Jewish and Roman Artichokes

If you love artichokes, Italy offers a delicious variety of ways to prepare them. Besides the marinated versions in jars familiar to Americans, Roman restaurants serve two traditional artichoke ("carciofo" in Italian) dishes:  "carciofo alla romana" and "carciofo alla giudio".  That is, artichokes Roman style or artichokes Jewish style. 

Roman style artichokes are stewed with a meat broth or olive oil broth. Jewish style is fried. The Jewish style produces salty fried artichoke pedals that taste very similar to potato chips. The picture shows both versions. 

The Two Roman Capitals

It is striking to see the differences between the ruins of ancient Rome and ancient Constantinople (now Istanbul). When the Roman Empire fell in the West in 476 CE, it continued in the East until 1453 CE. Western historians use a historiography (how a history is told) that the Roman Empire fell in 476 CE and label the continuing Roman civilization in the eastern Mediterranean as "Byzantine" as if it was a new empire.  It wasn't, but the continuing Roman Empire centered on Constantinople did continue to develop and evolve through the Middle Ages into something different than ancient, classical Roman civilization.  And it was a Christian Roman world affiliated with Eastern Orthodoxy.  

To those living in the former western Roman provinces and even Rome itself, Rome as they knew it had fallen. The Dark Ages had come, and the ruling Church was Roman Catholic. Western European history continues this perspective until this day. It's the historiography America inherited. 

Ironically, it was probably these Christian 'barbarians' from the former Western Roman Empire that mortally wounded the final Roman world in the East. Western Catholic Crusaders led by Venice betrayed and sacked Christian, Eastern Orthodox, Greek-speaking Constantinople in 1204 during the 4th Crusade. Some estimate 2/3s of the world's wealth at that time was then in Constantinople. 

The Crusaders then installed a series of Latin Emperors until ousted by the locals.  The Crusaders did a huge amount of damage and looting to Constantinople.  The four bronze horses that now adorn St. Mark's Basilica in Venice were looted from Constantinople. (The originals are now in a Venetian museum.)  The last Latin emperor of Constantinople even stripped the Imperial Palace of its metal roof tiles and sold them. 

Crusaders also chopped off the head of a metal serpent statue in the Hippodrome. The coiled, headless relic remains in Constantinople to this day. 

The city never recovered, and when the Turks finally conquered the city in 1453, much of the old Imperial Palace and Roman city were in ruins.  Still, Istanbul remained a vibrant city with a large population that rebuilt and maintained important parts of the Roman city.  The Hagia Sophia is the most famous surviving building.

Rome, however, didn't fare as well. By the 1300s much of the city was abandoned. Local families fortified ancient buildings during the Dark Ages. The return of the popes from Avignon in France in the late 1300s set off a building boom with the papal powers basically using the old Roman buildings as a quarry for pillars, marble, statues, mortar, etc.  So the Roman Forum and other once huge structures in Rome are in fairly bad shape. The structures that remain mostly intact like the Pantheon often survived by being converted into churches. 

Jewish Slaves of Rome

The Colosseum was a sad site to us. Knowing that people paid to watch other people tortured and executed there was sobering. 

Some of you may know this already, but the Colosseum was primarily financed by loot from the sacking of the Jewish Temple and Judaea by the Romans around 70 CE.  The Jews revolted, and Emperor Vespasian crushed the revolt. The Temple was burned and looted.  Thousands of Jews were sold into slavery and provided the slave labor that built the Colosseum.  Vespasian's son, Diocletian, built an arch honoring his father and brother Titus that depicts Roman soldiers carrying a gold menorah and loot from the Temple. The Arch of Titus is nearby in the ruins of the Roman Forum. 

After the Colosseum we walked through the Forum. I don't recall the Forum requiring a ticket in 2001 but it does now. 

Trash in Italy: A Puzzle

Today was a day of great personal triumph for today the local Manziana solid waste authority deemed my garbage worthy of collection. This triumph comes after two rejections of my previously unworthy trash and one written note chastising my waste as non-conforming.  

For you see, taking out the garbage is a rather high stakes, adult affair in Italy.  Each home has not one, not two, but FIVE small, bucket-sized trash bins. Each one is for a very specific type of trash. 

The mysterious, pre-dawn garbage authority is yet unseen by me, but he?  she?  apparently come SIX days a week in a dizzying kaleidoscope of recycling and home solid waste sorting.  It took me a week before a tip from my young Italian friend Gianluca alerted me that this mysterious note taped up in the kitchen was a veritable Rosetta stone to a deeply held mystery of Italian life. Indeed, when I asked Gianluca via text which bin to use for trash, he responded he didn't know because he lived with his parents, and that they took care of it. So it became clear that trash is a very adult concern here. I became concerned there might even be age limits and so to be safe I deal with the trash instead of young Nathan. 

But Gianluca did say the trash people come six days a week with different days for different bins.  A light went off and suddenly the note below became clear!

