Our increasing interest in farmer markets in both urban and regional Australian is a development to be applauded (albeit I agree with Gay Bilson when she writes in her book Digressions (p. 289) that “this popularity has been partly hijacked and turned into the weekend hobby of ‘culinary tourism’.”). There are markets and there are collections of stalls flogging overpriced cupcakes and jars and packets of stuff easily bought at your local IGA.
The markets in the gastronomic mecca of Bologna were something I had been dying to see. I had memories of Bologna from visits there as a child but didn’t appreciate its significance as a centre for food until I was an adult. For a terrific description of Bologna’s food history see John Dickie’s Delizia: The Epic History of Italians and Their Food and his chapter on Bologna in the 1600s). For a review of Dickie’s book see
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/aug/19/houseandgarden.features
My dream was realised in October 2006 when my husband and I spent two days in La Grassa, just wandering around and eating and looking at the food shops and stalls. The photos of just some of the bounty in their central markets are posted with these words.
I am sad to say I am not a huge mortadella fan so we stuck to sweets and tortellini and visited the same enoteca in the evenings for a glass of local wine and a sample of their free afternoon snacks, which would often suffice for our evening meal after a day of grazing and lunches.
Bologna isn’t a tourist trap. When we were there we felt like the only visitors walking the streets, which was a welcome relief after stepping over counterfeit handbag hawkers in Florence.
The markets in the gastronomic mecca of Bologna were something I had been dying to see. I had memories of Bologna from visits there as a child but didn’t appreciate its significance as a centre for food until I was an adult. For a terrific description of Bologna’s food history see John Dickie’s Delizia: The Epic History of Italians and Their Food and his chapter on Bologna in the 1600s). For a review of Dickie’s book see
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/aug/19/houseandgarden.features
My dream was realised in October 2006 when my husband and I spent two days in La Grassa, just wandering around and eating and looking at the food shops and stalls. The photos of just some of the bounty in their central markets are posted with these words.
I am sad to say I am not a huge mortadella fan so we stuck to sweets and tortellini and visited the same enoteca in the evenings for a glass of local wine and a sample of their free afternoon snacks, which would often suffice for our evening meal after a day of grazing and lunches.
Bologna isn’t a tourist trap. When we were there we felt like the only visitors walking the streets, which was a welcome relief after stepping over counterfeit handbag hawkers in Florence.
No comments:
Post a Comment