A Japanese tourist who was charged approximately $1,000 for a meal in Italy will have a "make-up" pizza with Italian officials in Tokyo.
In July, Yasuyuki Yamada was charged 694 euros for a meal in Rome's historic Il Passetto restaurant, which has counted Grace Kelly and Leonardo DiCaprio as clientele, ANSA reports.
The restaurant defended the bill, but it came just weeks after Il Passetto charged another Japanese couple more than $500 for two pastas, a fish dish, four porcini mushrooms, five slices of prosciutto as well as wine and coffee, ANSA said.
Does food symbolism bear any truth? If, so then Italian sweet basil can trigger romance. In Italian culture, basil symbolizes love. When a woman puts out a pot of basil, it means she is ready to receive her suitor. Interestingly, in Ancient Greece, it represented anger. Since basil is one of my favorite herbs, I prefer to believe it's a sign of love. The sweet pungent taste of Genovese basil with hints of anise brings me back to a past trip to Cinque Terre.
While basil is a summer herb, I recently tried a delicious basil tea that reminded me of how much I love it and yearn for summer produce. While it originated in India, Africa, and Asia, it's now grown worldwide. Genovese Basil might be one of the best varieties out of the 150, because it yields about 8 cuttings and makes the best pesto.
While in Cinque Terre, I visited a small pesto factory outside the village of Riomaggiore. I'll never forget the gorgeous cliffs covered in bright green basil and the beautiful enchanting aroma of basil emanating from a red bucket in the pesto factory. If indeed basil activates romance, then this Valentine's Day, find a way to incorporate it into your meal.
Genoa, the culinary capital of the region of Liguria in Italy, has one of the most colorful indoor food markets that I have ever been to - Mercato Orientale. Some of the narrow cobblestone streets surrounding the market are permeated by a smell of fresh focaccia bread. As you enter the market, you'll notice various cheese stalls, meat stalls, and bakeries that border the market. In the center, there are produce stalls with some of the brightest fruits and vegetables that I have ever seen.
The produce display is gorgeous and informative. Each item has a sign explaining where in Italy it's from. The vendors are more than willing to explain what makes their produce unique and the best way to eat it. If you speak even minimal Italian, I encourage you to interact with these friendly vendors. For me the highlight of the market was the produce.
If you live in a large city in the U.S., you can find nearly any kind of produce, but often it's in questionable condition. Either it's way too under ripe or the quality is just horrendous. At the Mercato Orientale, I was overwhelmed by the incredible quality of nearly every vegetable and fruit. If you're going to be in Genoa, I highly suggest you visit this market located at the corner of Via 20 Settembre and Via Galata.
If you love Italian cheeses as much as I do, you probably know that the term "robiola" is vague and can refer to a variety of different style cheeses from all over Italy. For example, in Campania, you can try an ash-coated buffalo milk cheese called Robiola in Cenere. Despite this diversity, Robiola di Roccaverano comes closest to the original conception of this cheese that was first produced by Ligurian Celts in the eleventh century. Robiola di Roccaverano has a luscious cakey creamy texture and a lightly acidic taste that is balanced by a rich grassy taste of goat's milk.
Robiola di Roccaverano is produced in the area around the village of Roccaverano in the Piedmont region of Italy. It has a DOP label which functions similarly to the French AOC; to protect the traditional way of production. Unfortunately, the DOP rules are shockingly lax. Today, a Robiola di Roccaverano can be produced with 85 percent cow's milk. This is because goat's milk, the original milk used in this cheese, is more expensive. Goat's do not yield as much milk as cows. Fortunately, there are numerous cheese vendors selling 100 percent goat's milk robiolas and ultimately helping to preserve the traditional ways of cheese production that have existed for hundreds of years.
Last fall, I visited the charming village of Roccaverano and had the culinary pleasure of eating ravioli with 100 percent raw goat's milk Robiola di Roccaverano. Cheese producers were selling robiolas on the side of the road, directly off their farms. We mostly ate Robiola di Roccaverano with savory foods, such as salame. However, you can also try it with a grape mostarda, a typical piedmontese condiment. Recommendations on where to purchase this cheese can be found after the jump.
When I think of my mom, two things usually don't come to mind: beer and Frank Zappa. Which made it odd earlier this week when I opened an email to find she had sent me the following quote: "You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."
