Italy and Babies

More and more I am heading outside with the Veronica. Winter has arrived and I can see my breath as I exhale. It has not stopped me from bundling her up and taking her for walks in her stroller. If I have a quick errand and do not want to deal with bumpy sidewalks then I put her in her sling. When we are out and about buying bread, visiting the butcher or picking up fruits and vegetables, we run into people who are dying to have a look at Veronica. It seems everybody in Italy (Torino) loves babies.

At the park, people crane their necks to get a peek at her in her stroller, as she lies sleeping. Old ladies crowd around me to get a look at a Chinese baby. Her head full of hair evokes “oohhs” and “ahhhs” wherever we go. My status in Italy seems to have elevated a bit now that I have a baby. I find that cars stop for me at crosswalks more often now than they did before. I am greeted with smiles frequently when they realize I am carrying a baby. My neighbors want to know how old she is and they ask me her name. As Veronica gets older and is more able to stay awake and interact with her surroundings, I will be curious to see how she will be received in various situations.

Some of my ex-pat friends who live in Italy have told me they find it’s very “child friendly” here. One particular friend told me that after having nursed her child in Italy, she went back to the United States for a quick visit and felt uncomfortable with the glances she received as she nursed in public there. In addition, I have been told many fancier hotels and restaurants in the US do not like and will not accept small children as guests/customers. After our trip to Seattle in March, I will be able to do a proper comparison. I will say this however, when I lived in the States and went out at night, I would often frowned upon parents who were out with their children past eight or nine o’clock. I was making a judgment call then and assumed they were bad parents because they kept their kids up past her bedtimes.

Here in Italy it’s common to see young children walking with her parents, having dinner and staying out as late as 11 or 12 o’clock in the evening. Demetrio tells me he would like to raise Veronica in the Mediterranean way, in which children are taken everywhere with their parents. I told them I would like a 50-50 compromise. Maybe when I head back to the States others will frown upon me as I bounced Veronica on my knee while I eat dinner at half past 10.

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Mom's Dinner

Mom made a great dinner last night for Sharon, Fabien, Shilpa, Antonio, Demetrio and myself. Here is the side table as it started to get filled up with fresh spring rolls, various sauces and wine.

Deme is an expert at table settings. It's probably from all his years working in the restaurant business as well as waiting tables when he was a young man in Rome and London.

My favorite meals are those in which there are lots of Chinese and Vietnamese herbs and garnishes. My sisters' old boyfriend used to ask her why she was "putting a forest in her soup."

This is one of my favorite dishes of all time, poached chicken served with a ginger and green onion sauce. We also had fried wontons, Vietnamese shrimp soup and fresh spring rolls. For dessert we had one of my favorite desserts, plantain bananas cooked in coconut milk with tapioca pearls.



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Vietnamese Shrimp Soup aka Bun Rieu

When I was living in Seattle this soup was hard to find. When my sister and I asked around we were told the soup was too “smelly and stinky” for most restaurants to serve. I must say that the aromas are strong but it is one of the most flavorful soups you will ever eat. Of my five sisters and me, I think four of them would say this soup is their favorite. (Isn’t that right, Kentra, Gia (not me the other Gia), Anna and Sara?) My favorite soup is still Pho.


For the broth:

1 pound of shrimp heads and/or dried squid* (4-5 small ones)
fresh tomatoes
chicken broth
fish sauce, to taste

For the topping:

two eggs
two tablespoons of ground pork (ground very fine)
four tablespoons of crab paste, canned crab or fresh crab meat
1/3 teaspoon of tiny amount of shrimp paste, to taste
fresh ground pepper
2 teaspoons, ground dried shrimp

For the garnish:

rice vermicelli
fresh mint, Thai basil, spearmint or any other type of Vietnamese herb
sliced green onions
fresh cilantro
bean sprouts
chili peppers
lime wedges
water spinach aka ong choy or kangkung

This soup is meant to be spicy, tangy, salty and downright delicious. The shrimp heads make up the broth and although you may not have any shrimp heads laying around if you happen to have a chance to buy shrimp, buy them with the heads on so you can save the heads for making this soup.

1. Take the shrimp heads/squid* and add them to the chicken broth, bring to a boil. Skim off any foam and let cook for one hour, then strain the broth, discard the shrimp, add the tomatoes and cook for another (20 minutes if the tomatoes are ripe and up to 30 minutes if they are not at their peak ripeness). The broth is simple but very tasty, add salt, 1/2 teaspoon of shrimp paste and a bit of fish sauce to taste. The hardest part of making this soup is over, now what’s left is to assemble it into bowls.

