Naple’s panettone story : NPR

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I used to be among the many fortunate journalists who acquired to take a peek across the Milan Olympic Village the week of the opening ceremony, Velcro-ing a “media” armband round my jacket and slipping right into a sea of journalists, volunteers and Olympians from everywhere in the world.

The village is a sprawl of modular buildings and high-rise flats, with the flags and banners of the international locations in residence hanging from balconies and home windows. Sprinkled round it are vital landmarks just like the Olympic rings statue, a health middle with cardio machines and weight racks, and a mindfulness room with coaches, yoga mats and tables for coloring and postcard writing. And the eating corridor, clearly.

My teammate Pien Huang and I sat down with Daniel Smith, the Workforce USA Olympic Village director, on the bottom ground of the seven-story constructing that the U.S. shares with athletes from Japan.

Smith stated there are about 70 U.S. Olympians staying right here all through the Video games — bear in mind, solely speedskating, determine skating and ice hockey compete in Milan — in addition to some 40 U.S. assist staffers. All informed, the village will home some 1,500 athletes and group members from world wide over the course of three weeks.

Smith defined that a number of selections about every day life within the village — from what athletes eat to after they sleep to who will get a roommate — are as much as the precise sports activities and people. However he and different U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee employees are there to “mitigate distractions,” whether or not that is facilitating transportation or serving to athletes who get locked out of their rooms.

“I believe the suggestions that we get is a number of gratitude,” stated Smith, who’s working his third Video games.

The cafeteria, the place the meals is deliberately bland.

Rachel Treisman/NPR

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Rachel Treisman/NPR

Simply 72 hours after opening, it was too quickly to inform what side of the village may go viral. To date Smith hasn’t seen any of the Olympic-themed condoms that have been all the craze in Paris in 2024, or heard anybody fawning over particular desserts the way in which they did over the chocolate muffins (“We’re ready on the desserts to sort of hit”).

In actual fact, the meals is not precisely making waves — which Smith says is on goal. Round lunchtime, the one actual line we observed was for pasta with meat sauce. Whereas the yogurts, meats, greens, pasta, pizza and bread choices appeared like fairly commonplace cafeteria fare to me (decidedly NOT an athlete), Smith says the meals is blander than it appears.

“We’re right here in Italy, in one of many capitals of gastronomy on this planet, however right here within the Olympic Village, the meals may be very catered to [be] sports-specific,” Smith provides. “So not a number of condiments, not a number of taste. You sort of should taste your individual meals.”

What I am consuming

Panettone, heat from the oven.

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Rachel Treisman/NPR

Weeks in the past, after I was researching-slash-manifesting quirky experiences for this text, I got here throughout an fascinating tidbit: It is a custom in Milan for folks to eat their leftover panettone — the raisin-studded Christmas fruitcake related to town — on Feb. 3.

That is the feast day of San Biagio (Saint Blaise). The patron saint of throat diseases, amongst different issues, is credited with saving the lifetime of a younger boy who was choking on a fishbone — however has evidently taken on the function of protector towards all kinds of throat-related illnesses, together with sleep apnea and strep.

In line with a number of native English-language publications, many households in Milan put apart a chunk of panettone at Christmastime to allow them to eat it later, as a approach to defend towards sickness throughout flu season. That appears to be the results of a unique apocryphal legend, involving a peasant girl who introduced a panettone to a priest for a Christmas blessing however forgot to choose it up till many weeks later.

Anyway, I made a notice of all this however awoke yesterday not sure whether or not I had the time and/or sources to research the standing of stale panettone throughout town. However in an exhilarating flip of occasions, a bunch of us determined to separate a dessert at dinner, and guess what was on the menu! Our waiter advisable the panettone instantly, and in addition confirmed that the custom is actual. Ours wasn’t a Christmas leftover, although — it was comfortable, heat and completely scrumptious.

In Olympic information

Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté of Spain competes on the European Determine Skating Championships within the U.Ok. on Jan. 15. He’ll be allowed to put on his Minion overalls on the Olympics this month.

Yuan Tian/NurPhoto through Reuters

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Yuan Tian/NurPhoto through Reuters

Now we have to speak about Miniongate.

In case you missed it: Spanish Olympian Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté confirmed earlier this week that he was being pressured to alter the music to his Despicable Me-themed brief program — a nightmare, so near the most important competitors of his profession — attributable to a last-minute licensing dispute.

The web caught wind and rallied behind Sabaté within the hopes he might don his overalls in any case, within the title of caprice and all that’s enjoyable. Yesterday, the skater posted on Instagram that Common Studios had reconsidered and granted him the rights for this explicit event, to which everybody responded: BANANA!

Music licensing has turn into an more and more thorny subject in determine skating, which is why many older applications on YouTube are actually lacking their unique scores. A set of American pairs skaters have been hit with — and ultimately settled — a lawsuit for allegedly utilizing an unauthorized cowl through the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and Workforce USA’s Alysa Liu needed to scrap her unique Girl Gaga routine earlier this season as a result of she could not get the YouTube cowl rights. She debuted her revamped program in January, and I am certain you may hear extra about that from me later.

Earlier than you go

Katie Uhlaender of the U.S. after ending a girls’s skeleton race warmth in March. After an attraction, she was denied her probability to compete at her sixth Winter Video games.

Al Bello/Getty Pictures

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Al Bello/Getty Pictures