Gelato #3 and it's a STRIKE!

Grom opened its first shop in downtown Turin in May 2003, and it was an instant success: lines 15-20 meters long in front of the shop and enthusiastic smiles encouraged the two founding partners to do even better. In January 2005, they invested in a production workshop suitable to meet the demands of the other Grom shops that opened that same year. The goal is always the same: to offer the very best. The liquid mixtures are checked by a team of experts and then distributed 3 times a week, just like fresh milk, to each shop, where they are creamed.

Grom is synonymous with gelato of the highest quality. The idea is to apply a principle common to all the best restaurants in the world to the production of handmade gelato: the purchase of raw materials of absolute top quality. It was with this purpose in mind that, at the end of 2002, Guido Martinetti and Federico Grom set out to search for, from the Langhe to Sicily, the best that agricultural Italy – and not only that – could offer. The standards are strict: only fresh and in-season fruit, coming from the best consortia in Italy, no colorings or additives that are not natural, Lurisia mountain water used as a base for sherbets and high-quality whole milk for the creams, organic eggs and selections of the best cocoas and coffees from central America.

Grom interprets gelato by following the tradition of Italian gelato makers, where fresh milk, egg yolk, white cane sugar and the best raw materials such as pistachios, hazelnuts, vanilla and many others play a leading role. A moderate use of cream allows our ice cream to always have a low fat content, likewise with the quantity of sugar used, in order to avoid cloying and non-refreshing gelato. As a result, Grom’s gelato is very suited to those who want to eat gelato low in fat (8-10%) and sugar (15-18%) but rich in precious raw materials and proteins, easy to digest and with a full and intense flavor. Gelato made in this way, using only carob flour as a very noble thickening agent, requires a longer and more difficult processing by our operators at the counter.

This was after lunch and still burdened with our backbreaking groceries. The weather was in the region of about ten degrees. But gelato? Best served cold! :)

We have officially been Grom-ed!

Torrocino (nougat), extra noir ciocolatto (extra dark chocolate), egg cream and a hazelnut.

There were too many other flavours we wish we had the stomach to try.

And then there was also hot chocolate (calda ciocolatto). This guy in front of us ordered one of that and it looked like pure, molten, unadulterated, chocolate love!

But no my stomach cannot afford that kind of richness (in fat content!) so we passed on that.

What about gelato?

Oh that's milk. Good for growth! :)

It's more expensive than your usual run-of-the-mill gelato shops but it was well worth every cent.

With stores in Japan and NY, I'll be back for more even if it isn't in the northern region of Italy.

Have you had Grom before?

Right smack on the roads enroute to the Vatican. At EUR $1.50 for a piccolo with three flavours. What's not to like? It's a happy takeway shop with hot guys and creamy smooth gelato. How we managed with only two cones? I look back and wonder. Love it.

Home for the weekend :)

Waking up to takeaway chicken rice are the stuff dreams are made of. Just read the International Herald Tribune on my flight home and this article spoke volumes to me. It was entitled Time, Distance and Clarity and it started off about the sky looking bluer than it does almost anywhere else in Rome. I concur. And I continued to peruse the rest of the article. I've gotten used to traveling since I was young what with my mother's line of profession. And I'm blessed by my widened perspective of the world with my travels. But travels are for short periods of time. You get home before you really miss it. Then there was the exchange programme.

A chance of a lifetime (well, it is if you only applied for it once in your life) to McGill. No, it wasn't my first choice. UBC was. And I haven't heard of McGill before. And what a mistake I almost made not wanting to go. So I went. For two whole months all I saw was the side gates of campus and home. Tears more than threatened me in the day in between classes and boy did they overwhelm me in the nights. I called home daily. Even if conversations revolved around the weather and my meals. Fall was pretty with its colours. Life was good with pasta and potato meals. Good lecturers, even getting to make some friends. But. I still wanted to go home. One day after class, I took the main gates out and walked myself to Chinatown. The discovery of preserved radish, Chinese longevity noodles and packaged moon cakes were a turning point. I skipped home. Buildings looked great. I read up on the places to go, I even accepted an invite to the tallest bar in town for Halloween. Life was good. I just never noticed nor appreciated it. The sorrow of having wasted two months lies there. The writer hit it spot on when he wrote, "But it is also true that we're often plain oblivious to the scenery right in front of us. By being closest, it's farthest away."

Then there was Ponte Vecchio in Florence. I read up the guides, found it as one of the top ten things in Florence to see. I wanted to go. I had to right? Then here comes my brother. "why are we looking for this? Just because it's a World War Two survivor? What about the Kranji War Memorial, Fort Siloso. Those are from the WW II too and I don't see anyone rushing to see it?" then it got me. It's a tourist thing. I mean I've seen these sites since I'm taking national education/social studies in school. But what if I wasn't. Would I visit them? It's like a responsibility of a tourist. See the top ten. Do what everyone else has done. As if it was a trip requirement. I'm kicking myself for missing the Sunday markets just to go to the malls with my mum.

But at the end of the day, I'm thankful for every trip that I've gone on. It's never the same. Might be the company. Might be the sites. Could be the weather. Would be largely based on my attitudes. Bangkok year on year is never the same. Travel while you can. I know I'd do that as long as my legs could carry me. Hey, you can't carry money to the grave. Might as well spend it seeing the world. Living the life of a global traveller. So much to see, things to do, places to go. I'm looking forward to Bangkok on Monday already :)