Medieval Food

My sister Karen bought me a book a while ago during one of our visits to a museum here in Florence. The book is by Christopher Hibbert and called The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici which can be found on Amazon for a decent price.

I have yet to finish the book since it is not quite as fun as many historical novels but it is interesting especially if you have been to Florence or know any Florentine vernacular. It is great fun to finally understand where alot of strange customs were born and why some survive today. It's like reading a "hidden Florence" book that explains so many cultural differences not just between Italians and non but between Florentines and non.

In any case, there is an excerpt about food that was amazing since today's Florentine cooking doesn't at all reflect the creativity that the Medicis enjoyed.

"...evening meal of garlic-flavoured pasta, ravioli in broth, liver sausage or black pudding, goat's milk cheese, fruit and wine, with occasional pigeon or a piece of meat, usually lamb, on a Sunday. For the richer merchants, of course, there was more exotic fare. Excessive indulgence was forbidden by sumptuary laws; but, as with clothes, the laws were flagrantly disregarding and the most was made of every loophole. If the main course was to consist of no more than "roast with pie", well then, everything that could possibly be desired was tossed into the pie, from pork and ham to eggs, dates and almonds. An honoured guest of a well-to-do citizen might be offered first of all a melon, then ravioli, tortellini or lasagne, then a berlingozzo, a cake made of flour, eggs and surgar, then a few slices of boiled capon, roast chicken and guinea fowl, followed by spiced veal, or pork jelly, thruses, tench, pike, eel or trout, boiled kid, pigeon, partridge, turtle-dove or peacock. For vegetables there was usually a choice of broad beans, onions, spinach, carrots, leeks, peas and beetroot. Finally there might be rice cooked in milk of almonds and served with sugar and honey, or pinocchiato, a pudding made out of pine kernals, or little jellies made of almond-milk, coloured with saffron and modelled in the shape of animals or human figres. Everything was strongly flavoured. A chicken minestra would be spiced with ginger and pounded almonds, as well as cinnamon and cloves, and sprinkled with cheese or even sugar. Into a fish pie would go olive oil, orange and lemon juice, pepper, salt, cloves, parsley, nutmegs, saffron, dates, raisins, powdered bay leaves and marjoram. The red sauce known as savore sanguino contained not only meat, wine, raisins, cinnamon and sandal, but also sumac which is now used only for tanning."

The amazing thing is that if you ask about many recipes, they have been lost through the ages.
I know of one book published by a chef who actually has a restaurant here and cooks renaissance and medieval florentine. It's called the Pentola D'Oro and his book is called the same although I think it would be difficult to find outside of Italy. I went there a long time ago and Chef Alessi served up tagliatelle al raffano - meaning pasta with horse-radish !! I had never even seen a horse-radish let alone think about using it in a pasta sauce. It was almost impossibile to eat. But really nice.

It's too bad that so much of this cooking has been lost on modern day florentines. I guess some things, like the Medici, where destined to die out.

Face Food - Christopher D Salyers

"Face Food - The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes" 80 pages by Christopher D Salyers is as cute in size and presentation as the bentos are themselves.

This is the first book I found that deals with the actual philosphy and modern use of making lunch boxes. The book is a testimonial of many Moms (and one Dad) who prepare their kids some kind of lunch at least twice a week. It shows their work (and artwork) but more importantly it asks the real questions of why they make these fab lunches for their children.

I read for the first time the term "charaben" which refers to using manga or other characters in creating the bentos. There is no real explaination of technique but lots of images that give you a fantastic idea of the dedication and creativity behind the bentos. One mom even said her kid had become critical of her bentos when she makes some slight mistakes in the character representation. Another Mom described making the charaben for her kid as " A communication tool between my child and I and between my child and his classmates." It's not just an expression of love but also an attempt to improve the status of the child in school. There is actually competition between children for who would have the best o-bento. And strangely enough, according to the author, the moms are not competative. They actually have get togethers where they exchange methods and secrets on creating and executing the best charaben possible.

The author has his own blog spot as well (http://www.facefoodbento.blogspot.com/) which I suggest you check out as he is constantly on the look out for face food as well as reviews of his book. Overall, I enjoyed the book but I do have a few points on where the author could have improved it. For example, the format is great (quite small) and the actual material of the cover gives a feeling of an old household recipe book. But the pages are printed on some kind of paper which does not render justice to the intricate photos they present. It seems like recycled paper but I was unable to find anywhere which mentions if it is. (ok, I admit, if it were recycled then I guess it's ok that the images are grainy...) The typeset works fairly well (altho at times difficult to read) yet it gives the impression of reading someone's diary entries or their kitchen journal where they document their bentos. The ingredients lists for each bento are not accurate as far as I can guess. But that may be due to the fact that each Mom who filled out some kind of form had to summarise overall ingredients or the translation fell short.

Anyway, without a doubt, for a person who is just getting into charaben and bentos it's definately a book to check out. After reading this one you can probably convince yourself that making a bento is not just fun but possible.