La Giornata dei Cibi

(The Day of Food...I apologize for the delay in posts but formatting these pictures on here is very frustrating...enjoy!)

I could not think of a better way to describe last Wednesday than with the words food coma. The adventures began at 8:30 in the morning when my fellow BC students and I headed to the Parmesan cheese factory. In anticipation for my day, I purposely skipped breakfast. Those who know me understand what a rarity this is and how serious I must have been about enjoying every bit of free food I was getting to eat that day.

We suited up in white coats, masks, hats, and shoe coverings before entering the factory. Once we stepped inside, my sense of smell was overwhelmed...in a fantastic way (contrary to others' descriptions of the whole place as horribly smelly)! I breathed deeply as I learned about the process of making Parmesan cheese, which began 800 years ago in the stomach of a cow. The basics are as follows:

1) Everything that makes the cheese is heated, steamed, mixed, & examined in large vats.
2) Once the cheese is ready, it's scooped up with a cheese cloth by two strong men who do their job because they enjoy it.
3) A third strong man splits the cheese in half to make "twins." Each vat makes one set of twins (two wheels of cheese).
4) Twins are now in two separate cheese cloths, and the pipe pumps the whey to feed the 2,500 swine out back.
5)  The cheese sits in these wheel shapes for one or two days(?) and is imprinted with the Parmigiano-Reggiano "label" on the outside. There is no wax added to the wheel of cheese, so all of it is edible.
6) I forget how long the cheese has to stay here, but it's turned in the water frequently.
7) Hundreds of wheels of cheese are stored here until they are sold...each wheel weighing around 40-kilograms and costing 500-euro.
8) The final product! :)

  

 

After touring the factory for around two hours, we made our way to the Palazzo Ducale in Colorno near Parma. This used to be a palace where the Farnese's and two other ducal families lived but is now an international culinary school called Alma. We were toured around the premises and were treated to a special lunch cooked by one current and two former students of Alma. The lunch included (of course I'm including pictures):

Codfish salad (not my favorite)

Rice, beetroot, and Resiling wine sauce (amazing!)

"Three flavor" dessert

Fillet steak with liver

I could have very well not eaten anything else for the rest of the day and gone to sleep around 3pm. But a bonus (sometimes) to living here is that the more I eat, the more my stomach expands, and the more I can eat (and sometimes the more I need to eat in order to be full). So...my stomach kept stretching to make room for Anna's dinner that night at 7pm.

We were taught how to make Chicken alla Marsala, which tasted like home (much like the Orecchiette con i Broccoli we made the following week tasted like Cavatelli and Broccoli we make a lot in NJ). But before we ate the chicken, of course we had to start with a pasta dish. And of course, even after the day of eating I had, it was one of my weaknesses: pesto. What a wonderful way to end a great day!