Take the biggest and best food and wine event you've ever been to in the states, multiply by 100, fill with wildly gesticulating Italians, put it in a former Fiat factory on the rough side of Torino and make everyone half drunk. Including me. And then add a smattering of Germans, French, Scandinavians, Brits and Americans, the Slow Food Africa and South America contingents both in full on traditional dress and mix well.
I don't think I've properly conveyed the scale of the event: I've been here for five hours so far, eating and drinking diligently, moving rapidly even, and I haven't made it to entire halls worth of stuff. I've done two Italy halls, the International hall, the enoteca (wine tasting area), the spirits (the highlights here were all the awesome rum that never gets imported to the states), the beer, the street food and the salumi. I'm missing the Piedmonte (the regional sponsor this year) and the Torino room. And the labratorio del gusto, but I'm not sure what this is yet.
Fucking hell, this Terra Madre is no joke. Certainly worth a six hour train journey each way. (and I have to add that we left Jesi at midnight, and we are departing Torino at seven pm, getting back at like 2 am or so. A long day in any case, even if you manage to sleep on the train. Still worth the hassle.)
I'm disappointed about how poorly represented the US is. We've got the american craft brewers association pouring beer that made me homesick and a few top shelf bourbons and ryes among the spirits. That's it. It sucks because we've got product that can compete with what's here, at least some of our cheese and meats and definitely the wine can, but none of it's here. Is it slow food not recognizing American products or America's own insularity at work? Or possibly tough importation regulation from the EU? Either way, America does have good food and drink and we aren't showing the rest of the world that its there. And that sucks.
I haven't been homesick the entire time I've been in Italy, but the dogfish head and the correctly made Manhattan did it. A bartender who could not speak any English at all but still managed to make me exactly the drink I wanted, ordered in Italian, was great. It did however make me want to see all my DC peoples at bar pilar. And if I could time travel, bar pilar when Adam made the best manhattans in the world there.
So then I went and had some out of this world prosciutto from Parma and some superlative gnocchi alla sorrentina from Campania and everything was ok.
But still. America needs to step it up on the international scene. We've got some good shit in the states and everyone thinks were only coke and mcdonalds. Shit, on the international scene, we are lucky if it's burger king representing.
Oh yeah. And our oysters, both coasts, kick the ass of anything available, at this event, anyway. Multiple species and places of origin on the European side of the Atlantic are here, but I still think PEI and Puget Sound would kick ass here. Even out humble Chesapeake oysters compare well.
To sum it all up: this event is over the top amazingly fantastically hedonistic and wonderful but we have to get some US producers to make the trek.
And if you find yourself in Italy during Terra Madre in 2012, drop everything and spend a couple days here. Worth every penny. Or euro as the case may be.
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