the alpine region above the western plains of Friuli, in the territory between the Tagliamento and Piave rivers, a production area which is limited to only three valleys: the Valcellina, a winding gorge, Val Colvera, a fascinating canyon with vertical walls, and the stunning Val Tramontina. These places are still wild and unspoilt, now an ideal place for lovers of trekking, mountaineering and paragliding, but where once life was very hard, and survival could depend on what one had in the pantry. Pitina tastes great by itself, served with sauerkraut, brovada, potatoes or beans, but it can also become the basic ingredient of many other dishes. It is used to flavour soups or risottos and seasoned potato dumplings. The patina is browned in a pan with salt and pepper, then mixed with an egg and stale bread soaked in water to make gnocchi, which can be cooked in salted water and served simply with melted butter and grated smoked ricotta.

The Pitina is a nugget of smoked meat originally from Tramonti di Sopra, where it used to be made exclusively from sheep, goats, or wild mountain grazers such as roe deer and chamois. To prepare it, the meat is cut into small pieces and then minced. The mixture is then mixed with sea salt or rock salt, pepper, garlic, wine and herbs, including juniper, cumin, fennel, marjoram and rosemary. The mixture is then formed into spherical balls about 10 cm in diameter, which are pressed and then coated in cornmeal. Then follows the phase of smoking, which can last up to four days, using the smoke from the burning of sawdust or wood that can be beech, hazel or hornbeam. The nuggets are then dried. This phase can last from two to eight days. Finally we pass to the maturing, which lasts for a minimum period of eight days. Once dried, the pitina

should be stored in a cool, dry place, away from light and heat.

The taste is intense and characteristically smoky, strong but pleasant. Once dried and stored they can be eaten cooked, after at least 15 days, or raw, after at least three weeks. Outside their color can vary from golden to very dark brown, depending on the length of ripening. Inside the color ranges from bright red to burgundy, with the outer layer darker due to exposure to the air. Today it is still produced in the province of Pordenone, in

I think I will have to admit that, as the years go by and as the kilos go on, food and drink are an important part of my life. This was last weekend - Saturday lunchtime: went into the country and picked sloes (a kind of berry). Saturday afternoon: went shopping for food.

Saturday evening: made sloe gin (a delicious liqueur) and went out for dinner with friends (excellent cooks). Sunday morning: made mango chutney (great with Indian poppadoms or cheese). Sunday lunchtime: went for a walk on the beautiful Carso and picked rosehips and

lemon thyme (perfect with fish). Sunday afternoon: made smoked bacon/truffle paté (forget that diet) and rosehip syrup (rich in vitamin C!). So I am really looking forward to reading all the articles which Emma has chosen for this edition of the Definite Article.

Pitina

Pitina, a regional speciality by Alessandro Franco

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Pitina 1

Austrian Food

2

Entertaining Friends

2

I Love Food and Food Loves Me

3

A Peruvian Delicacy

4

A Vegetarian Future

5

A Taste of Other Cultures

5

In Praise of English Food

6

Food Art 6

Food as Culture, Food as Language

7

A Festive 7

Autumn Food

7

My Love of Asian Food

8

Kip Talking

K E E P T A L K I N G

V I A R O M A 6 0

U D I N E The Definite Article D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1 I S S U E 3 5

S P E C I A L P O I N T S O F I N T E R E S T :

Regional food

World cuisines

A quiz to test

your knowledge of British food

Some language

tips

A word from Kip

Prize Article!

There’s more to Austrian food than

Wiener Schnitzel!

P A G E 2

“Receiving guests

means organizing

their life for three

days… but you don’t

know if you will be

able to satisfy their

appetite.” Entertaining Friends by Maurizio Costantini

Austrian Food by Milena Serra

I was brought up with the absurd idea that Italian food is the best in the

world. My parents taught me that when you go abroad you cannot expect to eat satisfactorily, you just need to adapt and be content with what you get. The perfect example was nearby Austria,

where you absolutely could not expect to eat well, they said! As a consequence of these repeated lessons, the first times I travelled to Austria I didn’t venture beyond a “Wiener Schnitzel mit Pommes frites”, which is one of the most popular dishes you can find there. As I grew up, I realized

that even though I agree my with parents about the high quality of Italian cuisine, I don’t share their prejudices towards foreign food or its taste. When I go abroad I enjoy sampling the local cuisine and usually I really appreciate it - but I must admit I’ve never tasted English food! As my journeys to Austria became more frequent, probably because of the low prices during the ski season, I quickly got tired of Wiener Schnitzel and began trying new dishes. I discovered a new world! Usually I’m not very fond of meat, especially of grilled meat, because in Italy either you get it rare, which doesn’t suit my taste, or you get it tough. Austrian cooks know the incredible knack of perfectly roasting meat, that’s at the same time

well-browned and tender. Moreover, they use some wonderfully tasty spices mixture that are the icing on the cake! I still remember the extraordinary “mixed grill for two” that my husband and I ate during a short holiday in Millstatt: an enormous dish with lots of everything, where everything means four different types of meat, Frankfurters and Wiener Schnitzel on a bed of fries, boiled rice, mushroom sauce, vegetables and even fruit! It was all delicious. My husband ate a lot and me too (I was pregnant, so I could eat much more than usual), but we couldn’t manage to clear the plate. More than a dish for two, it could also be considered a mixed grill for four!

world means organizing their life for three days. You know them, so you know what their cultural necessities are. You know which are the best sites to visit, but you don’t know if you will be able to satisfy their appetite. I cooked a vegetable soup, a nice hot dish for friends who had driven for four hours through the fog in the heavy traffic. They appreciated it more than the classic cold dish with salad and tomatoes with

It was a very pleasant and incredibly busy weekend…. Receiving guests and welcoming them into your

mozzarella that I finished off with aromatic olive oil and basil. The soup produced a relaxing atmosphere and the guests recovered their good mood and their lost strength. We completed the meal with a sweet homemade fruit dessert paired with a typical white wine from Friuli. We all spent a wonderful weekend together!!

A warming winter table.

T H E D E F I N I T E A R T I C L E

P A G E 3 I S S U E 3 5

sometimes they drink sake, tea and, less often, beer. Usually they leave the restaurant very quickly because they eat very fast. Arabic Countries (Sirya, Algeria, Morocco) The Arabic cuisine is characterized by its use of various spices and herbs. Kebab with chicken, beef, lamb, vegetables, fruits and a lot of spicy sweets and cookies. In Arabic Countries

many people drink soda, Coke, Seven-Up, orange juice and pomegranate juice. Arabic people like take-away food and street food. For example, in Syria there were a lot of shops that sold every kind of food. They love to eat standing up. Restaurants are

fashionable for families with babies. Italy Italian food is the best in the world. Pasta, pizza, fish, meat, vegetables, Parma ham and cheese. All food is very fragrant and tasty, with olive oil, tomatoes and basil. Wine, beer and coffee are the preferred drinks. Italian cuisine varies according to the season. In summer, salads, ham with melon and other dishes with fruit are famous. In autumn and spring there are soups

with mushrooms, beans or chestnuts. In winter, “polenta” and game. My favourite restaurants. What can I say about my favourite restaurants? First of all, I prefer local

restaurants and I don’t like luxury restaurants where the waiter stands behind the customers all time. Then usually my choice is for a “frasca”. A “frasca” is a typically Friulan tavern where it’s the owners who grow the fruit and vegetables and who raise the animals on their land, cooking the things they produce. Finally, the “frasca”, in my opinion, is the best example of Slow Food.

My Best experience. My best experience was in Singapore, when I ate a big crab. Its real name is “Pepper Crab”, it was an enormous crab covered with black pepper and cooked in a big pot with white wine. Very good.

My worst experience.

My worst experience was in Italy, in a famous fast food chain, when around 10 years ago I ate a hamburger. A few hours after dinner, I had to go to hospital because there was rat poison inside the hamburger. It was my first time in that fast food outlet and definitely the last!

