Going wild in the city

Delicious, free and really not far from your house

Finding food in the city is easy these days. With some money in the pocket you can enter any supermarket, fuel station, bar or even a tobacco shop and you can find something which stills your hunger. When you don’t have money it gets a bit harder but leftovers of the well-doers might help you to feed your food-asking-stomach. But aren’t there more adventurous ways to fulfill your needs?

The first phrase of this post might not be true for everyone. Off course for many it isn’t hard to get some food, whether it is in one way or in another. Unfortunately for many it isn’t so easy to have a decent meal each day. Not because they don’t have money. No, it is because the supermarkets or local shops are too far away or because they only offer processed food. If that’s the case, you live in a so called food desert.

Food deserts are getting more common in the urbanizing society. Luckily there’s also a movement which tries to hydrate these areas with fresh produce. They start to grow balcony or rooftop gardens or hook-up with others and open a community garden. A good solution which I fully support, but one which is not very adventurous.

No. More interesting to me are the Indiana Jones’ of the city. Those people who bring a basket and walk around the streets looking for fruit trees, edible weeds and tasty flowers. A hobby which used to be only for the ‘weirdoes’ became fully accepted and even cool in the last years. Was it the economic crisis or are citizens looking for some excitement in their lives?

Last week I also started to consider to do some wild picking. As my weekly fruit and vegetable basket contains stuff like dandelion (or taraxacum) I started to think that I can also pick them myself. And bramble picking in the woods is something I like to do, so why not do it in the city?

So far it is just thinking. I didn’t put it into action, besides the one bramble I took to try whether it was sweet and tasty. Well, exempt for some sour bite, it was really good. So maybe next time I’ll take a basket and go and collect some fruit to make it into delicious juices and jams. But first some weeks of holiday!

See you in a few weeks. 

I Scream, Ice Dream, Ice Cream!

Designing your own ice cream. Not only fun for kids

Every summer, when it’s getting too hot to stay at your desk, this topic needs to be posted. I am talking about ice cream, the wonderful, creamy, tasty, fresh snack for summer. Who doesn’t like it?

When cycling through Milano you sometimes have the feeling that there is a gelateria on every streets' corner. The best sign is people walking around with ice creams. Especially in these hot days you can see from the size of the ice cream how far you need to go to encounter one: the bigger the ice cream, the nearer you are. Sign number one.  

The quality of the ice cream should of course be tried and judged by the one tasting it. But this is a risky business and can have disappointing results. What if you’ve finally decided on the one ice cream shop you have passed by so many times, you are ready to fully enjoy three creamy flavors and then – when you’ve finally decided which three you want to try - comes the disappointment: the ice cream is too watery, flavors are industrial or too much sugar is added. Beh! Then the next time you better go to a place where it is loaded with people, where the line goes far out of the shop and where people come out smiling. Sign number two.

With this knowledge it seems easy to find the best ice cream shop when hungry for something that cools you down. Unfortunately this is not the fact. People have different senses of taste so maybe you like a specific gelateria while your best friend rather goes to another one. Another reason, maybe less subjective, is the influence of publicity. Either because of a brand, a good campaign or spoken words.

In the North of Italy (and abroad) there is this ice cream producer which didn’t need long to become a hype. Now lines are outside their shops all the time, whether it is a stinking 30 degrees or whether it freezes a few. Their secret? Good publicity, spoken word (everyone seems to like it, although recently I received some more moderate reviews) and special flavors every month which gives fans a reason to come back regularly.

The ice cream discussed above is – until now -  only reserved for the Italians and 4 other cities in the world. It is a must to eat it when you have the opportunity. Now I will discuss a brand which is world-wide available but wanted to be more special. Besides the seasonal flavors they now introduced a special Pleasure Shop. Here you can choose one of the world famous ice creams and personalize it. Make something basic into something very special, created by you. A must-do for ice cream lovers.

All good, but I am usually very skeptic about these popular events. So I rather do it the adventurous way and go and look for the more local, family run businesses spread all over the world. And since experience enriches you I am sure that, one day, I will be able to see the good from the bad ones from far away.

So I would say, enjoy an adventurous ice cream this summer! 

I have a dream

One of my dreams is, that this plant grows delicious tomatoes soon

‘I have a dream’. The famous words first spoken by Martin Luther King and then repeated by many. The sentence is going through my head now too. Want to know what I dream about?

It is almost a year now that I dedicate almost all my time to my interest for the relation between food, people and the cities. An interesting year in which I lived in another country, got a lot of new impressions and learned to know many inspiring people. But no matter how interesting it is, a year goes very fast. Only when you realize it has gone you start to think ‘what have I done and where did it get me to?’

Well, I think I can say that I’ve done a lot. As a newy in a country I didn’t know anyone, I tried to find my way and collected the contacts of many people. Not to fill-up my business cards box, but to be able to get to know and collaborate with people, organizations and companies which could really help me to contribute to my personal development. A development in the direction of a specialist on the themes food, people and the cities.

The good and interesting thing of knowing many people is that you can get impulses and receive new ideas regularly. At the same time this might become a backdrop. Creating new ideas isn’t that difficult. But developing them in concrete projects is. So at some point you need to make decisions and concentrate on the ones you think are most feasible or are most close to what you really want to do. It makes you start to think about your dreams and about the possibilities to realize them. Because you won’t get there just dreaming.

So very recently I started to wake-up and take action. As you might have seen, this blog is in transition to become more readable and has more information on the author. It is a first step and others are about to be taken. But it all is still on the relatively invisible. You will find out more about it while keep reading this blog and following me on facebook.

See you soon.