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Parma mi piace
Managed to squeeze in a little visit to Parma, to see how the place has changed in the four years since my last stop here, and check out the Christmas madness.For madness it was when I arrived on the last Sunday before the visit of Babbo Natale. It seemed much more commercialized than it had been just five years ago. Shopping frenzy. Christmas market. Everyone out on via Farini.
I’ve been stomping the old grounds to see what’s new. As we might expect, much is the same, some things different. Sorelle Picchi where I had supper last night has gone much more upmarket, and there is less grump in the proprietorship: the tris di tortelli remains on the menu, and was good, but not as good as the semifreddo allo zabaione and the lovely glass of Passito di Pantelleria to finish.
As I’d always meant to go there, I had earlier lunched at Apriti
Sesamo, Parma’s lone organic vegetarian restaurant where vegans, coeliacs and macrobioticians have been finding solace for a decade and a half. It’s tucked away behind the train station – currently undergoing a major facelift – and is small and friendly. The food is not pretty – vegan food leaves me feeling there must be something one can do to jazz up a plate of whole grains – but it’s tasty and filling and the place has a loyal following. The menu offers three courses which are served on a single plate. Mine was sformato di riso integrale (rice and whole grain cake, or square), radici al forno (roasted root vegetables) and torta di seitan (savoury gluten pie).After lunch I went for a walk in the Giardino Ducale which was much as I remembered it, and strolled along the Torrente Parma looking for nutria, and spotted a gang of them huddling for warmth.
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Oxford weekend
I had a grand reunion with my London poetry workshop group last weekend, when we all travelled to Oxford for a couple of days of reading poetry and eating nice food. One night we ate at Folly’s Bridge Brasserie near the Folly, (a For Sale sign on the front of it when we passed).Although we had a very fruitful workshop, discussing consistently interesting, challenging and inspiring poems, another highlight was in store for us, in the form of a group reading, organized by Jenny Lewis, at the
Albion Beatnik Bookshop in Jericho, Oxford. An enthusiastic, attentive and book-buying audience of 55 or so squeezed into every available corner to sup on mulled wine, mince tarts and the ambrosial words of Jenny (who read poems from Fathom), Claire Crowther (reading from Mollicle and Incense), Anne Berkeley (reading from The Men From Praga), Tamar Yoseloff (reading from The City with Horns)
and I (reading from Sunday Dinners, The Earth’s Kitchen and Cartography) before we were treated to a slightly longer reading from Sue Rose in celebration of her new collection, From The Dark Room. We were inclined to agree with the bookshop owner who said he’d never had a better poetry evening.
The next morning we opted for an amble through Oxford, a browse of Objects of Use, and a nice coffee and sandwich at The Missing Bean before scattering to the four corners.
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Dashing around London
It’s a busy old place, this London. Crowded, too. Even, at times, in the spacious halls of the British Library where I spend as much time as I can. I noticed a little urban food growing going on in the forecourt, where giant planters are evidently brimming with strawberries.Wandering round Vauxhall after a dog walk we stopped for a little breakfast at a dog-friendly pub, the Black Dog, which is a great thing to have in one’s neighbourhood. As is this venerable tea house, a building which Virginia tells me is mentioned in one of Thackeray’s novels.
We stopped in for a peek at the Vauxhall City Farm, which is part petting zoo and part community garden. There are horses large and small as well as rabbits, chickens, goats, sheep and a fair number of waterfowl of various shapes and sizes. In the back there’s a modest allotment which in this unseasonably warm December is still growing, unimpeded by frost.
And on for a look at Borough Market where there’s everything from bread to biltong.
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In her latest collection, Rhona McAdam navigates the dark places of human movement through the earth and the exquisite intricacies lingering in backyard gardens and farmlands populated by insects and pollinators, all the while returning to the body, to the tune of staccato beats and the newly discovered symmetries within the human heart.
“…A beautiful, filling collection, Larder is a set of poems to read at the change of the seasons, to appreciate alongside a good meal, and to remind yourself of the beauty in everything, even the things you may not appreciate before opening McAdam’s collection….”
Rhona McAdam is a writer, poet, editor, and Registered Holistic Nutritionist with a Master’s in Food Culture from Italy and a deep-rooted passion for ecology and urban agriculture. Her work spans corporate and technical writing to poetry and creative nonfiction, often exploring the vital links between what we eat and how we live. Based in Victoria, BC, and available via Zoom, Rhona is always open to new writing commissions, readings, or workshops on nutrition and the culinary arts.
