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Speaker: Assiduous, Unrelenting

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  • B Jones,

    your fancy imported bug is just ordinary old yeast.

    Only in the broadest sense. Your supermarket dried yeast (__saccharomyces cervisiae__, or sugar-eating beer fungus) makes perfectly good bread and ginger beer, as I understand it, but the original ginger beer plant is a symbiont of saccharomyces pyriformis and something vermiformis. My dad made the standard yeast sort last summer, and was tipped off to the other by my cousin, who's a winemaker.

    I'm making the stuff as an attempt to recreate the wonderful drink I had as a kid, which commercial brands Phoenix and Hardieboys only begin to approach. It's a nostalgia-driven project, and going all-out at the start is kind of insurance against disappointment.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 976 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    Isn't Ferarra in the Dolomites? I would expect that any Ferrara water might have a bit more dissolved magnesium and calcium salts in, but I don't think they're significant for bread baking... I shall ask my dad (who used to teach food science) and report back if there is a difference.

    Also, I'm having a crack at the bread this weekend.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    I bet, your kids are very lucky. Mum is past such endeavours, she toyed with the idea a while ago but it was all a bit too much

    Can I recommend, if your mother/grandmother etc is too old for the writing, that sitting down with them and looking through photographs with a tape recorder running is a valuable resource.

    Even if you don't do anything with it now, when they're gone someone will want to know who people are and what stories the family had. Your kids/grandkids will want to know about where the family comes from, and the people that know won't be around any more.

    Going through photographs is a great way to jog memories and get stories going. It's also useful to refer to the photographs in some way that you can look back at them later, so numbering the photographs and talking about them by the number is a smart thing to do.

    Often such an activity might take 20, 30 hours at a minimum, so it's a good thing to schedule over a several weekend afternoons.

    With digital technology these days, you can make multiple copies of the recording and everyone in the family can have a copy, with scans of the accompanying images.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    But you really, really, really don't want to get me started on the music.

    Don't get me started.

    I'm on a big Piccioni kick at the moment.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    I'm on a big Piccioni kick at the moment.

    I have absolutely no idea who that is. And I know, I could Google it but why not ask you to enlighten me instead?

    (I didn't buy a single CD while I was there, which is just shameful)

    Can I recommend, if your mother/grandmother etc is too old for the writing, that sitting down with them and looking through photographs with a tape recorder running is a valuable resource.

    She's not up to that either, really, although we did have the odd snippet of conversation, the gist of which I duly wrote down. A couple of reitred family friends are getting high school students to do the very thing you're talking about with old folks in resthomes, and the interviews are being recorded and archived for a history of the province of Crema. A lovely project, they gave me some of the printed materials to take home.

    Isn't Ferarra in the Dolomites?

    No, smack in the middle of the Pianura Padana, along the Po river. Although by that stage the Po water does include some dolomitic water. But, more importantly...

    I'm having a crack at the bread this weekend.

    How did it go?!

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    Erm, events, mostly insomnia-related, overtook me. But Labour Weekend is coming up. If it comes out any good, I'll hand-deliver.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    If it comes out any good, I'll hand-deliver.

    Hah! You, sir, are a living legend.

    I'd like to cook more international food, but often I'm just lacking somebody to tell me if a given dish Tastes The Way That It's Supposed To Taste... I guess that could be my job here.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    Piero Piccioni, film composer and pianist, most active c. '60-'80 (though he was a bandleader, as a teenager, even before the war). Style often characterised by Jazz influences. Composed for more than 300 films (at least 30 with Alberto Sordi). Probably the best-known Italian film composer after Morricone and Rota. These two give a small taste of his brilliance.

    Rugido Do Leão (1974) typfies his Brazilian influences, his great horn charts, and his jaunty attitude.

    C'era una volta (1967) is one of his most famous themes, celebrated for its haunting beauty.

    I'm also listening to Morricone (obviously), Bruno Nicolai, Piero Umiliani, Alessandro Alessandroni, Stelvio Cipriani, De Angelis fratelli, Berto Pisano, Franco Micalizzi, Armando Trovajoli, Giorgio Gaslini...

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Piero Piccioni, film composer and pianist, most active c. '60-'80 (though he was a bandleader, as a teenager, even before the war).

    Ah, but of course... Silly, silly me.

    I'm also listening to Morricone (obviously), Bruno Nicolai, Piero Umiliani, Alessandro Alessandroni, Stelvio Cipriani, De Angelis fratelli, Berto Pisano, Franco Micalizzi, Armando Trovajoli, Giorgio Gaslini...

    A list made even more meritorious by the absence of Nicola Piovani. I'm going to have to get my hands on some of these now.

    If you haven't seen Dear Diary by Moretti, the episode with the mayor who wants to hire Morricone to compose a soundtrack to his island is a gem.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    the episode with the mayor who wants to hire Morricone to compose a soundtrack to his island is a gem.

    Ha. I can imagine.

    "Nessuno. Troppo occupato."

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • Isabel Hitchings,

    I'd like to cook more international food, but often I'm just lacking somebody to tell me if a given dish Tastes The Way That It's Supposed To Taste... I guess that could be my job here.

    I always figure that at least half the family don't think it's "disgusting*" then it probably tastes how it oughta.

    *how my almost seven-year-old describes a good 50% of what I try to feed him.

    Christchurch • Since Jul 2007 • 719 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    I always figure that at least half the family don't think it's "disgusting*" then it probably tastes how it oughta.

    *how my almost seven-year-old describes a good 50% of what I try to feed him.

    Yes, but then there's nary a dish that a child wouldn't prefer fried, and soon we'd be frying everything.

    I can see the convenience and marketability of fusion, and I understand that it's sometimes good to innovate and not just replicate, but I think there's something to be said also for trying to reconstruct the authentic taste of a regional dish, given that it's most often the result of generations of small refinements and improvements. It's also a form of intercultural courtesy, a bit like trying to pronounce a foreign word as correctly as you can.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

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