L'Veleno del Presidente

We just got back from dinner at Arcus Tuder, Florence's archery club.  Since it was winter we were at a tremendously long table occupying nearly all of their indoor practice tent, at least 80 of us in all.  I won't bore you with the food descriptions because you have heard it all before, other than to tell you that the venison was the most delicious and tender I can remember.  And that the five courses and wine came to 10 Euros a head.

About two thirds of the way through the proceedings I was informed that the judging had started on the mysterious bottles that had been sitting on a side table.  Home made pomegranate wine!  Or perhaps liquor is a more accurate term...this was pretty strong stuff, and delicious.  Much to my surprise it was also not a last-minute endeavor: the winning elixir had been aging three years.

The archery group president had also prepared his own gifts to the archers.  Cute little hand packaged bottles of "The President's Venom".  I think I heard that it is homemade sherry.  This is Florence's bottle just above the golden eagle for the back of her cape:

How do you give an alcoholic beverage to a minor at an official event?  You say, "Drink it slowly" as you hand it to her!

The bottle is doubly cute in that the label has been written in the local dialect, which is almost never actually written.  Don't be a bit surprised if your rusty Italian fails you on this label.  Even my kids are having trouble with it.

Let's Talk Turkey

This year, we decided to celebrate with a "real" Thanksgiving meal. Thank goodness Sharon is here, since she has always made our Thanksgiving dinners and is an expert!

Before she arrived, though, we had a turkey conundrum: you see, the ovens here can almost fit a chicken. A turkey MIGHT go in if chopped into bits, but otherwise, no dice.

I was talking to Michael about having two chickens. I had a VERY unhappy Michael. And then, one day, he had the brainwave: outsourcing. We were at Il Capestio picking up their amazing rolls and saw a roasted chicken that they had available for sale. Hmmm. Upon being asked about turkeys, they figured they could do us a turkey.

Of course, we had the all-important question: were we supplying the turkey or were they? Pretty easy, actually...if THEY would take that on, so much the better. They know several local suppliers, so they were happy to oblige. In fact, if I wanted to, I could SEE the turkey before purchasing. A quick phone call to Luciano down in PonteRio. Yes, he had a 7 kg turkey, no problem.

We weren't sure how big a turkey we really needed, but they assured us that anything up to about 22 kg (yes, that is 50 POUNDS) was possible. The extra-large sounded a little ridiculous to us, but as we were talking about this, it dawned on me: these turkeys were on the hoof!

Too funny. I burst into laughter as I explained that American turkeys come shrink-wrapped with their innards in little paper bags. They found it just as funny as I did.

Jim and I went to see our reserved turkey one afternoon at dusk.  After a little trouble finding Luciano, we emerged from the car to find a bewildered farmer looking at us. I explained that we were there to inspect the turkey. Ah, yes, the turkey. Well, about that...he thought that rather than a 7 kg turkey, it was more like a 5 kg turkey. You have to figure on a KILO of feathers, then the innards. This means that the remaining turkey does not offer much meat. However, he offered to let us see the turkey, and we traipsed off to the turkey hutch. During the day, they frolic in the fields, but the little guys had already gone to bed.

We peered into a dark pen, as he was pointing to an indeterminate blob. Since we obviously couldn't see it, he pulled out the turkey by the feet. It was remarkably tranquil under this treatment. Having massaged its chest, it was abundantly clear that this turkey was waaaay too small, even if it would continue to grow in the intervening week and a half.

Text to Lolita at Il Capestio: "We have a turkey emergency!!!"

Not having heard back, we stopped by there the next time we were in the area. No problem: the replacement turkey has been found. This time, it's 12 kilos. Lolita even posted "before" and "after" photos on her Facebook page:

The deal was that we would bring the stuffing for them to put into the turkey (that way we could enjoy Sharon's amazing secret recipe) at noon today. We made our way down carrying the LARGE pot that I use only occasionally, and found a huge crowd.

After waiting a little while, I heard "psst!" and saw Ferdinando gesturing my direction. You have to understand that the mother-daughter-son trio is enjoying this whole episode as much as we are, so we have been laughing about the whole turkey thing. Particularly after I asked for a picture of our turkey before its final dispatch.

The deal was that we had to go outside, then around the side of the building to the kitchen entrance. There we found Francesca (mom) with a cleaver and our turkey!!! She consulted with us as to which parts we wanted for the gravy (feet? head?) and whacked off the requested bits. Stuffing the turkey expertly, having previously rubbed the interior with salt and who knows what herbs, we had a delightful chat about methods of cooking and so on.

The embroidery began.

Francesca and turkey

Once sewn up, the turkey was paraded through the main dining area of the bar/rosticceria for everyone to admire and giggle about (I get the impression that this may be the first turkey they have done for a client, given how much fun they're having), and then we checked to make sure it fitted into the oven. Success!

So, we are expecting an amazing roast turkey tomorrow, which will probably come zooming up in the passenger seat of Lolita's Smartcar. I still don't know how much this bird will cost, but I'm not worried.

Love,

Alexandra

Bolts and Bottles

Jim and Sharon and I took an excursion yesterday to Montefalco to visit the Tessitura Pardi, a local(ish) textile mill. I had visited a few years ago and had really wanted to return ever since!

Augusta Pardi greeted us at the door; an elegant lady in her (I surmise) 70s, she was fascinated by our family and the story of our coming to Todi. She then told us that she had lived in Toronto for two years several years ago, had taught English in a liceo scientifico in Rome, and had now been working at the mill for many years.

