Some history to explain the future

A few weeks ago I was so fortunate that a Dutch acquaintance informed me about her upcoming visit to Milan. She did not come to see the Duomo and do some shopping, but actually to discover how the city feeds itself. So as soon as I heard this, I decided take of an afternoon of work and take her on a trip that started at the majors office and ended in the field. Let`s give you a recap.

As followers of my blog should know, in 2015 Milan will host the world exhibition that has the theme ‘Feeding the Planet. Energy for Life’. This mega-event already has many spin-offs that have used the theme as a file rouge for their activities. One of them is the community of Milan itself, one of the bigger promoters and financial supporters of Expo Milano 2015. One of their latest actions is the initiative of the Milan Food Policy, presented in February 2014.

Many cities in the world have food policies, the most known ones are those of Toronto and London. A food policy is a guideline that different departments within a community have to respect when making their policy. It usually is meant to make cities more self-sufficient when it regards the food theme, produce more sustainable food that is accessible to all and make sure that the citizens eat healthier.

For the Food Policy suggested by Milan the main themes are accessibility, nutrition and closeness. Forty cities from all over the world have agreed to sign the pact that is to be presented in October 2015. At this moment, a group of researchers started an investigation to individuate ten topics that will be elaborated at so called ‘tables’, which are formed by a team leader and experts.  Together they will write the pact, which after the signing becomes an implementation phase. From politics to practice thus.

Talking about practise, we talk about the farmers that produce our food and influence the accessibility, the nutrition qualities and the closeness of our food. And in many ways they also do politics. Like the farmer Falappi, his wife and five other started in the eighties of the last century an action to form the Parco Agricolo Sud of Milan, an area dominated by agricultural activities that until 25 years ago was treated to be eaten by the city and the so necessary expansions.

Thanks to the formation of the Parco Agricolo SUD (PAS) – a collaboration between 46 municipalities around Milan, seated by the Region of Lombardia - the area is now recognized as very valuable for the city, not only to produce food, but even more for its landscape and possibilities for leisure activities. No more building activities are allowed, the farms (cascine) need to maintain their characteristic roof tiles and …..

And while for such a long time the farmers of the area mostly fought with the municipality, this same government did recently go another step further and decided to help the precious farmers to find a new market for their products. They negogiate with a big Italian supermarket (Esselunga) and made it possible for the farmers to sell their produce here, with the a local brand saying ‘product from PAS’.

So where the farmers in the Milanese fields can concentrate themselves finally on producing quality products, the government uses their local, national and international influence to help the farmers, their citizens and others in the world to make it possible to enjoy these products. 

Four senses

A few weeks ago, one of my colleague send me an invitation for a so called blindtasting. I had no idea what it could be like, so I decided to sign-up and undergo this new experience.

As soon as we all sat down, with known and unknown friends around us, the organizer of the evening asked us to blind ourselves with the piece of textile, which was left on our chairs. Soon nervous voices started to joke about the fact that maybe soon we would be robbed of all our belongings. But these kind of jokes stopped soon as the owner of Cascina Albana, the vinery that brought in their products, explained us the idea of the evening: by blocking out one of the five senses, we were forced to concentrate better on that what we were soon going to taste.

Although the atmosphere was warm and secure, in the beginning it was difficult to relax. As a person without serious visual handicaps, you are so used that you can use all your senses to keep control of the situations you are in, that it becomes strange when this is not the case. It turned out that it is quite difficult to find your glass, let go of eat, with no possibility to use your eyes.

When all the glasses were filled and plates served, we were allowed to taste the first glass of wine, a very delicate and not at all sweet spumante enjoyed with some cold cuts, a piece of cheese and a delicious focaccia. By the time we finished this first ‘course’ we already felt more relaxed and were allowed to unblind ourselves and got to know more about the flavours we just enjoyed.

The first tasting was followed by a white and a light red wine, both accompanied by simple but good dishes. By the time we were at our third glass we were already feeling the consequences and were happy to have a short break.

The fourth wine we had was a strong red wine made from Barolo grapes. Here again they served us some delicious food: a tartar with apples and lemon. Meanwhile the young representatives of the cascina kept us ‘feeding’ enthusiastically with poetry which is written on the bottles etiquettes and interesting stories of the winemaking process. It made me really happy to see these young people having such refreshing ideas about a traditional profession that asks much patience and dedication in order to survive. The team of Cascina Albana certainly has this and therefore seem to be able to keep this century old business alive.

After the sixth glass - a delicate grappa from the nebbiolo grape - most of us were getting slowly drunk. Even though it was meant to be a tasting, we were all delightfully enjoying everything they poured in our glasses and thus not only tasted, but also drank.

Did I miss my fifth sense? I don’t think so. But at the same time I don’t you whether ‘blocking’ it really helped me to concentrate better. Maybe it even distracted a bit, because the ‘new’ situation asked a lot of concentration of other things. But anyways it was fun and I met some nice new people. And that’s also very important when enjoying good food and wines.

