You have never been to Bari if you haven’t tried Sgagliozze from Maria says the poster on the doors of the little corner shop near the Cathedral.
I was born and bred and Bari and I have been at Maria’s countless times. It is not really a shop, it’s a house and in summer it’s the street. When the word ”streetfood” was still in the mind of those who conceived it, Maria was already there.
A few days ago I was sitting on the stairs of the cathedral with a bag full of sgagliozze that Christopher, Melissa and I shared. The queue at the shop was long and while we waited, at some point, I began to fantasize about the possibility that the gas cylinders used by Maria and her daughter for frying sgagliozze could blow up. After all they were playing with lighters and screwdrivers, with a temperature of 32 degrees and scooters and kids and people running and walking all over the place. Confusion reigned everywhere and I had been telling Christopher and Melissa about some precedings. The explosion of the gas cylinders of a camper in Casamassima a few months before, the explosion of a house near my parents when I was a kid caused by a gas cylinder and finally the explosion of the bridge in Genova who would have happened the day after they took the train to the North.
Luckily we did not explode. I have had a great time hanging around Puglia with Christopher and Melissa. And I can proudly say that now they both think focaccia barese is better than focaccia di Recco.
If there’s something really explosive, it is Unread Records that Christopher runs in Pittsburgh PA and that I am a big fan of. It’s really difficult to say which is my favorite release from their catalog since I almost have them all. A lot of time has passed since my first order, Christopher and I have been talking through emails, collaborated a few times and shared the same love for the world of DIY record labels and the hometaping universe. Unread is a continuous source of inspiration and it was good to finally talk in person with someone I have always admired.
