Tag: shopping

Shopping cart, our assistant with wheels – Italian Cuisine

We have learned the rules to make the shopping list healthy and fair and then of course the rules to make smart and perfect shopping once on the spot, whether at the super or at the farmer's market. However, one is missing small detail, too undervalued: which are the arms that help us carry this beautiful expense? Besides our own – and those of our partner eventually? But the cart, of course!

There are of course the iconic supermarket carts, with the immortal grids and the mythical portababy basket. Speaking of baskets: once we went shopping with the charming wicker-made shelves. But these were times when shopping was done daily, close to home. This is not the case today.

It was a night in 1937 when Sylvan Goldman, son of a family of Jewish merchants who emigrated to the United States, had an intuition. He had long since noticed how much women with children were prevented from moving and exploring the desks and shelves of his firm's stores. That night Sylvan was sleepless and kept staring at one folding chair. A common plastic folding chair. And he was enlightened: he put a shopping basket on the chair and imagined it with wheels. After a couple of months the first shopping cart had left the factory. And food spending was never the same again.

Sure, but these carts arrive at most up to the parking lot. And then? Most of us run for mega-stocks, we buy more and more – even too much – and i perverse packaging they make weight and volume rise (as well as pollution).

What to do? Load us all on our shoulders – with all due respect to the accusations against children's school backpacks – or be car slaves? With an increasingly older population, moreover, the continuation of the cart even after leaving the store, market or supermarket is fundamental. And indeed it exists!

Let's talk about the cart.2, that is the one who lives in our house and that we take for a walk which valiant assistant of our purchases.

How to choose? Meanwhile, there are the entirely thermal carts, like the one from 45l proposed by GIMI, specialized brand in products that can simplify daily activities such as drying clothes, keeping the house tidy or shopping, in fact.

The GIMO Family Thermo, with removable bag, store food for up to 6 hours at both hot and cold temperatures. The same insulating function has the Thermo Bag, that in addition to the products more sensitive to the thermal shock that we buy by shopping, it can then be used as a picnic cooler – even during lunch.

A very important element in the choice of the cart are the wheels: they must be great enough not to risk our assistant getting stuck on the road, pivoting in order to make it easy to use in any situation – see entry and exit maneuvers from the elevator but also and above all to be able to face with serenity if any stairs.

In this regard, in the brand mentioned above, stands out Tris model, which of wheels has well 6 in XL size, carries up to 30 kg of expense and is designed specifically for being able to climb the stairs effortlessly and be smooth on any type of flooring. Also noteworthy is the model Twin, which has 4 wheels, 2 of which are retractable, for those who prefer to tow rather than push.

As the doggy bag is now an appreciable food prêt-à-porter, so it is cleared through customs the era of the shopping cart a little doggy, trustworthy mate of frolics among stalls, rows and food & various shops. From fish on the market to the can of detergent, from seasonal fruit to packages of flour, everything is served on the walking wheels of the trolley that suits me!

Aurora Quinto
May 2019

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Fish market in Milan: address, shopping, fish – Italian Cuisine

Why is it said that in Milan there is the freshest fish in Italy, always rightly irritating all those who live on the sea?

The Milan Fish Market was born in the Fascist era, with the need for a specific structure for the sale of fish. The historic site is that of via Sammarini 70, around which over time various restaurants were born, including many still active, such as the namesake, or the Fish Market Restaurant at number 73 of the same street. During the 1990s, given the success and the increase in the consumption of fish, the need to expand the original site grew stronger and so it moved to the current structure of Via Lombroso, with a total of 11,000 m2 of extension. 25 wholesalers, each with its own peculiarities, its fish and its stories.

How the consumption of fish has changed

It is well known that our seas have been undergoing a major crisis for some time now. Until the eighties, however, it was not so: there was a lot of national fish, such as dentex or pagelli, today more and more in extinction. In addition, in the past there were no farms, especially because there was not the great demand for fish that is there today, increased dramatically, certainly not with the availability. Suffice it to say that in the past per capita consumption was about 12.13 kg per person, while today it is at least 23. Also the inclusion of the fish department in large retailers, which may seem normal or discounted, is actually much more recent of what is believed.

National fishing and foreign fishing, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean

With the crisis of the seas and the increase in the consumption of fish, national fishing can no longer satisfy the demand. Thus, only 35% of the products on the market are national, while 65% come from abroad. There are some wholesalers known to always have local fish; others, on the other hand, have their boats that fish only in the national seas; as well as others have the rarest fish coming from far away. If the Fish Market in Milan could speak, it would have the voice of Renato Malandra. Because he is the historical memory of this place, the vet who has seen fish and wholesalers for 35 years and controls them, every night, starting at 11 in the evening until the first foggy lights of the morning. In this regard, the vet claims that we are too prejudiced against fish from the Atlantic, and we persist in thinking that the Mediterranean is always better: "it is a historical question, because the Mediterranean is our history. In countries like France or Spain they have both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, so they can choose to prefer one or the other, while we have always considered the only one we had, ie the Mediterranean one, better ", continues Renato. "In addition, we live in an era where we are too obsessed with the place, when in reality there are species that are better from the Mediterranean, others from the Atlantic, without necessarily being a matter of better or worse. Rather, the issue of farms is more urgent ".