Eating habits

Sauce for pasta carbonara: cheap and easy. But don't you make this just with fresh eggs, some grated cheese and pancetta?

For me it is more than normal to be very aware of what I eat, where I buy it and how my body reacts to this. However, for many this is different. Most people just enter the supermarket and get there everything they are used to buy for years, without thinking one moment about what they buy. I think it is a pity. Therefore in this blog I am going to explain you  my considerations hoping that some of the readers (maybe even you) understand the importance of this and thus change their habits.

The reason that I pay attention to where I buy food and what I eat has nothing to do with allergies or another type of diet. Thinking back I think it started at the same time as my interest for the relation between food, people and cities, around the second half of 2008. I started to read about the current agriculture and food industries and understood almost immediately that something was wrong.

The first thing I changed was starting to eat less meat and changing from ‘conventional’ to organic meat. Immediately I tasted the difference between the meat I used to eat and the one I switched to, even though I know that organic does not always stand for ‘better’.

The fact that I noted a difference between that what I used to eat and that what I started to eat, also meant that in general I became more aware of flavours, like for example excessive salt in ready-to-eat meals or sauces, smells and the influence of conservatives and artificial ingredients on food products. It might seem only details but these can really change the way you eat.

This modification of ‘eating habits’ is very  positive as long as I stay within my household, where me and my husband decide what to eat. But as soon as we are someone’s guest it might become difficult to accept the choices someone else made: thinking that what he or she prepared is exotic and good, while we think it wants to be exotic but is mainly cheap. And as you can see in this doc (and many more) on mozzarella by the Keuringsdienst van Waarde, you might understand what I mean.

However, here rises also the question whether to start the discussion with my host and maybe did its utmost to make me a good meal. Because my suggestions to be more aware of the ingredients you buy and the quality they have, might be perceived as criticism by them. While my intention is only to introduce the people in a world where food is really something delicious, not just good.

Unfortunately most people’s first reaction is that the food I eat is very expensive and not available in a normal shop. But it really does not take much to enjoy – what I call – better food. It might already help you to buy in-season food that has not travelled more than, say, 100 kilometers between the farmland and your kitchen. And if you buy a bit less of a bit better, I am sure your satisfied faster. 

I hope that after reading this post, you are going to try to be more conscious while doing your shopping. I don’t expect you to change overnight, but at least to start treating yourself with some simple quality food during tomorrow’s dinner. Maybe slowly you get convinced and see the advantage of this way of life. Like I once did.

Dreaming on.....

Working together on making something beautiful of a former unused or under-used area.

Let’s talk about the dream which for more than a year every now and then returns to me.  A dream that I decided to start to realize, but did not get many attention lately, because for different reasons. However, with the upcoming Experiment Days this might change within a minute.

In case you have forgotten (or never understood) what my dream is about, I will give a short explanation. It is since a while that I believe in the use of green as an tool to improve urban situations, whether this is  on the social, sustainable or many more subjects. In practising this ‘believe’ I started a collaboration amongst others with Orti d’Azienda, and with ZUP The recipe for change. The later one not so much focuses on this field, but however it has related projects in its portfolio. Also I used my facebook page to inspire my followers with already realized ideas from all over the world.

One of the results of my commitment was a small but fun commission for LifeEcocourts, an association, formed by different Italian municipalities and other organisations, that promotes sustainable living. In two Saturday mornings we designed and realized a garden shared by all the people living in a sustainable apartment building in the west of Milan. An interesting experience which gave me a lot of satisfaction, especially when some months later they send me some picturesof the first harvest. 

This experience has been enjoyed so much by both the organizers and the participants, that we decided to elaborate this in a so called service: in case you consider to start an ‘orto condominiale’ or, in English, a communal garden, in this case shared between you and your neighbours, Orti d’Azienda and Food in the Streets help you to realize your ‘dream’, from the moment you start to wake-up and talk about it until the harvest of your first red tomatoes. And after, in case needed.

So in any case, I invite you to pass by Via Ampère 61 on the 11^th of the 12^th of October 2014. More info and registration here! 

Ps. Also ZUP The Recipe for Change will be present during the Experiment Days. On Sunday at h12.30 both Food in the Streets, Orti d'Azienda and ZUP will give a workshop (splitted in two parts) that will give you an idea of what service we can offer you. 

French food kiss

The abundance of fresh food in France

After two years of spending holidays in my homelands, I finally crossed the border and got soaked up by the French way of life. As Food in the Streets I could off course not do else than discover the local food habits, look for the best bakeries, have good lunches and check-out the restaurants suggested by tripadvisor reviewers. This post is an ode to the two relaxed weeks and the French cuisine.

