bologna – M's Adventures

Parmesan, More Than A Cheese

November 30, 2021November 30, 2021M's Adventures

These balls of cheese weigh more than 90 pounds.

Parmigiano-Reggiano is more than a cheese. No Italian refers to it as a cheese. They call it by its name.

Getting weighed and squeezed into shape.

Inside the metal girdle is a plastic cartouche with all the markings.

To be the real deal, it can only be produced in a few areas around Parma, Reggio, Modena, and Bologna. You can read about the consortium that controls it here.

But, the other very similar cheese that you find around there is also good. It’s called Grano Padano and in a way, it’s better on pasta. Leave the real deal for eating on its own.

Going on a parmesan factory tour is a study in alchemy. How milk (from two different milkings) can, with a few ingredients, and many turns of the wheel, be turned into something that plays a symphony on your tastebuds, is pure magic.

The professor demonstrates how to test the cheese.

We went on a tour at the Red Cow creamery in Reggio Emilia. Our guide was a wise professor. He had been making parmesan for more than 60 years, and he still got equally excited about it every day. The tour cost 5 euro per person and was conducted in Italian. At the end of the tour, the professor had us try different ages of Parmesan. Wowza.

It has lots of stamps of origin but it probably sounded wrong and so has been scarred to mark that it is not for export.

By the time we got to the factory (10ish), the parmesan was already at the “getting swung in clothe stage. We saw a lot of balls of white curds being transferred from one cloth to another and rocked back and forth by two guys. Then we saw where the girdle with the shape and writing is applied. Then the salt baths. Finally we were in the aging room.

So old that only presidents’ eat them. Next to it an “AB” one that will not be exported.

We saw parmesan so old and crystalized that only presidents get to eat them. We also saw parmesan wheels that had scoring around indicating that they were not perfect but still saleable. Then we saw those with “AA” stamped on them. These are the perfect ones that have been x-rayed. These are only ones that get exported.

Yes, we had to wear hairnets, shoe nets, and net robes to protect the parmesan.

These cheeses have 30 percent protein and no lactose.

In the old days, parmesan and other hard cheeses were the “meat” for many Italians.

Cook Italy – Food Tour in Bologna

November 13, 2021November 13, 2021M's Adventures

Bologna’s streets will make it hard to move on.

Do you know someone who is so extremely picky? As in, never satisfied? Oh, maybe YOU are that friend.

If you are one of those people who has such high standards for everything and never quite finds things up to scratch, then Carmelita of Cook Italy is the guide for you.

We booked her for a food tour. I mentioned some of the places earlier. We met at an excellent pastry shop where I am glad that I got a good breakfast.

Carmelita then showed us the formerly great, the famous, the touristy, and the abominably disgraced. She then showed us the still great shops and vendors downtown. Along the way, we had a snack stop and the history of why Bologna, “La Grasso” is translated too literally — the nickname refers to the bounty that is Bologna.

[A note about bologna, boloney — mortadella. It is a whole separate food product in Italy. It can be eaten sliced, cubed, and in a meat pate like a smear. There are required amounts of lardons per product and, of course, there are standards. People eat it like proscuitto. Yes, just like having slices of proscuitto on a charcuterie board… that’s how they eat mortadella.]

Bologna is a bountiful foodie city with warm red brick porticoes, shopping opportunities galore, and enough foodie gems for a month of feasts. One of the best things about the tour was being taken to the “horse” emporium.

This shop is a knife shop but so much more.

Carmelita ended our tour at an enoteca who kindly stored our wine while we went to Carmelita’s newest “project” – a new gelateria called Sablé. Check it out!

Carmelita also offers cooking classes. I found her through a friend, even though I see that she is famous on TripAdvisor. For a food tour, this was the least amount of food that we ate but the pace was very nice for the more mature traveler. It was a relaxed tour. Carmelita is very communicative and will send all kinds of recommendations even after the tour. A tour with Cook Italy is a gently paced tour.

But Carmelita’s standards and critique of the gastronomy scene is fierce and pointed. Carmelita is passionate about those she disdains and even more passionate about those whom she admires. If you want that style of guide, then she is for you.

Those hams are all the same because of special selection.

