Lucca Comics & Games report - part 3

(Part 1 - Part 2)

Now hopefully you haven't been scared away by my previous advice! Because when all is said and done, geeks are the most cosmopolitan of people. 

You will be welcome, no matter your alignment - whether you are utterly nice...

...or evil...

...slightly misguided... 

                                                       

...or downright wicked. 

You will meet all sorts - the cute and popular...

...and the snarky outsider...

...the brave and fearless... 

...and the hopelessly timid. 

If you'd rather leave the spotlight to the heroes and villains out there, that's okay too - there's nothing wrong with being a minion...

 

...or just a real person with real problems... 

...and even if you're totally clueless and merely feel like walking around in a happy, giggly daze, no one will judge you any harsher for that! 

If you still don't get the point of it all, just keep one simple thing in mind: geeks are passionate about their favourite characters.

Should you spot one of them wandering wide-eyed, smiling ecstatically - he might have had some sort of deeply meaningful religious experience... 

...or merely a brush with a time-travelling alien...

...or a wizard perharps! Now that's always exciting, regardless of it being a humble apprentice...

...a really nice guy... 

...or a not-so-nice one. 

In a nutshell, the point here is: no matter what your nerdery of choice is, we can all get along just fine, as long as we respect each other. It boils down to keeping in mind that what is merely a bi-dimensional cardboard figure to you, can be an inspirational hero to someone else - this is all there is to it, really. 

Maybe this is where the true appeal of such a convention lies: card gamers, manga fans, roleplayers, action figure collectors, videogamers, superhero enthusiasts - you name it - we are all friends here. 

Here, in Lucca. Where East and West meet...

...magic is real... 

...and pigs may fly. 

Lucca Comics & Games report - part 2

(Read part 1 here)

For many years now, Lucca has ben hosting Italy's largest geeky convention, Lucca Comics & Games. 

Over the four days spanning the Halloween weekend, the place is literally flooded with all flavours of geeks - kiddos in love with the latest manga hero, 30-something nostalgics reminiscing about the Eighties (*cough*), gamers, collectors, inquisitive minds, and best of all - cosplayers, the con's main attraction really. Cosplayers by the hundred, ranging from the painstakingly gorgeous to the outrageously silly and cheeky. 

If you are the kind of person who hates crowds, you'll want to avoid Lucca like hell while the madness is going on. If, on the other hand, you don't mind being jostled a little - oh, what the heck, make it a lot - you will be rewarded with pure, unadulterated nerdy bliss.

Once the initial shock is over, it will feel perfectly normal to raise your eyes and see something like this: 

...and, really, there's nothing to be afraid of, as long as you use some common sense. 

In the spirit of public service, I will now provide you with a few simple tips to make sure you'll survive enjoy the convention. 

Even while some of the attendees are bound to be vaguely disconcerting...

...you will probably think you're safe, what with the heavily armed guys patrolling the streets... 

 ...the alien martial artist hereos... 

...and the Spanish Imperial Inquisition itself. 

Still, don't let your guard down! You must keep your eyes peeled at all times, because a mighty evil roams free...

...and danger lurks atop the ancient walls. 

Just try to keep and open mind, because even those beyond suspicion may act a bit weird at times...

...so don't freak out should you happen to spot a man in tights...

...or worse. 

                                                                  

Remember that, while eating is not cheap by any means (and someone, alas, will always try to take advantage of unwary visitors)...

This is the actuall staff of the bar you can see behind. Awesome sense of irony or what?

...it is always advisable to purchase food from reliable sources only. Because, even though you might be tempted to hunt for edible - and indeed, in a few instances, mouthwateringly delicious - specimens of local fauna...

...it would be a shame, should... inconveniences intervene to spoil your stay. 

As they say: forewarned is forearmed!

Uh... right? 

(Onwards to part 3 - this post's already picture-heavy enough as it is!)

Lucca Comics & Games report - part 1

Lucca, in Tuscany, is where the second installment of my long-awaited, convention-intensive holidays is taking place.

I'm travelling by train this time, with my ol' buddy Flavio - Japanese speaker, martial artist, manga enthusiast, and all-round weeaboo extraordinaire. Since our respective jobs kept both of us busy till the very last minute, we'll be staying for the next two nights in Viareggio (which is a delightful little seaside town in its own right) and commute daily between here and nearby Lucca.

Lucca is about 280 Km from Milano; the yellow pin on the coast is Viareggio.

Although I'm too much of a metropolitan creature to consider living there, it is one of my favourite towns to visit, and a quick hop to Wikipedia will tell you why - it was founded in pre-Roman times by the Etruscans, and traces and mementos of its long history are strewn round every corner.

You'll be sure to find ancient buildings here as well... 

S. Michele in Foro, peharps the most famous church in Lucca. See all those colums? They are all different! 

...and picturesque squares, starting with the famous Piazza dell'Anfiteatro - the perfectly round square that is Lucca's most iconic view.

