Foreign and Familiar Food

November 5, 2007 | Filed Under Musings | No Comments

My taste buds underwent a revolution when I moved to Serbia to be with my husband. The food there was interesting but completely alien, miles away from the Neapolitan style cooking of my parents and the multicultural fusion which is ordinary Australian cookery. Serbian cuisine was influenced by the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires. I spent the early months learning how to cook again with different ingredients, different cheeses and vegetables and a system of flavours which I had never explored before. During the end of summer and early autumn I got to pick tomatoes and broccoli, cauliflower and sweet peppers (such an amazing variety) from the garden and my mother in law showed me how to prepare pickled vegetables and jam from the abundant harvests of our garden and those of generous neighbours. Eggs were an ever available option until it became too cold and our hens stopped laying. During the winter I learnt how to cook on the slow combustion stove in the winter kitchen and we would switch off the refrigerator because it was enough to store food close to a window or in the summer kitchen, where it would often freeze. I spent the winter wishing, hoping, and dreaming of fresh tomatoes and lettuce to replace the cabbage, potato and pickle life I was living, only to be told that I would have to wait until late spring, when tomatoes would be imported from Sicily. In Serbia pasta was something sweet you ate with jam and bread crumbs or a mixture of poppy seeds and honey, sour cream was eaten with almost everything and pizza … my husband is still offended that I anxiously told my Neapolitan parents “Mum, Dad, they put ketchup on the pizzas”.

When I then moved to Italy I had available to me, once more, everything I was used to from my Italian background but in a greater variety.http://www.prodottitipici.com/ The cheeses. http://www.virtualitalia.com/recipes/cheesegloss.shtml What a nightmare of ignorance I existed in, and still do. I mean there are four different types of ricotta to start with. Almost any cheese can come in a different style according to which milk (goat, sheep, cow or buffalo) and in which region it was made and of course there are some types of cheese which are at their best during different seasons depending on what the milked beast was eating. Then there was the anxiety of going to a bakery (panificio) where there were so many different breads and I didn’t know how half of them were named or what they were made from. Not to mention the stress of going to my local fresh food market and having to cope with vegetables I had never seen before let alone cooked with, and then mushroom season began …. It occurs to me that the more knowledge I gain when it comes to food and cooking, the more it seems to show how ignorant I am …

This takes me to something very beautiful about living in Rome, in Italy, in Europe. Fresh produce here is seasonal. This is something unusual for many Australians and many of the guests I cook dinner for. Some of us are used to being able to buy anything anytime, tomatoes in the dead of winter, oranges and apples all year round. Availability alters once again when you begin to use only organic produce, this is when you really truly see the seasons at work. It is also possible to choose to buy fresh produce which is produced in your own region, in my case, Lazio. When you go to buy your fruit and vegetables, cheeses and other fresh food items in Italy most supermarkets and fresh food markets will label whether the food is local or imported. You can choose not to buy oranges from South Africa and buy those from Sicily or Sorrento instead. Rather than buying broccoli from north I can buy (at the right time of year) broccoli laziale. This means that we here in Italy can be clever consumers and create less impact on our environment by choosing foods which are local and therefore more energy efficient because they have not been transported from over the oceans or by truck from another region. Locally grown food is also often less expensive and fresher because it has not been packed under ice, or treated in some way which prevents spoilage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_miles http://www.biodiversita.info/modules/cibolocale1/index.php?id=3

In rural Serbia it was a matter of simple economics and common sense to use those foods which were available and often at the local green market there was little option but to buy foods which were in season. In Italy we have the choice of buying mangoes imported from India (for example) or apples and pears which are just in season and super tasty. As much as I miss mangoes, I know that they will disappoint me here and just bring on a bout of homesickness, whereas, if I buy a kilo of apples I am getting the best and letting go of what I once had in favour of living in the present.