Now, I'm not a big Zappa fan and have never heard this quote. I'm guessing that puts me in Group A of two possible groups, with Group B consisting of huge Zappa fans who have heard this quote a million times. But the quote did get me thinking that there are a number of countries that I associate with one specific beer. Yes, I realize they have more than one beer, but every time I think of said country, one specific beer immediately pops into mind trumping all others.
Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying these are the best beers each country has to offer, or even a list of my favorite international beers, but for this week's Slashfood Ate beer edition, I present the 8 countries that through experience and marketing I most associate with one specific beer.
When a woman in Marino, a small Italian town south of Rome, turned on her kitchen tap, she got a spurt of wine instead of water. "Miracolo!" she shouted, and ran outside to tell others. Word quickly spread, and soon residents all over town were filling bottles and containers with Frascati, the local white wine made from trebbiano and malvasia grapes.
It turns out the wine wasn't blessed from above after all. Plumbers were supposed to have connected the 3,000 liters of Frascati to the town fountain for the annual harvest festival, but they accidentally hooked it to the water supply instead.
"People were calling it a miracle which it wasn't--it was a mistake," said mayor Adriano Palozzi. Mistake or miracle, I'd be pretty pleased if wine came out of my kitchen tap.
Preserved meat counter at an Ipercoop supermarket in Italy. From Flickr user cary b's Flickr.
I'm posting images of sausage counters the world over each weeknight (and occasionally weekend) witching hour until I run out. Please use the comments section to post links to your Flickr or personal site faves, and perhaps you'll see 'em posted here late some evening.
You heard it here first! As of June 1, the pig farmers of Italy are going on strike. That puts Parma ham, prosciutto, and Piacenza pork neck salami, as well as other Italian pork products, under threat.
The Italian farmers say their earnings have been cut in half, with falling pork prices and rising feed costs. They decided to strike when financial assistance talks with the government fell through earlier this month. Part of the strike calls for farmers to not recognize Protected Designation of Origin certificates, which then can't be sold under EU rules.
If you're a big fan of Italian pork products, you might want to think about stocking up. If the garbage strike in Naples is any indication, this could last for a while.
Well, the reputation of Italian products has been suffering lately, and this latest news on olive oil doesn't help. Apparently a counterfeit olive oil ring was busted. They had been exporting "soya beans or sunflower seeds - some of it genetically modified - mixed with beta carotene and industrial chlorophyll" all dressed up as authentic Italian olive oil.
Police arrested 39 people and confiscated 25,000 liters of the fake oil. The authorities say the good news is that proper checks and new labeling laws are working to catch these counterfeiters. However some people in the Italian olive oil industry are worried that consumers will compare Italian products with the recent fiasco of Chinese exports. The prosecutor who ordered the arrests did say that the oil wasn't harmful, but that it was produced in facilities which weren't checked by the health department.
Unfortunately some people are always going to be on the lookout for ways to make a quick buck. All we can do is hope to not get caught up in it, or that it won't hurt us if we do.
The European Court Justice ruled that Germany can keep calling that hard, salty, crumbly cheese often grated on top of pasta and pizza "parmesan." Italy and the European Commission had filed suit against Germany for labeling their non-Italian-made cheese as Parmesan even though it had not been made in the Italian region of Parma.
Wait, I'm pretty sure that the grated "Parmesan" they sell in those green-topped plastic bottles at the grocery store for $2.99 isn't from Parma either.
Europeans are crazy about labeling where a product is from. In some cases, wine for instance, it is more common for the product to be named after its originating region than it is to be named after what's actually in it. From now on, olive oil will have more specific labeling requirements as well.
The Coldiretti farmersunion pressed the Italian government to pass a new law to include information on the label about where the olives were actually picked and pressed. They were upset about olive oils which claimed to be Italian but used olives from other country's around the Mediterranean. The new labeling information must also include what percentage of different olives were used in each product.
A consumer group called Codacons has endorsed the new law. They say that it helps to protect the consumer from fraud and poor quality olive oil. I say the more information on a label the better. Just make it clear and easy to read. Just because I want to know as much about the product I'm buying as possible doesn't mean I want to spend all day doing it.
