Slow Food

After a riveting few days of culture, heritage, and exploration throughout the labyrinth that is called Venice, we are now moving on to the Cinque Terre which is a national park located on the western part of the country touching the Mediterranean Sea!  As we have previously discussed, Italy is known for its outstanding sense of culture and what we would call ‘brotherhood’.  What I mean by this is that everyone has a positive sense for their neighbors’ well-being.  People by local food, they care for their friends and family, and usually give back a majority of what they have or produce to the country itself; especially when it comes to food.  On the bus ride Zack and I discussed an article that presented the notion of “Slow Food”.  As it sounds, it is a movement in direct opposition to fast food and not only the speed of food, but it glorifies the concept of local food, fresh food, and prepared in a way to maximize taste and quality and opposes the very ideas of not knowing what you are eating and where it has come from (McDonalds is a perfect example).

As it turned out, we were on our way to a small sheep farm up in the hills south of Venice.  Although I didn’t catch the names of man and woman who hosted us for dinner, they prepared one of the best meals I have eaten on this trip!  First they brought out a spinach (among other things) filled pastry type of dish that was absolutely amazing.  Then came the wine.  Next was a traditional dish from the area, a hazelnut pancake of sorts, made from the locally picked nuts.  To go with this, fresh cheese made from the milk of her goats was served and it did not disappoint.  After this, for the main course, was a goat and wild boar red sauce pasta that (in my book) took the cake for most delicious part of the meal.  As we ate, I couldn’t help but think back to some of the points Zack and I read about in our article and how fresh and local this meal was!  Literally everything used to prepare this magnificent meal was gathered from this woman’s farm.  Finally we had a plum short bread pastry for desert. 

I truly think that this slow food movement that originated in Italy should be considered in all parts of the world.  I personally oppose fast food because of the methods used and the message it conveys to society, which is, that you should sacrifice knowledge about what food you are eating and where it actually comes from for a cheap and easy meal.  This idea was directly opposed by the man and woman farmer and showed us that locally grown food prepared fresh, may take a little longer and require more work but will undoubtedly end up tasting far better than foods coming from anywhere providing it cheapest.

I love food – Sam Perry