To get to Nice, the first destination of our trip, we took a train which brought us to the border between Italy and France. As it was Ferragosto ànd lunchtime, we (my husband and I) decided to have a break and enjoy the last bit of Italian food. But we were not the only ones with this idea. Ventimiglia was full of people – half of them Italian, half of them French – that were looking for some place to eat. We stopped in the restaurant called Pasta e Pizza and enjoyed a light Italian lunch. Apparently the place was appreciated  also by ‘the neighbours’, as the French were numerous. Not strange if you consider that the prices on the Italian side are more convenient than the ones on the more beautiful but expensive Côte d’Azur.

Before heading to a campsite, we spent two nights in a room rented via AirBnB. Being hosted meant that we were ‘convicted’ to eat out of the house. And for those who are not used to the French kitchen, it was quiet a task to find a place that offers local food: it seemed the city was invaded by pizzeria. After strolling around for an hour or so, we finally hit what seemed the right spot in a small street in the old town. It turned out we were right as after two hours we left our table very satisfied having eaten a good plate of fish accompanied by tasty boiled potatoes, haricots verts and a whole lot of garlic. I did not know this was so popular in this country….

The days passed fast and before we knew we were on a camping in the cosy village of Eygalières. After a good experience with the bread and croissant delivered to us by the owner of the campsite we put our tent on, the second day we decided to take the bike and head for the village ourselves. Wauw! Visiting this bakery is the best thing you can do to start your day in a good way. The assortment was exactly like we were used to find in the French Bakery Michel which we visited regularly in The Hague: pains de campagne, baguette, pain au levain, croissants, millefoglie……. Would it be possible to taste it all? (The answer is no. After a few days of delicious but heavy croissants, I even decided to skip a day. But it was all sooooo good!)

Having a butcher in the village which seems to have a complete assortment, we decided to head there one afternoon and left the shop with 45 euros worth of meat. You can imagine that even though we were in four, we didn’t finish it all during that one evening. But all in all, the most important thing was that the quality of the meat was very good (that’s maybe where the cost counted for) and the that we had another good French food experience to remember.

The holidays got to an end sooner than we wanted, making long walks in the hills of the Parc des Alpilles, buying local products of the farmers of the Provence (Gorges du Verdon area), enjoying the lac St. Croix, ate delicious fresh goat cheeses, enjoyed the night sky’s full of stars, had figs freshly picked from the trees and so on. Just before heading back to Milan, we decided to treat ourselves one more time on a real French lunch and not in the least place: Antibes, the neighbouring town of the famous village of Cannes. Almost contrary to expectation we had a very good lunch (I fell in love with the French fries, which they don’t make that well in Italy) for a decent price in a top location.

All in all I love to think back of many positive food French experiences. To many this might be obvious (it is generally accepted that the ‘French cuisine’ is perfect) but I needed this trip to be convinced. Together with the nice landscapes, sunny days and good people France might enter in an not-yet-existing-list of countries I might want to live in.

Bread unites. Bread divides.

Egyptian breadseller that is one of the symbols of the wars that started after rising bread prices

You are on holiday and what do you miss most, food-wise then? For many people from northern Europe the answer might be bread, which for us needs to be made of a dense dough and preferably consists of whole wheat. As bread is one of the food products that is available everywhere it is actually strange that we miss it. But bread is so popular that it even has caused wars! Let’s go into this and unravel what else a bread can do.

The greeks and romans, whose society was built on the cultivation of cereals, used to makes soups out of them. Only later they learned to make bread, as they first had to understand what cereal was the best to make a dough with: spelt wheat was grinded with the force of a donkey while a big installation allowed the dough to rise before it was cooked in probably a wood oven.

Then the bread making process was spread over the world, each continent, country or even villages with its own particularities, amongst others by the type of grains or cereals available. For many centuries these bread where made in public ovens, that did not only increase social relations but also gave power to the owners. Lately there is a new interest for these ovens, as more and more people like to make their own bread.

Since agricultural products became commodity goods and play an important role on the market, you can imagine that also grains and cereals - the most important ingredients for a bread - suffer from the people that are ’gambling’ with these products. And that is how the wars started: more people get hungry, become grungy and get out of control as the situation they lived in was already impossible. So a simple ‘ingredient’ that usually unites people around the dish (think of the religious uses of bread), now becomes the reason for fights between people.

But when bread is appreciated so much in many places in the world, why do we miss so much the bread we know from our own home country? Does it have to do with culture, or is it more a habit which we refuse to change?

In New York, a smart entrepreneur had the great idea to open the Hot Bread Kitchen, a kind of co-working space for bakers. Female bakers, in this case, coming from places all over the world that until recently did not have the possibility to make money out of that what they are good at, namely making baked products. And so this place becomes a peaceful workspace and shop that offers bread coming from places you did not even know they existed.  

