An Old Hen Makes the Best Broth

IN PRAISE OF GENUINE ISTRIAN COOKING: BROTH BRUSTOLA, GNOCCHI, MALTAGLIATI PASTA WITH SARDINES - Istrian cuisine is, as we saw in Issue 23 of Papageno, simple, unadorned, honest-to-goodness, but also rich – thanks to its…poverty. I read in the Croatian magazine Gloria, that the Croatian chef Damir Modrusan (37), chef of the renown Istrian restaurant “Zigante,” was once called to cook for ten days on the yacht of Bernie Ecclestone, a sponsor of Formula One racing and a well-known connoisseur. His only demand: “Please, nothing pretentious, don’t put on airs.” He got what he wanted.

An Old Hen Makes the Best Broth, Drago Orlić, 25-2009 (PDF 1.189 kb)

Salami and Sausage Meats

OLD-TIME CUSTOMS AND DELIGHTS ARE BEING REDISCOVERED TODAY - When you talk about Istria, thoughts inevitably turn to the memory of this land, which was for centuries Venetian and, in spirit, remains so today to a certain degree, despite the painful facts resulting from WWII and culminating in the exodus of practically the entire local Italian population. One finds in the traditions of Istria above all that a trace remains of “multi-ethnicity.” Food customs are part of this; salami and delicatessen meats, for example.

Salami and Sausage Meats, Renato Malaman, 25-2009 (PDF 92 kb)

A Grand Festival at the noble Istrian Court

A SERIES OF INTERNATIONAL EVENTS CELEBRATE “THE QUEEN OF THE SEA” – SOLE – AND “HIS MAJESTY,” THE TRUFFLE - The dances begin during the latter part of October. It’s not so much a question of courtship but rather it is during this period that along the northwest coast of the Istrian peninsula the sole begins to sparkle in the sea. Sole is the Queen of the Sea, the supreme mistress of the northern Adriatic. Her dominion was without question in the days of the Romans. Admittedly, sole has known periods of ups and downs in terms of its popularity, undesired in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, when sea beam, scorfani and sea bass were the preferred fish.

A Grand Festival at the noble Istrian Court, Marta Camillo 24-2009 (PDF 366 kb)

Full Strength Polenta

A “POOR MAN’S DISH” MAKES A COMEBACK - Nature (or the Almighty, if you prefer) had a plan: America got the corn, Asia got the rice, and we here in Europe got the grain. These bounties of the earth became closely connected to man, they determined where he would settle, and they taught him the values of work and patience. From planting time to harvest a year would pass, thus creating the conditions for communities to grow as well. By the time the seeds or seedlings yielded results the following year, an entire village might be on the verge of starving.

Full Strength Polenta, Drago Orlić 24-2009 (PDF 121 kb)