Sunday, January 20, 2013

Un poco de mis comienzos en Londres y mi Navidad en Italia con una sopa de cebolla / Something about my first days in London and my Italian Christmas, with a warm onion soup.

(English version below)

Ya instalada en londres, con las nubes en el techo, y las ilusiones renovadas, vuelvo a mi blog. Londres me recibe con mucho frio y un barrio lindo y tranquilo (raro en Londres). Lo que mas me asombra es que las costumbres de este lugar me recuerdan a Buenos Aires... Sera cosa de las grandes ciudades... con respecto a Lausanne, por otro lado, si es bastante diferente. Londres es mas impersonal y el ¨cliente siempre tiene la razón¨ (aunque después te maldigan por detrás). 


De todas maneras lo importante para mi es que las cosas de a poco toman color, el departamento es lindo y cómodo, el trabajo muy interesante y sobre todo el reencuentro con la cotidianidad del amor me da tranquilidad y me llena de pilas.

Londres antes de Navidad fue bastante caótica, mucha gente de compras, incluida yo. Compre regalos en mi lugar favorito (por ahora), Portobello Market. Hermoso lugar!! Después de Navidad... Londres sigue siendo caótica... pero me gusta! 

Portobello Market 

No pase muchas navidades en Europa, siempre trato de volver a casa, al verano... Este año fuimos con A. a su pueblo (Magliano Sabina) en Italia, a festejar con su familia. Como cada vez que voy a MS, siempre hay un clima muy familiar, con mucho cariño por todos lados, y sobre todo buena comida


Obviamente comimos hasta reventar, y nos trajimos ricas cosas y autenticas para casa. Mi regalo de navidad preferido... Un pedazo gigante de queso parmesano! increíblemente rico. También nos proveímos de aceite de oliva, salames, ¨capocollo¨ (vendría a ser el cuello del cerdo) y otras cosas exquisitas como no podría ser de otra manera cuando viene de Italia y de producción propia.

Magliano Sabina






Navidad en Italia se vive diferente que en Argentina, obviamente que es invierno... pero me refiero a que es mas tranquilo, familiar y tradicional. Lo tipico de la navidad en lo de A.... los ¨fritelli¨ (verduras y frutas fritas, ya vendre con alguna de esas recetas) y el pesebre viviente. Pero lo mejor de todo la ¨zampogna¨ del papa de A. Tiene un sonido tan lindo, que pone la piel de gallina. Y no nos olvidemos de la misa de medianoche! 


Y así pasaron Navidad y año nuevo, con familia, amigos, a mi amorcis, nada mal! Aunque extrañe mucho a mi familia!!! Pero bueno... ahora estamos de vuelta en casa, tratando de pasar el invierno lo mas calentitos posibles. Este domingo se me ocurrió hacer un almuerzo simple (ya bastante comimos en las vacaciones...) y calentito con una sopa de cebollas, tomates gratinados y algunas fetas de capocollo. Y obviamente que el parmesano lo meto en todos lados, con semejante pedazo, tengo para rato y ademas a todo le da un sabor especial. 

Disfruten de la nieve y hagan muchas sopas!
 

English version

Already settled in London. With the clouds on my roof, and my energies completely reloaded, I come back to my blog. London welcomes me with an extremely cold weather and a nice quite borough. There is something about London that makes me think of Buenos Aires... it is maybe a matter of big cities because if I compare it to Lausanne then, it is quite a change. London is impersonal and ¨the client is always right¨, even if they damn you on the back, they will always smile back at you.


















Anyways, what is important to me is that my life is starting to come back to normal, with loads of new and exiting things. The flat is nice and comfortable, my new job is very interesting and above all things I found again my love, that fills me with peace and gives me all the strength I need to start again without looking back.





London before Christmas is quite a chaos, people everywhere... including me... I bought my gifts in my favorite place here (for now), Portobello Market. I love that place!!! After Christmas... London is still a chaos... but I like it, it is a nice chaos after all.

I always try to go back home for Christmas, to the summer... but this year we went to A. hometown (Magliano Sabina) in Italy, to celebrate with his family. As every time I go to MS, I find family, friends and loads of good food. 




We obviously ate to explode and we also brought some nice and genuin goods to eat back at home. My favourite X-mas gift... a huge piece of paremsan cheese!  We also got some olive oil, salami, ¨capocollo¨ (the neck of the pork, you can see it in one of the photos here) and other amazing treats that as you can imagine are exquisite and when it is from its own production it has an added value.
X-mas in Italy is very different from the argentinian version, it is obviously on winter (as many of you have certainly noticed...) but the way people live it is also different. In Italy, and I guess that in Europe in general, it is much more traditional than in Argentina, more familiar and with different food. At A's home the typical x-mas things are the ¨fritelli¨ (fried vegetables and fruits) and the living creche. But the most peculiar thing is the ¨zampogna¨ played by A.'s dad. It has a beautiful melody, the one that gives you goosebumps. And of course, not to forget the mass at midnight!
And this is more or less it, x-mas and new years with family, friends and my love. Not bad at all, although I missed my family a lot!
Now it's over, we are back home, and back to work, trying to live the winter the warmest possible. This Sunday I wanted prepare something warm and simple, I prepared an onion soup, excellent and different from the soups I usually have. As a sider, I cooked some tomatoes au gratin, inspired by A.'s mom that usually makes them and are one of my favourites (although she makes them quite different and usually with aubergine instead of tomatoes). Of course the parmesan cheese was, is and will be in most of my receipes these days, I put it everywhere!!! and I also eat it alone, it is so good! 
Enjoy the snow and cook soups! :)
 












Receta / Recipe