Colleen’s travels in Countries, Cultures, and Cuisines

Adventures after divorce, Panforte postage pains, and Uh oh - my “first” coffee was reported wrong.

Editor’s note: ** Dear readers, we are extremely excited and honored to have our first confirmed SUBSTACK paying supporter!! thank you, Thank you THANK YOU to our OG, “LG”. JMC

Oh, and because every article starts with the seed of an idea, we have even more thanks to go to the book Bite by Bite which inspired Colleen. “But how?” the most curious of you are thinking. Well, tune in to her short book review video (here) to find out exactly what prompted her inspiration, especially if you create content, enjoy inspiring food books, or just need good ideas. And finally, to our new Substack readers, welcome to Christine, Lorne, Crisp, Brenda, and Harman!  We’re looking forward to getting to know everyone better.

What Colleen does when her life falls apart - part 267 of an infinite number!

To say I’ve had a few lives would be an understatement - cats have fewer lives than me.  This is to say that I’ve been super lucky to experience a lot, travel and live in many other countries, learn about new cultures and of course eat all the things!

Today I’d like to tell you a little bit about a trip I took when I was in the process of….gasp - getting divorced! (That’s definitely a story for another day) but for today’s tale we’re going Hollywood and then over to Europe and do a bit of sightseeing siteeating.

When divorce was first upon me (I know I said that’s for another day but you need some context), I needed to go away to think.  Mostly I needed to be away from Calgary, Canada so I booked the first of many one-way tickets to Hollywood….Florida.  Yes, I know in your brain you probably saw the big famous sign and were thinking California but no dear reader, there is actually a Hollywood in Florida.  My good friends Kris and Renee lived there and when I called and asked if I could come see them (and no I didn’t know for how long) they opened their arms and home and that is where I went first…

Side note - I also used to live in Florida in the Keys so I will have some stories coming up about that experience!

With the divorce fresh, my memory was a bit blurry, but a few things remain clear, and funny enough they are about food from the regions I was running away to - like fresh orange juice in the morning from Florida oranges that don’t have to travel across a country. I fondly remember sitting on Kris and Renee’s back patio in the morning sun and enjoying a chilled glass of juice as the condensation ran down the sides and thinking what sweet perfection it was.

Also, I remember a quaint little restaurant that we ate at a few times because it was the craziest concept - a mix of Asian cuisines with a menu that was more like a tome to study rather than just something to glance at and pick a meal.  It was chaotic and delightful and now that I am thinking about it and “first time food experiences”, Wait a minute - this was actually the first time I had had a coffee!  Albeit, a Vietnamese iced coffee but a coffee nonetheless - so we need to revise my previous statement claim that “I didn’t drink a coffee until 2016” and revise that to around 2004?  I loved it [Editor's note: Gee, YOU? Liked sweetened condensed milk?! No, say it isn’t so… JMC ] but I had no idea how to order it again so after that I didn’t do much in the way of Vietnamese coffee - oh, yeah, and I did have an espresso in Italy but I’m getting ahead of myself, that’s 2 countries away, yet.

From Florida I went back to the Bahamas where I used to live - but I better keep this part short. (Would you like to hear all about the Bahamas and my adventures there? Let me know in the comments…) I went with the intention to get my job back, so I did all the right things to get a working visa but then I left on another one-way ticket - I was Europe bound!

Landing in Paris, I quickly gravitated south, seeking better weather. I had been to Europe before but never like this - on my own with zero plans.  Well I say zero, but I had applied to get my old job back in the Bahamas, heck I was even planning on working with the dolphins I used to work with but then again, I had also applied for a job in Belize and a job in Denmark… 

Because I had friends all over the world, it just so happened that my friend Lindsay’s home was in the mountains above Nice so that’s where I ended up.  It was an old Feudal home that sat above the valley; it was beautifully paradoxical with terra-cotta tiles on the floor, and yet a DVD collection to rival anyone’s.  Lindsay was a head trainer working with Killer Whales and so of course I thought maybe I should look for a job there too, since why not? 

