Almost completely unexpected I’ll be going on an impromptu food-shoot trip to Paris later this week. Getting the train early (very early) Thursday morning, I’ll be there before lunch. And perhaps even to squeeze in some sweets before lunch.
I’ve got 17 flavours on my list which I need to make pictures from before I leave again early Friday evening. So now just a quick update, getting you ready for my Parisian travel notes.
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Wild boar on my mind
When you think of traditional flavours in the Maremma region in Tuscany, one of the most obvious choices that pop into mind is the wild boar. Or cinghiale, in Italian. At least, that’s what you should be thinking of as of now.
The hunt (and the subsequential consumption) of the wild boar is celebrated with many local festivals (sagra) throughout Italy. One of those Sagra del Cinghiale is hosted every year in the second week of September in Capalbio.
Capalbio is an incredibly charming little fortified town at the Costa d’Argento in the Tuscan Maremma region and definitely worth a visit, even outside the wild boar season. Be warned though, you need some planning ahead since there is only one hotel: Valle de Buttero (serves a great breakfast, by the way, and has wonderful staff).
A few know-worthy titbits about wild boars:
Only the adult male boars grow tusks.
The hunt is called la caccia, and cinghiale alla cacciatora- "wild boar prepared in hunter style" - is one of the most popular ways to serve this, often a bit chewy, meat. Key ingredients of this rich stew are chunks of wild boar marinated overnight in red wine, olive oil and rosemary, prepared with vegetables, tomato sauce and a generous amount of garlic. The result is marvellous, you just have to be aware of the small pieces of bone...
Time for some tasting!
Visiting the Sagra del Cinghiale in Capalbio was a great way to get acquainted with several famous local culinary specialties of the Costa d’Argento and the Maremma region in general. At the festival you could taste four delicious wild boar dishes, proudly prepared by the male local community members:
Real guys know how to cook their Cinghiale alla Cacciatora
A traditional second option: Cinghiale alla Griglia - grilled wild boar steaks, plain and simple, yet highly in demand
Serious grilling of the wild boar steaks
Third option: bowls of creamy polenta covered with steaming minced wild boar sauce (polenta con sugo di cinghiale) and topped with grated parmesan cheese.
This sugo del cinghiale dish was kind of a surprise to me; I was keeping my eyes open for the traditional local way to serve sugo di cinghiale: with papardelle, the broad strips of pasta. Polenta as a base tasted great though!
And lastly interesting looking sausages - dark and plum, straight of the large charcoal grills in the back.
All I can say is: the Maremma people earn two big thumbs up for the way they prepare their wild boar and I can definitely advise you give these traditional local dishes a try yourself during your visit to this region.
This article is also posted on feelthebreezeoftuscany.com, the promotional website of the Consorzio Maremmare, who invited me to join this great tour through the south of Tuscany.
So, I’arrived at the airport, more than two hours in advance for a change. I’m about to leave rainy Amsterdam behind and spend a busy weekend under the Tuscan sun!
I’m invited by the tourist board,of the Costa d’Argento, in the Tuscan Maremma region for a three day trip to get to know the area. I’ll tackle this experience as a true curious food lover and keep you updated about my finds!
My first reaction when thinking about to tourism, and people interested in culinary tourism related activities, would be to focus on “true tourists”, people travelling for pleasure alone. Yet when I think back at the times when I travelled for business (quite a bit in my IBM times), there was often some time to kill before or between appointments. And quick and pleasant culinary activities could just be a great past time. So the destinations mentioned below are important to keep in mind when considering the ordening of the destinations I will be working on. Helsinki comes as a bit of surprise, by the way.
Financial hubs and Meetings-Incentives-Congresses-Events tourism
Although 80% of inbound arrivals to cities are tourists, MICE travel (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) is increasingly important for cities, not only because of the higher per capita expenditure of MICE travellers, but also because of its promotional impact. From Dubai (4) to Tallinn (64) or Valencia (84), international events have helped to set cities firmly on the map of the world’s leading destinations. Investment in convention centres, hotels and travel infrastructure cannot be judged solely in terms of MICE activity, but instead as part of an integrated tourism strategy.
The globalisation of the world economy has also had a positive impact on city travel, especially with regard to global financial centres. Despite new technologies, the world financial centres of London and New York (ranked first and sixth respectively), far from dying out, have continued to attract more businesses, thus, increasing the amount of business travel to these financial clusters. Furthermore, other cities have followed suit, becoming important financial hubs. Shanghai (13), Hong Kong (5), Singapore (4) and Dubai (7) have entered the list of global financial hubs according to The Economist, alongside long-established powerhouse such as Tokyo (51), Zurich (55) or Geneva (98)
Top 10 Cities by Number of Meetings 2006
City Number of meetings Paris 1 363 Vienna 2 316 Singapore 3 298 Brussels 4 179 Geneva 5 169 Helsinki 6 140 Barcelona 7 139 London 8 118 Amsterdam 9 117 New York 10 93
Bà Rịa – Vũng Tàu to host World Food Festival « Vietnam Travel Blog.
Sounds great, surely to be added to culinary activity collection!
A unique and memorable gastronomic identity is an indispensable asset to any successful tourist destination. In this respect Croatia’s tourism falls seriously short.
Based primarily on “international” cuisine, the gastronomic offer of Croatian tourist destinations is predictable and conventional. This paper calls for a new, exciting gastronomic identity of Croatian tourist destinations founded on Croatia’s exceptionally rich gastronomic heritage.
Apart from the food offer itself, crucial to the success of this new identity will be its commodification and spectacularisation through the discursive practice of gastrospeak.
Learning to appreciate and use gastrospeak will be an important future task for Croatian tourist destination management. (abstract)
Keywords: Gastronomic identity; Foodies; Croatian tourist destinations; Croatia’s gastronomic heritage; Gastrospeak; Benefits
Article Outline
1. Introduction
2. International research
3. Croatian researchers’ contribution
4. Attitudes and consumption habits of Croatia-visiting tourists
5. A social climate for change
6. Creating the gastronomic identity of a tourist destination
7. Gastrospeak: a systemic construct
8. The value of the new gastronomic identity of Croatian tourist destinations
8.1. Differentiation
8.2. Aestheticization
8.3. Authentication
8.4. Symbolisaton
8.5. Rejuvenation
9. Discussion
Acknowledgements
References
A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the international conference “Days of Turistica” in Portorož, Slovenia, 18–19 March 2004.
Source: International Journal of Hospitality Management Volume 26, Issue 3, September 2007, Pages 546-559
Author: Renata Fox, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, 51410 Opatija, P.O.B 97, Croatia, Tel.:+385 51 294 717; fax: +385 51 292 945.
Reinventing the gastronomic identity of Croatian tourist destinations.
archnetwork :: Traditional Turkish Kebabs and Gastronomic Tourism 23 – 30th May 2010.
Sounds nice, contains at least a few ideas for culinary travels in Turkey!
Just a quick coffee, to reload for all the sweet explorations
L'opera, chocolate abundance
Easter bunny with chocolate feet - straight from Paris