It might be clear that if the ‘bread balance’ moves into the wrong direction a can go wrong. So maybe it is better to respect the tastes of the country you spent your holidays in and support the local economy by buying and trying their locals delicacies. You just have to accept that it is different from that what you are used to. But is that not the reason you go on holidays?

Easy for me, as France is my holiday destination. See you in a few weeks!

A wet pizza

A delicious pizza margarita (check a recipe on  this blog by Shadrach)

To make a pizza you need 1216 liters of water! An incredible amount which almost makes me ashamed to order one. But have you ever wondered why does it takes so much water to make a pizza margarita? Go with me on a trip through Italy (after all its almost time to go on holiday)and discover the whole story.

This post is inspired by a research executed by some Dutch universities, published in 2009. They considered a pizza margarita contains bread dough, tomato sauce and mozzarella as ingredient, thus forgetting about the olive oil and the basil that ‘formally’ are also included but in such a low quantity that forgetting about is, is not such a shame. 

Let’s start with the base of the pizza and thus the dough. Pasta is usually made from durum wheat, while  pizza is usually made out of a softer wheat to which water and some salt is added to allow to make a soft pasta. In Italy this is mostly grown in Emilia Romagna, a region in the centre-north of the country which has a wet winter dry summers. For the specific type of cereal this can be called an ‘ideal’ climate. Of the harvested product, 72 percent can be used for the pizza dough.

To top-off the dough, a tomato sauce (industrial) or fresh tomatoes are added. Until a few years ago most tomatoes where grown in the southern part of the country, but recently there has been a shift towards the north, where there are more facilities to process them and where the soil is not (yet) exhausted. Thanks to the climate here, the waterfootprint is much lower than that for the fresh tomatoes that still grow in the south. However, the fact that nitrogen is used to ‘feed’ the plants means that an invisible side effect adds-up to the water foodprint in the form of polluted water.

Going north even further and we bump into the mozzarella factories. The cheese originally is made by buffaloes, but to lower the prices and to respond to the high demand, most mozzarella is now made out of cows milk and officially is called ‘fior di latte’. Before reading the article I referred to before, I did not know that this is kneaded as if it becomes a dough in order to mix the curt with heated whey and obtain the shiny white balls we all call mozzarella.

Even though for the mozzarella we do not start to calculate from the seed an further, for the calculation of the water foodprint of a pizza margarita it is considered that a cow lives around 7 years during which it consumes 1308 liters of water per kilo of ‘body weigth’. On top-of that it is needed to calculate the water consumed by the cow and the water needed to clean the facilities she lives in. This and the fact that only 10 percent of the milk becomes mozzarella calculates for a waterfootprint of 717 liters per kilo mozzarella. Thirsty?

I always try to save as much energy as possible, so reducing the amount of water I use is one of it. But now I know how much water it takes to eat some of the foods I eat regularly, I am not so sure that my actions contribute more than a drop in the ocean. I won’t say that I now can forget about this. Rather in the contrary. Maybe I should focus even more on the foods and their water request to make sure I make a serious contribution to water savings?

Food Tour(ism)

One of the stones in the facades of Amsterdam explaining the original function of the building

When I am telling my (new) Italian friends that I come from the Netherlands I always get the same  reaction: “How nice. It’s such a beautiful country”. Further questioning from my side always results in disappointing answers: most of them have not even visited the low lands and when they have they usually did not come any further that a weekend in Amsterdam. 

After last Sundays’ experience, where I will tell you about in a minute, I can totally agree with the beauty of this city, but I will definitely encourage them to take the opportunity to see it from another point of view and book an Old City Food Tour.

Every person has its own preferences when it concerns discovering unknown cities. The easiest way is to pack a Lonely Planet or any other printed tour guide and pick out the highlights indicated by a journalist. However, these kind of guides are suited ‘for everyone’ and might turn out not to be your kind of thing. It would be a pity if that makes your precious and maybe expensive weekend something you rather forget than remember.

Especially in the more wanted cities like Rome, Paris or Amsterdam it is quite difficult to avoid tourist traps as restaurants that offer real-food-from-that-country, which tastes horrible and is way overpriced. Luckily, there is now a bottom-up solution for this called Spotted by Locals: an online platform on which local experts get you the most up-to-date info on activities and hotspots in their city.

And these Spotted by Locals almost gets me to the topic of this blog. The beauty of Amsterdam would not exist without its history starting with the reason that exactly here a city was founded in the 13^th century: a dam in the Amstel river grow into a centre of commerce thanks to its vicinity to waterways that connected the city with the rest of the world. One of the first commercial successes of the ‘Hollanders’ was the monopoly in the import and trade of cereals. With the money made with this business, the famous VOC or United East-India Company could be founded and the so-called golden ages and there with an important capitol of the Dutch food traditions took off.

As you might have understood, food has been very important for the development of Amsterdam (and other Dutch cities). Unfortunately, during the years this has lost in importance as you can see in our ‘traditional’ dishes which generally have a history of not even 100 years old.

