I had really wanted to do a food tour while in Italy. After doing some research I found different places that would guide you to a cheese dairy, a balsamic tasting, to a parma ham place, then have lunch afterwards, all while giving you the privilege of driving the guide around yourself for a mere 100-150 euros per person. What a bargain!
Needless to say I did more research and found some places that would allow you to set up your own tastings...for free!
So on Thursday morning we got up REAL early (which was rough after getting home late from Florence the night before) and headed out to our 7:30am dairy tour in Modena. We went to Caseificio Reggiani dairy, which I booked through the dairy council by emailing sezionemo@parmigianoreggiano.it There were the 4 of us, plus 2 Australians. In about 1.5 hours, we saw the whole production of milk to parmigiano reggiano cheese, and an entire room almost filled with these large wheels that each cost about 600 euros! Afterwards, we sat outside and tasted the cheese in different forms, and celebrated one of the workers' birthday with champagne and pastries! Cost = $0 Or rather, it cost me a little because I bought some parm and some arborio rice to cook dinner tonight.
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| Aging cheese |
We had a little time to kill before our next tasting, so we drove into the town of Modena and had some coffee and pastry at a little cafe', preparing ourselves for balsamic vinegar. This tasting was held at a private residence just outside of the downtown area of Modena called Acetaia di Giorgio. We were led into the attic which was filled with wooden casks of different sizes. Real balsamic vinegar is made from Trebbiano grapes, as opposed to the stuff we buy in the supermarket which is made from wine vinegar, I believe. We tasted different flavors of this balsamic as the guide explained to us how it was made.
Ed and I seemed to have similar palates, tasting the acidity in the same places (front or back of mouth with different vinegars). Tracy tasted things a little differently, but we ended up liking the same vinegars. Joe. Well, Joe just thought they all tasted like vinegar, so most of this was lost on him, but he was a good trouper about it all!
Next we went to Parma for the ham festival I had been reading so much about. I couldn't wait to be amongst ham purveyors and other lovers of different kinds of ham! I pictured the main square filled with stalls of ham hawkers, ham demonstrations, and lots of tastings, and when I planned this day out thought this would be a great way to cap off the day.
What actually happened was.....nothing. There was no ham festival going on. We didn't see any stalls, any demos, and anyone we asked about the ham festival had no idea what we were talking about. Losing faith, we made our way to the tourist info, where a woman said that most of the activities were on the weekend. I told her that on the website it looked like things were happening in Parma every day for 2 weeks. She just shrugged and didn't know what to say. Crap! My well-planned foodie day just went down the toilet.
We eventually had a great lunch at some restaurant in Parma (I had an asparagus "flan" that really was amazing and need to figure out how to make this had home), but I was so despondent about the non-existent festival, I didn't really take in my surroundings. An acquaintance of mine had lived in Parma for a year and loved the town, but we were only there for a couple of hours, so I can't really say how I feel, except this - Parma, make your ham festival website more clear!!
Instead of going out for dinner, the gang cheered me up by letting me cook for them. Ed braved the dark streets of Bologna for wine, and I made risotto using my newly bought parm cheese and drizzling it with the balsamic vinegar I bought from the tasting. Dee-lish!! Lots of food, wine, and laughter!
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| Tracy and me hamming it up. |
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| Joe and Ed enjoying some wine. Again. |
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