2020 wasn’t all terrible; despite everything, I ate very, very well! It feels almost wrong to be glad about something this year when so many are suffering. I live in Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries during the pandemic, but am one of the fortunate few who has a secure, work-from-home job, no children to […]
Food Culture
Italian New Year’s Eve Dinner: Millions of Lentils and Lucky Pork
On New Year’s Eve 2019, we ate Italian New Year’s Eve dinner at home and fell asleep before midnight. It was an accident – we’d planned to go ring in the new year in the piazza as usual – and we felt very embarrassed about it. Then we laughed; silly us! We’d be sure to […]
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Food Slut
It’s April 5th and we’re in Hungary: in Budapest, at an Easter Market, staring down wooden kiosks laden with painted Easter Eggs, bottles of elderflower syrup and strawberry wine; giant cast iron skillets heaped with fat red sausages, rainbow-colored root vegetables, and spicy potatoes. One kiosk attendant stirs a black cauldron full of porky, savory […]
USA vs. USA
What happens sometimes – when you’re living in a foreign country, a country where you’re almost one of a kind – is that people want to pair you up with other stray members of your species. There’s another American who lives three towns over, they say. I’ll invite him over. You can chest bump […]
Tales of Thanksgiving in Italy
It’s a holiday that doesn’t exist where I am – talk about it to the 10 people I know in town and I get blank eyes, blank faces. I’m used to that by now – four years of expat life and all – but each November I make it happen anyway. I find my guests. […]
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Hungry. Will Stand on Ridiculously Long Line for Seafood.
Walking around City Centre I suddenly realize that, after the 25-minute bike ride into town, I’m feeling too lazy to cook dinner. Well, am I living on the beach or what? Heck yes, I’m living on the beach. That means fresh seafood at bargain price all over the dang place. So I head to a […]
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Bombe
Since I’ve been in Italy, I’ve had to do a little bit of reconciling – that is, reconciling my childhood memories of the country with my adult impressions. Because I’m me, most of the old memories have to do with food. Me, five years old, sitting on a chair, swinging my legs back and forth […]
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Beach Eats
One of the reasons I decided to break my move to Italy into two parts – rather than staying in Dublin until I’ve published my thesis – is that I wanted to take advantage of beach season. Goodness knows I could use a little sunshine after a year in Ireland. I like to head to […]
Perfect Strangers
“Listen,” says my mother. “I think you need to go over and visit Zia Malvina.” Zia Malvina is my mother’s aunt. In the summers, she lives across the hall from my Nonna Lucia’s old apartment – the place I am now calling “home.” Zia Malvina is 80, and her husband passed away ten years ago. […]