Enoteca Maria. In Italian it literally means "Maria's wine repository". But enoteca can also mean "restaurant" or "bistro." In particular, Enoteca Maria is a restaurant on Staten Island owned by Joe Scaravella, and named for his mother. I've never been there, but I read about it in this past Sunday's New York Times, and I am intrigued!
As the name implies, it is an Italian restaurant. Well--sort of. Half the menu (the permanent half of the menu) is indeed made up of classic Italian dishes. All overseen by Adelina Orazzo, a sixty-one year old transplanted Neapolitan.
But the other half of the menu changes every day, as a rotating group of grandmothers from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, fashion their own menus and prepare the dishes that they feature. They come from Sri Lanka, and Japan, and Russia and Poland. Some speak English, others are very limited. But all of them take great joy and pleasure in preparing the foods that have comforted generations of folks in their homelands. So one night you might have a choice of lasagna or gyoza and shrimp dumpling soup. Another night, it might be ravioli or curried lamb.
I'm intrigued, not just from an epicurean perspective, but also because of the fact that Scaravella says the grandmothers are learning from one another. "They can't be jealous," he says, because they're from two different world . . . The only thing they can say is 'Oh, how did you do that?' . . . There's an exchange of culture and stories ands recipes." (New York Times, 3-5-17)
So here's my idea. Instead of leaving international diplomacy to the professional politicians and diplomats, why not convene a conference of grandmothers? Why not put them all in a huge industrial kitchen and set them to work cooking up a plan for peace. Maybe we can learn something from them. And worse case scenario, a la Babette's feast, we'll have one heck of a fine meal!
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