Sorry I have not got round to this sooner – I’ve been busy, and when I wasn’t busy I was tired.
Anyway, the Sarpi street fair here in Milan was up to its usual good standards, even if there weren’t as many stands as last year.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
We got some porcini mushrooms, which were promptly turned into a risotto, a varied selection of salamis – barbera wine salami, wild boar salami, truffle salami and some very good plain old salami salami. All of them were the soft variety of salami, with the exception of the wild boar, which was well seasoned. I got some porky scratching type thing – ciccoli, I think they are called. They are made from goose fat, not pork though. Last but not least was the flat mother-in-laws tongue rosmary flavoured crackers. Oops, I forgot the excellent Fontina cheese I got too.
We met some friends there and I was surprised to hear that they had never heard of the street fair, despite having lived in this area for a good few years. Then there was the grappa incident, which involved our friends’ son knocking over and smashing his father’s recently bought bottle of vintage grappa – much to said father’s disappointment. Totally understandable under the circumstances – losing a good bottle of booze is a tragedy.
We stayed away from the fair in the afternoon as it became packed with people, as usual. Still, it’s a wonderful event and it certainly adds to the character of the area. Good stuff – in every sense.
