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Croce di Malta

Yesterday’s lunch was a delight, in the clean bright and delicious world of Croce di Malta in central Parma.

I’d had a wretched supper the night before, ill-advisedly following an internet recommendation of Trattoria Corrieri, a place I’d passed a thousand times last year when I lived in Parma, but never went in, thinking it smacked of tourist haven. Too many tables, for one thing I guess. When I entered and saw it was apparently owned by the same people who owned Gallo d’Oro (which one of my classmates had been disappointed by), Enoteca i Merli – another nearby eatery – and a disco club, I should have fled, but it was Monday and not that many places are open; certainly none of my favourites.

So I ordered, intrigued, the Tris di Tortelli – a selection of three pastas, two of which are local favourites I’d been wanting in my ritual way to taste again (tortelli d’erbata and tortelli di zucca) and a third that sounded like fun (one made of spalla cotta, which is a delicious salumi). When I finally got my order (after it had been delivered to and half consumed by the man at the next table and whisked away and re-cooked and re-routed without a word of apology from the grim faced waitress) it was lacklustre; all of the tortelli were bland and uninteresting. The melanzane parmigiana which followed it was truly horrible: tough, poorly cooked eggplant and utterly lacking in visual or gustatory charm. The waitress never reappeared – ashamed I hope of her own and her kitchen’s performance – so I left, my only enduring gift a morning after headache from the house wine.

And this is what I got at Croce di Malta. Parmigiana di carciofi – made with fresh artichokes, and every bit as good as the one I had there a year ago.

Followed by zucchini alla scapece with smoked provolone, more a salad since it was served at room temperature. I was told the zucchini had been prepared with oil, a little vinegar and fresh mint; they like to make this with vegetables such as zucchini and eggplant. It was utterly amazing, the zucchini tender and lightly but thoroughly flavoured.

And to finish things off, a beautiful crema caramelata – freckled with vanilla and perfectly smooth and just the right size.

And of course, a caffe macchiato to finish, the milk properly frothed to the right silky consistency.

Springtime in Parma

Back in my old stomping grounds for a few days.

The Torrente Parma looking respectably damp; the blob at lower centre/left is a nutria!

Somebody waits for you…

But what I was waiting for was a K2 conetto flower…

Looks like maybe a private wine-tasting happening on Tabarro’s night off

Piazza Garibaldi its same old shiny self.

And someone’s been carpeting the streets again…

Lucky old me

I got to realise a long-deferred wish on Saturday, and visited Cyrus Todiwala’s Cafe Spice Namaste to check out some Parsee cuisine. I read elsewhere that the Parsees are shrinking in number, because their religion, Zoroastrianism, prohibits intermarriage and conversion; you have to be born right.

Anyway, the food was very good. The starters were unusual; after poppadoms with wonderful chutneys, we had crab cakes,

beetroot & coconut samosas and some potato pancakes filled with minced beef with smooth tomato chutney. Then some absolutely astounding tandoori duck

that had been marinated in yogurt and lime before grilling, a version of saag paneer and a dish of buttered sweetcorn and water chestnuts.

Naan with chili, garlic and ginger on the side was fluffy and crispy and pretty as a picture.

The passion fruit sorbet was terrific but the toffee and apricot icecream was to slide under the table and faint for.

And the lassi was excellent also.

Liking London

A week or so ago I attended a reading by Ekstasis authors, in celebration of the Pacific Rim Review of Books. Richard Olafson introduces…

Among others, our excellent Saskatchewanian Glen Sorestad read, and so did the wondrous Yvonne Blomer.

I’m enjoying the bee-keeping course a lot. Here’s how you wrap up your hives and throw them in the back of your truck to take them for a drive. If you listen closely you can hear them hum…

And now, here I am on the other side of the pond once more. I arrived yesterday and after a reviving nap and shower bustled off to the Olivier to catch Much Ado About Nothing, which was nothing short of awesome. Zoe Wanamaker, Simon Russell Beale and everyone — all wonderful. Sets, staging, music, dancing — all wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I laughed, I cried, and I particularly enjoyed the reaction of the many school kids in the audience, who hooted and hollered and clapped upside down and backwards at the end.

