Basta Cosi!

Last week I flew Easy Jet for the first time after hearing horror stories about how all their flights get delayed and canceled from almost everybody. My roommate had to take the train the weekend before because his flight from Budapest was canceled by Easy Jet. I was pretty worried that my flight to Sardinia would be canceled, but everything went smoothly. I am happy I flew for the first time, because the landing was fascinating! Instead of coming from the sea, we landed over the Sardinian mountains. The approach was at least 10 minutes long and the whole time it looked like the hills were only 100 meters below us! I thought we were going to crash at the end, but then all of a sudden we landed in a field. It's interesting flying from one European country to another, because within 2 hours you fly into a completely different culture. It was my first time there since learning Italian and I was amazed how much I understood of the conversations around me. The first thing I noticed about Italy was that the ads all over the airport were for cheese, wine and olive oil instead of Apple, Oracle or Toyota. In fact, I don't think I saw a single ad for something other than fashion and food the entire week! Even the business newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, had full page ads for cheese and prosciutto!

I found my aunt and uncle and we drove along the highway. I had never driven along the highway, but traffic keeps getting worse on the faster route. Instead of expanding a bridge on which only one way of traffic can fit, the Italians waited 40 years and then decided to put a stoplight to allow only one way at a time. Sometimes one has to wonder about the Italian way of fixing things.

It was so nice to be back in Sardinia and I was especially excited to be there with my aunt and uncle. There was a lot of discussion of the financial and Greek debt crises, the future of the EU, US foreign policy, President Obama, the fall of the West and how it relates to the fall of the Roman Empire, immigrant integration, Italian culture/politics and Swiss culture/politics. In other words, everything! I enjoy talking to them about these issues because their attitudes are very positive towards America, so you don't need to overcome a bias. It can be very tedious talking to some other Europeans who enter the discussion with a very anti-American bias. I was also able to talk to some Italians while I was there and practice my Italian. I was even able to get a family recipe for Seadas, a Sardinian dessert, of which I will post a picture. It started when we went to a store of a family we know. I asked for a Pecorino for Seadas and the son gave me a look like I was crazy (you can look up recipes online, they all say use Pecorino!). He told me he would give me his mom's recipe and I bought a different cheese instead, but I don't know the name. It looks like a pear and it might be called la pera.

On Tuesday, we were invited to eat at an agriturismo ristorante. Agriturismo is a restaurant where you only eat food grown at that location and it is extremely popular and delicious! There used to be rules that all food had to come from there, but they have been relaxed, because even the water had to come from a local well in the past! It opened at 8:30 PM and we were one group of three that was there from the beginning. We were all expecting a crowd to come at 10, because that is when Italians generally eat during vacation, but only one more group came. It was similar to Tapas, but you didn't order any food and they just brought it out when it was finished. There were probably 4 courses with 2 or 3 dishes each. Un antipasto with sorted meats like salami and bresaola (which is amazing but expensive!) and another with vegetables. In the next course, there were fried zucchini flowers, which were probably my second favorite part of the meal. The best part was the maialetta (baby pig) at the end! It looks very fatty and chewy with a hard crust, but then you bite into it and the crust is an amazing sweet fat crust and the rest of the meet melts in your mouth and it's impossible to describe just how good it was! The waiter asked us if we wanted anything else after and my uncle and I ordered Seadas and I took un espresso to top it off. I had drunk some wine, so I needed the espresso to wake me up again, haha. One of my favorite parts of Italian culture is that they drink wine during the meal and then drink a quick espresso at the end to wake themselves up. It seems so unhealthy to put both depressants and stimulants in your body at the same time. And then, once the espresso is done, you drink a liqueur to top it off. Usually it is Grappa, but in Sardinia it is Mirto, a very aromatic liqueur made from a Mediterranean bush.

First picture:
Mirto (L), Grappa (C), Wine (R)

Second picture: Maialetta












Seadas





















Espresso Bresaola

The best part of Italy is definitely the food. I ate and ate and ate. Bresaola, Salami, Pecorino, Saltimbocca (calf meat with sage), gnocchi, ravioli, risotto (rice), cappuccino, prosciutto crudo, apricots, plums, peaches, watermelon, etc. When I bought the plums and peaches, I had trouble picking the best plums. I wasn't sure what kind of plum to ask for (let alone that there is more than one kind!). I decided to ask for the Sardinian ones and I was proud of myself for thinking of such a great solution. Not only did I sound like I knew something, I was also supporting the local economy and the Sardinians would be happy. This would have been a great plan, except all three varieties were Sardinian! There was an old lady waiting behind me who realized that I was a foreigner who didn't know anything about fruit and asked, "quali sono dolcissimi?" (which ones are the sweetest?) After the sellers said, "questi" (these ones), she said, "allora" to me, which was kind of a way of saying "there you go".

I don't have much more time to write, allora, basta cosi! (so... enough!)