As an Italian here in Canada 🇨🇦. I once worked with Asians. Meaning Chinese people. And one lady remarked that Pizza was the LAST thing her husband would eat. I frankly was a little taken aback. What a weird thing to say. So. I am not surprised that Italians safeguard their heritage. And rightly so as you mentioned the Chinese have eaten many exotic foods. It’s to me a sad fact that Italy has Chinese immigrants. And I’m taken aback that my cousins eat sushi and grocery store have people making sushi! Now with the raw eggs and milk issues. When we were babies. Guess what our moms and grandparents used a raw mixture with sugar and Marsala wine. Why? As an appetite enhancer. And the raw meat well what about tartar. Completely raw! It’s a different world than our generation and parents generation. Italian culture has been changed.
Great column for the week of Easter and Pesach/Passover. As a Jewish mutt whose forebears were an unholy and unsanctioned mix of Ashkenazi and Sephardi (each side mourning their spawn for dead when my great grandparents merged the two, like Fiat subsuming Chrysler), I’ve extended my family’s tradition of sampling the cuisines of both Eastern Europe (brisket, borscht, bigos) and Western Africa (root vegetables, dried fruits, lamb) at the annual Seders. A regular hit is Moroccan charoseth (pr. ha-RO-set), the nutty, fruity, wine-soaked spread meant to look like the thick mortar the Hebrew slaves used bind the building blocks of Egyptian storehouses (not the Pyramids, no matter how much we want to take credit for them!) but tastes like ambrosia. I always make enough charoseth to last Passover’s full eight days, because nothing beats the early-morning buzz that comes with a fist full of drunken charoseth on matzoh with your morning coffee. I‘ll take that over a squid-ink-pupilled fish-eyeball at Nomi any day. Carp diem!
As an Italian here in Canada 🇨🇦. I once worked with Asians. Meaning Chinese people. And one lady remarked that Pizza was the LAST thing her husband would eat. I frankly was a little taken aback. What a weird thing to say. So. I am not surprised that Italians safeguard their heritage. And rightly so as you mentioned the Chinese have eaten many exotic foods. It’s to me a sad fact that Italy has Chinese immigrants. And I’m taken aback that my cousins eat sushi and grocery store have people making sushi! Now with the raw eggs and milk issues. When we were babies. Guess what our moms and grandparents used a raw mixture with sugar and Marsala wine. Why? As an appetite enhancer. And the raw meat well what about tartar. Completely raw! It’s a different world than our generation and parents generation. Italian culture has been changed.
Indeed it is a different!
Great column for the week of Easter and Pesach/Passover. As a Jewish mutt whose forebears were an unholy and unsanctioned mix of Ashkenazi and Sephardi (each side mourning their spawn for dead when my great grandparents merged the two, like Fiat subsuming Chrysler), I’ve extended my family’s tradition of sampling the cuisines of both Eastern Europe (brisket, borscht, bigos) and Western Africa (root vegetables, dried fruits, lamb) at the annual Seders. A regular hit is Moroccan charoseth (pr. ha-RO-set), the nutty, fruity, wine-soaked spread meant to look like the thick mortar the Hebrew slaves used bind the building blocks of Egyptian storehouses (not the Pyramids, no matter how much we want to take credit for them!) but tastes like ambrosia. I always make enough charoseth to last Passover’s full eight days, because nothing beats the early-morning buzz that comes with a fist full of drunken charoseth on matzoh with your morning coffee. I‘ll take that over a squid-ink-pupilled fish-eyeball at Nomi any day. Carp diem!
Sounds delicious Jeremy! We’re getting ready for non-stop Easter week feasting with the family in Calabria, from goat heads to roasted rabbit.