I settled in that evening to a gorgeous box of booty from Ottolenghi – roasted aubergines with braised shallots, coriander, chili and green tahini; roasted beets with sunflower seeds, chard, chervil and maple sherry dressing; some soft, tasty new potatoes in mustard sauce; and a couple of slices of char-grilled fillet of beef with dijon mustard, coriander and honey sauce. With a glass of Barbera to wash it down. Looks like I will just miss the publication of Ottolenghi’s new cookbook, but we can still catch some great recipes in the Guardian.

Carrie has sent forth the challenge to participate in NaPoWriMo over April (National Poetry Month) which sounds like an excellent idea. We poets can show those novelists what’s what, eh?

Growth hormones in dairy, and National Poetry Month in Canada

Shocked by a grim if slightly dated tale about rBST – recombinant bovine somatotropin, marketed under the name “Nutrilac” – a synthetic hormone, developed by Monsanto through genetic engineering, that increases a cow’s ability to produce milk – which is allowed in US dairy cattle but banned in Canada and the EU. Despite intense lobbying by Monsanto, and a made-in-Canada whistle-blower scandal, eventually further study showed cause for concern over introducing it to the human food chain: but it is even more harmful to the health of dairy cattle, who suffer greater risk of lameness, infections and sterility when given it.

Bear that in mind when buying anything containing dairy products from the US. I’m not sure if there are any regulations at all that limit the use of US dairy products in this country – the regs only say we can’t give the hormones to our cattle. A number of dairy producers in the US now label their products as hormone-free, which is causing Monsanto to protest that such claims might make consumers think the hormone-free products are in some way ‘better’ than those which are produced with the benefits of Monsanto’s chemicals. Gosh…

More about milk another day. Meanwhile, National Poetry Month looms in Canada, and starting April 1st, the League of Canadian Poets will showcase poems by its members on a blog, whose theme is “Poetry Without Borders.”

GM canola and alfalfa, and a little poetry news

I’ve been discovering some shocking things about genetically modified foods in Canada this week, and so will all of you with televisions that can be tuned to Global for a documentary on Saturday night, March 23 at 7pm (dunno if it’s the same outside BC). Hijacked Future is about GM foods, but also about the stranglehold that large, profit-driven corporations are securing on the world’s food supply, while we consumers blithely carry on as it it were the most natural thing in the world for farmers to be forced to buy new seeds every year instead of saving and planting their own stocks, developed for local ecosystems and disease resistance.

Stephen Hume‘s article in the Vancouver Sun this week previews it nicely:

“…it’s fascinating to observe how we appear to be collectively sleepwalking toward … a potential catastrophe with that most strategic of all things, a sustainable, secure, equitably distributed global food supply… [Hijacked Future] takes dead aim at the question of whether it’s in our best national interests as informed, intelligent citizens of a global civilization to snooze while a few giant trans-national corporations succeed in their attempt to monopolize food production.”

I learned a bit about organic farming, too, and the loss of Canada’s organic canola crops, both as a commercial crop and as an invaluable rotation crop. It appears that because of the (non-organic) genetically-modified canola in our fields, over 90% of all canola – including organic – has been contaminated now. This has caused a significant loss of livelihood to organic farmers, so two Saskatchewan canola farmers tried to bring a class action suit against Monsanto, on behalf of all certified organic farmers, but our very own supreme court told them in December they couldn’t. The farmers are currently considering their options. Percy Schmeiser is our best documented case of unwanted GM crops intruding on private land against the wishes and intent of a farmer, and our higher courts did a less than heroic job there too. Although he’s just won – wait for it – $660 from Monsanto in a small claims settlement for costs involved in cleaning the GM canola off his fields.

Thank heavens for the farmers, consumers, environmentalists and courts of California, who were able to call the USDA on its ill-judged approval of genetically modified alfalfa. Alfalfa is hardly a glamour crop, being mostly known as animal feed, but it is also a crucial rotation crop for organic farmers. In both these roles, it sits at the bottom of our food chain, and we should – must – pay attention to what happens to it, or risk losing organic farming forever.

And on the poetry side of things, if you want a little extra CanLit reading you can sign up for The New Quarterly‘s new e-newsletter.