Nice is part of the Côte d’Azur and it. is. just. stunning! And, the food!  Her husband was a phenomenal chef and every night was gourmet night at their house.  It was the first time I had a Salade Niçoise .  A traditional food of the region, it typically includes tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, potatoes, Nicoise olives, anchovies, and leafy greens.  It can also have tuna on it and the lemon dressing is a simple emulsion of lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, garlic, Dijon mustard, and S&P.  This was the first time I had ever eaten a salad like this and for sure the first time I knowingly ate anchovies.  These salty little buggers were not part of my diet prior though they probably were in the Caesar salad dressings I had eaten but never really thought or knew they were in there.  Sometimes the thought occurs to me, that I didn’t really think much about food until it became my life through my work. These thoughts both amaze and fascinate me as I try to remember the what, when, and how of food.

While Lindsay was at work during the day, I would just travel around Nice looking at all the little stores and specialty shops. Slowly but surely, I started gathering up a collection of all these new and amazing specialty foods that I just had to bring back to Canada - this was turning into an unplanned culinary quest!

After a week or so of hanging out at Lindsay’s, I decided to continue on my way and went to Tuscany and then specifically Siena, Italy.  I wandered around and kept gathering up more specialty treats to add to my growing collection, but now discovering Italian foods I never knew existed.

Although, there were a lot of places I went on this adventure, especially in Italy, as I used to be fluent in Italian - we’ll save some of those stories for that “other day” because I want to get to this next part - Panforte in Siena!

Do you know what Panforte is?  Well, to say I had no idea what it was is an understatement. 

This sweet or il dolce is a traditional Italian dessert specifically from Siena in Tuscany. Its literal translation is “strong bread”. Speaking of strong - something we don’t really have here in Canada is a strong, regional food culture because we’re more of a mish/mash of everyone else’s cultural foods from their home countries. 

But in Italy, you might say they are the OG of very strong regional food cultures and customs. I went into a food shop doing my daily “what can I eat that’s new” trip around the store when one of the staff offered me a sample of Panforte explaining that it was proudly created in Siena in the 13th century as a luxurious high energy food that was also practical as the ingredients lent it to be long lasting and travel well . One bite and my mouth was singing!  I am a sucker for any combination of fruit and nuts but this was next level.  It has such a dense and chewy texture but with a rich and intense flavour: think fruitcake but a million times better.  This was something I’d never had before and because of the delight I felt when eating it, I didn’t really think it would make it home to Canada.  And, funny story it did not!

Finally, when I wound up in Turin, Italy with my friend Roberto and his parents, I finished my buying spree with a last few items I gathered up all of my purchases from France and Italy and put them in a box to send home to Canada so I could enjoy them with my family upon my return, whenever that was. (Spoiler alert: I ended up getting a job interview while I was in Italy for a job in Denmark working with Harbour porpoises and seals so I flew to Denmark to do a weeklong job interview and then ended up hightailing at home so I could pack up my life and move to Denmark.) 

As I was packing, I was so excited about everything that I had carefully sourced. Not only did I have Panforte, but also Gianduiotto chocolates (they’re the most incredible hazelnut chocolate created in Turin), Prosecco, spices, and other sweets. But when I got to the post office, the worker told me it would be €40 to send the box home! I stared at her like she had grown an extra head or I had grown an extra head, but there was no way that I was paying $60 Canadian to ship the package home. So I did what any enterprising young woman would do, and took it back to where I was staying and then Roberto’s dad and I stayed up till three in the morning - we ate and drank everything in that box, except the spices!  My Italian was so much better that night and so was his English!  At one point my friend's mom came into the living room because we were cackling about something. She just shook her head, laughed and went back to bed.

So I guess the moral of my Colleen story is: if you ever find yourself in another country gathering up all sorts of treats to send home, just save yourself the headache at the post office, and find a great person to eat and drink it all with you! 

Now, the question of the post is - who has lived in more places than Colleen? LOL And, have you ever tried to send home your purchases only to be foiled at the post office?

Last thought - because you can only get Panforte in Canada during the Christmas holidays, we will have to come back to this post/topic, source and buy some locally, and then take some pictures enjoying it. Jason has never tried it and I think it will be a big treat! Comment below if you want to join our Panforte Party!