CUISINE ON SCREEN - FOOD IN FILM

Do you also have an impression that there are more and more films in which food plays the leading role? Here's a short list of the most recent culinary films. I haven't seen any of them yet but they all seem to be an interesting view on the artistic side of food. :)

The Lunchbox – a subtle love story set in Mumbai. The role of the love's messanger is played by the curry lunchbox prepared lovingly by the main female character. Trailer

Delicious - a film about a romance between a young passionate cook (Nico Rogner) and a woman suffering from an eating disorder (Louise Brealey – better known as Molly from BBC 'Sherlock'). Trailer

Chef – a commedy about a visionary chef (Jon Favreau) who quits his job in a restaurant and opens his own food truck with Cuban sandwiches. The film is studded with American stars, including Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sofía Vergara and Dustin Hoffman. Trailer

Two Greedy Italians – a BBC programme about two famous chefs and food experts, Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo, who travel around Italy talking with relish about the real Italian cuisine. Trailer

The Trip to Italy – a similar idea to “Two Greedy Italians” but, unlike the BBC programme, it is a feature commedy starring two famous British actors, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Trailer

And what other films about food can you recommend? :)

PS. Before you go to the cinema, check out this hillarious trailer of Electric Cinema, one of the oldest working cinemas in London, and see how many British actors/celebrities you can recognize. :)  Trailer

MY ROMAN HOLIDAY, PART 2: ICE CREAM VS. BULL'S MILK

Here we go with the second part of the story about my Roman adventures. Part 1 is available here.

No visit to Italy can be complete without real Italian gelati. That's why my friend and I went to Giolitti, an ice cream parlour near the Pantheon, which is recommended by most of the guidebooks. It was a very touristy place but the taste of the ice cream was worth the wait in a long, chaotic queue consisting of tourists from around the world. The vendors majestically served big scoops of gelati, trying to pay as little attention to the frenetic crowds as possible. My chocolate and pistachio ice cream were absolutely brilliant! The only disappointment was the champagne flavour ice cream – it did taste of champagne but, to be honest, it was barely edible.

Among the more interesting things I ate in Rome was mozzarella di bufala – cheese made from buffallo milk. Not bull's milk – as my friend jokingly suggested. ;) I also tried a mysterious fruit called nespola (loquat), which tasted like a cross between an apricot and pear. I wonder if it's available somewhere in Poland?

On our way back home, we stopped in a Tuscan town to make supplies of genuine Italian food. I bought loads of pasta, pesto, olive oil and cantucci – delicious almond biscuits from Tuscany. Because cantucci are really dry, you need to soak them in coffee, tea, or preferably in Tuscan fortified wine called vin santo. Below you can see a photo of cantucci and vin santo taken by my friend Jasmine during her trip to Pisa. It was delicious! :) 

Rome enraptured me with its art, cuisine and friendly atmosphere. I especially loved the quiet neighbourhood of Trastevere, where carefree kids were playing football in front of an ancient church, Italian mammas were hanging out the washing, and the life was going by very lazily.

Even though a lot of the monuments in Rome are impressively huge and lavish, I didn't feel any pompousness that can be found, for example, in Paris. In the narrow, winding streets, happy dogs walk with their elegant owners, cats live in the ancient ruins and the Forum Romanum smells of freshly mown grass. The city is full of greenery, fountains and crystal-clear water reportedly transported through aqueducts from the mountains.

But not everything in Rome was so perfect. Apart from the crowds teeming around the most popular sites, my visit was constantly interrupted by street pedlars who tried to sell either sunglasses or umbrellas (depending on the weather, which was very changeable). After a while I was afraid that when I open the fridge in my hotel, a pedlar will jump out of it screaming “Ombrello!” and shoving an umbrella into my face. :P

Finally, I discovered that in Italy not all that looks delicious is real. For example, the yummy cupcakes you can see in the photo below are... bath bombs. Fortunately, their soapy smell warned before I had a chance to take a bite. ;)

Giolitti (ice cream parlour), Via Uffici del Vicario 40, Rome, Italy, www

More photos

PS. If you'd like to read more stories about my travel, you can check the tab “My culinary trips” at the top of the page. :)

MY ROMAN HOLIDAY, PART 1: BAROQUE VS. PIZZA

Here's the first part of my culinary and cultural adventures in Rome. 

