Peak into the window of the Creative Kids Corners summer camp and you’ll see a lot of singing, dancing; creative art projects all weaved into a whimsical learning environment. This seven week summer camp is filled with fun, and laughter all geared to stimulate creative thinking and learning.

CKC was a proud sponsor and participant at Nosh for Nurture’s annual benefit held this past Saturday evening at the Winnetka Presbyterian Church on Hibbard Rd. Nosh for Nurture is an organization dedicated to fighting childhood obesity and improving nutrition generally among underprivileged families through nutritional and culinary education.

Recently diplomats from many countries were polled regarding their favorite city in which to live. Conventional wisdom might think Paris, London, Amsterdam or perhaps Rome. Fans of smaller capitals might choose Stockholm, Copenhagen, Bern, or Dublin. Interestingly, none of these worthy capitals was the favorite. It was Vienna, the capital of Austria, our culinary destination this week.

It’s time for Cooking for Life’s ethnic culinary travels and our two first ports of call are countries of the sun: Mexico and Sicily. We call Sicily a country because, although technically part of Italy, Sicily has always been fiercely independent and influenced by many different cultures—Greeks, Romans, Saracens (Arabs), and others.

As best we know the first apparition of the word “pizza” dates from 997. A Roman document mentions that one person owed another several “pizze” (the plural of pizza). Pizza as we know it originated in Naples, Italy and came to America with the immigrants who flocked here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This week we are going to make dishes from Thailand (pad thai) and Vietnam (spring rolls). Having lived in Singapore and Thailand for quite a few years I am a devotee of these cuisines, and also the cuisines of Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Myanmar (formerly Burma).

This truism is a foundation of French classical cuisine but true of virtually all cuisines all over the world.

To paraphrase the old rhyme, “One panino, two panini, three panini, four….etc”. Likewise, “One raviolo, two ravioli, three ravioli four…..etc”.

Until I had the great good fortune to begin my Asian adventures in 1974 with a year at the University of Singapore I thought curry was a powder and that it came in a bottle.

When we lived in Milan, Italy for five years we spent every major holiday with “parenti”—relatives of my father-in-law.

The Portuguese language, whether that spoken in Portugal or the slightly different version spoken in Brazil, is replete with sayings.

The success of the saltimboccas got me thinking about the upcoming conclave at the Vatican during which all 110 or so cardinals under the age of 75 will be electing the next supreme pontiff of the Catholic Church, i.e., the next Pope.

Then the Italian word “troppo” popped into my head. “Troppo” means “too much”, as in “troppo caldo”—too hot, “troppo forte”—too funny, “troppo stanco”—too tired, and so on.

Last year my Christmas present from my wife was a week of retreat, renewal, contemplation, and above all, silence, at the Trappist monastery in Gethsemane, Kentucky.