Food in Bergamo, Italy

Even with the high standard of food in France, Italy can still rule the food world. There's a strong tendency to promote local foods and, as in France, the local food and wine always matches. I was eager to try the local offerings and managed to bring home a few goodies. What is nice down there is that it's polenta country. Jojo is allergic to wheat so her pasta and bread days are over. I brought home some local polenta and am working on new recipes that use it.

I was also curious about corn polenta since it obviously wasn't always used. Before corn was introduced from the Americas, they used either chestnut or chickpea flour. In Liguria (along the coast) they still use chickpeas just as they do over in Nice where you can find delicious panisse to fry up. I'm pretty sure the chickpeas were introduced to Europe from the North Africans centuries ago so you can see how the food has had many influences over time.

Also interesting is that they offer so much organic food. The Italians spend a lot of money on organic. Even the non-organic products have an incredibly high level of quality. Wow, the Italians really do food right.

For those with a sweet tooth, this looks pretty good though I didn't manage to sample it this time.


The local specialty of Bergamo by the name of casoncelli. (Seen above in the window.) It's a stuffed pasta that is tossed with butter, sage and pancetta. If there is a tastier pasta dish out there, I haven't tried it. (Not that I'm not interested in exploring.) I asked the waiter for local food and this was one of the items he suggested. I also tried a local braised beef served on polenta which was quite nice as well plus a regional wine.


Polenta e Osei cakes for sale. They're made with cornmeal and wheat flour. Looked nice but I didn't have a chance to try them this time.


Cherry tomato and caper pizza. Simple but delicious.


Cutting a slice of pizza with mushrooms, Parmesan and roquette. Amazingly good.
Read the rest of this post...

Bergamo, Italy

Jojo and I did a quick three day weekend down to Bergamo, Italy last weekend to meet family. Our cousin recently started working down there and with cheap tickets on RyanAir (the pay toilets and "other offerings" airline) it was hard to pass up. RyanAir was better than expected and they haven't yet implemented the pay toilet program, thankfully. Sort of like EasyJet but blue and yellow instead of orange. The town sits in the foothills of the Alps and is relatively close to Milano. The town is very tidy and the people very chic, though that always seems to be the case in that region. Someone told us that Italian men spend seven times the amount of money than the French each year.

I was curious about the politics and heard that it's very religious and very conservative. I also asked about the recent problems related to race could occur in a country that is so well known for its hospitality. The theory is that Italy has traditionally been a place where people leave but in recent years instead of emigration, it's had much more immigration. It doesn't excuse the behavior at all though it possibly answers a few questions. It would be nice to see the government do much more to combat this problem but the current regime is more focused on promoting hard right ideas and attractive women. Is the left there any better? Maybe someone out there who lives in Italy or knows more about the internal politics can tell us more.

More photos below.

The inside of the caffe above. It looks like it probably used to be a barn though that's only a guess. Very pleasant and of course, excellent coffee, as it almost always is in Italy. Cheap compared to Paris as well. French coffee is OK but generally too bitter.


Some amazing columns at the Cappella Colleoni. (I see it also listed as Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore so if anyone knows, please jump in. I know we have a reader who is an expert on touring Italy.) I wish there was a bit better light but the day was gray.


The old fortified town goes up a hill so they have two funiculars to take people up and down. This is at the top, near the castello. I loved the building and this gate.


A little plaza with a restaurant at the top of the town, next to the funiculare. Great views over the valley and the lower part of the upper town.


If we understood the sign correctly, it was an archeological dig. It has to be impossible to plant a shovel in the ground without hitting something historical there. The sign was dated in 2008 so I'm guessing this project might not move. Ever.


I was thrilled to find a little Sunday market while taking a walk. They offered local products so I added some cheese, fresh sausage and a dried sausage to bring back home.


A local band singing American country music. A bit strange but why not?


A very bike friendly town with it's own bike rental service and bike lanes. The surrounding area is very flat but the town itself has plenty of hills so there are five gears compared to the three speeds on the Paris Velib bikes. Lots of riders on the weekend including families.


The view from the castello at the top of Bergamo. The Alps are nearby and there's plenty of snow up there!


There's nothing quite like parking in Italy.


At the airport a pizza machine. I blogged about this a while back when they were first coming out. I didn't try it but it looked OK. Maybe next time.

Read the rest of this post...

Big donor stops giving to RNC over leaked fundraising doc attacking Pelosi, Reid, Obama

More fallout over the secret RNC fundraising document that recommended milking "ego driven" donors by playing on their fear that Obama, Reid and Pelosi were sending America into "socialism." From Ben Smith:

A prominent Evangelical figure and Republican donor says he will end his contributions to the organized Republican Party in reaction to the leaked fundraising presentation that advised using "fear" to solicit contributions and displayed an image of President Obama as the Joker from Batman.

Mark DeMoss, who heads a major Christian public relations firm in Atlanta and served as a liaison to the Evangelical community for Mitt Romney in 2008, wrote Chairman Michael Steele yesterday that he was "ashamed" of the presentation, calling depictions of Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Majority Leader Harry Reid "shameful, immature and uncivil, at best."