The second part is available here. Enjoy! :)

This April I went for the first time to Rome. I came, I saw... I fell in love. Rome turned out to be even more beautiful and charming than I'd expected. Here are a few things I discovered during my Roman holiday.

In Rome, I could live solely on art. Before the trip, I had an ambitious plan to go to as many restaurants and cafés as possible. But then I was so engrossed in visiting Baroque churches and squares that I didn't feel hungry at all. Well, almost at all...

When I finally managed to tear myself away from the art battle between two Baroque giants: Bernini and Borromini, I went for dinner to Gallo Matto (which means 'Crazy Rooster' in Italian) near the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. The restaurant's interior looks as if it was really designed by a crazy chicken but the food was quite nice.

Out of all the dishes that turned up on our table, I especially liked my ravioli with ricotta cheese. As the atmosphere in the restaurant was very casual (not to say familiar), I could personally congratulate the chef, who was sitting at a nearby table, laughing out loud and gesticulating wildly. Is there anything more stereotypically Italian? :)

In Gallo Matto, I found out for myself that the Italians love women and cheese. And especially the women who like cheese. When I told the waiter that “I love ricotta,” he immediately replied, “And I love you!” Not sure how he would react, I decided to conceal from him the fact that I also like mozzarella and pecorino romano. ;)

My biggest concern about Rome was that the city would be crowded with wild tourists. There were indeed a lot of people but only at the most popular sites. Like lemmings, people thronged around Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon but as soon as I turned into one of the side streets, I was almost totally alone. In one of such quite streets in the vicinity of Piazza Navona, we discovered a pizzeria Il Corallo.

My friends were surprised that a Roman pizza is flat as a pancake and doesn't resemble the dishes served in Polish restaurants. But I knew what to expect so I ate with a great pleasure a part of the pizza and even focaccia – pizza crust without any toppings, eaten with loads of olive oil. The food in Il Corallo was fresh and delicious (even the artichoke was quite edible) and the waiters and the chef (in the photo) – extremely friendly. But fortunately, this time no one professed his love for me. ;)

To be continued...

More photos

Gallo Matto, Via Cavour 107, Rome, Italy, www

Pizzeria Il Corallo, Via del Corallo 10/11, 00188 Rome, Italy, www

ROME, WARSAW, CRACOW – MY CULINARY TRIPS

Chocolate in Venice

To be honest, I hadn't intended to stay away from my blog for so long. But I was swamped with work and then the longer I procrastinated, the more difficult it was to get down to work and write my weekly posts. But here I am again to tell you about my culinary trips and reveal a few announcements regarding my blog. :)

Roman motto

In April, I spent a lovely weekend in Rome, where I lived on art and Roman pizza. A full account will appear on my blog very soon!

Aleksander Gierymski, In the Arbour, 1882, detail.

My trip to Warsaw was less exotic but equally interesting. I went there to see the exhibition of Aleksander Gierymski, a famous Polish 19th-century painter, and to do research for an article on food in art which will appear in Apetyt, a magazine published by Kraków bloggers. More details to follow.

Café Rue de Paris, Warszawa

While in Warsaw, I discovered a very nice French bistro, Café Rue de Paris, which is situated near the roof garden of the University of Warsaw Library. The café offers delicious quiches, tasty cakes, very good coffee and nice ambiance. I'm sure it'll be one of my favourite destinations during my future trips to Warsaw.

Chochołowy Dwór

I've also visited a few restaurants in and around Kraków, including Zbójcy w Pałacu and Chochołowy Dwór, but sadly I didn't it like any of them well enough to go back there and write a review...

