The inspector from the Istituto Parma Qualità moves quickly amongst a selection of legs of ham. He pierces each ham in at least five spots using a special horse bone needle and sniffs the needle after each puncture. The needle is quite specialist; horse bone is porous to just the right degree that it takes in ... Read more »
Some places feel a lot like home, others far less so, but most of them are home to someone. The exceptions I’m thinking of are the deserts and wildlife reserves I’ve visited in Southern Africa, the Galapagos Islands and the Falkands Islands, where there are few if any (human) residents. But when I’m visiting somewhere ... Read more »
You probably won’t be surprised that a huge part of the joy of travelling for me is in trying the local cuisine. In some cases, the destination is almost secondary to the food! Almost! I also like to learn about the local culture – and religion is often intrinsically linked to that, even if only in ... Read more »
We packed a lot of excellent eating into our short trip to Parma, where we discovered the origin of Parma ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Masticabrodo Situated in Pilastro, a small rural village about 15 kilometres from the centre of Parma, is a small trattoria-osteria called Masticabrodo. The village is virtually in the shadow of the ... Read more »
In a recent post about Parma ham, I explained about my invitation to learn more about the production of two of Parma’s most famous products – the ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano, parmesan cheese. You can read a little more about what it means to have a PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status, in that previous post. ... Read more »
A few weeks ago, I was invited to Parma by Discover the Origin, to learn more about the production of two of Parma’s most famous products – Parma ham and parmesan cheese, known locally as prosciutto de Parma and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Both have PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status, which means that only products made in ... Read more »
The Place of Onions, in old Lille. After last night’s rainstorm the intense sticky heat has broken and today is cool, breezy, fresh… I love it! A drop of… [more]
We went to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The Void this morning, an amazing VR experience where we got to be Rebel Alliance members going undercover as… [more]