The showroom

The textiles are just so beautiful, you can't imagine. They have linen and cotton blends, pure linen, and pure cotton. Although they have standard pieces they make for their storefronts (one of which is in the Piazza here in Todi), they make a lot of custom pieces, including tablecloths with borders and hemstitching, bed covers, and so on. They also sell the fabric by the meter, on bolts or as precut lengths.

Pattern cards run above

The showroom has all the current designs, but there's the possibility of ordering patterns they offered years ago (assuming they can dig out the old pattern cards).

After swooning over the fabrics for a while, Augusta took us into the mill itself. It was a truly remarkable experience to see the patterns we had just fondled as finished pieces developing before our eyes. The way it works is first they have to set up the warp strings. From my experience with a (very basic) rigid heddle loom, that is seriously difficult and time consuming; if the tension isn't perfect on one little length of string, then there's hell to pay. She told me that their setups take between 800 and thousands of strings. Oh.my.gosh.

Once they have them sort of strung, they put them on the reels. These are massive metal spools with an inner core a foot in diameter, and about three or six feet long, depending. Not something to be moved with the flick of a finger.

I loved the "dust sheets" made of the finest weave!

And the looms! Wow. They are operated with the sort of shuttle-and-bobbin action that you'd expect if you've ever woven at all, even on the limited scale of a cardboard and acrylic yarn setup. However, these looms are jacquard looms that are controlled by punch cards. These cards tell the loom which threads to operate at any given time to create the pattern. Remarkable.

Sharon and Augusta looking at some of the pattern cards

They can make fabric over 3 meters wide!

Winding the bobbins

Finished bobbins

A runner in process

New bobbins-in-waiting

Shuttle and bobbin

The last time I went, the "senior technician" was ill, so the mills weren't running. It turns out, the reason is that the "senior technician" could equally be called the "only technician." He has to change out the bobbin thread manually every time a bobbin is changed. That is, the bobbin loads into the shuttle automatically, but he has to bring the end of the thread back to the selvage edge of the fabric, then bring the shuttle to the correct side, join the threads, and get it going again. This is done every 8 inches or so for a tablecloth. He has to babysit every single loom that is operating.

Gianluca

They also press oil

At the end of our visit, Augusta reminded me of the family winery as well. Since I had had every intention of going back to Montefalco proper (the mill is actually just outside Bastardo, 15 minutes away), a trip to the winery sounded like a good plan.

Oak aging barrels

Squishing machine...no more peasants!

We were met by Gianluca Pardi, Augusta's nephew. I'm getting older, because he looked like the most adorable young man...and he's 32! In any case, he showed us the bottling area, the fermentation barrels, and the steel tanks for further (or initial?) fermentation, along with a squishing machine that does not involve peasants' standing up to their hips in grapes and trampling them with bare feet. We were unanimous that a wine tasting sounded like an excellent plan.

Steel fermentation tanks

The bottling area

The vineyard, directly behind the factory

They have other vineyards throughout the area, as well

The Pardi winery produces passito, a particular kind of after-dinner drink similar to a port, I suppose. It's a sweetish red wine. I happen to be rather fond of passito, particularly that from another Montefalco vineyard. The Pardi passito was rather delicious, so we quickly decided that a side-by-side taste test with the Ruggeri passito would be required.

City Hall

Having loaded the car with the wine, it was time for a bite to eat. We went to the Alchemist in Montefalco centro, which I have to say is one of the most inspired restaurants in which I have ever had the privilege of dining. It is truly outstanding. To the point that I nearly licked the bowl after I'd finished my soup. I'm still talking about my soup a day and a half later. I ordered a second bowl. an I tell you about my soup? Better yet, go to Montefalco and tell the folks at the Alchemist that I sent you!

This car is only a little smaller than mine!

The views continued to be superb; this time, we had mountains with snow as the backdrop to our flaming vineyards!

Love,

Alexandra

Thai in Todi!

I am so very happy to have witnessed an idea of mine come to fruition in an extremely positive way! Last night's dinner was "Thai in Todi": Kung (a Thai woman who lives here) partnered with Nadia (a friend who owns the Ristorante Jacopone) to create a marvelous evening!

It started off with the place settings and the menu...Simone (Nadia's son) even used a font to evoke Thailand!

Jeremy and I sneaked into the kitchen to make sure everything was going well.

Shrimp croquettes

A wee bit of the rice

Kung and Laura hard at work!

Some of the more than 150 spring rolls

Kung still feeling relaxed

They even found Thai beer!

And then the food came out. Some of the pictures aren't beautiful because I started eating or otherwise spoiled the look. When the food looks (and smells!) that good, it's hard to remember to take photos!

We actually started with two of each. Yum!

Juggling plates with steaming soup! Fabrizio the great!

Coconut chicken soup. It was the best I've ever had.

James enjoying the decorations

Rice with shrimp. 

Kung peeking out from the kitchen

Bis! An Italian "thing" is to bring around seconds of the various courses.
That way, you get as much of the things you like as you want to eat,
and it minimizes their leftovers.
I think Jeremy had 4 or 5 servings of spring rolls and soup.

Florence came after swimming, so she had a bit of catching up to do.
Fabrizio was affronted because I gave her soup (she was cold!)
before she'd had the antipasto (the spring rolls).

Jim and Sharon looking cute!

Ashley being silly

The calamari was SO tender. Very strong flavors, and very nice.
I couldn't finish mine (I wasn't the only one at our table in that boat)
so we got a container. It's a Rubbermaid-type, very chichi, that
I will have to take back when we have finished with it!

Kung feeling proud while we clapped!

Dessert! Cake from Pianegiani

Nadia and Kung

Nadia and Kung cutting the cake.

A little private wave from Kung!

And fruit for dessert, since clearly we're still hungry...

We can't wait for the next time!!!

Love,

Alexandra