Wielopole 3, Kraków

Fortunately, my favourite places in the Jewish quarter Kazimierz: Kolanko No. 6 and Bombonierka are still great so I could safely invite there my fussy family from abroad. In the meantime, I also discovered two inconspicuous but very tasty restaurants: Wielopole 3 and Dobra Kasza Nasza. You can expect their reviews quite soon.

"Sherlock" - BBC series

Finally, I've decided to write more articles about food in culture and I'm currently working on my posts about food in Jane Austen's times and in my favourite TV show “Sherlock.” So stay tuned! :)

Zbójcy w Pałacu, Kraków

PS. If you want to know what food festivals will take place in Kraków and Lesser Poland (Małopolska) region this summer, you can check out the new tab on my blog: Food Festivals - Summer 2014. :)

Artichokes in Rome

FOOD FESTIVALS IN KRAKÓW AND MAŁOPOLSKA – SUMMER 2014

If you like food festivals and are going to be this summer in Kraków or around, you can check out a new tab on my blog: FoodFestivals - Summer 2014.

Tomorrow (8^th June 2014), for example, you can take part in Salt Festival in Wieliczka or a cycling picnic in Kraków. But there's a food festival ever weekend so every foodie visiting Małopolska region will be able to find something interesting to see and eat. Enjoy the summer! :)

PS. All the photos were taken during 2013 editions of the festivals.

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FOOD IN ART AND LITERATURE – CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Cornelis de Heem, Still-Life with Oysters, Lemons and Grapes, 1660s (www.wga.hu)

A few months ago I attended an academic conference “Kultura jedzenia, jedzenie w kulturze” [Culture of Food, Food in Culture] in Kraków organised by Kultiwarium Festival. The programme was very diverse but I had time to take part in only one session: Artistic and Literary Aspects of Food. As an English literature and art history graduate I could not miss it for the world. :)

Pieter de Bloot, Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, 1637(www.wga.hu)

I especially liked the presentation called “Cena Non Finita. Tables, Pantries, and Victuals in the 17th-century Netherlandish Painting.” As the Latin title suggested, it was an unending feast – a feast of fruit, vegetables, meats and other delicacies painted with such a precision that one can discern even the particular varieties of grapes. Interestingly, these highly realistic paintings were not always painted from nature, as they often depict compositions of flowers or fruits which grow during different months or even seasons.

Frans Snyders, Still Life, 1635-1639 (www.wga.hu)

Apart from the purely aesthetic function, these appetizing still lifes had also many hidden meanings. There are a lot of various interpretations but the most popular motifs included vanitas, i.e. “vanity” in Latin (rotten fruit, withered flowers, unfinished meals); and religious themes (chalice with wine, bread). I also learned that lemon symbolised a false friend because it's beautiful from the outside but bitter inside, and cheese was considered by some Dutch and Flemish doctors to be the source of all the diseases. ;)

Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931 (source)

A presentation on edible beauty in Salvador Dalí's art also promised to be interesting. Though the speakers spent most of the time discussing Dalí's biography, they also mentioned some interesting connections between his art and food. I learned that his most famous painting “The Persistence of Memory” was inspired by Camembert cheese melting in the sun. Moreover, Dalí loved both his wife, Gala, and lamb chops so ardently that he decided to depict them together in one painting, placing raw chops on Gala's shoulder. Yummy. :P

Salvador Dali, Portrait of Gala with Two Lamb Chops Balanced on Her Shoulder, 1933 (source)

I found a lecture on grotesque descriptions of food in literature exceptionally funny. The speaker presented a surreal menu: six pilgrims in a salad from “The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel,” sturgeon of the second freshness from “The Master and Margarita,” and some absurd dishes from Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's play “The Shoemakers,” as well as humorous poems by the Polish Nobel Laurate Wisława Szymborska.

