Salone del Gusto 2008

On Thursday morning at approximately 5:00AM, I should have been sleeping. Instead, I was groggily dragging myself to the train station to catch an early morning train to Torino or as we english-speakers like to call it, Turin. Now, my body doesn't entirely function at this hour, so the journey to the train station was definitely an interesting one. Dragging my duffel bag and sleeping bag, I think I bore an uncanny resemblance to Quasimodo.

Why on earth would I wreak such havoc on my sleep-loving body? Two words - food festival.

A few months ago in Berkeley, my Italian teacher told me that I had to choose just one thing to do while in Italy, it should be to attend the Salone del Gusto, an international Slow Food festival which takes place every two years in Torino.

Now, I'm not sure I've ever heard two words which combined to form such a beautiful idea - food festival. Food festival. With this in mind, my friend Susan and I bought 5-day passes. Yes, five days of food. Am I making myself clear as to how amazing this is? We arrived in Torino late Thursday morning, and got to the festival in early afternoon. Neither of us knew what to expect exactly, and neither of us could have anticipated the glorious journey on which we were about to embark... haha, seriously though - we walked in the building (a gigantic convention center - the same one which hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics) and our mouths dropped. There was just so much food. Food everywhere. Food in piles, food hanging from the ceiling, hundreds and hundreds (maybe even thousands of stalls) offering samples of cheese, meat, fish, bread, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, cookies, crackers, gelato, honey, cake, chocolate (soooo much chocolate), fruit and vegetables.... literally, every food I could think of.
(This is a photo of one of the "piles" I mentioned, a delicious chicken with gravy and stuffing. Basically everyone just crowds around and stabs at it with toothpicks.)

There was one huge pavilion dedicated to international foods, another dedicated to the various regions of Italy and two more which we couldn't exactly figure out but it seemed to be something along the lines of "all the best foods you've ever tried ever." Hopefully this photo will give you some idea of how massive this place was - this is about one third of one pavilion. No mirrors, no tricks, it really is as big as it looks. Also, there was a section devoted to wine... as we entered, we were given a wine glass, which came in a pouch that we carried around our necks. The idea is to be able to enjoy the wine without ever having to stop eating.

This place was heaven, I'm telling you.

I'd make a list of everything I ate but that would just be gross. Keep in mind that I walked into this place with the full intention of trying everything. I figure, this is some of the best food in the world. If I can't trust the Slow Foodies, I can't trust anyone. So I ate things that I never really planning on eating, including raw beef sausage, beer cheese, honey wine, chicken fat (although they tricked me by calling it shmaltz), and rabbit. That's right folks, I ate bunny.

I decided to weigh myself before and after this weekend and discovered that I'd gained 3 kilos. I told myself that this was perfectly acceptable because there are 2.2 kilos in a pound, so I'd only gained like a pound and a half. Of course, deep down I knew that there are actually 2.2 pounds in a kilo....

Aside from having the most wonderful eating experience of my life, I really enjoyed Torino for other reasons as well. The city is beautiful, with tons of palaces, portici, parks and a river running through the city. It has really interesting history, mostly because of a king (Re Umberto, I think) who had the entire city designed for his convenience. For example, the city is lined with portici so that he could walk around in the rain without an umbrella. There is a beautiful palace which he had built for the queen, just so he didn't have to live with her. The church is attached to the king's palace just so he didn't have to leave home for mass. I think I'd built a food festival attached to my house!!

There was also a really amazing museum of cinema and a beautiful outdoor photography exhibit (the theme was Siddhartha the Buddha). I hope I get the chance to go back to Torino, though... I've heard it's really beautiful in the winter and there's still a lot that I haven't seen. Our trip to Torino was also my very first time couch-surfing, which if you don't know, is a world-wide collective of people who are willing to provide free beds for weary travelers. It's a really amazing way to meet people from all over the world, and it's also just a really nice thing to do.

For the first two nights of the festival, we stayed with an Italian couple - Davide and Laura. Not only did they welcome us into their home, but they also gave us slippers.

Even more importantly, they fed us more than I considered reasonable. On Friday night we returned exhausted and full from the Salone to discover that Davide and Laura were throwing a dinner party in our honor. There were 8 of us altogether, and enough food to feed 20. There were two types of antipasti, a pizza, two types of pasta, a "savory cake" (spinach and pancetta quiche), a regular cake with ice cream, and wine wine wine. All of this, after 6 hours of non-stop eating at the Salone.

Then, to top things off, they took on a night-time walking tour of Torino and then to an amazing pseudo-disco club where we danced all night. I've never been so full, so happy or so ill.

Here's a photo of all of us: Davide, Laura, Bagigia (their adorable kitty), Susan and me! I'll never forget them, and hopefully I'll have the chance to offer them my couch when I get back to the United States!Our second hosts were a Brazilian couple, Carem and Joao. They were also amazing, and actually accompanied us to the Salone on our last day in Torino. Of course, this was not until after they'd fed us an enormous breakfast and taken us to their friend's house for lunch where he'd prepared an enormous traditional Brazilian lunch of feijoada which is basically lots of beans and meat over rice - so good. SO good.

My weekend was incredible! I'm so glad that I got to meet Davide, Laura, Carem and Joao (and of course, Bagigia). I think I'll try couch-surfing every time I travel from now on - it's really an incredible concept.

One more thing before I head off to class - guess who popped in to say hello from Davide and Laura's fridge: