Letters from Calabria

Today is my first day back from Italy, and I'm fighting a bad case of jet lag. I shot up and down the southwest coast, otherwise known as the beautiful unknown Calabria, for a book about, what else, the food of Calabria. Let me tell you, I've never eaten more food or better food in my life. Everything is so simple and so fresh, it puts "fresh and organic" in this country to shame. I'm so frustrated that I don't have access to unpasteurized cheese right now and I don't know how anyone in their right mind could come up with something so tasteless and stupid. One of the highlights of the trip was shooting a shepherd making fresh ricotta. He scooped a bit off the top of the giant black pot over the fire, put it on some homemade bread, and that was my breakfast. I almost passed out; it was too good.