#1. Feta and spinach savory pie

Cost: low. Time: 15 minutes + 30 minutes baking.
This is one of my favorite recipes and my trick to get my children to eat spinach. While the baking part takes time, the preparation is super easy. You can bake this pie hours beforehand and it makes a perfect picnic meal in the summer. I buy the crust frozen (this is the brand I use), don’t forget to take it out a couple of hours before baking.
Ingredients (serves 4): 1 round frozen crust, 1 egg, 1 feta cheese, 600 g frozen leaf spinach, 4 tbs of parmesan cheese (or grated cheese of your liking), salt and pepper.
Directions: boil the spinach (I do it in the microwave – fast and easy). Throw them in a mixer with the feta cheese, the egg, a little salt and pepper. Mix until smooth (kids-proof ). Level the crust in a round baking tray, pour the mix, and top with grated cheese. Bake at 200C for about 30 minutes.

#2. Teriyaki salmon, green beans, and baked potatoes

Cost: medium. Time: 15-40 minutes (depends on the side dish).
R doesn’t like fish and finding ways to sell it to her is a challenge. This is why I love this dish as the sweetness of the teriyaki sauce persuades my picky eater. You can experiment with other vegetables on the side, but my suggestion is green beans (I buy them frozen and heat them up on a frying pan with some butter and salt) and baked potatoes.
I peel the salmon fillet and cut it in slices. Then I brown in on all sides on a frying pan with butter. After serving, I top it with a couple tablespoons of teriyaki sauce, which you can find ready made in most shops. Delicious!

#3. Tortillas

Cost: medium. Time: 30 minutes.
I’m sure you can find 10000 fancier recipes for tortillas, but this is our simple, fuss-free version. Here in the picture I have used the “boat-like” tortillas, but I more often use the flat ones.
Ingredients (serves 4): 1 onion, 400 g minced meat, 4 tortillas, few salad leaves, 2 tomatoes, 1 bag of taco spice mix, taco salsa.
Directions: chop the onion and toss it in a frying pan with some oil. Add the meat and cook until brown. Add the spice mix at the end and keep mixing. Chope the tomatoes in cubes. In another frying pan warm up the tortillas one by one. When one it’s warm, toss it on a plate, spread some salsa, a couple of spoons of meat, salad leaves and tomato cubes and wrap it. Et voilà!

#4. Vegetarian noodle stir-fry

Cost: low. Time: 30 minutes.
I looove this dish. It’s not easy to find vegetarian meals that my family appreciate, but this is one. It’s so tasty and the combination of flavours is heavenly. I’m getting hungry just writing about it.
Ingredients (serves 4): your favorite dry noodles, 1 spring onion, 1 carrot, 2 sweet peppers, fresh ginger (about 2 cm), 4 eggs, soy sauce, salt and pepper. You can try different vegetable combinations.
Directions: start by cutting the vegetables while you heat the water for the noodles on the stove. Chop the ginger finely and mix it with the chopped spring onion. Cut the carrot in thin sticks and the pepper in rings – I choose the seedless peppers to speed things up. Heat up a couple of tablespoons of sunflower oil in a pan, toss the ginger+onion first and shortly after the other vegetables. Stir-fry mixing often, remember you don’t want them mushy. Cook the noddles according to the instructions on the box and toss them with the vegetables, adding soy sauce, salt, and pepper to taste. Fry the eggs in a separate pan and serve them on top, like in the picture. Just delicious, I guarantee.

#5. Spinach soup and boiled egg

Cost: low. Time: 20 minutes.
This is a classic Finnish dish that takes no effort, is healthy, and my kids inexplicably love (thank you, daycare?).
Ingredients (serves 4): 50 g of butter, 4 tablespoons of flour, 1l of milk, 250g of frozen spinach (chopped, not leaves), 4 eggs, salt and pepper.
Directions: boil the eggs separately (8 minutes in boiling water). In a pot, melt the butter and then whisk it together with the flour. Add the milk and wait until it’s close to boil. Add the spinach, salt, and pepper. Serve it like in the picture (that’s half the fun!).

