Eataly

Despite what you might think, my friend and I were not done food shopping when we departed the Torino chocolate festival. The festival had been a fortunate detour from our true destination - the ultimate grocery store in the world. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration. I've been to the Whole Foods flagship store in Austin and that place is pretty cool but this one is probably the best in Europe and definitely the best in Italy.

What's the number one best part about it? The name. Eataly.

Get it? I think it's so clever but maybe I just have a "punny" sense of humor. Eataly is a store that embodies the principles of the 'Slow Food' movement that was invented right here in Northern Italy. This giant warehouse of a store/restaurant contains good from small-scale producers from all over Italy. Rather than shipping their meats, cheeses, and produce through a middle man and risking the loss of quality, they joined together to sell their goods for a sustainable price at Eataly. With some small exceptions, a handful of 18 producers make up the bulk of the goods sold here. If you want to know where your salumi comes from, the Eataly website will tell you all about the father/son team of Franco and Carlo Pernigotti in Tortona, who still makes their salumi by hand in the same location that they have been since the early 20th century. Selling from artisan producers to the mass market doesn't mean a sacrifice in selection either. You can see from the picture below that my friend and I had quite the challenge when it came to picking the salami or prosciutto that we'd take home with us.


Eataly embodies the principles of the 'Slow Food' movement that were formed in Italy in 1986 as a response to the fast food/Americanization that was sweeping through Europe. While they didn't manage to stem the tide of McDonald's, they did create a niche market demand for high-quality sustainable foods. The Slow Food organization serves a consulting role in Eataly's growing empire (they have a small store in three other Italian cities and will be opening more).

Pressed for time, we mainly explored and shopped in the retail food and beverage sections, planning our dinner for that night. While we initially wanted to make a seafood pasta, the price of sustainable shrimp was a bit beyond our budgets and neither of us know how to debeard mussels. Instead, we opted for fresh ground beef with a locally produced tomato & basil sauce. We picked up fresh pasta (so much better than the dried stuff) along with whole-wheat bread and the makings for a fresh garden salad. So perhaps it was the American-ized version of a Bolognese but the ingredients did make a world of difference.

And the icing on the cake? It wasn't dessert - it was our beverage of the night. When we wandered to the cellar, we noticed these gigantic barrels and gigantic glass bottles. Local customers stood there, some with gallon-sized glass jugs, to fill up on wine. Priced at just 3.50 euro per liter, I couldn't resist grabbing a two liter bottle of my own (for only 80 cents!). I was initially worried about whether we'd drink it before it went bad - silly me, it was gone by midnight! Typical Italy, just when you think this place is too expensive to live well (you should've seen the prices on that shrimp), it'll turn around and shock you with something ridiculously cheap and delicious.