All posts by Crystal Cun

About Crystal Cun

Crystal Cun ate and earned her way through a master’s in Food Culture and Communications from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. For one year, through March 2011, she was awash in a sea of olive oil, photojournalism and sustainable food production. Prior to this peripatetic European adventure, she worked in research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and studied economics at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. At the moment, she is a student in the Culinary Techniques program at the International Culinary Center. She lives in Brooklyn, New York and works at W&T Seafood, a family-run seafood distributor specializing in premium oysters. Sometimes this requires abundant amounts of research with wine and oysters. She also works as a consultant for FRESH, an indie documentary about the farmers, activists and entrepreneurs who are reinventing our food system.

Historical Wine Cellars in Piedmont

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At the Wine Bank: a map of Italy’s most important varietals and their regions

The Piemonte region is an area in northwestern Italy, bordering France and Switzerland, with distinct seasons and mountainous terrain (literally: “foot of the mountain”). It is considered one of the greatest winemaking regions in Italy, renowned for its Barolo and Barbaresco red wines made from Nebbiolo grapes.

For the first day of the Piedmont stage, we stopped by the Banca del Vino (wine bank) housed inside the Agenzia di Pollenzo, which is also home to (you guessed it) the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Ah, familiar stomping grounds. Inspired by a vision from Carlo Petrini, the Banca del Vino is an effort to build a historical record of Italian wines, to select, stock and maintain the best of the Italian peninsula. Thus, the vault is part storage cellar, part museum, and holds a collection of wines from over 300 producers across Italy while providing tastings for visitors. They also offer themed workshops if you are interested in researching one region or varietal in particular. Outside of the vault, a large number of wines line the shelves and are available for sale. I was amused to see one labeled “Cornell,” although additional research suggests that the wine has nothing to do with my alma mater or Ezra Cornell’s descendants.
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Travel Note: Piedmont Stage

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Fresh off the heels of a trip to Puglia, we will be away on stage again this week, this time to our home region of Piemonte! Unlike last time though, we will be returning home every night to sleep in our own beds (yay!) and use our own computers (double yay!). So, I expect to not be continuously whining about the lack of internet access.

Piedmont is well known for its rolling mountains, wines (Barolo) and chocolate (in Turin). A sample itinerary (for Thursday July 8th):

8:00 – Departure
9:00 – Arrival at the Saluzzo jail. Visit Pausa Caffè brewery: presentation of the project, see beer production
10:45 – Depart for Torino
12:15 – Domori chocolate factory production line (home of the Best Chocolate Ever)
13:15 – Lunch
14:00 – Presentation of the factory and its marketing strategy
15:00 – Departure for Coazze
16:00 – Arrival in Coazze, see the production process of Chevrin di Coazze artisanal goat cheese
18:00 – Depart for Bra
19:30 – Arrival in Bra

Unfortunately, I am missing Wednesday morning’s activities because I have to go to the Questura (immigration office) to register for a permesso di soggiorno (residency permit). This requires going out to Cuneo, then getting all digits fingerprinted by a gloved and lab-coated man. Um. And they say the US is a police state?

Recipe: Potato Salad with Prosciutto, Peas & Fava Beans

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Grad school being what it is, I haven’t had as much free time as I would like for inspired cooking, resorting instead to a weekly routine of nourishing (albeit slightly boring) pastas, salads and sandwiches. Compounding the problem is our apartment’s lack of oven, and my perennial struggle to find ingredients that are not readily available in Italian markets. (This afternoon, I searched high and low to find fresh dill. I miss the herb stand at Green City Market.) It would also be highly helpful to have a blender. As Danielle put it, never before in my life have I talked about food so much without really making it. O.o

Anyway, tomorrow night the class is hosting a potluck dinner for Mark Van Horn, director of the UC Davis student farm and research group, and expert in organic farming and soil management. I summoned some energy and put together an appropriately summery potato salad, using ingredients that were available at the farmer’s market this morning. I am pretty happy with the results, so hopefully it will go over well at the potluck. Recipe follows after the jump.
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Food Anthropology: Chitalian Cuisine

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Last week, as part of a class on food anthropology, we all had to conduct an ethnographic study of a food production place in town using participant-observation methods (read: hanging out and discreetly taking notes). Rather than choosing one of the town’s many pizzerias or gelato shops, I decided to investigate the one place that has elicited a sort of morbid fascination for me for the last month: The Chinese restaurant in Bra. That’s right, there’s only one, and there isn’t too much other ethnic food in town to speak of, aside from a couple small kebab shops.

After enlisting the help of some comrades who claimed to be strong of stomach, we ventured toward Nin Hao Ristorante on the northern outskirts of town. It was 8 pm on a Monday night, and the restaurant was ostensibly open, but the dining room looked dark from the outside, and there were no signs of life, other than a Chinese man who was sitting on the sidewalk smoking a cigarette. I hesitated and gave a cautious tug on the door. The restaurant was desolate and the lights were even off. At that point, a server marched out, then turned to us with a smile as she flicked the light switch. We turned to each other apprehensively. I don’t know if I have ever dined at an entirely empty restaurant before.
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Puglia Food Products: Olive Oil, Capocollo, Wine, Cheese and Seafood

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Grindstone for a 17th century olive oil mill, a thousand-year old olive tree

Though some time was alloted in Puglia for activities not requiring mastication, the bulk of the trip was spent at food production sites, restaurants and agricultural lands. I realize that this must sound like the best foodie vacation ever, but eating rich foods nonstop for a week is not as pleasant as it may seem. Some of us had the added stress of documenting the trip in detail because there is a paper and presentation required after the stage. By the end, we were all thoroughly sick of cured meats, cheeses and each other. A few people actually became ill, though I cannot say whether this was due to food poisoning, general infection, or the stress of traveling and eating from 9 am to 1 am every day. My advice for anyone who goes on these trips is to ingest plenty of fiber and choose your roommate carefully.

Moving on to the actual food. Puglia’s dry, sunny climate makes it difficult to grow many crops, but the hardiness of olive trees in times of drought has resulted in their widespread cultivation. The trees dot the Puglian landscape with their graceful, twisted trunks and branches, akin to a pair of ballet dancers. We were told by one farmer that the trees twist according to the Earth’s rotation, and that olive trees planted south of the equator would twist in the opposite direction, similar to the rotation of water draining from toilets. This is a romantic idea, but since the Coriolis force has been shown to have a tenuous effect on toilet water, I am somewhat doubtful of the tree-twisting claim.

Still, the trees are majestic to behold, knotted and gnarly, reminiscent of the baobab tree in The Little Prince. The one pictured above actually belongs to a Russian who admired the unique shape of its trunk. So, he bought the tree for €5,000. In return, he gets to keep the olive oil milled from the olives of this tree, which comes to 10-15 liters of oil per year. He also comes to visit his tree annually. If you are interested in owning a piece of Italian real estate and having a lifetime supply of olive oil, you too can invest in one of the 50,000 available trees for the low price of €500-1,000 by contacting Olio Cazzetta.
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