Will you try any of these recipes? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this post, you may appreciate also:
The easiest recipe for a birthday cake
Going (almost) vegetarian
Where to purchase Italian food supplies in Finland

Featured image by Anelka from Pixabay.

The post 5 Easy Healthy Kid-Friendly Meals appeared first on The Elephant Mum.

I am not aware of other farms allowing pumpkin picking in the capital area, but I suspect we’ll see more in the future. The above mentioned place gets more popular year after year, to the point that this year pumpkins were all picked before the end of the first day!
We were blessed with a sunny and chilly day. The kids enjoyed running in the patch to find their favourite pumpkins, green or orange, big or small.

One aspect I love of this place is all the languages you hear spoken. Clearly it’s a place appreciated by multicultural families. Autumn visits to pumpkin patches are an American tradition, probably not yet popular among native Finns.

Pumpkins are usually ripe at the end of September here in Finland, so unfortunately they do not last until Halloween – last year we tried, but they didn’t make it. So this year we set out to freeze several single portions to enjoy pumpkin throughout the cold season. We love to use it in risotto (find my recipe here), pumpkin creamy soup, and this year we plan to try home-made pumpkin ravioli! While we still have to find a use for the soft pulp (suggestions?), we love to keep the seeds and eat them as a snack. This year I learned you can toast them in the microwave.

This is how you can prepare them:

• Pick the pumpkin seeds away from the pulp and wash them;
• place them on a cloth and dry most of the water away;
• when they are damp and not wet anymore, place them in a bowl and add salt to your taste, then mix. The salt will stick to the seeds if they are damp;
• spread some seeds on a plate and place it in the microwave. I have used the maximum temperature and cooked them for about 4 minutes. Some batches took longer and I tested if they were ready by tasting.

Enjoy your salted pumpkin seeds as a fingerfood snack! See you next year at the pumpkin patch.

The post Our Family’s Fall Tradition: Pumpkin Picking appeared first on The Elephant Mum.

Let’s start with my motives. The main one is sustainability. Mass meat production is responsible for plenty of environmental disasters: greenhouse gas emissions, destruction of land through grazing, excessive water consumption, the list goes on.

In 2017, over 15 thousands scientists worldwide signed the “Warning to Humanity“, which included a plead to reduce meat consumption.
The second motive was personal health. I wanted to reduce red meat especially and, in general, monitor and control how much meat I was eating. In addition, I wanted to trick myself into introducing new regular ingredients into my diet, as well as forcing my hand into eating more greens. The third reason was linked to the first two and it was to transition to quality over quantity. One current issue that worries me a lot is superbacteria:

By cutting my meat intake, I will have the same buying budget to spend on less, thus being able to make more conscious consumer choices. I can choose organic meat or meat produced under certain standards.

Now, what concretely helped me in changing my habits? I have to thank my health coach Stefania for the support (read her story here). First, she encouraged me to cut my meat intake to only 4 times a week. It may seem like a lot, but I quickly realised how far from my goal I was starting. I would eat processed meat in snacks or sandwiches; out of gluttony I would choose the meat option at the work cafeteria more often than not; meat would sneak in pasta sauces unnoticed. As soon as I introduced that upper bound, I realised how bad I was doing. After few successful weeks, Stefania reduced it to 3 times a week. However, at the point I had made the bigger step already. I had developed an eye for it and learned new recipes (the app Yummly saved me, seriously). Nowadays, I still have my limit of 3, yet I often end the week without reaching it.
Here’s some small tricks that helped me:

• I made sure my husband supported me from the start – the man never blinked when I served unfamiliar dishes and approached them with an open mind;
• I recorded my meat intake through the app Tally to make sure I was sticking to my goal;
• I took on to choose the vegetarian option whenever I ate out;
• I sticked to learn at least 2 new vegetarian recipes every week – some were enjoyed and became regular;
• I tried to add extra veggies and fruit whenever possible – for example nowadays I regularly top my risotto and my pizza with rucola;
• one of my worries was proteins – I included more legumes and I mixed some natural supplements (maca powder, flax seeds, …) into my dishes.

