Would you let your waistline determine where you live?
Would you let your waistline determine where you live? My answer to that is Yes! When Marco and I discuss probable places where we could live, there are two important factors that we always consider, one is the climate and the other is the food. Food. Food has been an important part for all of my life of course, how would I have survived to this day if I hadn’t been eating food? But for more than half my life it has been important in a different way, a more profound way and moving to Italy has definitely changed how I look at food in many ways. It has been a bit like being pregnant and suddenly realizing that you actually have a body and beginning to listen to what that body is telling you. Suddenly I saw food from the seasonal point of view, I satred to go with the flow and to look forward to what each and every season bring us, to go and gather chestnuts in the woods around here in Autumn, to enjoy all the wonderful winter greens and light up the grey with oranges during those bleary boring winter months, to feel exulted by fresh peas, strawberries and asparagus when Spring finally arrives and indulge in all that abundant summer produce. To eat light when it is hot and go for the heavier stuff when it is cold and you need more energy to warm up that waistline of yours. I have learnt so much about food and eating here and I have enjoyed so much good food that I don’t think I could live in a place where food is just food, something that you eat to keep you alive. A good things with living in a country like Italy is that basically the food is very healthy, it is is an integral part of life and the culture and that to me is a determining factor when it comes to choosing where to live (if you ever can make that choice), and if that will increase my waistline (and I would like to point out that my fluctuating waistline depends on my bad character and not the food itself, how could I ever blame my own blemishes on the food of where I live?) so be it!
This post is part of a sudden and improvised ‘writing exercise’, but maybe it is more of a thinking exercise really, that I am doing with Mona of WiseWords, Simone aka Junglefrog, Astrid of Paulchen’s FoodBlog?, Jamie of Life’s A Feast and Jenn of Jenn’s Cuisine so you have the possibility of clicking around to read more points of view on this subject!
L
Ah I can envy you for living in a country as Italy.. I would certainly love to live there, if there was any country I could pick; it would be Italy… But that is not entirely up to us unfortunately as work determines in a large part where we live and while I am flexible.. Tom is not! (I should say his employer is not..)
My waistline never changes no matter what. However, if I could choose where to live, I would definitely let easy access to the foods I like be a factor, particularly an abundance of organic fruits and veggies. Also, I’d like to live wherever I have a fridge and a kitchen to myself, so I can set everything up the way I like it without having to put away my juicer all the time because someone else needs room for their stupid coffee machine or must agree to similar inconveniences out of consideration for others.
Life is like a bowl of cherries.
Ilva, we all envy you for where you live (and of course your talent and pleasant nature!) and the abundance of beautiful food that you tempt us with from behind your camera lens.
I think you nailed it. It is a thinking exercise for many and food is a very important part of all our lives, so it is important to live and eat seasonally and locally as much as possible. If you are willing to share the sun with us over here in rainy Ireland – we can get working on our own bowl of cherries! Love the photos.
Móna xx
I’m lucky in where I ended up living (rather than choosing it), the produce here is fresh, great quality and abundant. There’s a huge variety too. And I’m lucky that after we moved here, a farmers market opend at the end of the street!
The food, and the market mean we’re not likely to be leaving anytime soon so I guess food does play a part in where we choose to live.
Cherries are the essence of summer, don’t you think?
Ilva I am so jealous of the place you live..i love food and sometimes do miss my home country for this…I terribly miss indian street food
…and answering yr question yes it does!
I get your point. looking at the question from this point of view I would agree to your “yes” even when I said “no” in my post.
Can I steal this bowl of cherries?
I absolutely love this post because this is how I feel about food. It’s hard to live in the United States because food means an entirely different thing. But I guess that doesn’t matter so much because no matter where I am, my relationship with food will always be there
Nice Bloggg!! I Thank a lot to Mr.Author for sharing this with us…..
James Smith
http://www.toscanarestaurant.ie
I so miss living and eating in Italy and it is one of the great draws to come back and live in Italy for us! Food is such a huge part of any country’s culture and should be an important part of why any of us choose to live where we do! Love it! xoxo
Wonderful post Ilva, and I love your perspective on the seasonality of food – embracing the fruits of the seasons in their prime I think helps so much with their appreciation… and yes ditto we are all very jealous of where you live
That goes deep, Ilva, and I could not agree with you more. After I left Rome, the imprint of the food I grew towards adulthood with, was indelible. To my joy, I discovered that even in DC you could live the Italian Way, all I needed to do was to learn to cook. Ada Boni’s “Tesoro della Cucina” was my foundation, Julia Child taught me to find my way around American kitchens (cup, what kind of cup? my first panicky experience trying to bake in the States – a stick of butter? hard to get a scale in grams, etc.). Now, here in Vienna, Italy is so near, the climate quite food-friendly, the abundance of Italy open thanks to its proximity, I feel blessed again. I would not know how anybody could ever escape the bewitching hold Italian food takes on you. And I am still homesick for Rome.
I would love to visit Italy someday and experience the food first hand. As someone else said, it’s hard in the US since the general relationship with food is so different here. But there is an undercurrent of people who do love good, fresh food.
And to answer your question: definitely.
One of these days I will visit the place. I feel that in the United States we are so distracted with time we don’t appreciate the little things and how important food should be in our lives. Thanks for the insight!
-Andrew
[recipes club]
i love this, because it’s so true for me right now – my husband is considering transferring offices, and my first question every time he mentions a new place is “how’s the food?” it’s such an important part of life, and it makes me crazy when people dismiss it as a small detail in life. how wonderful to be able to choose every destination based on the food choices available!
You have inspired me……again! Not easy to follow the seasons up here in Trondheim, Norway, but today I’ll make a rhuburb foccacia.
http://advancewatches.blogspot.com/
Hey hey
Not sure if I would allow my wasitline to determine where I live, but the availability of good produce would be the start! (and that glorious sunlight you have there!!) ;o) Cheers