Also the visible part of our history is hardly considered. As a Dutch, I can confirm that I do know not much about the history of our country and the why, what and how of the Dutch cities. Like most I appreciate the beauty of the medieval city centres but at the same time I do take it for granted. Until last week thus.

Thanks to the Old Amsterdam Food Tour, organized by Amsterdam based Farming the City, I got to see Amsterdam from another point of view. It really opened my eyes and made me appreciate even more the beauty of its streets, canals and buildings. I learned that small details, which are usually overlooked, could tell you a lot about what happened long ago but what is still important today. No reason to only look forward thus: a look at the past might help you to think about the future.

Also curious about the history of your city? Then checkout the website of Farmingthe City (Amsterdam) or Food inthe Streets (Milan) and book your Old City Food Tour.

Showtime

Show cooking as a real attractive art (picture from Fooding Social Club)

Since I live in Italy I’ve seen a lot of of show cooking events. To me it remains strange to see people that make cooking an event to animate the visitors. Usually it does not even animate me at all, as usually it is too far away too see something, the stories are boring (no one like to hear, cut this…, stir that….) and the result is disappointing. A blog about the sense and non sense of using food to entertain.

Show cooking is a form of entertainment that is typically of our days. In earlier periods, one could hardly afford to use food for these kind of events: most people would already feel lucky if they had enough to feed themselves.

For centuries, preparing food has been an act done by the whole family. The men collected the food, the woman prepared it and then it was eaten by the whole family. The preparation took hours or even days and it was not something that was perceived as a spectacle. Rather it was hard work and if you were not helping in the kitchen there were definitely lots of other things to do to keep the household running.

We now slowly seem to lose respect for this ‘profession’: ready-to-eat-breakfasts, quick lunches and cheap dinners at the sushi bar are now the order of the day. And that also enabled this to make a show out of it: open-plan kitchens in many restaurants and the earlier named show cooking.  

Even though show cooking seems something of these days, we should not forget about the examples of the past, of the rich that could afford to ‘play’ with food. This class has always used food to show off their guests as described in John Dicke’s Delizia. And we all know the still lifes, for example the ones by Caravaggio, in which food became the main subject of an artwork. If it interests you, I suggest you go and visit the Art&Foodexhibition that will be organized by Expo 2015 and Triennale Design Museum, Milan.

To get an idea of what we now do with food (besides eating it) you should do a google search on ‘food art’. I was amazed of the artworks that are created of products that are actually made to eat. Anyhow, back to the shows. I’ve (accidentally) visited a few of them, but hardly once I’ve been convinced about the intention. Usually it is not more than a (famous) cook that prepares a simple but tasty dish while explaining what he is doing. The only difference I see with watching a cooking program on the television is that you are now treated with the nice flavors that come with the cooking process. It is quiet boring anyhow.

As I said, once I was taken by the performance. During an aperitivo at the Festival delle Comunità del Cambiamento, FoodDj Nick Difino from Fooding Social Club did a good job. While preparing the dish he treated us with good music and interesting stories, not about the recipe, but about the ingredients, the history of the dish, and so on.  It was a real pleasure, not only for the mouths, but also for the ears and eyes. 

Think before your sushi

Fresh fish is delicous, but make sure it comes from a sustainable source

Last Friday my colleagues proposed to go and have sushi for lunch: here in Italy the religious tradition of fish-on-Friday is still alive. It’s just that I was not very enthusiastic about it. I like fish and love sushi, but something withheld me. Time to reflect on the reason of this.

Close to my work there are not so many food places, so we have to do it with the available choices. Usually I have at least one pizza a week, I like to visit a restaurant with an Italian style menu or I bring my own food which I eat in a place we call a park, but which actually is a piece of grass with some trees and benches. And as I said, Friday usually is sushi day.

In the short period I work here, I went to the sushi restaurant about three times now. Each time however I ordered the freshly made ramen with vegetables. Once I added chicken to that, but the quality seemed so low, that I decided to stay with the vegetables the next times.

When last Friday I did not react very enthusiastic when my colleagues proposed to eat sushi, they thought it was because I did not eat fish. I knew this was not the reason that made me hesitate, but at the same time I could not tell them immediately what is was. It took me a walk down the stairs to make up my mind and explain them my dis-enthusiasm.

The price of a sushi menu is somewhere around ten euros. For a normal lunch in Italy on the higher side, but for a sushi made with fresh fish reasonably low. At least in my opinion. With my background and some (basic) knowledge of the what-and-how’s of the food chain, I know that it is almost impossible to make a profitable business with these prices. At least, when you buy the fish in places that offer fish of a certain quality. And actually you don’t even need to be an expert to understand this. Everyone with common sense and is able to make some simple calculations understands that these prices can’t buy sustainable products.

