Not to say anything but if France gets a spot on UNESCO for its cuisine, man, it's absurd Italy doesn't get one.
France is a great culinary nation. But so is Italy.
Especially in light on why France was selected:
There are no specific French dishes or ingredients in the Gallic candidacy, which centres instead on the social rituals of the festive meal in a country where food is a key part of social life.
Italy wrote the book on this stuff. Italians were the first to introduce to France way back in the 15th and 16h centuries, all the refinements that went into eating. The French ridiculed what was to become the hallmarks of their own cuisines later on.
That being said, French artistry in food is not to ever be under estimated. However, my cousins in Paris (n the food industry no less) admit even in France the French connection to food is loosening whereas in Italy they remain powerful specifically because the family remains the single most important institution there. And where there's family there's food.
Russia and Ukraine are probably the big food resources around my house, to a lesser extent Italy and France. Each offers the cook a huge number of choices and variations.
ReplyDeleteI think the Italian beers I've tried are really good. They are something of a secret I guess.
There's a decent mix here. Beyond Italian, Middle-Eastern and Asian probably leads. Sometimes Mexican/South American/American takes over for a couple of weeks. We try to mix it up.
ReplyDeleteThe closest we come to Russo-Ukranian is the stuff our Ukranian friends give us. I dated a Croatian girl once and it brought me into the Slavic world for a while.
Italian beer is under rated in my opinion. Quebec micro-breweries are really good.
But hey, Czech-Dutch-Belgian-German-English-Scottish-Irish beer is awesome.