Oops, I Did It Again, in Alaska - Los Angeles Fine Art Photographer

It was an ordinary morning. We got up to head further south. But when we reached the Seaward Highway, I had to jump out the car.

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For someone who doesn’t like doing the same things over and over again, fog is my favorite creative companion, other than my ever-present Assistante.

After an hour and a half on the same stretch of the highway, I realized oops, I did it again. And, the theme somehow became something like this:

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Oops, I did it again… I played with my heart and got lost in the game… :D

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Buono, Favignana, Italy - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

He said his English is not very good. I was nervous the whole time he was talking.

He told us in his English, next to who appeared to be his wife, that he once had a crush on his English teacher in his youth. He was among the friendly senior citizens that we ran into exploring this beautiful island that’s 11 miles off the west coast of Sicily.

Fortunately, we later saw him again on a different stretch of the beach, in one piece, with his supposed wife. Buono!

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I’m a firm believer that one of the best ways to learn a foreign language is to immerse yourself in the environment that the language is spoken in. For someone that’s passionate about food, I built my whole (meager) Italian vocabulary almost 100% near or around food. :-)

The word “mangiare” (“eat” in Italian) could be the first Italian word that I learned (of course, other than “buon giorno”). In fact, I heard it so many times that I knew how to pronounce it before I even understood the meaning. Do you think people of Italia are just as passionate about food if not more?

So, the story of “buono” goes like this:

On the island of Favignano, Italy, a gelato store somehow became our first stop off the port. Just like the fisherman that walked in before us, still in his water-proof outfit.

He must have seen the way that our eyes were devouring the massive load of gelati, enclosed by a brioche that couldn’t quite close. “Buono!” he turned around, with index finger pressed against his cheek, swiveling (see an illustration of the gesture here). That, my friends, was all it takes to jump in with our own brioche con gelato. And this may have been how I learned to associate the word “buono” with yummy food (it could also be this incident in Bagheria off of Palermo, Sicily).

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Surrounded by the Tyrrhenian Sea, Favignana is guaranteed to provide some nice vista of the ocean. As you’ve heard me said time and again that “People are Landscape”, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t include people in my vista.

As we looped our way back to the port, it was livened up by all kinds of people - people buying fish, people lounging around (coffee) bar, and people in trouble. There, I witnessed how everybody dropped what they had on their hands and worked together for a happy ending. Call me old fashion. But I think that is molto buono (VERY good in English)!

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P.S. Bonus material since I’m being chatty today:

Do you still remember Cetara on the Amalfi Coast of Italy, the town that catches anchovy and turn them into delicacy, i.e., Colatura di Alici di Cetara? The ancient tradition of fishing with menaide that was once used by Cetara is still carried on by fishermen of Sicily. The small opening of the mesh (on average 12 mm) allowed the small anchovies to pass while the larger ones remained entangled. The two ends of this tool were passed through hollow two-barrel cables that functioned as floats. The anchovies caught in the mesh are recovered by hand one by one. The video in the provided link (starting around 5:00 timeline) explains it well.

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From Garum to Cetara, Italy - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

It didn’t take my new-found sister Kathy too long to figure out that I have a passion for food and unquenchable curiosity on all peculiar/interesting/strange food. Thanks to her introduction, I now am a newsletter subscriber of Gastro Obscura.

One day, I was reading about garum, an ancient recipe for fermented fish sauce that became popular with the Romans. As I wondered how we could’ve missed the former Roman garum factory in central Lisbon in Portugal, my mind was already flying to a fishing town of Cetara on the Amalfi Coast of Italy, a town that’s famous for its Colatura di Alici di Cetara, an anchovy fish sauce that’s believed to be the noble descendant of the Roman garum.

The most memorable of the visit came down to the men of the town. Yes, the elderly men that you see frequently lounging in piazzas of Italy, especially around sunset time.

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In all fairness, the food there was extremely delizioso. Nothing beats freshly caught seafood that’s unloaded off the port just minutes earlier, even without the umami imparted from the well-known fish sauce.

It’s not that the children frolicking on the beach were not genuinely cute. If you know me, you know I love it when children are like children (see my posts “Children are Shed Special Light” and “Boys will be Boys…”).

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A huge roaring commotion broke out when we were enjoying the view of the dog, the kids and the beach. Our first instinct took our eyes away and redirected to a group of above-mentioned men standing up to leave a table piled with cards on the top. It seemed that there was a disagreement and the only way to protest is to leave the game.

We then refocused and remembered why we were there. We strolled around the town, passed by the vibrant fruits and vegetables displayed on the stands of the little mercato, marveled at the architecture perched on the cliff of the mountain, and paused to give credits to the jubilant girls that occasionally ran across my view finder.

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When we made our rounds, the same group of men were sitting by the same table, playing cards, as if nothing ever happened earlier. At that point, I learned something from these Italian men. Life is a serious business. And yet, life’s too short to be serious for too long. :D

Italian men belong to a league of their own. I am pretty confident that this will not be the last time I write about them.

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