Now the million dollar question: do I feel differently? You know I am very skeptic of diets and I didn’t spare you my honest opinion in the past. However, I have experienced an interesting shift in well-being in the past weeks. It’s hard to attribute 100% of credit to the diet, but honestly it is the only major lifestyle change I have made beside going on short walks regularly. The first 2 weeks I was bloating with gas – sorry for the detail – but after that I started feeling lighter and definitely more energetic. My work stress usually gets to my belly, yet it never did since I changed my diet. I am not claiming you would experience the exact same, just observing a pleasant unexpected side effect I had.

I am very proud I have achieved at changing this habit and I feel rewarded by the positive effects. It didn’t happen in a day, but overall it was easier that I thought. I hope my modest experience will inspire others to make a similar transition. If I have succeeded, everyone can!

The post Going (Almost) Vegetarian | How I Slashed My Meat Intake appeared first on The Elephant Mum.

An inspiring read: Becoming

Are you looking for the next book to read? Look no more. I was completely blown away by the celebrate Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming. Michelle shares about her family, her intense life before meeting Barack, and their long journey before they even entered the White House. Living under the spotlight for 8 years wasn’t easy. Her memoir is raw, honest, and even though she went through an incomparable experience, most women will relate. Because underneath it all, there’s a woman who fought all her life to be true to herself, find a balance among career, self-realisation, motherhood, and supporting her husband in a demanding career. You’ll love it. I recommend to buy the audiobook on Audible, narrated by Michelle herself. It’s so powerful to hear her story through her spoken words.

Learning new recipes with Yummly

I have recently discovered this fantastic recipe app and it has changed my life. This may sound dramatic, but hear me out. I am used to make a weekly menu every weekend. We are quite picky and don’t want to eat the same dishes over and over. I also appreciate learning new things and trying new flavours. On top of that, I have recently cut my meat intake and this has forced me to expand my vegetarian recipe collection. I have struggled with finding reliable recipe websites. Yummly is super convenient: you can filter recipes with many criteria – special diets, allergies, cooking time, ingredients to avoid, variety of ingredients, and so on. It’s very easy to save recipes to personal collections and dishes are realistic and tested (and reviewed by users!). I have found great new ideas we have tried, tested, and loved! Give it a try, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

A YouTube channel you need to subscribe to

Chris Ulmer was a special need teacher who, quite by chance, became a paladin for diversity and acceptance. His YouTube channel, Special Books by Special Kids (SBSK) now counts 1.5M subscribers. Chris tours the world to interview people of all ages who are living with different kinds of conditions. He gives them a platform to share how they live, love, and more. The channel also became a community, full of engaged supporters who connect with the interviewees to express solidarity and also politely ask questions about the different lifestyles and challenges. I have learned so much from Chris’ videos and I am sure you’ll love them as well.

A sweet animation series on Prime

This original Prime Video series for children is just so cute! Both my kids love it. Personally, I especially appreciate it comes dubbed in a bazillion languages, so it’s multicultural-family-friendly. It’s a story of friendship, positivity, and facing obstacles with imaginative solutions. In some ways, it reminds me of Curious George. I’m always on the lookout for stimulating content when it comes to screen time, and this is a good catch!

An introduction to minimalism

Don’t worry, I’m not here to convert you to minimalism. It’s not for everyone (definitely not for me). However, few months ago my family underwent an interesting change after watching this documentary on Netflix. I had been attracted to the idea of cutting on the amount of stuff we owned for a long time, but struggled to make consistent change. Watching that film together with my husband triggered a real conversation and we took it on to make some adjustments. In few weeks, we cleared the house of several boxes of pure junk. We made space where we didn’t think it was possible. If you are fascinated by doing something like that, the documentary Minimalism can be an easy start to learn more about how you can set your mind to act on it.

I hope you will enjoy these little pearls I have collected for you. If you find any of these useful or enjoyable, don’t forget to let me know. I love to hear your feedback. Have a great and sunny July!

The post My June 2019 Favorites appeared first on The Elephant Mum.

