KEEP TALKING VIA ROMA 60 UDINE The Definite Article S P E C I A L P O I N T S O F I S S U E 3 5 DECEMBER 2011 INTEREST: Regional food World cuisines Pitina, a regional speciality by Alessandro Franco A quiz to test your knowledge of British food The Pitina is a nugget of should be stored in a cool, the alpine region above the smoked meat originally from dry place, away from light and western plains of Friuli, in the Some language Tramonti di Sopra, where it heat. territory between the Tagliamento tips used to be made exclusively and Piave rivers, a production area A word from Kip from sheep, goats, or wild which is limited to only three mountain grazers such as roe valleys: the Valcellina, a winding Prize Article! deer and chamois. gorge, Val Colvera, a fascinating To prepare it, the meat is cut canyon with vertical walls, and the into small pieces and then stunning Val Tramontina. These minced. The mixture is then places are still wild and unspoilt, I N S I D E mixed with sea salt or rock now an ideal place for lovers of THIS ISSUE: salt, pepper, garlic, wine and trekking, mountaineering and herbs, including juniper, paragliding, but where once life Pitina 1 cumin, fennel, marjoram and Pitina was very hard, and survival could Austrian 2 rosemary. The mixture is depend on what one had in the Food then formed into spherical The taste is intense and pantry. balls about 10 cm in characteristically smoky, Pitina tastes great by itself, served Entertaining 2 diameter, which are pressed strong but pleasant. Once with sauerkraut, brovada, potatoes Friends and then coated in cornmeal. dried and stored they can be or beans, but it can also become Then follows the phase of eaten cooked, after at least the basic ingredient of many other I Love Food 3 smoking, which can last up to 15 days, or raw, after at least dishes. It is used to flavour soups and Food four days, using the smoke three weeks. Outside their or risottos and seasoned potato Loves Me from the burning of sawdust color can vary from golden to dumplings. The patina is browned or wood that can be beech, very dark brown, depending in a pan with salt and pepper, then A Peruvian 4 hazel or hornbeam. The on the length of ripening. mixed with an egg and stale bread Delicacy nuggets are then dried. This Inside the color ranges from soaked in water to make gnocchi, A Vegetarian 5 phase can last from two to bright red to burgundy, with which can be cooked in salted eight days. Finally we pass to the outer layer darker due to water and served simply with Future the maturing, which lasts for exposure to the air. melted butter and grated smoked A Taste of 5 a minimum period of eight Today it is still produced in ricotta. Other days. Once dried, the pitina the province of Pordenone, in Cultures In Praise of 6 English Food Food Art 6 Kip Talking Food as 7 Culture, I think I will have to admit Saturday evening: made sloe lemon thyme (perfect with fish). Food as that, as the years go by and gin (a delicious liqueur) and Sunday afternoon: made Language as the kilos go on, food and went out for dinner with smoked bacon/truffle paté A Festive 7 drink are an important part friends (excellent cooks). (forget that diet) and rosehip of my life. This was last Sunday morning: made syrup (rich in vitamin C!). Autumn 7 weekend - mango chutney (great with Food Saturday lunchtime: went Indian poppadoms or So I am really looking forward My Love of 8 into the country and picked cheese). to reading all the articles which Asian Food sloes (a kind of berry). Sunday lunchtime: went for a Emma has chosen for this Saturday afternoon: went walk on the beautiful Carso edition of the Definite Article. shopping for food. and picked rosehips and P A G E 2 Austrian Food by Milena Serra I was brought up with the that even though I agree well-browned and tender. absurd idea that Italian my with parents about the Moreover, they use some food is the best in the high quality of Italian wonderfully tasty spices world. My cuisine, I don’t share their mixture that are the icing parents taught prejudices towards foreign on the cake! me that when food or its taste. When I I still remember the you go abroad go abroad I enjoy sampling extraordinary “mixed grill you cannot the local cuisine and for two” that my husband expect to eat usually I really appreciate it and I ate during a short satisfactorily, - but I must admit I’ve holiday in Millstatt: an you just need to never tasted English food! enormous dish with lots of