The Sunny Kitchen - An Italian cook in Amsterdam: Little thougths

Lots of people care about the environment and the well-being of animals, and that's great, I'm definitely one of them.
When I was younger I managed to be completely vegetarian for one full year because of my love for all living creatures until one day I noticed that my body craved meat, so I had to start eating it again. I do believe in cravings as a signal of what my body needs so I tend to respect them.
Nowadays I eat smaller quantities of meat, and only of the organic type, so that I can still have the illusion of respecting the animals a little more (and yes, I know it's just an illusion because if I wanted to respect them 100% I would become a vegan...)
So all my admiration goes to vegans: they do something I'm not capable of doing in spite of how much I'd like to from a moral point of view.

RESPECT, dear vegans! I love the fact that you try as hard as you can to avoid anything that has been made with animal-derived products and that you succeed in doing that. Well, you do MOST TIMES.

Why not always? Because if you are wine lovers and buy vegan friendly wines you usually think you're consuming vegan wines while that's not the case.
I'm very sorry for you, my darling vegans, but vegan wine does NOT exist.
Usually wine that has been clarified with substances other than egg white, gelatine and casein (which are all animal originated substances) is labelled as "vegan" but people tend to forget all the little spiders and insects that are crushed together with the grapes when making the wine...
So I'm very sorry to drop the bomb but, as I said, vegan wine is just - lovely - animal-friendly wishful thinking. :)

Dear vegans, don't hate me for telling you this. I very much hope that after reading this post you'll still be drinking wine, otherwise you would also have to stop walking to avoid killing ants and other tiny critters! :)
So raise your glass to the well-being of all living creatures, enjoy a generous swig of wine made with good, vegan fining agents and don't worry too much about its "label"!

Your truth-loving Sommelier,

Nicoletta

P.S. the photo comes from this site

Inspired by this nice culinary site called The world is a kitchen I discovered myself thinking that I really feel like the world is MY kitchen.
It's truly beautiful to love all that is food and cooking, wherever it comes from. And it's beautiful to honour the love for food and cooking keeping up my own culinary traditions (the Italian ones, that is) teaching Italian cooking and writing about it like I do.

If I feel at home everywhere I go it's maybe also due to the fact that I just love to try local foods. Food is such an important part of feeling good in a certain place and such a wonderful way to understand so many things about a country that I woulnd't want to miss this feeling for anything in the world.
That's why I feel lucky and privileged for being able to taste so many different cuisines - both during my travels and here in Amsterdam, a true cosmopolitan place - and to have a chance to share my own culinary background with people from all over the world.
Thanks to this little "window" on the world - the blog - the world itself has become my kitchen, and I'm very grateful for that.

Photograph: Michel Schnater for the Dutch newspaper "De Telegraaf"

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