Mika Tsutai Plates

(source Asahi Shimbun)

These managa-inspired plates from Mika Tsutai of Kyoto are amazing and would be so much fun to plan a meal with! More can be found and purchased at  Comicalu.

Brains

When someone says they’ll tell you what’s on your plate after you’ve eaten it, most people will instinctively feel either excited or apprehensive about what has been set before them.  The statement in itself lets you know that something unusual is there.  I had already deeply inhaled the Testa in Cassette di Ligure presented before me and noticed a strong oily aroma and managed to simultaneously state and exhale, “Well it’s offal isn’t it?”  “It’s brain....and heart, tongue and other offal,” came the response.  I’ve tried tongue and find it rather tasty, however the bite that I took was admittedly smaller than the one I would have taken after the word ‘brain’ caused an involuntary image of 1950s black and white zombies to flash before my eyes.  The Testa had a matte sheen, a strong aroma and the flavour was a bit briny (this is a 100% unintentional pun, I swear). The slices had a firm texture despite being wafer thin and were lacking the rich salt and meat flavours that I look forward to from salumi.  

While in San Remo, Italy a pink, white and red salumi caught my eye at a deli and reminded me of a marble that I photographed at the Pantheon in September:

"That one looks nice," I said and we took several slices of Testa in Cassette di Ligure, a salami typically found in Liguria made of pig’s head, tongue, muscle and heart.  Known as headcheese in English it translates as ‘head in box’ and the components are encased in strips of beef and cooked until cured.  I enjoyed the Testa’s cellular beauty that comes from the traditional culinary techniques that endeavors to use all of the animal more than the flavour itself and luckily there are countless cured meats to be discovered.

Mont D’Or

Q: Do you want to eat something really fattening?
A: Yes, why yes I do.

Mont D'Or is an unpastuerised French cheese available from September to April only.  Every last bit of this rich, creamy,  ever-so-slightly nutty delight was warmed and eaten with bread and washed down with wine.

Carciofi

The Ligurian variety of artichokes (carciofi) are one of the many exquisite local land offerings.  The diversity of foods from the Ligurian region in Northern Italy are owed to it's borders of Piedmont, France, the Alps and the Mediterranean.  What's found here provides a plethora of foodstuffs such as olive oil, basil, pesto, focaccia, seafood, chestnuts, game, mushrooms and artichokes.  I first grew to love artichokes in New Orleans where I often ate them stuffed, fried or in oyster and artichoke soup.  In Liguria I enjoyed them by simply peeling and dipping them in delicious Ligurian olive oil and the best balsamic vinegar I have ever tasted.  The waxy, spiny thorn at the end of each petal is plucked and held while the pulpy end of the petal is dipped and eaten, using the teeth to scrape the tender flesh.  The further you go into the body or choke of the artichoke the more tender the leaf becomes.  I love the taste of artichoke paired with crispy and creamy but eating them in their pure form was a revelation - clean, with a texture of newborn vegetables, a bit like a fresh chestnut that has been spread upon a leaf, bit of celery.  It was like eating them for the first time but without all the pomp and circumstance.