Practically all streets here can be expected to be evocatively narrow, and to have awesome names to boot such as Via Buia ("Dark Street"), often reminiscent of some long-lost feature or landmark (such as a well, a ditch, an orange tree, or a particular workshop.)

Although there are no gryphons to be seen and fountains are nothing to write home about, you get mosaics...

S. Frediano, the most ancient church in Lucca, dates back to 685 b.C.

...and columns...
                                                   

See what I meant about the columns?

...and above all, these impressive city walls that always make me feel like I'm stepping right into the Middle Ages just by entering town.

Even if Lucca can't boast a theme hotel for chocoholics to bask into, it does have gorgeous bakeries that are every bit as drool-worthy!
The town's most traditional sweets are nicely rounded up in the pic below: on the top shelf you can see panforte (a dense, spicey sort of fruitcake); the pie-like things on the middle one are torte coi becchi (the one on the left is filled with a mixture of rice and chocolate, while the one on the right has a veggie jam filling); finally, both the loaves and the round shapes displayed on the green cloth are buccellato, a sweet bread with raisins.

Lucca, and Tuscany in general, has a long-standing tradition for artistic pottery. Colourful ceramic plates and cups arranged in beautiful displays are a common view, and make for a perfect gift for a fellow cake lover... or for yourself!

The same can be said about woodworking, so if rustic's more your style you could find yourself the proud mommy of a pestle or rolling pin hand-carved out of olive-wood.

(I was soooo tempted myself... but I would have felt a little bit self-conscious, travelling by train with a friggin' huge rolling pin sticking out from my luggage!)

Oh, and one final thing: should you find yourself in Lucca, look for the Baricentro in Via Fillungo. It is a humble, smallish cafeteria, but if you as for a "marocchino con la Nutella" you're in for a treat!

Tomato Jam

...Well, I am Italian. What else were you expecting? 

Hetalia: Axis Powers belongs to  Hidekaz Himaruya and Gentosha

S. Italy's character song, Oishii Tomato no Uta/The Delicious Tomato Song, is sung by Namikawa Daisuke

Making jam out of tomatoes might sound freakish to some, but please consider this: tomatoes are actually fruit. There's nothing weird about turning fruit into jam, right?

Right.

Just trust me on this one, hmm? 

Tomato Jam
Ingredients: 

* 2 cups pureed tomato (bottled sauce is fine as long as it's just tomato)
* 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1/3 cup candied fruit, diced
* 1 cinnamon stick
* 6-7 whole cardamom pods
* a slosh of Alchermes (rum will do, too!)

1.  Pour the pureed tomatoes (or fresh bottled tomato sauce) into a saucepan. You can use a pan if your're in a hurry - the whole process will be faster that way, but you will need to keep  an eye on it all the time, otherwise it will burn. 

2.  Add sugar. Put on low fire and keep stirring with a wooden spoon, until all the sugar dissolves and the mixture bubbles gently. 

3.  Take the spices. Oooh pretty!

4.  Throw them into the tomato-and-sugar mix. Let it all simmer for about half an hour, stirring occasionally. Don't let it to its own devices or it will burn! *

5.  Once it has thickened to a proper jam-like consistency, remove it from heat. Fish the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods out of it. Pop them into your mouth while no one is looking. 

6.  Pour the jam into a bowl. It is perfectly fine to call it done at this stage, but to make it jummier, add the diced candied fruit and slosh in a little rum (or, ideally, Alchermes). 

Let it cool off, stirring from time to time so that the fruit is distributed evenly.

7.  Can your tomato jam, or bake it into a pie (the doses I gave you yeld enough to fill a medium, 8 servings-worth pie). Or you might want to try it as cookie filling, or just eat it with a spoon.
I grant you, next time you'll want to make a double batch!


* = It will burn anyway, unless you sing the Oishii Tomato no Uta the whole time while making this. True story! 

The Fanbaking Project: Kareh-pan, a.k.a. Curry Bread (as seen in Kuroshitsuji)

So you have read this other post of mine, yes? 

Take a seat, grasshopper. I knew you would be back.

We are going to focus on making kareh-pan today, thus I'm taking it for granted that you already have some Japanese curry ready, either leftover or made for this purpose. If not, check my previous entry linked above and go make yourself some! It's super easy! 

Now let's pick up things right where we stopped last time. Remember how I told you that proper kareh is very runny, almost soup-like? That is the consistency you will get if you follow the directions on your curry package. Only this time we need it thicker, so keep it simmering on medium-low heat, stirring slowly with a wooden spoon to prevent it from burning.

It is a bit tricky to explain when it's done; basically you want it to get to a point where it doesn't slosh right back when you pile it on one side, but the different ingredients are still distinguishable. (The pic below is the best I could manage; it will become even firmer as it cools off, so it is fine to remove it from heat at this point.)