"I’m afraid the presentation is representative of a culture and mindset within the Republican National Committee," DeMoss, a past member of the RNC's "Eagle" program for top donors who gave the party $15,000 in 2008, wrote in the letter to Steele, which he shared with POLITICO. "Consequently, I will no longer contribute to any fundraising entity of our Party—but will contribute only to individual candidates I choose to support."

Read the rest of this post...

Ohio State's Jim Tressel does interview with Ohio gay magazine

According to the article, this is the first time a "Division I" head coach has done an interview with a gay publication.

For those who follow college sports, you probably know that Tressel is about as conservative and plain vanilla as they come. Ohio State's head coach Jim Tressel, or "Sweatervest" as we call him, is a Christian conservative, and as far as I know, was a Bush supporter during those years. I'm a biased supporter of my school but even still, I am really impressed. Tressel doesn't make any radical statements in the interview but focuses on treating everyone as family, and family sticks together. Maybe even people in Washington who are terrified of change might take notice and realize that there's a lot more support out there than they think.

We're all part of a big family, so let's start acting like it. Even fans of the team up north talked about it online (I've been known to follow Ohio State sports online). I can forgive them the post titled "I hate Tressel" because the rest of the post and the overwhelming majority of the comments were quite positive.

It's a great day to be a Buckeye thanks to Jim Tressel, and he didn't even have to crush Michigan again on the field. I didn't see how to link to the specific page but here's the link to the magazine and it's on page 32. If a stodgy Ohio football coach can be this open and accepting, what's stopping others? Ignore the haters and move on. Read the rest of this post...

CNN repeats Liz Cheney McCarthyite smears about Obama DOJ

From Glenn Greenwald:

When discussing the McCarthyite DOJ witch hunt spawned by Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol, I wrote yesterday: now that "we have real, live, contemporary McCarthyites in our midst -- Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol -- launching a repulsive smear campaign, we'll see what the reaction is and how they're treated by our political and media elites." On Twitter yesterday, I wrote: "How media figures treat Liz Cheney after her vile McCarthyite smear campaign will say a lot about their character."

Blitzer first teased the segment as this on-screen logo appeared, taken directly from the Cheney/Kristol ad: "HAPPENING NOW: DEPT. OF JIHAD?"

The next time he teased the story, CNN flashed this logo -- "Al Qaeda 7?" -- also taken directly from the Cheney/Kristol ad, as Blitzer explained that numerous Justice Department lawyers have been -- as he put it -- "accused of disloyalty" by a national security organization headed by Liz Cheney. The final Blitzer tease came as these words were flashed on the screen: "Are Justice Dept. lawyers disloyal?"

The story itself began when Blitzer posed this question: "Should there be a loyalty test over at the Justice Department?" He then introduced CNN Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve, who -- echoing Liz Cheney -- introduced her segment by asking about the Obama DOJ: "Should it really be called the Department of Jihad"?

Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The final push is on to pass health care reform. Today, in the weekly address, Obama again explains how the new law will impact families -- this year. It's looking like the President is actually engaged in the fight. He wants a bill by the end of March (but, he also wanted a bill before the August recess last year.) It's not a done deal. That Senate bill has to pass in the House -- and Obama has been meeting with House members all week. Anyway, here's the latest pitch:



So, what else is going on this weekend? It's going to hit the 50s in DC today. I'm going to run outside for the first time in a long time. Read the rest of this post...

More Hindi Zahra - Beautiful Tango

We're just loving her music. Next time she comes through town, we really have to get out and hear her live.

Despite (mostly) sunny weather hovering near or around 50F, the cold weather has blown in for the weekend. My big idea to do a long bike ride seems iffy since a few hours of near freezing temps is about all I can do. The good news is that the garden is coming alive again. Green shoots are popping up on our hydrangeas, the camellia plants have buds that look like they're still a few weeks out from bloom and our end-of-season-deal almond jasmine has buds everywhere. (We always scoop up deals after the bloom and wait for the next year.)

For those who have not yet made it to see the Oscar nominated film Precious, it's really a powerful movie. Not an easy subject at all but incredible acting and writing. Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique were both excellent but the acting was across the board excellent. It's hard not to be impressed with the perseverance of the character Precious. Read the rest of this post...

Right wing school churns out new candidates for UK parliament

Sounds like they would fit in nicely with the new breed of Republicans who are in Congress. With the economic crisis in the UK (that is here to stay for a while) we're bound to see more loonies like this come to the forefront. The Guardian:

Tory parliamentary candidates have undergone training by a rightwing group whose leadership has described the NHS as "the biggest waste of money in the UK", claimed global warming is "a scam" and suggested that the waterboarding of prisoners can be justified.

At least 11 prospective Tory candidates, an estimated seven of whom have a reasonable chance of winning their seats, have been delegates or speakers at training conferences run by the Young Britons' Foundation, which claims to have trained 2,500 Conservative party activists.

The YBF chief executive, Donal Blaney, who runs the courses on media training and policy, has called for environmental protesters who trespass to be "shot down" by the police and that Britain should have a US-style liberal firearms policy. In an article on his own website, entitled Scrap the NHS, not just targets, he wrote: "Would it not now be better to say that the NHS – in its current incarnation – is finished?"

Read the rest of this post...