S. Beckett.
The episode of the madeleine dipped in tea is the most famous "involuntary memory" in In the Search of Lost Time. Indeed, food, tastes and smells trigger memories and sometimes reproduce emotions from the past.
Inspired by Andy's recepies and Arte's post, I have decided to write a post about my involuntary memories which are trigged by my favourite food/dishes. If you like the idea, I encourage you to do the same.
Favourite dishes:
- Polenta with gorgonzola. Involuntary memory: my maternal grandma's kitchen. We gather on Sundays, the kitchen is very small (and hot) and polenta with cheese is the hoven to keep it hot. My gradma is fond of cheese (we are all fond of cheese, can't live without it) and eats big portions. I would never stop eating but after a while I have enough. Polenta is a poor food but it's very filling.
- Frittura dolce, "Fried sweet" (a Piedmontese dish made with sugar, milk, semolino -I don't know the proper translation- and lemon pulp. It's not a dessert, rather we eat it as entrée and it is delicious). Involuntary memory: my paternal grandma's kitchen and bedroom where frittura was kept cold for one day before cooking. I smell the lemon pulp and immediately spot the oval dish in the cold bedroom. I steal some uncooked (= not fried) perfectly cut pieces of frittura. During lunch I almost eat only frittura dolce and... the following dish
- Vitello tonnato. Involuntary memory: my paternal gradma's house. Meat has never been my favourite food but I LOVE the sauce! I eat a small slice of veal and eat a great amount of sauce with bread. Now I eat both with gusto but I'll never taste my gradma's sauce again, it was great.
What about your involuntary memories?
Whenever I make my Nan's Trifle, I always think of them (my grandfather and grandmother). And how she always used to do two - one with sherry, which is the one I loved and make now and the other with fruit and jelly - which was for the 'kids' and, even though I was one, I always hated.
ReplyDeleteLychees. I remember a birthday, when I was about 12 or 13 where my parents took me to a restaurant for a meal. I could choose - the one I chose was the only Chinese restaurant in Hereford at the time and I remember the Lychees because they were so exotic and I had never tasted anything like them before.
Mussels: Being on holiday in Abersoch and going out early in the morning, picking mussels from the shore and bringing them back to the caravan where my father would cook them in milk. Delicious.
Thanks for sharing your memories, Andy.
ReplyDelete:)
I've never had Lychees. Actually I googled it as I've never heard of it!
@Lola
ReplyDeleteHai per caso qualche ascendenza piemontese? Se sì, io pure, da parte di padre.
Ogni volta che mangio qualcosa di fritto con lo zucchero – raramente qui a Roma - mi ricordo delle pommes frites con il buco dentro fatte da mia nonna paterna e cosparse di zucchero. Nothing in common with French fries of course, since pommes frites are apples and not potatoes.
@Andy
Andy, I may have been rough or hard last time when we talked about the Italians and the Britons. Mi scuso con te, davvero.
Gosh, I was shocked by the pommes frites with sugar, but then our Man in Rome specified it was apples and I felt better.
ReplyDeleteHere's my three:
1) Finocchiona on fresh tuscan bread, i.e. baked with no salt. It has to be sciapo. I cannot eat finocchiona without seeing myself in my grandma's food shop, on a summer morning, eating before crossing the street to the park where my friends were waiting.
2)The smell of Knorr minestrone soup. I actually liked it, and had fantasies about eating it dry. Sick child.
3) Soft, white whipped cream. We used to buy it (whipped) from the dairy shop close to our house. It was always my grandpa who suggested that. Every time I eat whipped cream I see this image of the shopowner's hands filling a little paper bucket and levelling the top with a flat spatula, and then packing the bucket in light green paper, wrapped with a thin ribbon, by which I was allowed to hold it all the way home.
@Man of Roma: sono piemontese al 100% ;) Che buone le pommes frites!
ReplyDelete@Arte: finocchiona is delicious.
The smell of Knorr minestrone soup??
I like your memories.
Piedmontese cuisine is excellent but it belongs to the far memories of my childhood. When my grandma passed away and my mother took over we entered the phase of central Italy cuisine, Tuscany and Latium, much to the consternation of my father. Not that I'm complaining, but I miss pommes frites, soups and the amazing variety of cakes.
ReplyDeleteIt is excellent indeed and it belongs to my memories as well.
ReplyDeleteI do like central Italy cuisine but it's not my favourite. We shouldn't complain about Italian cuisine... I've lived abroad and I can tell you that I missed Italian food a lot.