Awhile back, Sam the Investor urged us to join the Slow Food USA organization, which is the national branch of the worldwide Slow Food Movement.
What is the Slow Food Movement? From their site:
Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic organization that supports a biodiverse, sustainable food supply, local producers, heritage foodways, and rediscovery of the pleasures of the table. Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food in 1986 in response to the opening of a McDonald’s in Rome’s historic Piazza di Spagna. Since then, Slow Food has grown into an international movement with more than 80,000 members in 100 countries worldwide.
So we joined and have been impressed with what we've learned. Sam also passed our name onto Marlene at Slow Food Pittsburgh and since that time Melanie and I have been getting a lot of invites to local food events. As most small biz owners can appreciate, we've had to pass on these invites because we're working just about all the time. But last night we made ourselves get out and go to our first Slow Food event. And it was delightful.
It was at Roberto's in Bellvue, which we'd been meaning to get to since it was Pizza Margherita. Roberto took us through the following menu, discussing what we were about to eat before each serving:
To start, Roberto served up an Insalata Primavera Roma - spring mix with blueberry, strawberry and Academia Monti Eblei extra virgin oil.
He followed the salad with antipasti plates featuring six items - each item representing a different region of Italy.
From Torino: Cupola di formaggio - a melding of gorgonzola, fontina, marscarpone, and walnut into a rustic paste
From Rome: Pepperoni ripieni - green pepper stuffed with pancetta and a regional bread/cheese filling
From Napoli: Barchette partonopee - zucchini stuffed with ham
From Genoa: Salsa di noci - walnut salsa
From Taormina: Polpette di finocchio - fennel balls (which looked like meatballs and were served with a tomato sauce)
From Bologna: Crostini di mortadella - mortadella blended with robiola cheese into a spread (normally served atop a crostini)
Roberto then followed with a couple of pizzas fired from his brick oven, one from the North, one from the South:
Milanese: salami and grano padano
Calabrese (Cosenza): crotonese cheese, sopressata and black olives
We ended with a dolci of Torta a Limone - a lemon flavored cake from Capri atop a sauce made from Limoncello.
Needless to say, everything was delicious. Roberto's pizzas have earned national acclaim (and Ron, don't worry, we still love Il Pizzaiolo) and it was obvious that Roberto loves what he does.
In addition to the food, the attraction of these Slow Food events is the other people you meet. Everyone there loves and appreciates good food. Last night we sat next to a wonderful couple who lives near us and shares many of the same interests, especially in the area of wine, where we listened and learned a lot (they have something like 3,000 bottles). Considering that we brain cramped and left without our own bottles, we were extremely appreciative they decided to share theirs with us.
We highly recommend joining Slow Food USA yourself. It's $60/year, $75 for a "couple" membership, which isn't all that much really. One dinner. We hope to see you at a future event. Who knows, maybe in time we'll host one here.
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