Torino Italy: A Sunday with a food fair!!!

So this takes place on a bright sunny day after church, I was walking back home and figured that I would explore the area on the way home.

Here's some parked cars, the focus is that washroom booth in the back! I haven't gone in one of those yet, but I've heard that it's almost like a home bathroom.

Here's the Mole, it's the tallest building in Torino. And it's home to the museum of film.

Just a crazy sculpture in the area.

Food fair! I love all the stands

This was a stall full of dried tomatos, garlic, cheese, salami, sausages and anything dried.

Marzipan fruits!

Nothing like a crazy meat BBQ for your day

His Hat is awesome!

That was the pasta mobile, with all different kinds of hand made pasta

Me with my meat plate from the BBQ place

Here's the Fish Stall

This was my favourite stall. All they sold was dried peppers and sausages....made from wild boar! I was instantly attracted by the boar head in the back. They gave me a sample and I walked away with an amazing sausage. Too bad I haven't found him since this picture.

Here's a chocolate bar. Torino is actually famous for chocolates. There are few super expensive and prestigious places here. And these places have master class chocolatiers! One of them is Peryano, and it was practically 60 euros for a Kg of chocolate. But they were delicous.

Torino Italy 03/10/2011: First day of school in the new campus!

This was the first day of school in the newly opened campus. Perfect timing for us!

This is the side fo the building, denoted by the benches and umbrellas. We're actually staring at the mensa (the caffeteria).

Here's the opposite side of the building. This area used to be a Fiat factory, and they converted this area into a University campus. They're planning further expansion.

Here's a patio, where is it really cold in the winter.

This is a really nice building

This is the right side of the building. And those are the only exterior stairs to go to the 2nd floor.

Here's a picture after climbing those stairs. And the garbage cans are soo cool! Makes it like you're on a ship or something.

Here's a shot from the outside looking in. You can't tell, but there's a set of doors that separate the outside from the inside. But all it does in the winter is keep out the wind. They're only single pane and they don't insulate at all. On top of that, all these glass doors do not have dampers. Something I found out after pushing the door open with my hip and slamming it into the glass wall.....I am so glad I didn't break anything.

Here's the common area. It's freezing in here in the winter.

Inside looking out.

Here's the Cafeteria (aka the mensa), Now it says "Bar" on the door, and that's valid as they serve alcohol. 

Torino Italy: So there was this knife

So as most of my friends know, I really like food. Actually, it's pretty obvious if you've been following this blog. So when here in Italy, my only frustration was not having a knife to chop and cut with. I was looking for a particular knife that I read about, and since I also like collecting a few different types of knives, I felt that my next one had to be a Japanese Santoku knife.

Whilst walking towards the cell phone shop, I found this crazy knife store. The display was magnificent, and it was nothing but knives in that display. Eventually I worked up enough courage to walk in.

Here's the inside of the store, I was really set on looking for a decent knife, and when the owner noticed me looking, he told me that all his good knives are not out on display!

I eventually got to chatting with Michael, and I found out a lot about this store. It's been around since 1929, and it was started by his great grand father. It managed to survive the bombings during WW2 and it still stand today! Michael is the 3rd generation owner and this humble shop supplies knives to almost all the chefs in Torino. He's also very knowledgeable in all the different knives here and knew exactly what I was looking for.

Here are some pots and some juicers.

Another shot of the exterior of the store.

And this baby is what I brought home. It's a Kyocera Ceramic knife. Initially, I didn't know that Kyocera made knives and I was skeptical, but then I found out the Kyocera stood for Kyoto Ceramics. So they've been around long enough to know how to handle ceramic.

I sprung for the black blade because it looked soo good. There was a white one, but the black one just looked cooler, even though it was more expensive. I was reading that the black blade is a bit more durable than the white one, but if I were really honest with myself, it's not worth the premium. It's a great knife for cutting and it's ludicrously sharp. I have a Henkel's Miyabi 6" at home and I found that this was even sharper (which I thought was impossible). I was able to slice artichokes and leeks with little to no effort nor sawing. It was incredible. You don't need to use a honing steel on it before you use it. The biggest knock I have against it is that although ceramic is super hard, it's super brittle. It has very little ductility at all. I saw some people dropping it, but I want to make sure that this knife doesn't chip its blade (there's a $10 sharpening service available for the life of the knife).The tip is rounded, which would probably get broken off anyways. In the instruction booklet says that it's really only meant for veggies and boneless meats. If you twist it, it'll most likely break. I've also read that someone broke it cutting a hard cheese (like Parmesan). Thus, I'm more careful when using this knife than I am with my 8" at home.
Verdict: It's a crazy sharp knife and makes chopping and slicing a joy. However, don't expect it to be your only knife. It really needs to be pampered, so don't get it if you don't like pampering.

Just look at that blade!! Simply gorgeous.

Torino Italy: A trip out to Mirafiori

So my hunt for a place here took me out to Mirafiori (which is by no coincidence, where my school is located)

The scenery is very different out here. The buildings are more modern, and there are a lot of apartments.

Here's Matt just enjoying the scenery.

Torino Italy 29/09/2011: The CENTRAL market!

So here we are at the central market, you can see Jeff walking in front of the fresh pasta stall.

The next stall is the wine stall, the below picture will show you how cheap they are.

3 bottles for only 5 Euros! Now the really crazy thing is that cheapest wine I've bought thus far (a white wine that cost 2 Euros) was much better tasting than the $10 ones found in Canada! Crazy!

More wine! We're getting to the good stuff now! Only 6.95 Euros!

Here's the clothing section of the market, you can find a lot of cheap clothing here. However, I did hear that they sell used clothing too, just be weary.

I'm not sure what church this was, but it was in the central square.

Just some shots of the side streets.

Here's another market a few blocks down from the main one. The big thing about this one is that it's all organic food.

Another Church. All those statues are tributes to saints.

Some closeup of the saints.

Here's a walk along the parkade street. It's the same on both sides of the street and it's full of shops that you can check out.

A random street corner.

This was the market outside my dorm. Instead of selling veggies and fruits, it's now turned into collectors records, CD's and posters.

Another shot of the huge quantity of stuff.

I dropped by the bakery to pick up a nice huge meringue.

A Lizard! These are pretty common here, and you'll find them where you find shrubbery.

This is the shot of the residence from the center courtyard. What you are looking at now is the central stairwell. If you look closely at the "tiled" windows, those are actually solar panels.

This is the other meringue that I bought. It was smaller, but the chocolate added some depth to it.