I travel a lot for work and so, of course, I have tried different cuisines from around the world - Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Algeria, Syria, Morocco, Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, and so on. They’ve all been great experiences to remember, to repeat and sometimes to forget… Restaurants, hotels, pubs, bistros, taverns, private houses, cafés, pizzerias, vans parked in the street in town centres, street food – it’s possible to eat almost anywhere, depending where in the world you are. I’d like to tell you about some of my experiences. North-Eastern Europe (Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia) Absolutely soups, meat and vegetables! Beef, lamb, deer, game and a lot of salad or roast potatoes, which are usually included in the dishes. Beer is the national drink! People remain seated for several hours, and the calories that they eat certainly don’t help their waistlines! Asia (Singapore, Malasya) Grilled fish, fried fish, big crabs, fried insects, pasta, rice, soup with noodles, fruit and rice, meat and rice, vegetables and rice and again rice. Typically Asian is the soy sauce that you can find everywhere. What do you drink? Everything and nothing. Rarely do Asian people drink during dinner,

I Love Food and Food Loves Me by Marzia Molino

Pepper Crab in Singapore

Lemon mint, a typical soda drink

Fruit and rice in an Asian restaurant

“Restaurants, hotels, pubs, bistros, taverns, private houses,

cafés, pizzerias, vans parked in the street in town centres,

street food – it’s possible to eat almost anywhere.”

P R I Z E A R T I C L E !

P A G E 4

“In Peru we

tasted many

strange meats

like alpaca or

llama, but

nothing was as

strange as the

pork…”

Peruvian Delicacy by Matteo Di Betta

Last year I got married and for our honeymoon we decided to have an exotic experience with a tour of Peru. When you are on the other side of the world everything can appear very strange, including

the very mundane things, but Peru is a really extraordinary country. For a start there is the altitude: many of the places we visited were located at over 3,000 to 5,000 metres. So before the trip we imagined fresh and healthy air. The reality was completely different: I’ve never breathed in so much smog before in my life. When we were in Arequipa, known as ‘White City’, we spent three days blowing our noses and our handkerchiefs soon turned black. You walk around the streets breathing a putrid mix of “smogged chicken”. That’s because every street is infested with thousands of Chinese

micro cars without any air filters and all the sidewalks have so many chicken sellers that you cannot distinguish

one from another. The terrible thing is that they are so cheap (less than one Euro for a whole chicken) that you cannot stay without tasting it and that’s the end of your good relationship with eating chicken for the rest of your life. But I’m not here to speak about chicken. In Peru we tasted many strange meats like alpaca or llama (I really enjoyed the first one), but nothing was as strange as the pork. I understand you’re surprised, but let me explain and you’ll realize what I’m talking about. After many days of strange soup, exotic meat and “smogged chicken”, our greatest desire was to eat something well known like spaghetti, pizza (I mean a real Italian one) or at least pork meat (sliced, in sausages, ribs, any cut would be great). Eventually we stopped in a really small local restaurant, not very elegant and quite empty. We were ready to order chicken as usual (we had decided to save money on lunch and splash out on dinner) but an incredible surprise was written on the menu – pork! It was the first time we had found it and I ordered it immediately. The waiter didn’t speak English so I couldn’t ask him about which cut I was ordering,

but it didn’t really matter to me, I really like any kind of pork meat. We waited only few minutes before our enthusiasm turned to disgust. When the waiter came back with the dishes, there was no slice of pork, or sausage, or rasher of bacon, but a whole pig! I know you’re going to say that a pig is too big for a plate, but it’s not so if you are speaking about “guinea pig”. It looked like a big mouse. They left everything. I could see teeth, nails, skin, the tail… I still get the chills just thinking about it. But life is strange and sometimes you are so hungry that your mind doesn’t realize what you are doing. I tasted it, in fact I ate it - not all the pig but a large portion. I can say that it wasn’t that terrible - but my wife wasn’t of the same opinion. She didn’t taste it at all, but that wasn’t enough. She decided that guinea pig was so disgusting that it was better to stop kissing me for a couple of days. She only started to kiss me again when we went over 4,000 metres and the guide forced us to eat small coca leaves to withstand altitude sickness. The power of drugs?

