A recent article in The New Yorker about the Italian bookstore SF Vanni was a reminder of this odd little place. To call it a book shop is perhaps somewhat grandiose – in fact they called themselves booksellers. The store had seemingly existed forever and through the 1980s, 90s and very early 2000s this was one of the few places in New York that had (some) Italian books available. It was an anonymous storefront on W 12th St; if you didn’t know it was there it was easy to miss. The store window was not inviting, my memories are of a beige background with a few dusty tomes sitting in it. My interactions were almost always with a civil but not friendly older gentleman. A few times I saw the rumored owner, an old woman who was extremely grumpy and seemed to want to rush you out. In this way it was very reminiscent of a type of smaller store one finds in Italy. It was not a place to go and browse. If you knew what you wanted, had phoned and checked if they had the book in stock, everything went well. With the advent of the internet and the ease and availability of buying books online my visits to Vanni eventually stopped but the article brought back some nostalgia for a different time when you could shrug and shake your head about this peculiar piece of Italy in New York.
Tag: history (page 4 of 7)
Glassblowing as a technical breakthrough in the making of glass occurred in the first century BC. Glass vessels could thus be made more easily and new shapes and decorations were produced. Inflating glass in molds that were carved with designs created vessels of varying shapes with complex decorations in relief on their surfaces. Ennion, probably from Sidon in today’s Lebanon, was a master craftsman in one of the earliest glass workshops in the first century AD. He was among the first glassmakers to incorporate his name into the inscription in the mold’s design and his pieces were well-known and popular. His vessels have been found all over the ancient Roman world leading to the conclusion that they were traded throughout the Mediterranean. Today there are just over 50 known pieces by Ennion in collections. A small exhibition at the Metropolitan museum gathers 24 of them, many still intact, and highlights their delicacy, sophistication and timelessness. The show includes pieces by other makers of the period and is all together informative and beautiful.
Bucatini all’amatriciana (or, more commonly in Rome, alla matriciana) are considered a staple of Roman cuisine. In fact the sauce’s name probably derives from Amatrice, a town near Rieti in the mountains of Lazio. Its original form was “in bianco” – pasta alla gricia, dressed just with guanciale (pork jowl) and pecorino cheese. Eventually as tomato became more common in pasta dishes it was added to the sauce. In Amatrice the typical ingredients used are guanciale, pecorino, white wine, tomato, hot pepper and pepper. The Roman version adds onion. Note that anyone from central Italy will tell you that pancetta is NOT the same thing as guanciale! The pastas traditionally used are bucatini, spaghetti and sometimes rigatoni. This dish has been in the news recently because Carlo Cracco, a well-known chef, said that he used a clove of garlic in the sauce. Scandal! All sorts of protests ensued, especially from Amatrice, insisting that it is heresy to put garlic in this sauce. And if you’re used to the Roman version, it does sound odd. Here‘s the classic recipe. An aside: spaghetti are far easier to eat than bucatini.
The composer Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) was born into a musical family: his father was a musician and his mother an opera singer. He enrolled in music school in 1806 and was already composing operas as a very young man. He is probably best-known for his comic operas such as Il barbiere di Siviglia – despite its opening night in 1816 being a famous fiasco. Most of his later compositions, however, were in the opera seria tradition. He wrote many of these for Naples’ Teatro San Carlo and La donna del lago (1819) was among them. The story is based on a poem written by Sir Walter Scott in 1810. The setting is Scotland during a rebellion by highland clans against King James V who is wandering the countryside disguised as Hubert. He meets Ellen, the daughter of one of his enemies. She’s in love with one man, her father has promised her to another, the disguised king seems to be making advances on her, there’s a battle and, strangely enough, it all ends happily. It’s a romantic story and the music is lush and melodious. The Metropolitan Opera is now staging its first production of this opera starring (the fabulous) Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Florez. You can see it on various dates through the next few weeks at the opera house itself or at a movie theater: the March 14th matinee will be simulcast.
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