2. Prepare the rice vermicelli. Next, it is time to make the topping, which will be added to the broth before it is served. In a separate bowl, scrambled the two eggs, add the ground shrimp, fresh black pepper, the crab paste or the crab meat, the ground pork, shrimp paste and mix well. The consistency of this mixture will be like that of thin oatmeal. Now make sure the broth is at a low boil, gently ladle the topping onto the simmering broth. The topping will cook and harden to the texture of a very light mousse. This takes about 15 minutes. Now the soup is ready to serve. Fill the bowls with the rice vermicelli, ladle some of the topping and the broth onto the noodles and serve. The garnishes should be placed on the table and should be added to the soup.

*Before you add the squid to the broth, opened a window then char it a bit over your gas or electric stove.


Here is the finished soup.


Here are the garnishes.




I found some kang kung yesterday at the Vietnamese store in Torino and my mom prepared the stems. They must be rinsed then sliced very thinly lengthwise and placed in cold water with a tiny squeeze of lemon juice (to keep them green). After about 10-20 minutes they curl up and can be used in the soup. The leaves are used in stir fry and soup.

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Wonton Factory

After a trip to the market yesterday, my mom and I were feeling very industrious. I have been craving homemade wontons for quite awhile and so we set out to make a batch with a little extra to give away.

When I was a child, good Chinese food on Guam was hard to find. My mom and dad made their own noodles and wonton wrappers for some of the best soups I have ever had in my life. Every weekend my dad currently makes a huge batch of wontons for his restaurants on Guam. My mom a great cook herself loves to take the time to make things for scratch. We did not make the wrappers this time, but the filling is to die for.

Here’s the recipe:
(As always my mom’s recipes don’t have specific measurements, I approximate them the best that I can.)

1 pound of ground pork -- tried to buy pork and grind it yourself
1/2 pound to 3/4 pound of shrimp, cleaned and deveined
three to five stalks of green onion, very thinly sliced
sesame oil, generous amount, start with a tablespoon
chili oil, to taste, start with a few drops
salt, to taste
pepper, generous amount, start with 1 teaspoon

1. Place the ground pork and the shrimp in a food processor and pulse to combine. Then add all the other ingredients.

2. Set a small amount of water to boil and cook one tablespoon of the filling to taste for season seasonings. Once the seasonings are adjusted, the wontons are ready to be made.

3. Buy any good commercially prepared wonton wrapper. They may be frozen so set them out at room temperature to defrost. Carefully peel the wonton wrappers from one another. (Here comes the hard part, I cannot really tell you how to wrap the wontons. The easiest way is to put a small amount of filling, about half a teaspoon in the middle of the wonton wrapper and fold it corner to corner making a triangle. Seal the wrappers with a bit of egg wash or just plain water. You won’t have the most attractive wontons but they will be simple and good. For more advanced wrapping techniques see the Internet or some other Chinese cookbooks with photos.)

4. Cook the wontons in plain water. Allow the water to boil and fish the wontons out when they float to the top, usually after two to three minutes, depending on how much filling they contain. Wontons can be eaten plain, with a dipping sauce or in soups. They can also be deep-fried.

If you make a large batch, freeze the excess on a cookie sheet. After their frozen, they can be packaged or wrapped for future use. See the below photo, for the “little hat” wrapping technique.




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Mother and Mother-in-Law

When I first told my friends that my mother would be landing in Torino before the birth of Veronica everyone was happy for me. They kept telling me how lucky I was to have my mother come and help with the new baby. When I found out my mother was planning to stay for five months I told her I had promised to go back to Seattle in March. She then revised her travel plans and will be staying in Italy until February 20, that’s for four full months. With her travel plans set, the ticket purchased, I set out to get the house and her room ready.

Most of my friends were shocked to find out that my mother would be staying with us for so long. Demetrio even went as far as to ask me if he could stay in Rome for that whole time. I think he was a little afraid of his mother-in-law, whom he has never met until now. I told my skeptical friends that although I have not lived with my mother since I was 16 years old, she is an extremely reasonable person. I explained to them that although she IS a typical Chinese mother, being that she can be critical, controlling, loud, a know it all, (I am guilty of all of the above) she is not crazy.

For the 13 years, I was living in Seattle my mom and I kept in touch; we called, e-mailed, wrote letters and sent cards on all the important occasions. We remained close and she made several visits to Seattle to check up on my sister and me. Having her here has been a godsend. She helps me more than I can say and more than I can ever thank her for. Everyone tells me she looks like a cousin or my sister but she really is more like a great friend.

Demetrio has been making her a cappuccino every morning for the past month and they are both in love with sesame seed grissini. It’s funny to hear him sing her praises but I am glad they are getting along as fantastically as they are. He keeps telling me how lucky we are and how easy this first month and has been with her here. We are not sleep deprived, Veronica gets a lot of stimulation from being around the three of us and the dog even has a new best friend. Over the past 10 years, my mom has traveled the world. Her sense of humor has changed into one that Demetrio and I can relate to wholeheartedly. We enjoy one another’s company and have gone through at least one movie a day for the past month. I realized that my mother and I are more similar now that we have ever been. Premature as it is, I’m only beginning to worry about what I will do it if I will feel overwhelmed when she finally has to say goodbye. That’s the worrywart in me and I know I should feel blessed instead of anxious.

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Homemade Potstickers

My mom has been in Italy for about a month and a week. For the first month she was here, I was eating mostly “confinement” foods. Now that that period is over I am eating more normal foods and enjoying my mom’s wonderful cooking. Demetrio is not a big fan of soups and broths but I love them all. Having ginger, garlic, green onion, cilantro, chili, soy sauce and other Chinese ingredients on a daily basis has been heavenly.

Last week, my mom made some homemade pot stickers. I hate to say that I do not have a recipe to publish but I still remember how to fill the pot sticker skins. She made the filling while I stuffed, pleated and folded them into shape.

A rough recipe is as follows:

1 pound of minced pork
two tablespoons dried wood ears, soak the wood ears then chop
two stalks of green onion, chopped or chopped garlic chives
two tablespoons ginger, minced
salt and pepper to taste
few dashes of soy sauce
ground black pepper
sesame oil
chili oil, to taste

1. Blend all of the ingredients together. I always take one tablespoon of filling, fry it up and taste for seasonings before I fill the pot sticker skins.

2. The pot stickers also called Chinese ravioli can also be cooked in a broth or soup. Treat them like Italian raviolis and fish them out of the broth or the soup when they float to the top.

3. The pot stickers can be folded many ways, you’ll just have to experiment. You can make your own skins but ready-made ones are available in most Asian shops. To seal the skins use a bit of egg wash or just plain water.



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The Etiquette of Breast Feeding

Becoming a mom has been a wonderful experience. Veronica is five and a half weeks old and growing steadily. This past week we have been taking short walks and have been going out to lunch with friends. Normally she sleeps through most of the car rides and most outdoor activities but last week she decided to wake up in the middle of lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Without blinking an eyelash, I took my top off and began nursing her. Seattle is a very tame city and I have never seen a woman nursing openly in a mall or restaurant. I'm not sure I would be as quick to take off my top and nurse Veronica if I were still living in Seattle. Nevertheless, in Italy breast-feeding in public is a very common occurrence. Women breast-feed in restaurants, at the park, at the mall, on the bus, and just about everywhere. There is no shame in it at all. As a matter of fact, I have seen children up to three years old being nursed between bites of pizza and pasta at the food court of my local mall.

In England however, breast-feeding is not a protected right under the law (in public, that is). Recently there was a controversy regarding breast-feeding on the cover of Baby Talk magazine. It seems many of the magazine's subscribers were shocked and appalled to see a child nursing on the front cover of the magazine. Some readers of the magazine went as far as to use the words "disgusting , gross and shocking" to describe the cover. I have no idea what the big deal is. I am from a very modest family and I am very modest myself (I'm the type of person who goes into a rest room stall just to change into my workout clothes, before hitting the gym) but having a hungry child to feed has made my modesty disappear. (If you heard her screaming from hunger, you would know what I mean.) I never thought I would be so willing to expose myself for the better good of my child but these past two weeks have proved that I am. For once I am glad for the marked difference between Seattle and Torino.

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An Observation on Playgrounds

This week we had a friend over this week from London to see the baby. She brought her 4 year old and one afternoon we decided to take him to a playground for a few hours. There happens to be a great one within walking distance from my house. As her son played and explored, she make some comments about how nice the playground was (all the equipment was in working order, not much graffiti, no visible dog poop and garbage on the ground, the surface of the playground was made of the cool spongy, rubbery recycled tires and there were other cool innovative and safe looking play structures.) She made a comment about how rare these nicer playgrounds were in Rome. (She is from Rome.) Demetrio then piped up and said a playground like this would only be vandalized in Rome. He looked a bit sad as he said this but seemed to be resigned to his opinion.

Why is it that public parks, monuments, and structures seems to get more run down and damaged the further south you go in Italy? (This is not only my observation but also that of many Italians I have polled.) I know that the Piedmontese have a reputation of being cold and unwelcoming to foreigners but are they more law abiding, environmentally conscious and more likely to respect public property? I have no idea but the thought makes me sad. I want to be able to enjoy Rome if and when we move there and comments like the one Demetrio made really make me think. I guess to gain some and lose some no matter where you go. Can you tell I do not really want to move?

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Veronica's Baby Shower

Veronica is 4 weeks old today and on November 4th, she will be a month old. We had a very nice baby shower for her in our home. Read about it and see photos here. When the whole event was over, I got a bit sad as in 4-6 months we plan on leaving Torino and moving to Rome where I will have to start over and make new friends (something I am not looking forward to (the moving part that is).) I love the little ex-pat community I have found here in Torino, mostly the connections have been made through my blog but also via the Expats in Italy site. I guess that is all part of moving and relocating, you gain some and lose some at the same time.

All contents copyright 2004-2006.
All rights reserved.