Monday, November 8, 2010

THE HOT WORD -WHAT IS IT CALLED WHEN YOU CAN TASTE A WORD?

I was one of the bloggers to attend THE WRITE TASTE seminar with Salty Seattle, SippitySup and Food Woolf fellow food bloggers.  We had a chance to up our writing skills: sharing in the  tasting, smelling, and writing about the food at our table!


This was one of the Breakout Sessions that FOODBUZZ sponsored at the Sir Francis Drake.  All of us, good writers, or not, feel that we can always improve. I definitely feel that my ideas, photographs and level of blog content far surpass my writing skills.  Is this why I find it so difficult to sit down and WRITE?   My favorite was the list of foreboden words, we as foodbloggers chose, coupled with the list Brooke reports that are strictly not allowed in her journalist post at a paper.







So, this morning, I'm reading a new book review, "BITTER IN 
THE MOUTH", and one link leads to another. I find this:  SYNESTHESIA -hot word of the day. In one of the condition's rarest forms, gustatory synesthesia, selected words make it possible to taste a word. Now that would be writing a blog! Rustic, smoky, fruity  (adjectives to describe my recent Venison meatballs, glazed with Damson Plum preserves!)


http://www.reference.com/browse/gustatory+synesthesia?




These ideas all add up to my latest quest to better my writing, hence improving my chances of writing my blog at least weekly!! Saluti and grazie to Linda, Brooke and Greg!!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Just back from SLOW FOOD's SALONE DEL GUSTO AND TERRA MADRE IN TURIN, Italy



Just returned from a mouth-watering experience at SLOW FOOD's Salone del  Gusto in Turin, Italy.  Myself and one other 'hungry for SLOW FOOD experience' Italian speaker  tossed out sleeping and opted for a 2 hour train ride from Milan to Turin's Lingotto Fiere.  The eighth biennial food and wine festival is like no other in the world. Coupled with TERRA MADRE,  this year they had over 200,000 visitors,  many from outside of Italia, and from what I gather, a group even from our area Charlottesville division of Slow Food!


To give you an idea of the scope of this incredible , SLOW FOOD  began 20 years ago to battle the fast food beginning to  show it's ugly head in Italy.  Since then, from what I understand, it has grown to be quite a movement.  Now in many other countries, we in the Piedmont of Virginia even have our own brand new group, with my good friend, Christina Ball as one of the directors. I am very excited to become involved in this, since I am also working on an innovative dining project with local produce in our art group; primarily as a sharing of good slow food and artistic recipes!




My take on this 'hurried' 10 hours, was that I couldn't get enough of the tastes, friendships, interest in beautiful slow food, most likely paired with delicious artisan wines and beers. I cannot wait to slow down enough (!) to go back and enjoy the next one for days!! We accomplished only the 20 (twenty!) regions of Italy - each region had over a dozen different offerings, from cheese to pork to chocolate!  After over an hour in our first, Campagnia, we had to regroup and step up the pace, or we NEVER would have even done that.  The Slow WINE had to wait for the next show, and so many different lectures, cooking demos, next time.  We did squeeze in a cooking dem from my favorite region, Puglia, with my new friend Michele Bruno, president of Slow Food Puglia, that brought back dreams of Santa Maria del Sole, and their own slow food.


I've uploaded  a few of the shots I have taken, just on my way out to San Francisco, for the FOODBUZZ blog fest.  More info to follow.






But I will say this in closing:  in 2012 I am  planning on a group to make our way to Italy, enjoying Slow Food as one of the 3 'events' in the jetsetWISDOM trip.  Promise more to come! Meanwhile, savor the feel of this incredible exposition! Divertiti!!