Useless to say, I had to break the news we were going to my kids only few hours before. Defining them excited is an understatement. They had the time of their life, eating ice cream with little limitations (“Can we really have more??” – I quote). We visited on Saturday 27th, after lunch. Tickets worked in turns of two hours. We entered when one was ending and were lucky to meet little crowd. We could freely tour several stands. Unfortunately I have to say that about a hour later the situation changed and we found it hard to move around with two small kids. I feel this is something families should be mindful of.

We explored especially the ice cream section, being us an Italian family and therefore an absolute authority on the topic of gelato. We had a chance to taste many and our top threes were:
3. Roberts’ Coffee Gelato Factory
2. Kolme kaveria
1. La Gelateria – our winner!
I was especially impressed by La Gelateria’s pistachio flavour, a vegan version made with water. I was skeptic, but I found it as creamy and tasty as gelato should be.

During our visit the main stage was hosting a fierce competition to win “Ice Cream of the Year 2019”. According to the general results, vegan pistachio is a strong trend this year. Bus Gelato‘s version won the coveted title.

Few stands had mascots greeting small visitors or brief activities for children, like a raffle where we won candies.

To break the sugar rush, the organisers had the smart idea of placing a kids’ corner on the second floor. We visited it to unwind from the noise and allow the children to jump some energy off on the bouncy castle. Beside that, the space had chairs and boardgames. I was really glad to have this quiet corner where to rest before hitting the stands again.

Another nice touch were the water fountains, easy to access and absolutely needed! I was expecting somebody would cash out on selling water bottles, but I was pleasantly surprised by this free service offered to visitors.

What’s my final verdict on the event? It was fun, but more suitable to adults or families with older children. The crowd in the final part of our visit made it really hard to move around, let alone reach the stands. Then there’s the fact that small kids are way more sensitive to sugar, so the visit can easily be cut short by how they react to the tastings. I found the event interesting and entertaining for adults, and I would definitely recommend it more for a romantic or friends’ date than a family outing. If you decide to attend, make sure to check the programme beforehand and make sure to get the most from your visit.

It was an interesting experience and the whole family enjoyed it. It was nice to make a big exception on our diet and get our bellies full with delicious ice cream. Would definitely visit again next year, just me and my hubby this time!

We were invited to the fair by its organisers. Opinions are mine and sincere. Read more about my working values here.

The post Kicking Off Summer At The Carnival of Ice Cream and Chocolate 2019 appeared first on The Elephant Mum.

Not long ago I spotted a new brand on the market: Nom Nom by Lejos. Their snacks are healthy and mostly fruit-made. They have no added sugar and no weird stuff. They accomodate allergies and have gluten-free, milk-free, as well as vegan options. But most of all – not for granted when you go on the healthy side – they taste darn good! If you wanna know where in scale of good, my husband and I have stolen some fruit-oats bars from the kids’ stack more than once (don’t judge!). Here’s a closer look to the products we tried.

Snack bars

The fruit-oats bars were definitely our favourites. They became one of my personal snacks, I tell ya. They are vegan, tasty and slightly sweet. Ingredients include around 40% of oats, fruit and vegetables (powder or juice), sunflower oil, and spices. The sweet flavour is provided by inulin, a healthy alternative to sugar:

[Inulin] can be used to replace sugar, fat, and flour. This is advantageous because inulin contains 25-35% of the food energy of carbohydrates (starch, sugar). In addition to being a versatile ingredient, inulin provides nutritional advantages by increasing calcium absorption and possibly magnesium absorption,^[ while promoting the growth of intestinal bacteria.

Source: Wikipedia.

Another snack we tried was the raspberry-goji bar and that’s another loud YES. The bar is completely fruit made, except for a tiny part of sunflower oil. Kids loved it! The fact that I couldn’t find any in our kitchen and had to look up the ingredients list online is the ultimate proof.

Fruit mash

This snack proved most suitable for my son (3 years old) and my daughter (5) didn’t appreciate it much. My son really liked it and asked for more. Again, the ingredient list gets a stamp of approval: 100% fruit and antioxidant, absolutely no added sugars. The packaging is smart: it comes with two portions and plastic spoons included. They can be stored at room temperature and they make a perfect portable snack. Recommended for kids under 4.