The Peruvian Last Supper

T H E D E F I N I T E A R T I C L E

Dictionary Corner: cuisine, kitchen or chicken? cuisine /kwɪˈzi:n/ n. a style or manner of cooking, e.g. French cuisine. kitch·en /ˈkɪʧɪn/ n. a room or an area equipped for preparing and cooking food. chicken /ˈʧɪkɪn/ n. see picture, top left.

A Vegetarian Future by Flavio Lorenzon

P A G E 5 I S S U E 3 5

As I read the subject for this edition of the Definite Article, my thoughts went immediately to the scarcity of food in the world and the fact that so many people still die of starvation. At the beginning of the twentieth century the world was home to little more than a billion people. Only a few weeks ago we reached the seven billion mark. Every one of those seven billion is using on average four times as much energy as their forefathers did about one hundred years before. However, the world has very limited resources for this growing number of people, especially food. The problem is

now more pressing because developing countries are aiming to attain the living

standards of the industrialized world. This evolution also entails a big change in their diets, ever more based on meat. It is proven that the meat industry, in particular beef, contributes to global warming because of the large amounts of fossil fuels used in its production. Animal product manufacturers are environmentally unsustainable and many, if not all, components of meat production have a negative effect on water and land which are, in addition, inefficiently exploited. For example, the same acre of land can grow approximately 160kg of potatoes instead of just one kilo of beef, which requires

about 2,000 times the quantity of water than for producing one kilo of wheat. Nevertheless, the demand for meat by wealthy people continues to grow. Rainforests are being cleared to support beef consumption and even more land is being used for agro-fuels, rather than for plantations of wheat or other crops to feed people on a larger scale. The ultimate effect of all this is that the agricultural produce market is under pressure and prices of staple foods, especially rice and cereals, have started to increase, with no end in sight. If we do not change this trend somehow, hunger in vast areas of the third world, such as Africa and South America, will worsen, with irreversible effects for all mankind. One possible solution, perhaps even compulsory for the next generations, is to change our dietary habits and for everyone to become more vegetarian.

all, is reflected in the people living there. For this reason, when my friends and I go travelling, we like to take our time sitting in the street cafés, wandering through the inner lanes, people watching. As part of that, we like to go to typical restaurants and taste local and traditional food. That is another way for us to get acquainted with the place we’re visiting. For sure food belongs to culture and reflects the character and the tradition of the people, Just as when you pass through an exhibition and you admire the pictures, so you can look at the dishes,

appreciating the composition of colours, of flavours, and how they match one with another, reflecting that every item plays its part, has its reason and its root in the traditions and habits and the resources of the place, the history, the nature, the climate and in every anthropological factor of the place. But it isn’t necessary to get so sophisticated. Even if you are at home, it is always fun to celebrate friendship and past and prospective journeys by cooking recipes from different countries. The truth is that food is a wonderful chance to be together!

Travelling... is there anything more amazing? When we journey around Europe, we often see tourists going mad, hurrying from one attraction to another, filling their day with queues at museums, visits to squares, or a tour of the old churches, snapping photos wherever they go. And on the way, maybe, they feed themselves on a slice of takeaway pizza or a few sandwiches! I think that the place you are visiting is not only represented by its monuments, its architecture and its places of historical interest, but that the real city also, perhaps most of

A vegetarian diet is not only good for you, it’s good for the planet.

A Taste of Other Cultures by Massimiliano Puppatti

A street café in Paris

“Producing

one kilo of

beef, requires

about 2,000

times the

quantity of

water needed

for producing

one kilo of

wheat.”

P A G E 6

Spotted Dick and custard—a very innocent pudding!

