Agadugo

Friday

After 5 days without gelato, I definitely made up for lost time.

We talked about the three basic kinds of gelato: milk, cream and just water (sorbetto). Often times, stabilizers are added so the gelato can maintain it's structure and delay its melting at room temperature, we did none of this but most stores do. We made 7 kinds of gelato (but only ate 6 because one needed to chill for longer), and pesto pasta. I made the pesto completely from scratch and by hand! So raw, delicious and fun!

For the gelato, we made everything from scratch (boil milk/cream/water with sugar, then add more milk/cream and flavoring, chill in the freezer, then put in the gelato machine.)

Gelatos chilling in the freezer

• Gelato di Parmigiano Reggiano with honey-balsamic reduction and crushed walnuts
  -Umm...parmigiano gelato? YUM
  -The honey-balsamic reduction was out of this world. We used chestnut honey which is absurdly delicious
  -We ate this as an appetizer. It is not icy as your standard gelato and definitely worked well as an appetizer
  -Savory with a hint of sweet; rich, round and overall just blew my mind
  
  
  
  Gelato di Parmigiano Reggiano
  
  
• Pasta Pesto
  -I made pesto using a mortar and pestle
  -I want a mortar and pestle for my birthday
  
  
  
  Motar and pestle-ing
  
  Pasta Pesto
  
  
• Sorbetto di Mela Verde e Rucola (Green Apple and Arugola Sorbet)
  -I'm not really a fan or arugola, but this was really nice
  -It was sweet but still not quite a dessert--perfect balance between sour, sweet and peppery
  
  
  
  Sorbetto di Mela Verde e Rucola
  
  
• Sorbetto di Fragole (Strawberry Sorbet) with blueberry sauce
  -Your typical strawberry sorbet, veryyyyy sweet
  
  
  
  Sorbetto di Fragole with Blueberry Sauce
  
  
• Gelato Fiordilatte (Basic Milk Ice Cream) with Cinnamon and Nutmeg
  -This is gelato made by first boiling milk and sugar, then adding a bit of cream
  -To me, this was an "icier" gelato, which I really enjoyed
  -The cinnamon and nutmeg flavor were very subtle; next time I would add more spice to provide a more prominent flavor
• Gelato Crema (Basic Ice Cream)
  -This is your basic ice cream you could get in the US
  -Made by first boiling cream and sugar, it has a thicker and creamier consistency than milk gelato
  -We just made it plain--no added flavoring
• Gelato al Basilico (Basil Ice Cream)
  -Wow.
  -This was another basic ice cream but infused with basil
  -The basil flavor was mild and it was an interesting experience because you could detect a flavor you recognized, but couldn't quite put your finger on it because the texture and coolness of the ice cream strayed you in a different direction

Basic, Basil and Cream Gelato

I'm not quite sure how it came up, but while enjoying gelato, Marcella told me a story about how in when teaching at Apicius, she has to leave class and wrote on the board "Agadugo." All of her students (who are American), stared at her with puzzled faces and she couldn't understand why. What she was trying to say was "I've got to go."

:)

Afternoon

I rode my bike in the pouring rain to Palazzo Strozzi for two exhibits: Picasso, Miro and Dali and "Virtual Identities."

Both were incredible.

Traveling through time, the Picasso exhibit explored how Miro and Dali were influenced Picasso. Many incredible (and famous) pieces from all three artists were on display, and while usually not the biggest fan of cubism, I really enjoyed the exhibit. It was incredible to see how talented these artists were, even at a young age, and how their styles changed and developed over time.

"Virtual Identities" was also wonderful. I was discussing it with Alyssa (who went earlier in the day) and we were both just so happy to finally see new art. Yes, Renaissance art is wonderful, world-renowned and important, but in Florence we are constantly surrounded by history and "the old"--it was nice to see some innovation. A lot of the exhibit reminded me of some TED talks in terms of interesting ways of using data and the wireless world we live in. The exhibit opened with photographs by Evan Baden of people staring at screens--ipods, computers, in-car DVD players, phones and kindles. The photographs were completely illuminated by the glow of the screens and the subjects were completely absorbed in their electronics--it was so interesting. The next room was a series of video clips by Robbie Cooper. The videos were recorded using a camera inside a TV monitor and were of kids playing video games and watching movies. Listening to them and seeing their facial expressions was hysterical, and insanely thought provoking--because while I was standing their laughing at and watching these video clips, I was becoming them--completely immersed in the screen that was in front of me and making my own noises, facial expressions and gestures. I really hope they video taped people watching this--I was half expecting it to be like a 2-way mirror and to walk in the other room and see people watching people watching TV...did that make sense? Other cool parts of the exhibit included a guy who made both an atlas and "annual report" based on cell phone, internet and car data, and someone who zoomed in on Google Maps' street view and found funny/creepy moments such as people kissing and giving the finger.

"Every day our online actions bring to the construction of our online 'self.' Fed by aspirations and hopes or held back by fears and suspicions we shift ourselves in more and more connected fields. This map looks for a reconstruction of the flow of these relations. The colors of the single boxes show their rate of positivity/hope or negativity/fear."

Friday night I went out with Alyssa and met up with some of her friends, as well as a friend of mine who just got here this past week. I had to be up early on Saturday morning for the "Best of Tuscany Tour," though, so I only shmoozed for a bit.

More about Saturday and Sunday, plus updates on "The Count," tomorrow.