½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

i have been quite shocked shopping in the supermarkets to find that none of the meat has been ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ. The beef is German or French and the veal Dutch .It seems that price has become the focus rather than home grown which is sad.
Susi

[QUOTE=Susi]i have been quite shocked shopping in the supermarkets to find that none of the meat has been ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ. The beef is German or French and the veal Dutch .It seems that price has become the focus rather than home grown which is sad.
Susi[/QUOTE]

It's the globalization, I'm afraid
If you go in a supermarket (like Auchan, Cityiper etc.) you'll find the standard industrial food you can find in similar supermarkets in England, France or Germany.
Fortunately Italy is still full of little food shops with their roots well inside their country. Those are the one you have to look for good food.

funny... but i really still dont understand the first part of this posting...

however i have to disagree with the other comments in reply... cityper.. and all the other french ones provide very good fresh produce much better than you will find in any uk supermarket.... german supermarkets ... or in general any of the northern european areas....

you still find vegetables which are odd shaped... mile long cheese and processed meet counters... huge wet fish areas.... yes the plastic packaged stuff is all sorced on cost ... and why not... god help us but italy has the most expensive services...elec/gas/fuel... in europe... so it helps to save a bit of money on the groceries

... and as notaio does say the small shops are all there plus the markets... all our local butchers supply locally grown meet...the farmers still arrive at market with fresh veg and fruit... so there is an alternative.. but much like elsewhere people that live here are gradually finding that with work... in general both husband and wife have to work here to make ends meet... that the one weekly visit to the out of town supermarket saves time... saves money ... and they get a huge choice... and they are all air conditioned...

so why be dissapointed about price sorced materials if they are good... especially when you still have the alternative local produce suppliers

Due to european regulation the meat market is somehow funny in italy... like for milk... there is this thing called "quota" like that each europena country has to have a certain share of the market... very complicated.
I find that meat is much better in the uk, and cheaper than in italy.
But in Italy we eat more cheese, pasta, vegetables, ham and things... the average italian family would have a steak less than once a week... and it is better, I try not to have red meat every day, too much proteins!!!

Paola

[QUOTE=latoca]Due to european regulation the meat market is somehow funny in italy... like for milk... there is this thing called "quota" like that each europena country has to have a certain share of the market... very complicated.
I find that meat is much better in the uk, and cheaper than in italy.
But in Italy we eat more cheese, pasta, vegetables, ham and things... the average italian family would have a steak less than once a week... and it is better, I try not to have red meat every day, too much proteins!!!

Paola[/QUOTE]
we get all our beef from certified organic breeders the beef is pure bred Marchegiana similar to the Tuscan chianina,absolutely excellent( and we don't eat veal) they are not fed on the strange industrial farine they seem to use in the uk and where mad cow disease started.I think that the point is where you shop we don't get food in supermarkets (except for milk) and what we don't grow or raise ourselves we buy from other farmers locally.We have a little of our own wine the rest from vinyards in the area,pecorino from a neighbouring shepard,etc.............................

I find the idea of eating horse not a pleasant one, (although I sometime feel I could eat a horse), but what does it taste like? Can anyone advise?

A lot of 'unusual meat' often tastes like a strong chicken or something similar. I haven't eaten rabbit for some time, but remember it tasting very much like chicken, likewise pheasant, frogs legs etc etc.

We went out to a very nice restaurant a couple of weeks ago that specialises in fish. They brought out abundant antipasti all seafood/fish based which were gorgeous. They then bought out a plate of what looked like very dark red finely shredded carrot on a bed of rocket. I started tucking in asking my boyfriend exacty what it was, he mumbled something back in reply so I asked again, again he mumbled a reply. By this time I was a little suspicious as I have only recently started eating fish and meat after 15 years of vegetarianism. He eventually stated it was "puledro" I hadn't heard the word before but picked up on the general idea and being in a seafood restaurant stupidly assumed it was seahorse! (I haven't got a clue if you can even eat seahorse!). Anyway turns out it was colt or foal. Needless to say it was the one antipasti we sent back with a nearly full plate.

As for the taste it was quite strong and smoky (whether it had been smoked or not I'm not sure) and much to my shame I quite liked it - just can't get past the psychological part of eating foal :eek:

horse is a red meat and tastes pretty much like beef.
It is very high in Iron and is apparently good for you.
I had it a couple of times, but it is not so common as it used to be.
Paola

Horse meet is a common food in the Bari area, where there are several "macelleria equina", that is horse butcher
May be also in other part of Italy, but I've not direct experience.
I agree with Paola (Latoca) it has a lot of iron and it is a good "medicine" for kids, my mother used to give it to me (not often).
It has a strong taste, but isn't bad, very good to prepare ragù - meat souce for pasta.
Of course you have to like meat in general.
I don't eat too much meat, so I eat no more horse...
It's possible to find it in

Our local supermarket near Teramo has a section in the macelleria marked "equino" so it's available reasonably widely. I like bresaola made with horse meat, and a carpaccio of horse steak is very good. I'm afraid many British people eat with their eyes and minds rather than with their mouth and tongue. Increasingly young British people restrict their diet, either by eating as vegetarians or (worse IMO) by refusing to 90% of the animal and eating only chicken breast meat and beefsteak.

