Her tiny features appear in my cameras viewfinder as I focus, her self-consciousness something new between us. 'So, Anna, tell me what you're doing while you're doing it', I say, the tiny mirror in my camera clinking up and down. 'Hello, I am Anna, Silvestro's house keeper and I'm making a
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Come autumn time here in the Salento, a number of fruits and vegetables start to turn up in the markets, just like old cherished friends that have moved away but then came back again.Faces light up. There is lots of smiling, happy greetings.'We'll have to have you around for dinner,
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Hemingway is often credited with the phrase, Dessert is for those that don't drink enough. Whether he said it or not, it's something that often saunters through my head when my eyes pass over the 'dolci' section of a dinner menù, the same way they do when I pass a women's
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Every job has its drawbacks, even being a barista in Italy, as a good chunk of your clients arrive before they're awake enough to say anything all that interesting. Not that Salvatore would ever admit to that: he's too nice of a guy. And he has a talent for coffee, notable,
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Everyone has that one dessert, the thing you pull out of the air when there is nothing in the house. I shouldn't tell you this (please, let's keep this between us), but la granita di caffè is that dessert for me. I bang one out a least a few times
Read MoreAnd this lack of sweet sweets is true of the Salento as well, although every once in a while, a holiday will roll around and someone will offer you a piece of la cupeta, the dialectical version of il croccante, an almond brittle so sweet that 10-year olds and humming birds would even reject it for being too sweet.
Read MoreI’m told that I have something of an obsessive personality, although I really prefer the adjective, ‘enthusiastic’. Take summer dishes: This year I’m only really eating three dishes, and all three of them nearly everyday. The only one that is not part of my normal summer repertoire is this new, lightened
Read MoreCome autumn time here in the Salento, a number of fruits and vegetables start to turn up in the markets, just like old cherished friends that have moved away but then came back again. Faces light up. There is lots of smiling, happy greetings. ‘We’ll have to have you around
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