Food Art by Paola Gasparini

In Praise of English Food by Francesca Avian

One of my passions is cooking, especially cakes. When I was a little girl I was fascinated by my mother mixing ingredients and by cakes rising in the oven. I learnt from her and then I began trying new and different dishes. I’ve developed my passion not only for sweets but also for savoury food. Over the years I’ve taken great interest in learning about other countries’ cuisines, so I’ve begun collecting different types of recipe books, not only on specific subjects or food but also the traditional dishes of other countries. Some years ago I bought a nice book about English food: it’s not simply a recipe book but it talks about the traditions,

culture and history of English dishes. The title of the book is La lingua nel piatto – Le ricette per imparare a capire l’inglese (e gli inglesi) by Renata Beltrami and Silvia Mazzola (Mursia, 2006). It’s divided into 17 chapters that carry the reader through everyday meals and special occasion menus, from breakfast to royal dinners, from ales to cheese and cakes. It’s very interesting because it gives the reader a lot of interesting facts about English food and people: the influence of the colonies, the influence of kings and queens who create new trends, the gentlemen’s bygone habit of dining at the club or the

most common habit of eating at the pub. There’s also a lot of vocabulary with pronunciation practice and, above all, many detailed recipes whose names are strange and imaginative. Sometimes they are difficult to link to a specific ingredient or can even create a funny misunder-standing (one example above all: the pudding known as spotted dick!). I enjoyed reading this book because I learn a lot about English food and I think it’s a pity that English cuisine is so unknown and has a very bad reputation. Maybe it’s not so light for people who follow the Mediterranean diet but I think it’s very tasty and definitely it deserves a try.

The art of fruit and vegetable carving has its roots in the age of the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-906 AD) and Sung Dynasty (960-1279 AD). This beautiful and delicate craft has been slowly developed and refined over the years in China. Over the years, one of the most famous worldwide master chefs is Jimmy Zhang who has always been fascinated by the ancient art of food and vegetable carving. Want to learn Jimmy's skill? Check out his classes at Art Chef Inc. in the San Francisco Bay Area to create exquisite carving centerpieces for special events or to play around with food to stimulate your creativity. In conclusion, I want to inspire you to take a

creative journey. Here are 4 reasons why you should get creative with food art. I hope you enjoy it!! • Food art is eye candy. It’s nice to look at. Your guests will appreciate not only the taste, but the presentation as well. • Creating food art is a fun activity to do during your free time. • It provides bonding time with your children. Normally we tell kids not to play with their food. But in this case, food art provides them with the perfect excuse to do so. • Encourage your kids to eat healthily. Food art is one way to entice your kids to eat healthily because children these days prefer fast food and junk food over vegetables and fruits. But your dishes look interesting and taste good as well.

Examples of food art.

T H E D E F I N I T E A R T I C L E

Art is not only about sculptures or paintings. It can also be about food. When it comes to food, all most people think about is eating it. Food tastes good and eating is an extremely pleasurable activity. But did you know that there is such a thing as food art? Food art is the method of using food to create works of art. With food art your dish won’t only taste good it will look good as well. I’ve found some of the most creative (and impressive) food art around the world surfing on the web. These days we're all familiar with the idea of chefs as artists, but what about artists working with food? The aim, for example, of the Experimental Food Society is to celebrate and encourage these efforts.

Food as Culture, Food as Language by Alessandro del Piero

P A G E 7 I S S U E 3 5

“Cooking bread, preserving fruit, setting the table. These are all actions connected with food, telling a story and expressing an elaborate culture.” (Massimo Montanarini Il cibo come cultura) The book explains the reasons why man is the only animal who doesn’t eat food as it is, but modifies and changes it in

order to satisfy his needs, his preferences and his identity. So food is not only a natural element but it becomes part of human culture itself. So food is culture when produced - because man aims to create his food. It is culture when prepared - because man changes it by means of technology and it is culture when eaten - because man chooses food either to satisfy

his nutritional needs or to give it a symbolic meaning. There is a fourth feature that identifies food as language. Here the author talks about the way in which the table becomes a meeting-place and a place of cultural exchange in order to exchange men, raw materials and abilities. Food has changed the world and become a fruit of our identity.

and you really can keep the doctor away! So says the proverb. Cranberries are an extremely healthy fruit and are low in calories. Pumpkins - I love them! One of my favorite dishes is risotto with pumpkin and smoked cheese. Garlic and ginger are truly medicinal, especially ginger in Eastern culture.