Fruit bites (the perfect fake candies)

I know I will come out as evil, but these fruit bites became one of my secret weapons as a parent. We have a strict sugar policy, but that doesn’t prevent our kids from asking candies at every opportunity (you’ve gotta admire their perseverance).

These organic fruit bites are the perfect way to pretend you are caving in once in a while. They are gluten-free and 95% fruit. They are yummy, but I ate two a moment ago simply for sake of a transparent and honest review.

Sodas

We also were given sodas to try. I don’t give any soda to my kids out of our parental policy, but I was happy to personally try them. Given they don’t contain any added sugar, they are a safe alternative if your kids crave bubbles. They are just vaguely sweet (that’s how I like my soda) and make a perfect self-indulgent alternative to water. I also appreciate they are smaller than normal cans (only 250 ml), as I never can finish a soda by myself. Nom nom sodas get my stamp of approval as well!

The final verdict is HELL YEAH! Our family truly enjoyed these snacks. They are a healthy and consumer-friendly snack option for kids (and not only, ehm ehm).

If you are curious to try the Nom Nom products, you can find them at most grocery stores in Finland. You can also follow Nom Nom on Instagram.

I was sent a selection of Nom Nom products to taste and review. Opinions are mine and sincere. Read more about my values here.

The post Healthy And Tasty: Trying The Nom Nom Snacks appeared first on The Elephant Mum.

In eight years, I have build a network of convenient food suppliers I am most proud of. Italian cuisine is appreciated worldwide and many local friends have appreciated my advice on where to conveniently source ingredients, so I thought, why not summarise them in a post? Overall you will find anything in grocery shops, but if you use the ingredients listed here fairly often or want to buy a bigger bulk to split with friends, you will find better bargains from these vendors.

Pasta and risotto rice

Pasta is extremely cheap in Italy and 1kg of respectable quality pasta costs around 80 cents. The pasta you find in most Finnish shops is either low quality (I’m talking Torino, Pirkka, Baresa) or high-quality but expensive (Garofalo). Barilla and De Cecco represent a good compromise, but variety is extremely limited. I gave up to finding a deal comparable to Italy, but there’s a way to buy at a cheaper price than shops and be allowed to choose whatever pasta type you ever dreamed of. The De Cecco e-shop serves customer in English language, it ships to Finland and orders over 50 kg are entitled to free delivery. If you team up with a couple of friends, 50 kg are easy to top. In addition, pasta has long expiration time and can be stored for over a year (but do not keep it in cold storage, it gets damaged). You will find any type of pasta in there. The 3kg packages are the most convenient.
De Cecco e-shop is also where I buy my risotto rice. Risotto requires certain kinds of rice and the very best ones are considered to be Carnaroli and Vialone, the latter being cheaper.

Pasta sauces and pesto

Pasta toppings are one of the things I miss the most here. Ready-made sauces are an quick-and-easy solution, but I am not willing to compromise with what you find here. Don’t get me started on Dolmio… yuk! Moreover, the pesto brands you find in local shops barely include basil or pine nuts (can you even call them pesto?). Barilla produces good pasta, but its sauces are meh.
My go-to place is Eataly.net. Their website is fully in English and delivery of orders exceeding 69 euros is free. Eataly regularly change their offer and prices can really differ product by product (not all have convenient deals). I really love their pasta sauces, for instance the brands Il Vallino or Bonamici. The pesto sauces sold here are more expensive than the ones you find in shops but they are more intensely flavoured. For comparison, if you buy a 190g jar of pesto Saclà, it’s so bland you need to use it all to top four portions of pasta. With the same quantity of pesto from Italpesto from Eataly.net, you feed twice as many people (with better taste).

Tomato sauce

Between pasta and pizza, I estimate that our family uses 5L of tomato sauce a month. We appreciate most passata (the smooth one), but others prefer polpa (tomato sauce with finely chopped pieces). This is another thing not to go cheap on, since it’s such a dominant flavour in Italian dishes. You can find good brands in local shops (I appreciate Biona and Mutti), but personally I order from Eataly.net. My favourite brands of passata are Antonella, Dani Coop and Bonamici. Sometime these brands go out of stock and others are too expensive: in such case the tomato sauces from De Cecco e-shop are a good replacement.

