Catching Up with Slow Fish in Genoa

And some Big News

You can joke all you want — yes, the Slow Fish are the ones that get caught. Ha ha.

Slow Fish works under the Slow Food Umbrella, next to Slow Beans, Grains, Wine, Fiber (as in textiles, not roughage), Bees, Travel, and others. Slow Fish promotes Good, Clean, Fair fishing practices, encouraging biodiverse, environmentally friendly, values-based seafood systems.

I have enjoyed seafood as much as one can in the land-locked Midwest United States, and over the past few years I’ve taken a shine to tinned fish. I planned to attend the Slow Fish USA event in Charleston last November, but then UNISG came along and here I am in Italy. (Not a complaint.)

Last week I heard about the Slow Fish Italy event in Genoa, and soon after booked a three-hour train ride for early Saturday morning, and an apartment in Genoa for the night.

Genoa, the capital of Italy’s Liguria region, was on my list to visit, but I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to go, so this checked off a couple boxes (or tins). I planned for rain, but the sky was nothing but blue, making it a perfect day to spend in this coastal town, along with lots of other people.

I was warned the event had become too commercial, and they absolutely featured a big tent with lots of vendors, but there were also plenty of seminars, tastings, and demonstrations. The center picture below shows a couple of UNISG grads at their tasting, although I didn’t catch their names. They also had a kids’ tent with coloring books (yes, I grabbed a page to color later).

Major bummer at the Pasta di Martino booth as I waited for the demo by the chef of Trattoria Rosmarino, when — it appeared to me — they lacked the corrected paperwork in order to proceed. Below left, the three foreground officials spent a lot of time on the computer before leaving the chef kitchen-less. In the middle pic, the team still smiled for the cameras, but in the right photo you can see the staff’s expressions as they planned their next move. They did manage to have more tastings later in the day, so problem solved.

Not specifically fish-related, but this poster of proper pasta preparation was practically perfect.

I registered for a Beer and Anchovy (Birra e Acciughe) pairing, which did not disappoint, even though I could only understand every eighth Italian word. I can speak anchovy, though, and I’m fluent in beer, so I found it easy to appreciate the yeasty blonde ale and salted fish, the malty tripel with the umami sun-dried tomatoes, the sweet dunkel with the tangy anchovy sauce, and the funky saison with the spicy fish bits.

But I nearly swooned when I saw that wooden fish fork…

Walking around Old Town later, I was tickled to see one of the restaurants offering special Slow Fish specials. There will be a future post on the beauty I experienced in Genoa.

Those of you who know me will appreciate one of my highlights of the event was this nifty notebook.

Here’s something fun! A major component of my Master of New Food Thinking program is an internship, and I arrived in Italy last fall with three solid ideas and room for more. I came up with several new ideas, and while I thought they were all brilliant, most of them fell flat, some with a clear “no, thank you,” but others with no response at all. (Welcome to Europe.)

I kept my eyes and mind open, though, and on the Catalonia study trip last month we met with a marine biologist who runs an agro-tourism business in Barcelona. They organize experiences with the local fishery culture and tradition, and raise awareness of the importance of being responsible consumers of fish and seafood to preserve both biodiversity and traditional fishery jobs. They apply those same objectives and values to seafood cooking classes and demonstrations using lesser-known species. And they’re a member of Slow Food!

They needed an extra hand, and help with marketing, and I was hoping to land something fish-centric for my internship, so, long-story-short, I move to Barcelona in early July!

Stay tuned for more details.

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