Breeding and fishing

Of all the fish sold at the market, the About 70% are bred, while 30% are caught. But even on this, our vet invites us to reflect that not all farms are harmful, it always depends on how the fish are bred. In principle, it would always be better to prefer the catch, for various reasons: for example, farmed fish do not have Omega 3, just as they tend to accumulate more fat.

So why in Milan is the freshest fish in Italy?

The famous saying that so much annoys, rightly, who lives on the sea is that in Milan there is the freshest fish in Italy. But how is it possible? Considering that much of the fish comes from abroad, can only come by air from places like the Indian Ocean or the Maldives, or through the fastest way there is, which allows you to keep almost intact the freshness and other characteristics of the fish. Only in rare cases, for example from Northern Europe and the European Atlantic coast, comes by truck. Here, the cause of freshness of the fish in Milan is finally unveiled, also because most of the city is coming from here, from the Fish Market.

Who buys at the Fish Market?

The customers of the Fish Market are mainly fishmongers and street vendors, who every morning from 4 onwards come to buy fish. Only Saturdays is open to the public and to individuals from 8 to 12, but in reality the best fish is the one you find in restaurants, sold during the week. In reality, almost no restaurateur, if not some rare exception dictated more than anything else by curiosity, has ever come directly to buy it; they usually make the order the night before, partly because the strength of the market is precisely to guarantee the freshness of a quality product. But in reality the market is no longer a reference point only for the city of MilanFor some time now they have arrived at the Fish Market from other Lombard provinces as well as from Piedmont, Veneto, Emilia and even Switzerland, as its reputation for quality fish precedes it. But its meaning remains deeply regional, linked to its history and to what it represented for a city like Milan, which the sea has never seen.

The "Milan Fish Market" quality mark

Precisely to protect and enhance the quality of fish coming from the market, Sogemi has launched the "Milano Itto Milan" quality label, under the banner of food safety. "I am convinced of the strong identity that this brand and the new role of the Ittico Mercato Milano will transmit to the operators of the supply chain", declared the President SogeMi Cesare Ferrero. "This brand was created to enhance even more the work and professionalism of the individual operators that populate the market in the morning, and will serve to better communicate to consumers the virtuous model of supply and treatment of raw materials. And among the guarantees offered there are undoubtedly the rigorous veterinary checks carried out on raw materials, as pointed out by the Veterinary Consultant for the self control of the Milan Fish Market, Dott.Valerio Ranghieri. Therefore, the MIM brand was created with the aim of becoming a competitive plus that operators can use on the catering market to further enhance the products and the whole system of what is unanimously recognized as the most important fish market in Italy.

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10 ingredients that is best removed from the shopping list – Italian Cuisine

Drain, disinfect and find the right balance. Here are the rules of detox from foods that we should not take if we want to purify ourselves

The month of January is not just the period when we shed crocodile tears on the excesses of the holidays. It is also a precious moment to give new life to our projects, to reflect on what surrounds us and to dedicate ourselves to things that we have been postponing for a while. As the care of our body. The detox programs come to us precisely because they allow us to purify the organism, reduce theinflammation of tissues, eliminate the liquids in excess and rediscover the lost harmony.

Our allies

Before talking about what we should not eat, let's try to reason positively. Which are the foods that will allow us to purify ourselves? Winter seems like the ideal season for a detox program because it offers us many simple ingredients to find. Such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, apples, pomegranate, beets, artichokes and fennel. But we can also ask for valuable help for less seasonal foods like blueberries, flax seeds, whole grains, seaweed, turmeric and pineapple.
And if these are the foods that will favor our purification the most, we must consider the help given by drinking as even more important water in abundance (at least 1.5 liters per day) combined with the intake of fiber-rich foods.

The importance of liquids

Hydrating the body is a fundamental passage of our detox path that must start from the moment of awakening with a glass oflukewarm water with lemon juice. To further reduce the swelling, it is advisable to also add it ginger to this simple drink that in addition to purify us, will activate our metabolism. During the day, we will continue our hydration with flavored waters, centrifuges, extracts and juices. All this always avoiding adding sugars, sweeteners or honey and taking into account the sucrose doses naturally contained in the fruit.

The enemies of the detox

And here we are now to foods no. That is to that group of foods that in one way or another counteract the positive action of our detoxification program by canceling the progress made. In the gallery below, the 10 foods to say no to purify our body:

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