I was raised, as are many ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs to eat all of the pig, except its squeak and all of the horse except its hooves. However when we stayed at an agriturismo in Abruzzo we found ourselves sharing with some young British people. They ate their dinner and said it was really nice - some sort of pasta they thought. And they asked me to ask the cook for the recipe. She was only too happy to give me the instructions but laughed when I said it was pasta. No she said, not pasta, tripa.

I told the Brits, a little later we heard them outside being theatrically sick.

I know what you mean.
I am going to get married at the end of the month and I had to try and make an intrenational menu, as my husband is Scottish.

We will get married in the countryside of piemonte. It would be very traditional to have rabbit, but I was afraid people would "freak out". And a lot of our guest are vegetarians so I had to provide a choice of veg dishes...

Trippa con i fagioli... I love it! But I have never seen trippa here...

My husband's brother only eats the breast of the chicken because the other parts are too meaty... could you imagine him eating trippa? i do not think so!

Paola

I love tripe! as a Mancunian I was brought up on it. bought from the UCP shop (united cow products!)
I also love black pudding (made with pigs blood)
I was also raised to eat rabit and also cook it when in Italy.
My father loved to eat pigs trotters it was the one thing I didn't eat, I found them tasteless

Not all Brits are squeamish

Susi

Paola, you have the basis for something excellent. You could introduce ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs to haggis which is, in my opinion, a wonderful dish and very simple to prepare. Coniglio is a favourite in Abruzzo, most restaurants serve it at lunch and there's an old recipe which involves cooking the rabbit slowly in Centerba, the very alcoholic green drink.

We had trippa con fagioli at the Festa de l'Unità in Pescara a few weeks ago very nice, as was la Porchetta and the other local dishes. A good evening for us, with our friends.

[QUOTE=Susi]I love tripe! as a Mancunian I was brought up on it. bought from the UCP shop (united cow products!)
I also love black pudding (made with pigs blood)
I was also raised to eat rabit and also cook it when in Italy.
My father loved to eat pigs trotters it was the one thing I didn't eat, I found them tasteless

Not all Brits are squeamish

Susi[/QUOTE]
As a fellow Mancunian, my mother tried to bring us up on tripe but she failed miserably, though one of my sisters did partake occasionally. We lived within smelling distance of the 'tripe works' and I think that that put us off more than anything else.

I, too, love black pudding, not just as part of the full English breakfast. We used to have black puddings, boiled, with salt, bread and butter at lunch times.

Mum also used to cook rabbit, though my sister (the one who ate tripe) couldn't eat it. I've only bought it once since Mum died, and somehow, it didn't taste the same. Perhaps I haven't inherited my mother's culinary skills.

We also used to have black pudding with salt and bread and butter for saturday tea. Living near Bury of course we have access to the best black puddings in the world! We always have our black puddings boiled which seems to surprise southern friends! nice to know that England hasn't lost all of it's regional differences food wise. I only cook rabbit when in Italy as the rabbit you buy in England doesn't taste the same. In tuscany rabbit is still a favourite meat and you can buy it everwhere, you can even buy rabbit burgers!

Susi

I like horse meat - in Milan I had a beautiful antipasti of air-dried horse meat.
Just last week I was in Firenze eating 'Florentine' trippa - delicate and delicious. Mmmm!

My big disappointment was not tracking down any Lampredotto. A friend in Italy recommended it to me.

[QUOTE=Susi]We also used to have black pudding with salt and bread and butter for saturday tea. Living near Bury of course we have access to the best black puddings in the world! [/QUOTE]
That did it, after reading the comments here I had to go to the freezer and liberate some Bury black pudding for my dinner. So I had "fusion food", Bury black pudding, boiled (of course) with a side dish of onions and cooked plum tomatoes sweated down in our own Abruzzese olive oil. Oh, and I've found that black pudding goes really well with my friend Anilla's home-made lime pickle as an altrnative to English mustard.

You're right Susi, Bury black puddings are the best, the giant tubes of tasteless mush sold in the south as black pudding are horrid. In fact to get a good breakfast plate one needs to pick from england and Italy:

Wiltshire or Hampshire bacon, Bury black pudding, wild mushrooms from the Surrey woods, oatcake from Stoke-on-Trent, sausage from Mr O'Hagan's shop in Bosham, Sussex and IMO eggs and plum tomatoes from Italy.

Couldnt help but jump on the bandwagon - being a yorkshire lass (originally - though now living in London) I was reared on black pudding, tripe (raw) and elder (the lining of the cow's stomach) and pigs trotters - my grandma was a great fan off all such things! I havent tried Bury black pudding but the stuff from just my side of the pennines aint bad either.

Needless to say, the thought of horse meat doesnt bother me and I have in fact enjoyed it on numerous occasions, especially in the mountains when skiing.

Rabbit is a bit too sweet in the UK but the italian ones taste so much better!

Here in Sardinia it is very common with some shops selling only horse meet, we eat it all the time and it tastes much like beef but maybe slightly sweeter tasting. My partners family probably eat horse more often than beef I would say, but I think they may be the exception not the rule. :)