While walking to the restaurant I decided to start the discussion with my colleagues on this. When I explained my hesitations for the choice they made, they immediately agreed that also they know that it is ridiculous to have lunch for these prices. But they also told me also that the prices don’t change a lot at the other restaurants we eat. And they are right, but then I added that also there the choices I make are as sustainable as I can: I usually order something vegetarian and definitely never order a grilled ‘tuna’ with a side dish for only ten euros. I just know that this can’t be good and it will never taste good to me.

I guess I am at a point in which I cannot ignore the backdrops of the common food system anymore. My choices are influenced by what I know: eating things that are not right give me a wrong taste so I stopped doing it anymore. I hope someday I get some more people to act after their knowledge.

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Old Milano Food Tour

Milan as it was not even 100 years ago

In light of Milan's EXPO 2015 focusing on 'feeding the planet: energy for life', Farming the City together with Food in the Streets has organized the OLD MILANO FOOD TOUR. First tours are during Milan Food Week 2014!

It may be hard to imagine your city without a single supermarket; however, several cities used to supply food to their inhabitants without having these modern megastores. In the OLD CITY FOOD TOUR we travel back in time to explore the history of the city from the perspective of food and food culture.

In 2015, Milan will host the universal exhibition: EXPO 2015 ‘Feeding the Planet. Energy for Life’. An event that will make the citizens and visitors aware of the important role of food, water and agriculture in their daily lives. Especially in a cities like Milan, where changes are never-ending, it is difficult to read the historic layers that have played an indispensable role in the development of its centre. The OLD MILANO FOOD TOUR shows the results of a historic research on the relation between urban development and food, its related culture and logistic systems in Milan.

For the Milan Food Week 2014, an enthusiastic guide will take you on a walk through the area around Piazza XXV Aprile. By viewing the city through the lens of food, we will also discover the political, economic and social changes that have been shaping one of the most beautiful areas of the city. 

What’s more interesting than visiting an Italian city by discovering its intrinsic relationship with food?

For the upcoming Milano Food Week we have in programma a two tours:
-        Saturday the 17th of May, 16-18h, starts at Piazza XXV Aprile, Milano
-        Wednesday the 21st of May, 19-21h, starts at Piazza XXV Aprile, Milano

More information and prices (from €15,- per person) can be found on the website of the Milano Food Week.

To book your tour of Milan and for more information write to inge@farmingthecity.net.

Food Trucks II

In last weeks’ blog I described the beginnings of street food, how that related with cultures and the development of food trucks as we’ve known them in the last century. This week I’ll continue the story and will give you some insights in upcoming developments.

The food trucks as developed by the American farmers turned out to be useful also in other situations. Horse drawn wagons were used as mobile canteens on building sites and at army bases. Immigrants from Mexico introduced the taco wagons that spread slowly over the country. By the way, it wasn’t unusual that immigrants were the ones selling food from mobile kitchens. Think of the famous Frankfurters (or hot dogs) that where introduced in New York by a German or snow cones (shaved ice) that originates in exotic countries but is available all over the world now.

Starting a food truck is relatively easy and cheap. There is no need to wait for clients to come as you can go to them and fixed costs are almost nihil. As people have less money to spend in expensive restaurants, star chefs moved their businesses from static restaurants to mobile food trucks, offering their clients the quality foods they were used to for prices that suit the nowadays economic situation.

But it is not only star chefs that abandoned fast food from the streets. At the moment it seems to be a world-wide trend to sell quality food from food trucks: on busy shopping streets, at festivals, in the middle of office areas. Everyone can now have access to healthy lunches, snacks or dinners without spending a huge  amount of money. Thanks to this movement, food trucks have become a good solution for people that live in so called food deserts (see an earlier blog on this subject). With their possibility to move easily they can prepare healthy dishes made with fresh food and make it directly available to the people in that area.

With the world getting fatter and still more food demanding, the fact that at least one part of the food resellers abandons the bad habits is no more than a mere drop in the ocean. Street food is, because of its prices and its prominent position in the public space, very accessible and can therefore reach those people that until now have not been very aware of the food revolution that is slowly taking place.

To conclude this blog: These days you do not have to be ashamed anymore eating something on the go. The period in which street food was fat and of low quality is ending. Actually, this summer food trucks seem to become the new restaurants where hipster and normal folk will meet and join some food together. And that is exactly what Food in the Streets likes.

See you there!

FROM NOW ON THE BLOGS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON WWW.FOODINTHESTREETS.COM

Food Trucks part I

A food truck as art in Triennale Design Museum, Milano

This and the next week I’ll take you on a trip that started long ago, had a short dip in the second half of the 20^th century but goes forward in full speed into the future. And the analogy with trips, speed and roads is completely accurate here as this blog will talk about food trucks.

Before starting this series it is necessary to introduce three words and explain how I interpret them. I promise you these are the only ‘technical’ details I will talk about. The rest will deal with good food.

