Sunday, June 11, 2006
Never Ending Summer
We've reached the end of another weekend, but the summer is showing no sign of ending. I spent most of the day working on my dissertation, so once again I did not make it to Dun Laoghaire market. I should have shopped properly yesterday after all. I had had every intention to finally explore the much-lauded market by the sea, so all I had got at Temple Bar market was a bit of spinach, a few salad greens and some mushrooms. Oh well, keeping the food shopping to a minimum might actually help me in my pursuit to empty the fridge. -- Could it be that this has become a bit of an obsession? I seem to talk about it almost every day now.Lunch was a good step in that direction. I
compiled a Brotzeit, a German meal of cold snacks somewhat like a ploughman's (literally translated as 'bread time'), from the leftovers in the fridge: Italian pepper salami, German garlic salami, Austrian mountain cheese, vintage cheddar, goat's milk camembert, goose rillettes and tomatoes alongside some crusty bread. I actually did a bit of a taste test with Lofty. I wanted to find out which of the two kinds of salami was better, for the two were a bit of an enigma. The Italian pepper salami had come from a fine food store where Munich's posh people shop for their social get togethers and which imports all their stuff directly from Italy. The German garlic salami was made by some huge sausage maker and had come from a lowly supermarket. So far, so good. But to make things complicated, the posh Italian salami had act
ually been cheaper than the common German one. So my question was which of the two Lofty, who did not know their origins or prices, would prefer. And in the end the expected thing happened: Italian craftsmanship won hands down over German mass production regardless of the price. And the lesson? If you want quality, stay away from huge brands and go with small producers who chose their ingredients carefully and care about what they are doing.Inspired by these findings, I kept dinner true to the Italian theme that had brought them about and made a risotto with spinach, mushrooms and pancetta. Unfortunately, the spinach was not too clever this time - tough and slightly bitter - a clear sign that it is time for me to find a new favourite veg more appropriate to the season. The young baby spinach is gone for the moment and there is no bringing it back until next year. But Jenny should soon have her own tomatoes and peppers. And peas are in season as are beans and asparagus and lettuce and and and.... Time to get adventurous!
Christine at 10:02 pm