The kareh part is done. Time to deal with the pan!

(My recipe is a slight adaptation of this one by Makiko Itoh, hostess of Just Hungry. If you have even a passing interest in Japanese food, her blog is THE place to be!)

Kareh-pan

Ingredients (yelds 8):

* (300 g) Manitoba flour

* (70 g) all-purpose flour

* 1 packet (7 g) dry yeast
* 2 Tbsp sugar
* 2 tsp salt
* 5/8 cup milk (+ 2 Tbsp for the coating)
* 2 + 1/2 Tbs butter
* 3 medium eggs
* Panko bread crumbs

* frying oil

1.  Cube the butter and let it soften slightly. The eggs and the milk should be room temeperature too.

2.  Whisk together the dry ingredients (the two kinds of flour, sugar, salt, and yeast). Mix in two of the eggs, then - gradually - the milk. Finally, add the softened butter and knead (either manually or with a KitchenAid or somesuch) until you get a veeeeeery sticky ball of dough!

3.  Put it into a bowl, cover it with plastic film (or you can wrap the dough into it directly; if so, wrap loosely, because it will more or less double in bulk). 

Let it rest for a couple hours (you can get away with 1 1/2  in a particularly warm day, but don't skimp on the rising time! Your patience will be rewarded in the end!) 

4.  Go look at your dough. Has it grown into a huge, bloated, vaguely eldritch thing?

...Wow, that's GOOD!

Unceremonoiusly punch it down until it deflates, wrap it up again and put it back in its warm, cozy nook for 45 more minutes.

No, really, I mean it! I suggest re-watching your fave Kuroshitsuji episode and pretend you're Sebastian, keeping hunger in check while Ciel pursues his revenge... and waiting, waiting for his master's soul to distil into pure, perfect yumminess...

5.  OK, you can stop daydreaming now! Deflate the dough again (hee hee, isn't it fun?)

Cut it into 8 equal parts, and shape them into balls. Dampen a clean kitchen towel, cover your buns-in -progress with it, and - guess what? - let it rest for a further 15 minutes.

6.  In the meanwhile, beat the remaining egg with 2 Tbsp milk and a pinch of salt.

Take out the dough balls, one at a time, and roll them into flat rounds. Put some curry in the middle...

...then close up the dough around it. You can use a little egg mixture as glue, or dampen the edges with water;  in short, do whatever works for you. It doesn't have to be pretty, as long as it stays closed.

(This is why the filling needs to be so thick btw: if you get smudges of it on the edges, it will be very hard to seal the bun properly. Come on, ask me how I know.)

7.  Roll the filled bun gently into the egg mixture...

...and cover it in panko crumbs.

DON'T substitute plain bread crumbs for it; they are too fine and soak up tons of oil, so your coating turns out all soggy and not crunchy at all. If you can't find them, break up some crackers instead (son't salt the egg mixture if you're using salty crackers), or leave uncovered altogether.

8.  Now carefully place the buns on baking paper aaaaaaand... leave them alone for the usual 15 minutes.

Stop whining already; the coating needs to set at this point. If it doesn't, the crumbs will come loose in the hot oil and your pan will have a nasty burnt taste.

9.  Time to deep-fry! If you're using a frying machine, set it on the highest temperature; if not, you'll know the oil is hot enough when a bread crumb dropped into it turns crisp and golden right away. If it blackens as soon as it touches the oil, then it's too hot!

Carefully lower the buns in, so as to dislodge as few crumbs as possible.

Mine were done in 7-8 minutes, but they were on the largeish side. Simply keep an eye on them and fish them out when they look good!

Drain the excess oil on kitchen paper...

...and now, at last, you can nom them!

OM...

...NOM...

...NOM...

...Well, you got the hang of it, didn't you?

A few words of caution: 

*  Making kareh-pan is not difficult per se, but it takes a crapload of time due to the fact that you have to allow the dough to rest and rise multiple times. Try it on a day when you're happy and relaxed, and really have nothing more pressing to do.

*  It is also messy business. Very messy. This is how my kitchen looked right after I was done with them, just so you get the idea... 

*  You really, really do not want your buns to burst open while frying. I can't stress how important this is. This poor guy was unlucky...

...and it was pretty icky, let me tell you. The oil had seeped inside, so that it was basically a grease-soaked sponge. Ugh. 
(Even the digicam didn't have the heart to put the wretched thing into sharp focus. True story.)

*  Oh, and one last thing. When they cut the "mystery donut" in Kuroshitsuji, you can see tons of curry flowing dramatically out of it and onto the plate... 

Kuroshitsuji belongs to Yana Toboso and Square Enix

As you know by now, that is not the case. The filling is delicious and creamy, but definitely not this soupy.  Here I am squishing mine slightly to let you get a good peek at it...

It is, however, a devilishly delicious treat and I really hope you'll give it a try!