Dreaming In Italian

This is not, as the title suggest something about the new pope, as interesting is that news is with highly unusual retirement/resignation of

Habemus Papam

Ratzinger. It is, however, equally interesting that I became aware of this movie at about the same time that people were crowding into Saint Peter’s square at the Vatican anxiously looking at the color of the smoke coming from the Sistine Chapel. If the appropriate part of the movie is true to reality then the words “Habemus Papam”, latin for “We have a Pope” are announced to the assembled masses as a prelude to the first presentation of and speech by the newly elected leader of Catholicism. The movie is rather recent, having been brought to screen in 2011.

The story is of a pope who is elected by the cardinals and is quite unhappy about it. You perhaps can imagine the consternation that this causes within and outside of the Vatican. The reluctant pope escapes his handlers and does a lot of soul searching for 3 days prior to returning to complete the story. Of course you’ll just have to see the ending. All in all I liked the movie a lot and think that you will too. Perhaps the trailer below will tempt you. You can stream it with Netflix. If you’ve seen it or do after this post, leave a comment and let me and others know what you thought.

Now that’s a strange title for a post you might say. It’s a line from an old folksong. What does that have to do with anything. Well, recently I had an opportunity to learn a bunch of new italian words through direct experience. You see I was walking along, ironically enough going to the gym, when I tripped (mi sono inciampato) and fell down(sono caduto a terra). When I got up (mi sono alzato) I found that I couldn’t put any weight on my right leg. Thinking that I must have bruised or pulled a muscle dramatically I accepted a kind offer of a bystander to give me a ride to my car. I drove home very carefully since I had to use my left hand to lift my right leg to move from the accelerator to the brake pedal. I asked a friend to drive me to a physical therapy appointment (I had a simple shoulder operation last fall). The therapist examined me briefly and sent me immediately in a wheelchair to the emergency room for an x-ray (radiografia). Sure enough I had broken my hip (anca). After waiting the appropriate amount of time since my last meal I was wheeled into the operating room where they put 3 screws (tre viti) in the hip bone. I’m just screwed together. After a single night stay in the hospital I went home and of course there were additional words to learn. Il deambulatore (the walker), le stampelle (the crutches) and il bastone (the cane) are all words that are now firmly in my vocabulary. So now it has been about 7 weeks so I am walking unassisted but still a little awkwardly as the muscles in the area gradually get back to their original undisturbed status. At the final follow-up visit with the surgeon (chirurgo) I asked for copies of x-rays.

Of course at first I was a little embarrassed to say that I’d broken a hip. Geezer break! But not really. The surgeon said that the bone density is fine but just sometime shit happens. Another doctor related a story of an acquaintance in his 20s who fell over from a stop on his bicycle and broke is hip so one can just fall wrong regardless of the age of one’s bones.

BTW if anyone out there has corrections to my italian, please correct me. I always want to improve.

One one of my posts long ago I professed love for a supermarket (really super) not far from where I live: Berkeley Bowl. Part of it’s spectacular array of produce is a mushroom section with more varieties than I have ever seen. So I finally decided that I really must sample some of the mushrooms. So this is the first installment of the mushroom project. Since mushroom, especially fresh ones, tend to have relatively delicate flavor I decided to limit the type of dishes that I would make with them. Risotto, scrambled eggs and pasta seem like the ideal background to showcase the flavor and texture of the mushrooms.

First up were the Forest Nameko. These cute little items, while they occur in the wild are cultivated and are quite popular in Japan. In fact it is a standard ingredient in the familiar miso soup. They are lovely to look at with their small glossy caps. The gloss comes from naturally occurring gelatin which is useful for a thickening agent for soups.

With the Nameko I decided to start with a risotto which I love anyway. I sauteed the mushrooms for a while and then started the risotto. The usual drill with risotto, a little onion sauteed in some olive oil and butter, coat the rice in the oil for a bit stirring pretty much constantly and then start adding the simmering broth. Whenever the rice starts to become dry add some more broth. The mushrooms are added near the end but are there long enough to impart their flavor to the rice. A bit of parsley and butter and voila’ – a very tasty meal. I add a bit of cheese at the end, but light. I don’t want to overpower the mushrooms. It was interesting but I really thought that the mushrooms were a little, well, bland.

Next up, hen of the woods. Now these really look interesting, Kind of like ragged cauliflower. This mushroom

is indeed wild and is native to both the U.S. and Japan. Italian-American communities in the northeast call it signorina. Who knows why since it is probably unknown in Italy. Probably it’s kind of like mountains. Some guy names it first and that’s it. These are used in traditional Japanese and Chinese medicine (who knew) and in fact have been shown in experiments by the Sloan-Kettering center to have some beneficial effects against cancers. So you can enjoy eating them and get health benefits too. Such a deal. With these I decided on scrambled eggs. Why? Well, truffles, those most valued of any vegetable on earth are often eaten with very simple backdrops, including scrambled eggs. Again I sauteed the mushrooms and added the eggs to the pan. I really liked these mushrooms. Their flavor is very earthy. A great discovery and I plan to explore them further.

So stay tuned for the next installment and if you’ve had some experiences with the less common mushroom varieties, please let me know.

When I first heard that name I thought of some new outdoor cooking product or a cleaning product for same. But if you are in Italy or have an interest in the bizarre world of Italian politics you are familiar with Beppe as a comedian – going into the really strange and comedic world of politics. In 2007 and 2008 he organized V-day in Italy. V in this case stands for vaffanculo (“fuck-off). This seems to be the start of his real political movement outside of his increasingly political comedy routines.

If you imagine if, say, George Carlin had decided to go into politics and had established a movement which claims millions of member is Italy – a country of about 60 million inhabitants. Actually given Beppe’s body type maybe John Goodman would be a better comparison.  The most recent polling prior to the elections due February 22 shows the M5S party polling 13% which puts it as the 3^rd most popular party in Italy. This could make it a significant force in Italian politics if that translates into seats in the Italian parliament.

I’ve read a number of things on the web including Beppe’s Blog (there’s an english version if you’re interested) and don’t really know what to think of him. But of course I am always perplexed by Italian politics. It definitely seems corrupt. Not that’s we’re squeaky clean in the political environment in the U.S. but the Italians really raise it to a spectacular level. Still the M5S seems to have some good principles mixed with some questionable ones. Shaking things up a bit could be a good thing and hopefully the movement will not become like the idiotic obstructionist Tea Party movement here. Regardless, with Beppe and Silvio Berlusconi in the election this should certainly be entertaining.