Witkacy, Stworzenie świata, 1921-1922 (source)

For dessert, we were served a passionate speech on fat body of white men in crime novels. One of the examples was my favourite Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, whose plumpness and misleadingly benign looks often gave him an upper hand. By the way, did you know that Poirot's name has the same pronunciation as “poireau,” a French word meaning leek? :)

Hercule Poirot played by David Suchet in the ITV television series (source)

I'm really glad I could take part in the conference on food and culture. All the presentations were very well prepared and engaging. However, I think the topic of food in painting and literature is so broad that it deserves its own conference, not only one session. What do you think? 

Conference website: http://www.kn.psc.uj.edu.pl/ and facebook

Kultiwarium website: http://www.kultiwarium.pl/

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Titles of all the presentations in Polish:

PANEL XII - ARTYSTYCZNE I LITERACKIE OBLICZA KUCHNI

1. Cena non finita. Stoły, spiżarnie i wiktuały w siedemnastowiecznym malarstwie niderlandzkim – motywy i interpretacje - ALINA BARCZYK

2. Jadalne piękno – pierwiastki kulinarne w surrealistycznej twórczości Salvadora Dalego - ŁUKASZ KURP, IZABELA STĄPOR

3. Nie tylko magdalenki... Groteskowe obrazy kulinariów i ucztowania w literaturze - ANNA KUCHTA

4. Smaki literackiego stołu. Kulinarne preferencje bohaterów polskiej prozy najnowszej - ANNA FIGA

5. Jedzenie w powieści kryminalnej: co o detektywie i męskości mówi grube ciało? - MARTA USIEKNIEWICZ

PHOTOS FROM FOOD FESTIVAL - MAŁE NAJEDZENI FEST! KIPI KASZA, KIPI GROCH (KRAKÓW)

Oats, peas, beans, and barley grow,
Oats, peas, beans, and barley grow,
Can you or I or anyone know
How oats, peas, beans, and barley grow?

This English nursery rhyme which can be a free translation of the polish name of the food festival Małe Najedzeni Fest! Kipi kasza, kipi groch, which took place today in Coffee Proficiency in Kraków. As its name suggests, the festival was dedicated to various grains, groats (kasza in Polish), and legumes: from beans, to peas and chickpeas, to buckwheat groats and more.

Coffee Proficiency is an interesting post-industrial building dominated by a steel mezzanine, metal walls, and mysterious coffee roasters. It definitely isn't a place for a romantic date but as a venue for a lively, energetic food festival, Coffee Proficiency turned our to be perfect. 

At the festival I met a few old acquaintances, including a blogging duo Gotowanie z Pasją. They served their delicious tarts, which were as always closely linked with the event's main theme. We bought a piece of tart with millet groats, chicken, and black olives, which was absolutely delicious, especially when we heated it up.

I also appreciate their strict adherence to health and safety rules. Paweł cut and served the food in special gloves, while Grzesiek took care of the money transactions. Consequently, no germ had a chance to sneak from dirty notes and coins to the food. :)

We also tried lovely hummus (paste made from chickpeas, tahini, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice) from Hummus Amamamusi.

It was arguably the best hummus I've ever eaten - delicate, creamy, with a distinct taste (could it be cumin?).

Another unusual dish I tried was vegan lard made from beans prepared by Jadalnia. It was slightly sweet but it went well with fresh bread and some pickled cucumber. 

Even sweets baked by Book me a Cookie were made from various groats, such as semolina, instead of flour. It was undoubtedly a tasty and healthy alternative to traditional cakes. :)

We washed it all down with excellent, aromatic coffee made by the hosts Coffee Proficiency. It had a rich taste bringing to mind dark chocolate. The photo below shows an artistic barista, who painted hearts with milk. ;)

Najedzeni Fest! as always proved to be an excellent festival, full of positive energy and delicious food. Hopefully we all now know how oats, peas, beans, and barley grow, or at least how they all taste. ;)

More photos! :)
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Website: tutaj

Event website: tutaj