Designboom, a mod blog devoted to the latest and greatest in product design, recently came out with the winners of its 2006 Dining in 2015 contest. The challenge was exactly as it sounds: to design a food-related product that would be useful in 2015 at work, in travel, or at home.
Chefs and designers from Italy and Japan judged the entires and came up with the top three and an honorable mention.
Let's start from the bottom and work up. The honorable mention [ed. note: shown in photo] was an eco-friendly solution to dinner prep: silicone and nylon triangle-shaped buckets that allow the cook to boil three different foods all in one pot, thereby saving energy, time, and water. I totally expect it to be selling out on QVC in no time.
Third place? A creative ceramic salt and pepper shaker that forces you to physically break open the canister to access the spices inside. The goal of the project? There isn't any, really, but we bet it's really, really fun to break open. Save it for a day when you're really pissed off at someone, and then smash away. (But don't get carried away - - then you'll just have a mess of salt, pepper, and white ceramic shards to clean up).
Mozzarella made from water buffalo is one of Italy's most important exports. Now that product is threatened. There has been an outbreak of Brucellosis, which is a bacterial disease affecting livestock. It leads to infertility, abortion and reduced milk production. It is estimated that up to 30% of the herd in the Naples area have been infected.
Though the Italian government has set up a commission to try to stop the spread of the disease, they are planning to begin slaughtering 32,000 infected water buffalo in the next two months. Apparently the problem has gotten bad in large part because the local mafia prevented the early cases from coming to light. Now the government is sending in armed police along with government veterinarians to get rid of the infected livestock.
This is a crisis for the farmers and makers of mozzarella di bufala. They are responsible for one of Italy's biggest exports, but they're about to lose a sizable portion of the water buffalo herds. Also, the disease may be transmitted to humans, so there may be some kind of scare. The cheese is actually safe to eat if the milk used to make it is pasteurized. Just look for pasteurized mozzarella di bufala and you will be fine.
Italy is in crisis! There's a public spending emergency! There is general mistrust of elected public officials!
There's no gelato at the Senate building?
Apparently, Italian senators Rocco Buttiglione and Albertina Soliani are campaigning to have Italian ice cream, "gelato," served in the cafeteria of the Senate building, claiming that it would "improve the quality of life" in the Senate.
I mean really. Don't these senators have more important issues to worry about than whether their favorite dessert is being offered in the cafeteria?
Looks like more food is being recalled, this time the kind humans eat.
The Food and Drug Administration is recalling olives by the Charlie Brown di Rutigliano & Figli. The Italian company bottles the olives under the names Borrelli, Cento, Flora, Roland, Vantia, Bonta di Puglia, Corrado's, Dal Raccolto, and other names. The codes start with the letter G and have 3 or 4 digits after the G.
No sickness has been reported yet, but the olives could be contaminated with a bacteria that could cause botulism. Here's more info for the U.S. and Canada.
When I think of my mom, two things usually don't come to mind: beer and Frank Zappa. Which made it odd earlier this week when I opened an email to find she had sent me the following quote: "You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."
You heard it here first! As of June 1, the pig farmers of Italy are going on strike. That puts Parma ham, prosciutto, and Piacenza pork neck salami, as well as other Italian pork products, under threat. 
Well, the reputation of Italian products has been suffering lately, and this latest news on olive oil doesn't help. Apparently a counterfeit olive oil ring was busted. They had been exporting "soya beans or sunflower seeds - some of it genetically modified - mixed with beta carotene and industrial chlorophyll" all dressed up as authentic Italian olive oil.
Europeans are crazy about labeling where a product is from. In some cases, wine for instance, it is more common for the product to be named after its originating region than it is to be named after what's actually in it. From now on, olive oil will have more specific labeling requirements as well. 
Designboom, a mod blog devoted to the latest and greatest in product design, recently came out with the winners of its 2006 Dining in 2015 contest. The challenge was exactly as it sounds: to design a food-related product that would be useful in 2015 at work, in travel, or at home. 
Mozzarella made from water buffalo is one of Italy's most important exports. Now that product is threatened. There has been an outbreak of Brucellosis, which is a bacterial disease affecting livestock. It leads to infertility, abortion and reduced milk production. It is estimated that up to 30% of the herd in the Naples area have been infected.
Looks like more food is being recalled, this time the kind humans eat.
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