Cold appetizer of tuna, lake como fish, otopus
Hot appetizers of squid, mussels, scallops, shrimps etc
Homemade pasta in light cream with seafood
Chocolate mousse with fried carrots on top
Thurs, Nov 10
Last night our italian colleagues took us out to a local restaurant near the plant in lomazzo. When the waiter handed out menus to the group I looked to Alfredo who took us out the night before and asked him to order for us. So ofcourse he made a show to throw down his menu and say yes, menus are for tourists. So, a lot of italian ensued with the restaurant manager and all was taken care of. The night was endless with dish after dish. First comes the aperitif of campari with oj and sec along with a dish each of warm hordeurves to enjoy with our drink, then the wine, then the cold appetizers, then the hot appetizers, then the pasta as the primi dish, then the fish as the secondi, then dessert, then coffee and their homemade cookies and chocolates. I remembered when they brought out the cold appetizers I was confused because I thought the hordeurves were the appetizers. That's when salvatore explained that the hordeurves were for the aperitifs. THEN when the hot appetizers came out I was confused because I thought we already had our appetizers so salvatore explained that we had the cold appetizers and now this is the hot appetizers. After that I just shut up and just eat whatever they bring me. Have to admit that by the time they brought the stingray which was a specialty of the restaurant and which I have never tried, I was too full to enjoy it. Didn't think I had room for dessert but had to try the fantastic mouse. It was small but so rich and yummy, much thicker than what I know of mousse. Fried carrots sounded weird but it was really good. Crispy and with a hint of salt so a good combination with the sweetness of the chocolate. I loved our meal because they were mostly dishes I wouldn't have known to order. The cuisine of northern italy is very different from the typical italian dishes that I find in the states. So far I have not had any spaghetti or lasagna! I learned that ragu sauce originated in naples in south italy, it means sauce simmered over a long period of time. Wish I had time to go to bologna since spaghetti bolognese is one of my favorite dish back home.
Martin asked our Italian colleagues what I thought might have been an offending question: who’s more cultured, Italians or French? I was surprised to hear Antonio immediately say that italy might have culture but Italians are not cultured. People here do not appreciate arts or theatre. Much of the treasures in italy were discovered by French or germans. He said if you go into the many churches in these villages and town there could be pictures hung on the walls that are centuries old and easy to steal. I couldn't believe the way they were putting down their own people and the lack of appreciation of art and music and history.
When I first heard alfredo say that he does not agree that women should be in the military or work in the factory and that this equality thing was silly. He didn’t think women should do any jobs that involves physical no matter if they want to or not. I didn’t know how to respond to that and waited him out before arguing back. I was the only female in the group so wondered if I should defend myself and my gender. He said he almost got lynched when working in Russia and did not want to hire women workers. Apparently in russia the women are working in the factories while the men are busy drinking vodka. I thought alfredo was exaggerting but antonio chimed in that women is a big part of the workforce in russia and without them there would be no russia. Anyway, alfredo was very vocal about women doing anything kind of physical jobs. The others were also nodding their heads! It then dawned on me to ask salvatore sitting next to me if this machismo attitude was because Italian men feel protective towards their women and he said that’s exactly it. How can you get mad at that logic?!
Funny to hear alfredo talk about younger generations and how they are not well read and too reliant on TV, he is afraid of the future because of how today's youth is too materialistic. He is fearful that future generations will revert back to the old days of the rich few will be the ones leading the world and the middle class will disappear.
It was interesting conversation, it was a regular exchange of experiences. Our italian colleagues were curious about things happening in our parts of the world: martin in china, federico in argentina and me in the united states and ofcourse we loved to learn about italian culture. Alfredo loves watching american futbol, it's fast and noisy he said. We learned from martin that soccer is the most popular sport in china. Federico talked about the relationship of argentina with their neighboring countries. Brazil is like a close cousin, Chile is just a neighbor and Uruguay is like another province of argentina. I told them about the baseball stadium in phx that is open air but is airconditioned for the summer games (yes, hot air rises while cold air is depressed). We learned that salvatore demonstrated the essence of the italian value of family when he showed us pics of the house that he built so that it's 3 homes in 1 to accomodate his family, his parents and his sister's family. Alfredo was curious about what americans think about europeans and I hated to admit that the average american was not very aware on what's happening outside of the US, unless it's something major that would appear on the national news. Most don't watch CNN on a regular basis but instead stuck more to local news and what's happening in their town or state. Our country is quite big and isolated from the rest of the world. Alfredo said that it's the opposite here and that europeans are very interested in what's happening in the US. They like our current president. I said I like the current only because he was better than the last!
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