adapt and be As my journeys to Austria everything, where content with became more frequent, everything means four what you get. probably because of the different types of meat, The perfect low prices during the ski Frankfurters and Wiener example was season, I quickly got tired Schnitzel on a bed of fries, nearby Austria, of Wiener Schnitzel and boiled rice, mushroom There’s more to where you absolutely began trying new dishes. I sauce, vegetables and even Austrian food than could not expect to eat discovered a new world! fruit! It was all delicious. Wiener Schnitzel! well, they said! As a Usually I’m not very fond My husband ate a lot and consequence of these of meat, especially of me too (I was pregnant, so repeated lessons, the first grilled meat, because in I could eat much more times I travelled to Austria Italy either you get it rare, than usual), but we I didn’t venture beyond a which doesn’t suit my couldn’t manage to clear “Wiener Schnitzel mit taste, or you get it tough. the plate. More than a “Receiving guests Pommes frites”, which is Austrian cooks know the dish for two, it could also one of the most popular incredible knack of be considered a mixed grill means organizing dishes you can find there. perfectly roasting meat, for four! As I grew up, I realized that’s at the same time their life for three days… but you don’t know if you will be able to satisfy their Entertaining Friends by Maurizio Costantini appetite.” world means mozzarella that I finished organizing their life for off with aromatic olive oil three days. You know and basil. The soup them, so you know what produced a relaxing their cultural necessities atmosphere and the guests are. You know which are recovered their good the best sites to visit, but mood and their lost you don’t know if you will strength. We completed be able to satisfy their the meal with a sweet appetite. homemade fruit dessert I cooked a vegetable soup, paired with a typical white a nice hot dish for friends wine from Friuli. A warming winter who had driven for four We all spent a wonderful It was a very pleasant and hours through the fog in weekend together!! table. incredibly busy the heavy traffic. They weekend…. appreciated it more than Receiving guests and the classic cold dish with welcoming them into your salad and tomatoes with THE DEFINITE ARTICLE I S S U E 3 5 P A G E 3 I Love Food and Food Loves Me by Marzia Molino I travel a lot for work and so, sometimes with mushrooms, of course, I have tried different they drink beans or chestnuts. In cuisines from around the sake, tea and, winter, “polenta” and world - Bulgaria, Romania, less often, game. Croatia, Austria, Germany, beer. Usually Algeria, Syria, Morocco, they leave the My favourite Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, and restaurant restaurants. P so on. They’ve all been great very quickly What can I say about experiences to remember, to because they Fruit and rice in an Asian my favourite R repeat and sometimes to eat very fast. restaurant restaurants? First of I forget… all, I prefer local Z Arabic Countries (Sirya, restaurants and I don’t like luxury Restaurants, hotels, pubs, Algeria, Morocco) restaurants where the waiter stands E bistros, taverns, private The Arabic cuisine is behind the customers all time. Then houses, cafés, pizzerias, vans characterized by its use of usually my choice is for a “frasca”. A parked in the street in town various spices and herbs. “frasca” is a typically Friulan tavern A centres, street food – it’s Kebab with chicken, beef, where it’s the owners who grow the R possible to eat almost lamb, vegetables, fruits and a fruit and vegetables and who raise T anywhere, depending where in lot of spicy sweets and the animals on their land, cooking the world you are. cookies. In Arabic Countries the things they produce. Finally, the I many people drink “frasca”, in my opinion, is the best C I’d like to tell you soda, Coke, example of Slow Food. about some of my Seven-Up, orange L experiences. juice and My Best experience. E My best experience was in pomegranate ! North-Eastern juice. Arabic Singapore, when I ate a big crab. Its Europe people like take- real name is “Pepper Crab”, it was (Germany, away food and an enormous crab Austria, Bulgaria, street food. For covered with black Romania, Croatia) example, in Syria pepper and Absolutely soups, there were a lot cooked in a big meat and vegetables! of shops that sold pot with white Beef, lamb, deer, every kind of wine.