Parmigiano / Parmesan cheese and olive oil

The local Italian association organises buying groups of different brands of olive oil once a year from trusted (and tested) Italian suppliers, on account of its members. Similarly, parmesan cheese is ordered three to four times a year. There is no minimum order nor additional fees, but you need to be a member of the association. Being a member entitles you to plenty of discounts in restaurants and shops as well, so the small membership fees pays off quickly if you are fond of Italian food. Ordering parmesan cheese from the association costs less than half what you would pay in any grocery shop (and quality is excellent).

Cold cuts (prosciutto, mortadella…)

The best quality / price ratio for these can be found in Lidl. Mortadella is part of the standard assortment, as well as salame, prosciutto crudo and often prosciutto cotto.

Everything else

If there’s something else you fancy and you are not able to find in general grocery stores (whose offer is quite wide nowadays), here’s a shortlist of local shops selling Italian products:
Signora Delizia (sauces, high-quality pasta, chocolate, seasonal products, the go-to place for panettone, pandoro and colomba)
Casa Italia (mostly cold cuts and cheese, sometime seasonal products…)
La Tartufata (sauces, high-quality pasta, chocolate…)
La Bottega 13 (cold cuts, cheese…)
Italian Herkut (everyday products, cookies…)
Hakaniemen kauppahalli (cold cuts, cheese…)
Vaelsa (fresh pasta)

I hope this list will help Italian cuisine’s fans in Finland to access ingredients more conveniently and easily. Did you appreciate this list? What’s your best supplier for your home-country foods in Finland? Share it in the comments down below.

The post Where to Purchase Italian Food Supplies in Finland appeared first on The Elephant Mum.

Vellamo, outside view.

As soon as we entered, we were presented with the majestic view of several boats displayed in the grand hall. The permanent exhibitions collect traces of history of the region and Kotka, a town by the sea. Kotka lies at the mouth of river Kymi, a 200 km long river connected to water basins up to 600 km away. In the past, the river presented a chance for lumbermen to transport logs to Southern Finland. Thanks to the commercial opportunities, several wood factories and paper mills opened towards the end of the 19th centuries and called in workers and their families from other areas of Finland. The town of Kotka was founded.

Entering Vellamo.

Today, Kotka is an important port in the Baltic sea, with a strong role in commercial routes to and from Russia. It is still a proud sea town, with its beautiful city centre living on an island. Vellamo celebrates all this, along with more of the past and recent Finnish history.

Another interesting chapter of local history concerns the Karhula glass factory. The factory was founded in 1889, few years after its competitor, internationally known Iittala, started its business. After World War I, Karhula absorbed Iittala and dominated the national market for decades. Vellamo hosts a rich exhibition of glassware, and covers the history of the glass factory, as well as profiles of its most successful designers.

Design is a part of Finnish international reputation. It was really interesting to learn more about its history. Karhula kept producing design items under the Ittala brand, while the main plant turned to gross production and affirmed as national bottle and container manufacturer, until it closed in 2009. The renowned Finlandia vodka bottle was one of their makings.

The best of Vellamo can be found in the hall. Several real boats and ships are displayed and tell a story. Others can be observed in small scale models or reconstructions. Yoiu can study ancient items recovered by ships sinked in the Baltic Sea. There’s even a raft from a rescue operation, reminding of the current migrant crisis.

From the perspective of a parent of small children, this is by far the smartest museum I have ever visited:

• all the centre is stroller-friendly (and you can borrow strollers from the museum);
• they implemented gamification in most exhibitions and children get to play while learning;
• several play areas are distributed throughout the museum.

We adults were allowed to focus on the tour and kids didn’t get bored. Most displayed items can be touched; our children could play inside a boat and an old FIAT car; the collections of historical toys contained many pieces they could try and play with.

During summertime, Vellamo offers daily non-stop workshops for kids and even free-of-charge tours for kids aged 6-10 (in Finnish). The centre regularly hosts events for children. You can find more about their activities for young visitors on the their dedicated webpage.