Here are some of Cook Italy’s recommendations:

Best aperitivo

Gamberini via Ugo Bassi
I Conoscenti via Mazzini
Stefano Cardi same street

Best gelato

Sablè – in a Class of its own
Cremeria Santo Stefano – via Santo Stefano
Cremeria Cavour – in Piazza Cavour

Best little cakes

Pasticceria mignon

Regina de Quadri – via Castiglione
La Borbonica – via Riva Reno
Stefano Cardi as before
Gamberini as before

As my friend commented, we had the least amount of food on this food tour. But, we did stop for a quick snack, and then for the light lunch. Also, a balsamic tasting. For three hours, the tour cost 280 euro for the group.

Carmelita will also come after you after the tour to write reviews. Beware. In the nicest way, but you are forewarned.

Bologna the Bountiful

September 13, 2021M's Adventures

Bologna is called “La grassa” or “the fat” city. The correct translation should be “the bountiful” as the fat represents richness. I learned this when on a food tour with Cook Italy.

The plaque explaining where the salami makers created “the fat” myth about Bologna.

The origin of the name comes from Bologna’s production of bologna, or as they call it here, mortadella. To be a protected status mortadella, there is a required number of fat squares in each.

Normally, to preserve meat, before refrigeration, is to salt, dry, or cover with fat. Bologna invented the boiling of this meat product and the city became famous for it. Hence why in the United States, mortadella is called bologna or boloney.

Bologna is also famous for its covered sidewalks, over 70 kilometers of them. Also, the red brick. But, mostly, Bologna is famous for being a foodie city. The city anchors the food valley (which is also motor valley) of Emilia Romagna.

Bountiful Bologna is often overlooked by tourists. That’s kind of nice. There are many foreigners in Bologna because Bologna has the oldest (still functioning) university in the world (started in 1088). True, the center of the town is a bit crowded but slip down a side street and you can soon imagine your own medieval scholarly wanderings. Or just shop.

So next time someone calls Bologna fat, you know that it’s bountiful. Enjoy it for yourself. More later about where to eat, shop, and stay in bountiful Bologna.

Eat and Shop the Bounty of Bologna

September 12, 2021September 20, 2021M's Adventures

This is knife/kitchen store, horse store (see below)

Looking back on Bologna, I see why people love Bologna. It’s a real city without pretension and it’s a foodie city.

I had an intro food tour with Cook Italy’s Carmelita, carmelita@cookitaly.com. These are the shopping places she recommended. Carmelita runs food tours and cooking classes. In English. Carmelita has incredibly high standards. Hire her if you are one of those people who almost never find anything quite up to scratch.

Simoni, Via Drapperie 5/2a: the deli that still maintains the high standards of yore. They have several stores in the area.

Bruno e Franco – La Salumeria Bologna. Via Guglielmo Oberdan, 16: This is on many a food tour. (also across from a store that sells Reisenthal bags which is not part of the Bologna tour but I like their bags).

Eataly: the one in the bookstore.

Ancient Aguzzeria Horse, Via Drapperie 12. It’s a knife store that now sells all kinds of things for the kitchen. You want to go there. Trust me. The staff are incredibly nice as well.

Eats: I got many recommendations but these were Carmelita’s that I liked.

Impero, Via dell’Indipendenza, 39: bakery with great breakfast options.

Enoteca Italia, Via Marsala 2: wine and a light lunch

Sable Gelato, Via dei Mille 3a (behind the red newsstand): This gelato maker makes super creamy artisanal gelato and he is a renaissance man whose current passion is gelato (he said, “do you know what is the most beautiful thing? freshly made gelato”).

And where to stay (This I found on my own): Il Terrazzo Di San Colombano/la porta rossa, find them online for a good price. Or call them: 347 058 1371 . I found this place online and it’s a great find. It’s on a quiet side street, has a terrace, and for 25 euro per day, a parking spot in the underground garage. The cost is around 200 dollars per night but I think it depends if you pay cash or go through a booking service. The place sleeps six (two full beds in the same room and a queen in the other room). The artwork is too weird for my liking but other than that, I like it.

As for dinner or other places to eat, I wasn’t there long enough. I’ll have to go back. I didn’t like the place that was recommended to me by the apartment owner so I don’t want to recommend them (it was a place on Oberdan street). I have a list of places recommended by my Italian teacher so I’ll write about that another time. Clearly I’ll have to go back.