What real stuff tastes like!

What real vanilla should look like!

I baked a cake for Ida's five-year-old birthday party today using real vanilla and I was surprised by how surprised I was to discover that the powder was brown and not white as it usually is.

A few years ago, I read an interesting book about the dirty practices used by the food industry to hide the ingredients they put in the products we eat. 

According to the author of The Secret Chef, (Den Hemliga Kocken) most vanilla is artificial and doesn't come from the orchid planifolia. In fact, only 2-3 percent of the vanilla used worldwide comes from this exotic flower. Combined, we produce 12.000 tones artificial vanilla every year. The vanilla I used today comes from Madagskar, a country that produces the best vanilla in the world.

Nothing beats eating the real thing. Yesterday, for instance, we ate the sweetest avocados I've ever tasted. They were organically grown, of course, and it reminded me of the time I visited a small town outside of Rome and was served locally produced grapes. They had just been picked from the tree and made me realize that I probably don't know how real fruit should taste like.

Until next time, live green!