Food Trucks are vans or trailers that have all the facilities to prepare and sell food and/or drinks.  One of their important characteristics is that they are mobile and not fixed to one place. The products on sale at these trucks are usually called street foods: foods that are ready to eat or drink, prepared and or sold by hawkers, usually in public spaces. In the last 50 years the quality of this food regularly equals fast food, that is food processed and prepared at high speed, usually in a deep fryer, served in snack bars and restaurants as a fast lunch or dinner to eat directly or to take away.

Street foods are maybe one of the first signs of eating outside your house. Either from a necessity – because people didn’t have a kitchen – as for convenience. A quick read of this Wikipedia page shows that street food is a worldwide phenomenon. As the street foods for the poor from ancient China became a delicacy for the wealthy that they consumed ad home, so became the French fries from the Paris streets a best seller in American fast food restaurants.

Street food has almost always been sold from what we now call food trucks. However, don’t imagine that these have always been the well provided food trucks like we know now. It is better to think of the ones you know (from pictures) as normal in the Asian streets: very simple two-wheel carts with an oven or furnace that enables the vendor to prepare the food on the spot. To see a schematic drawing of a food stall check this drawing from the Palojono blog. Therefore the food sold on the streets is mostly simple, which off course doesn’t mean it isn’t tasty and good.

The real food trucks, as we know them now, where invented in the end of the 19^th century, in the southern states of the USA. Because of the higher demands for meat, farmers moved into more deserted areas that lacked facilities to get good food. One of them was so clever to think of this up front and converted a former army truck into a mobile kitchen that was big enough to feed him and his men. More about this in the Culinary School blog.

With the turn of the century other necessities became apparent. People started to work in factories, further away from home, food habits changed and economic crises set the food-world upside down. Next week you read about this into more detail. 

From game to recipe to harvesting

At work on the terracce Il profumo del Mediterraneo

It is about two weeks ago that I told you about the project Food in the Streets is working on. Together with Noemi Satta from ZUP we invited the inhabitants of Via Cenni to participate to our ZUPlab. After not even two hours of work this resulted in four inspiring recipes  that formed the basis of the second meeting.

On a sunny Sunday I sat behind my computer and took the – sometimes even poetic - recipes written by the inhabitants of Via Cenni and translated them in colorful floor plans of their terraces. As you might know, I am educated as an architect (see more on my CV here) and now and then make some simple designs as part of the projects I work on as Food in the Streets.

Not even a week later, these floor plans were the starting point of an educative morning in which Umberto Puppini from Orti d’Azienda gave the participants an enormous bulk of useful information.  He talked about the types of soil most appropriate for cultivating veggies and spices, explained what plants  go together well and what not and learned when and how to water the plants. Fortunately everyone was loaded with coffee and sweets so we ‘survived’ the 1,5 hour lecture easily.

Being close to midday we had to hurry outside to make sure that some work could be done before it was time for lunch break. Armed with tools, potting soil and – off course – plants we headed to the balcony which from now on has the name Il profumo del Mediterraneo (the aromas of the Mediterranean).

The plans guided the inhabitants during their planting. With the help of pictures the inhabitants could see what their garden would look like when their plants are fully grown and have their fruits. The enthusiasm of the little kids confirmed that gardening is fun for every age.

Unfortunately after an hour of work, the visible results were not very convincing.  The huge vases in which we put the plants were still relatively empty. But this is a matter of patience. With enough sunshine and regular light rains the garden will be green within a few weeks. I’ve seen it myself and I can promise you that it is a beautiful thing to see the dark dirt turning into a green oasis.

Go and see the pictures of this event and make sure to stay tuned to get an updated on the growing process in Via Cenni.  

Design for food and greener cities

No design at all but delicious! Friet van Piet at Fuorisalone 2014

For the last six days, the fashion city Milan has been full of design. Like every year  the city fills-up with design lovers looking for the newest trends, talented students and the best works of famous studios. I’ll try to give an overview of what I saw, off-course seen from the eyes of Food in the Streets.

The Design week is divided into two main events: the Salone del Mobile in the Milano Fiera Rho and the fuorisalone which spreads out over the city. Personally I am not at all interested in the first one which takes place in the boring fairgrounds and is full of commercial agencies that mainly want to sell their furniture. No. As a ‘starter’ myself I am much more interested in the young people that are creative and create to make beautiful products. This year was extra interesting for Food in the Streets as also the Design Week is getting ready for EXPO 2015 exposing a lot of food related projects.

The fuorisalone started already on the Saturday before, as I promised my friends from Orti d’Azienda to help them to prepare their installation in the Ventura Lambrate District. I was delighted to spend some hours far from my computer and put my hands in the fertile soil to plant rosemary, tomatoes, colorful flowers and much more. While working where were surrounded by the  Dutch that are present in the area. One of the exhibitors was Amaro Creative Industries, a Dutch pop-up restaurant that – I found out later – was so arrogant to think he could prepare the Italians a spaghetti they would like. He was mistaken.