I should mention you can access the centre with the Museum Card (museokortti) if you own one. If you don’t, entry fee is really small given what the place offers (10€ adult, 0€ under 18).

The centre hosts the nice restaurant Laakonki with view on the bay. You don’t need a museum ticket to access it. We enjoyed their buffet lunch, kids liked the food and we parents got to rest our eyes on the scenic view of the sea.

Vellamo is a must-see in Finland, not only in Kotka. I can highly recommend it as a great activity for the whole family. You can find more information on Vellamo in their website, or peak at their offer on their Instagram feed and their Facebook page.

I partnered with Visit Kotka-Hamina for this series of posts. Opinions are mine and sincere. Read more about my transparency values here.
Read the other posts about our trip: 1.

The post Our family trip to Kotka-Hamina: visiting the Maritime Centre Vellamo appeared first on The Elephant Mum.

Well, where was I? Oh, right, why Italian people care about food so much. If you have an Italian friend, you must have noticed a couple of trends:

• no matter the context or where the conversation starts from, you’ll end up talking about food,
• he/she has a seizure when you say you like pineapple on pizza or that your kids like to top their pasta with ketchup.

Italian people love food. Our day rotates solely around meal times. Social and family life is linked to food. A meal is a ritual.
You see, making food for someone else is an expression of affection and care. Our mothers used to cook for us, every day, putting extra care in serving us healthy and tasty meals. My mother used to work full-time and didn’t even like cooking. Yet, she would read all labels to make sure our food was healthy. She would cook diverse and nutritional meals. Food equals our mom for us.

Meals are also family rituals. I’m sure many of you share traditional food with family during festivities. Most Italian people have such rituals every week. My husband recalls how he used to visit his nana every Sunday and eat fresh pasta at her place. I have few memories of shared moments with my grandmother and most involve food. I still remember her when I eat the meals we typically shared, no matter how simple. These memories make food sacred for us.

Comic from www.thingsinsquares.com

One way to sympathise with this approach, is to picture Italian food culture is like a religion to us. The general line of it is cultivated and passed on by all Italian people, most likely the only thing we truly share. We don’t share one language – sure, we all speak Italian, but we have 34 dialects which influence greatly our spoken Italian – , we don’t have the same political views, we suck at being a community in general. Also, we became a country only 150 years ago! Yet somehow we share the love of food. We can talk food for hours. When I tell a fellow Italian how you are supposed to cook an authentic bolognese sauce, I’m not giving them a recipe! I’m telling them how my mother or grandmother used to make it, I add in which occasion we used to eat it together. And they know I’m sharing this piece of family history and heritage, not how to make a damn bolognese. Food touches on our most intimate memories and deepest feelings.

Now that you get a picture of it, fast forward to when someone tells me they like ketchup on top of their spaghetti bolognese. My brain works associations in one instant: bolognese sauce -> my mom who spent a full day cooking bolognese for me like her mom and her grandmother did –> this guy has no respect for this, he doesn’t even know any of it, he opens a ready-made jar of self-proclaimed bolognese, throws it at room temperature on top of low-quality glue-like spaghetti, and tops it with a disgusting American sauce. Why does he hate my mother? Can he go destroy his childhood memories, PLEASE?

Fun fact, if the same conversations would go like this, we would be fine:
Dude: “Hey, I cooked spaghetti noodles with bolognese meat sauce. Put some ketchup on it”
Any Italian: “Sounds exotic.”
—
Dude: “I ordered pizza bread topped with tomato, cheese, and pineapple on it.”
Any Italian: “Let me try how it tastes.”

The horror! Comic from www.sandraandwoo.com

You probably still think we are overreacting. Or maybe this truly rendered the idea that it’s not really about food for us. Now I would like to hear from you and I’m sure you will have a story to tell: how did you make an Italian friend freak out about food? Drop me a line down in the comments and I will be glad to update the post to feature the best stories!

***

Did you like this post? You may want to check out some others about being an expat:
How being an expat made me a better adoptive parent
Building bridges between cultures: a positive story
I am a culture juggler

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