A Foodies dream - Part One: On the way to Food Camp, a stop in Bolzano.

fab - 11 November 2011 - 21:15

There we are, all packed ready to go to Italy for 5 days of Food Camp, cooking, drinking, visiting local food and wine producers….(I’ll talk about that in a next post)
But before we drive all the way down to the Cilento area, we are stopping in Bolzano in South Tyrol first to visit friends and discover the area. It happened to be the perfect transition before going to Italy without speaking Italian. In Bolzano you can speak both German and Italian.

The amazing panorama view over Bolzano from the Gasthof Lipp.

Typical soup of the area, the Frittaten Suppe, a consomme with crepes / pancake.

Bolzano’s main productions are apples and wine. I’ve never seen so many apple fields in my life.

Specialty of the area and what has become my favorite summer drink, the “Hugo”: Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine), sparkling water, Elderflower syrup, a few mint leaves, a slice of lemon and ice cubes. It is delicious, refreshing and pretty addictive. We also had foccacia with roasted tomatoes, crunchy, juicy, lovely!

If you fancy ice-cream visit Paolo Coletto, the owner of the “Officina del Gelo Avalon“.
He is an institution in Bolzano and has been making ice-cream since 30 years. His talent and love for quality products, he inherited from his mother who gave him her 6 ice-cream recipes. Today he’s created hundreds of them, using mainly local as well as organic ingredients. Even the cups he uses are not made of plastic but out of corn starch. He is passionate and evolves all the time.
This is one of the best ice-creams I have ever had, the flavours are “real” and intense, the texture is very creamy. We stayed and chatted with him for quite a while, the guys were waiting outside, getting impatient.
Paolo IS a character, travels a lot to India and south east Asia, is inspired by his Guru and says that each time he comes back from one of his trip, he is different, he has changed and therefore has to change the recipe of his ice-cream.

Locals chilling while eating ice-cream. In the cup: chocolate and cream of milk