Esterni organized this years’ Public Design Festival on Piazza XXV Aprile, a busy square between the old center and the new Porta Garibaldi Area. Here 10 street food trucks where hosted, feeding the hungry design lovers with some creative energy. As I was one of the participants of their contest, I wanted to see what the others did. Although the atmosphere wasn’t optimal (it lacked a central area where people could eat all together), the idea was good and I could imagine that over the time (hopefully over the 5 days) it developed itself into something that functions.

One of the advantages of the fuorisalone is that it gives the visitors the possibility to visit places that are usually closed to the public. In Via Palermo I bumped into an interesting project by PiuArch. They presented an interesting project called DiCortile in Cortile which aims to make their courtyard (cortile in Italian) more green and more livable. In a similar location not far away, Amazelab presented their Sky Hives. In different courtyards within the city they build these ‘hotels’ for the bees, insects that are indispensable for our food system but which have a hard time surviving.

Just before the design week finished I passed through the Ventura Lambrate District again. Hungry after six days of visits in the city, aperitivi and short nights, it was time for a drink at Via Canzi. Besides the free beers there was, to my surprise, the delicious ‘Friet from Piet’. Like Amaro, Piet is also a Dutch project but Piet understood that you better stick with what you’re good at. Piet sells typical Dutch fresh fries with mayonnaise. Even though it is not something I used to eat a lot in the Netherlands, this was an opportunity I did not want to miss.

All in all it was an inspiring week again. Now it is time to translate this into more durable projects and see if we can get an even ‘foodier’ design week in 2015!

  

Food in the Streets eats ZUP

In in Via Cenni (Milano) the first seeds are planted 

It is time to break the silence that Food in the Streets left you with in the last weeks. Let me tell you what I’ve been up to and show you some of the first results.

Since autumn this year I am working with Noemi Satta on a project called ZUP – the recipe for change. ZUP is an abbreviation for Zuppa (=Italian for soup) Urban Project and was founded in 2010. It is Noemi Satta who has developed this method which, over the past years, has proven to be very useful in cases where (complex) situations ask involvement of many or where new visions on ‘the usual’ are required.

If one follows a ZUP lab you and your group mates will go through a list of about five questions and tasks. This results in a personal recipe that can be a starting point of a longer process. What this process is and how long it takes, depends on the question(s) posed by the client.

Unfortunately it is not always simple to explain in a few words what a ZUPlab exactly is. Therefore I will go into more detail and bring you a short report of what we did last Saturday. Soon enough you will get to understand it and see also the relation with Food in the Streets and that what I usually talk about in this blog.

Saturday morning at Via Cenni started early but with a hot cup of tea and a freshly backed cake. In this case the aim of the ZUPlab was to involve the inhabitants of the social housing project in the design of the four urban gardens they wish to start on their rooftop terraces. 

After a short introduction on the ECO Courts project, the twenty garden-enthusiasts that participated were divided in four groups. Their first task was to describe in one word what an urban garden means to them. After five minutes we collected the answers of each individual and exposed them on a whiteboard and shared them. There were of course values that were shared by more than one person (like ‘relax’) while others were unique. Anyways, we had a starting point from which we could continue.

The second question we asked them, was to write down three characteristics (values, wishes and qualities) that they wanted to plant. ‘Plant’ because in this case the recipe that we wanted them to make in the end, is to be translated in a design for the garden on their terraces. The next step was to share the personal characteristics between the group members and extract six characteristics shared by all the group members. Now each group knew their shared characteristics they could work on in the next step.

For the third and last step, the participants where provided with a list of ingredients that coincided with the seeds that they would later plant in their garden. Each group was asked to relate an ingredient (for example bread, rosemary or egg-plant) to each of the characteristics they named before. The relation between characteristic and ingredient was to be interpreted by the group: some choose to connect the characteristic ‘sharing’ with the ingredient ‘parsley’ because for them this ingredient represents something that can be added to every dish and goes along with everyone. Continuing this way, the participants wrote down the ingredients of that what had to become a recipe in the last part of lab.

After not even two hours of work, the inhabitants of Via Cenni had written down four recipes with beautiful names like ‘The garden under the stars’ named after one of the ingredients or ‘The smells of the Mediterranean’ because of the presence of typical Mediterranean products like zucchini and thyme. You see, this is the food, people and cities that I promised you to talk about. And if you don’t understand, check the photo’s.

After this part of the program, the work of the inhabitants moved outside, where they literally started to plant the seeds for their garden. Food in the Streets stayed behind her desk and will make the plans of the gardens. 

The inhabitants of Via Cenni continue their work in two weeks, when Orti d’Azienda comes to give a lecture on the technical part of gardening and when the seeds and plants will be put in the right place. I’ll promise you to write about this as well.