Autumn is the beginning of the cold season. In this season there is a wide variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables that prepare us for the winter. These fruits, vegetables and spices will protect us from illness, so we are prepared for the cold days. Here is a list of some of the best Autumn food that we should have on our tables. Apples, have them every day

There is a vast variety of different kales with many different colours, all of which are good for the health. Also, many herbs may help to keep us healthy, for example cinnamon and pepper. Cinnamon is one of the oldest known spices. Black or white pepper are good for adding flavour. And finally: “Bon appétit!”

Time: 1h Serves: 6 Calories: 220 Ingredients: 60g flour, 120g sugar, 2 eggs, 300 g ricotta, vanilla, skimmed milk, a spoonful of cocoa. Preparation: Preheat oven to 180°. Divide the sugar into 3 parts. Mix the yolks with one part of the sugar. Another part is used with the egg whites and mixed together to create a soft cream. Combine the two mixtures, adding a bit of the sieved flour at a time, until all the flour is used up. Pour the mixture into a rectangular baking tin. The mixture must be one centimeter high. Cook in the oven for twelve minutes. Combine the ‘ricotta’ with the third part of the sugar and a splash of milk. Divide the ‘ricotta’ into two parts. Adding the vanilla to one and the cocoa to the second. Take the cake out of the oven and put it on a damp cloth. Wait until the cake is cold and roll it up. Unroll the cake and spread on the vanilla cream then roll it up again. Spread the cocoa cream over the cake with the prongs of a fork create a wooden log effect. Put the cake in the refrigerator for two hours. It is better to eat it the next day.

Yule Log a festive recipe by Tiziana Testa

Autumn Food by Filomena Sadutto

soups or fish & chips are tiring after a few days, but I’ve seen people leaving with spaghetti and homemade tomato sauce in their luggage. Sorry, I’m going off track, like my literature teacher always used to tell me. Anyway, in the last two or three years I have discovered Japanese food and I think it’s terrific! I love sushi and sashimi so much.. the taste and smell of soy

What can I say? I love food. Really! All kinds of food. There’s nothing edible I don’t like! As my sister always says... “there’s a Chinese person inside me” (Are you Chinese? If so, please ignore my last sentence). Yes, Italian food is wonderful: pasta, pizza, olive oil and so on, all make the Mediterranean diet one of the most balanced. Yes, ok! But it isn’t the only one! I hate the Italian mentality about food. If you are travelling, you mustn’t go into an Italian restaurant, order a pizza and say, “Yes, but it isn’t as good as in Italy,”... This is stupid! Ok, I can understand this if you are in England. (Are you English? If so, please don’t read my next sentence)

sauce are fantastic! So I’m trying to learn to cook it, but the main problem is finding the ingredients. Two weeks ago I tried to make maki with salmon and avocado. I bought dried wakame and japonica (Japanese rice) in a

Chinese market (this is funny) and I downloaded the recipe from the internet. The result was disgusting, but it doesn’t matter! I’ll try again.

Quiz: Can you name these traditional British dishes?

My Love of Asian Food by Antonio Gulotta

Japanese maki

Answers: Stilton, toad in the hole, fish ‘n’ chips, trifle, apple crumble, custard, shepherd’s pie, tea and biscuits, full English breakfast, jacket potato, Christmas pudding, kedgeree, a sandwich, summer pudding, steak and kidney pie, beans on toast, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, chicken tikka masala, Cornish pasty, cream tea (that’s tea and scones with clotted cream), liver and bacon, mushy peas, bangers and mash, bubble and squeak, and finally, Eton Mess.