, but luckily, although numbers were down slightly on last year, there were plenty of stands. This is just as well because this annual fair is very well patronized. At 11 on Sunday morning the narrowish street was packed, and I hate the think just how many people would have invaded during the afternoon. Seeing as the weather was fine, I imagine that the crowds would have been on the wrong side of acceptable.

Anyway, we managed to get there early enough to grab one to two goodies. My other half got some wonderful truffle salami and some equally yummy Barolo salami. Then there were the porcini mushrooms, which were immediately turned into a risotto or fried. I ignored the risotto in favour of the fried porcini, which I love. Although I will cook them next time, because I would like these mushrooms to be fried just a little more and with less oil. Then they would be absolutely perfect!

In addition to the salami and mushrooms, we also picked up some Fontina, which is rich and creamy, some delicious long stalked capers, olives and some wine. I picked up some of my favourite honey grappa and a bottle of woodland fruits grappa, which I shall leave until Christmas, by which time it should be perfect. Next we have the Cunesi chocolates which are the most diet ruiningly scrumptious chocolates available in Italy, or so I think.

And finally there was this cheese I had never tried before, but I’m going to devote a whole post to this delicacy because it deserves much more attention.

Yes, I did put on a bit of the weight I had managed to lose, but, what the heck. A little bit of what you feel like does you good. And it did!

Tags: Cheese, delicious, eat, good, interesting, Italia, Italian, Italian food, Italy, Me, Milan, mushrooms, number, Paolo Sarpi, porcini mushrooms, rosticceria, street fair, wonderful