Yes indeed.  Monday is for "umido" or damp trash. It goes into the brown bin marked "biologica".  Tuesday is for "carta" or paper and goes in the white bin. Wednesday is a rather important day when both glass and aluminum get fetched from the green bin. Thursday is more biologic vegetable peels, fruit cores and spoiled meat. Friday is a regular fiesta with plastics in the yellow bin and the unclassified mixed bag that makes up "indifferentizada" or something like that. These indifferent waste items that refuse to be easily sorted and recycled go into the gray bin. 

It all seemed so clear...

But then came another excited trip to the gate and another mournful discovery of unworthy and uncollected trash. Why oh why is my biologic waste not good enough?  How are my carrot tops and olive pits proving to be non-conformist?

Another fretful text with Gianluca reveals "biologica" have to be in special bags. It turns out last week's rotting chicken is fine. It's the plastic bag that holds it that faces the stern rejection of the Manziana trash authority. 

So I was careful to only put plastic things in a plastic bag and leave them out on a Thursday night in a yellow bin.  And triumph!  Friday morning's bright sunshine revealed the yellow bin outside the gate was empty.  Could the Apostles have felt more joy at that empty sepulcher?! 

And now it is time to up my game.  I went to the local grocery and in a dark corner found a pack of biological bags. Tonight's food scraps are safely encased in a said bag and lovingly placed in the brown bin. I have set it outside the gate tonight in hopes that Santa Trashman will soon be here and that at last my trash will conform in the right combination of bag, bin and day so that I will have won the Biologica World Cup of Garbage!!

Dracula's Gay Brother and the Sultan

Here is a fascinating bit of history I learned while in Istanbul:


RADU THE FAIR:  This story is great and actual history.  It turns out that Vlad III, the historic and bloody Prince (king actually but called Prince) of Wallachia better known by his nickname of Dracula, had three brothers. When his Christian father made a pact with the Ottoman Sultan to gain his throne, Dracula's father sent young Vlad and his handsome young brother Radu to the Sultan's court as hostages. The two brothers were raised with the Sultan's son Mehmet. They studied together. Radu grew up to be very handsome and charismatic. He was nicknamed Radu the Fair, and Mehmet pursued him. They are said to have become lovers.  

The two brothers lives diverged. Vlad hated school at the court and rebelled often. So he was often punished severely. Radu converted to Islam and became a leader of the elite Ottoman Jainassary troops. Vlad eventually became Prince of Wallachia -renowned for torturing prisoners while he ate.  He switched sides and opposed the Ottomans.  When the Sultan sent in troops Vlad and his army slaughtered 20,000 Turkish men, women and children by impaling them and leaving a forest of their bodies to scare off the Turks. It worked in scaring off the Ottoman troops. So the Sultan called in Radu to take care of Dracula.  

The brothers battled and became known in Turkish legend as the Blood Brothers.  Radu drove out Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler) who fled to Hungary. Radu became Prince allied with the Ottomans and appears to have had a fairly prosperous reign until his untimely death around age 40.  He also assisted Mehmet in conquering Constantinople.  Thus is the story of Dracula's brother and Mehmet the Conqueror. 

The Children of Lilith

Our friend Javid told us an interesting piece of folklore I thought I would share:

LILITH:  You may have heard of Lilith, Adam's first wife in Jewish and later Christian and Muslim legend. Stories say she wouldn't submit to Adam and left him. Then God made Eve.  What I didn't know was that in Muslim legends Lilith has red hair and redheads are teased sometimes about being Lilith's descendants. 

Grocery Shopping in Italy

Probably my favorite thing to do when I travel is to shop for groceries. I love seeing all the unique foods. As the world becomes sadly ever more uniform, grocery stores stand out with special regional quirks. In New Mexico the stores have large sections dedicated to chilis and tortillas. In Spain there are while refrigerated coolers for gazpacho.  

As you can imagine, the local grocery stores here are like gourmet stores in the US:  exotic pastas, wines, olives, meats, and cheeses. The pastas are both dried and refrigerated. 

Today we walked to the local Carrefour (a French grocery chain by the way). I asked Nathan to go have a cappuccino in the store's coffee shop so he wouldn't rush me through this fantasy land of epicurean delights.  I found ravioli stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese and almonds (dinner later this weekend) and my favorite pasta shape, "radiatore" or radiators. They are barrel-shaped with ridges and hold sauces well.  All kinds of goodies!

But perhaps the most amusing pasta name here is "strozzapreti" which translates as priest stranglers or priest chokers. The name supposedly comes from using this shape to feed the always big-appetited priest when he was invited over. This pasta was sure to choke even a hungry clergyman. 

I finally got to see and try strozzapreti last night at Il Sorcetto. Roberta, our friendly waitress, recommended it "alla Gricia" which is with pancetta or bacon. The shape of the pasta is like a worm or very thick spaghetti. The dish was delicious for dinner and leftovers for lunch. 

Nathan got the tortelloni filled with meat and served with a truffle cream sauce. Very rich dish. It takes is awhile to order with our phones' dictionaries in hand. 

Tonight was Friday night and we made sandwiches and a caprese salad at home. The fresh buffalo mozzarella was delicious and cost $2. So cheap compared to the US. 

Dessert was a delicious and perfectly ripe cantaloupe drizzled with Balsamic vinegar. Yum.