Mal d'Africa

I cried the first time I flew out of Africa. I sat numbly gazing down as the plane pulled away from the thick gum tree foliage and the red dirt roads I'd gotten to know intimately. That moment taught me mal d'Afrique, the inexplicable sense of loss and heartache rooted above all in a place. When it bites hard, the Africa bug leaves you bittersweet and charged with mysterious longing and nostalgia.

A similar kind of irrational, romantic attachment enters American journalistic essays on the Italian experience. The angle? Very often it's food. Long-form articles promoting Italy speak less of Stendhal Syndrome and the Bel Paese's world-famous artistic attractions, natural wonders and historic treasures than of the eating experience. These enraptured pieces, a mainstay in newspapers and magazine, prompt a mal d'Afrique-style question: What it is about the Italian mood (and the food) that sweeps Americans off their feet and leads them to write unbridled love stories and food-forward reportages?

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Homemade pasta, is it really worth it?

In my recent article published on Plum Deluxe, I share my thoughts on this subject, analyzing the pros and cons.

I'm a single mom, working three jobs, and trying to keep my child healthy by serving the best possible food, and swearing by traditional methods. On the other hand, there are really only 24 hours in a day, and sometimes it's not that easy to whip up homemade pappardelle on a school night.

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Writing and Snacking in Rome

Image © Raimund Kutter

Though most of my work is published on the web, I'm an old school pen-and-ink gal. I have a callus on the pen-rubbing side of my middle finger. I like to scribble and keep notes in a bulging, dog-eared Moleskine notebook. I also have a passion for sending handwritten postcards. Remember those?

When it comes to work, I hardly ever compose my stories directly on my laptop. Instead, I almost always start with a ballpoint outline. Besides the comfort of the seating and folklore in the faces, it's the nosh that most galvanizes the drafting...

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