Carpaccio's Creation

Loved by many yet hated by nearly as many the dish of Carpaccio has been the subject of so many conversations that it is unusual to find food lovers that have not tried it.

Traditionally the dish is a selection of raw meats although raw fish has also been used particularly salmon or tuna and topped with a mustard sauce. The Japanese call raw fish sashimi and have been preparing it for centuries so it is not truly Carpaccio but when someone comes up with a good idea someone else always seems to adapt it

The origins of when Carpaccio first came about are uncertain as man has been eating raw meat for millennia but the finely sliced, almost wafer this slices of raw meat as a dish are believed to have originated around 1950.

History has it that a well to do lady ,countess Amalia Nani Mocenigo had been told by her doctor that she should no longer eat cooked meat as it was bad for her and should instead eat only raw meat.

Not wanting to be served chunks of raw meat and attract strange looks from other diners in the restaurant  she asked the proprietor of Harry's Bar in Venice Giuseppe Cipriani if there was anything he could do to help

His creation of very finally sliced meats served with a light mustard sauce was exactly what she was looking for but now the problem arose as to how to order it without embarrassment.

Being a fan of the 15th century Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio Giuseppe Cipriani thought that the plate of meats looked very similar to some of the paintings that the artist made with his use of light colours and shades or reds and browns.

Because of this he suggested that the dish be called "Carpaccio" so that the countess could order her meal easily.

Whether or not this is true is not known but there was definitely an exhibition of Carpaccio's works in 1950 in Venice so it could well be true.

Whether or not it is true it is still and excellent dish and great as a starter especially if a variety of meats are used in particular beef, veal or venison

Personally I feel that this is the best way to enjoy Wagu or Kobe beef as you get the full benefit of the flavours of the meat

Hard to prepare well many restaurants cheat by freezing the cooked meats allowing them to slice the meats very thin more easily. I prefer to have my meats chilled as it probably means they have been well cared for but be wary if yours is very cold - it may just have come out of the freezer...

My friend's restaurant serves an excellent plate of this so I think that is what tonight's starter will be, probably followed by Spaghetti Carbonara

Academia Stupidity

The image of Dons drinking old Clarets and rich Bordeaux whilst sitting down to sumptuous gourmet dinners may well be thanks to the minds of TV and film makers but it was certainly the case for hundreds of years in the older institutions of Oxford and Cambridge in the UK but if the "experts" at the University of Hertfordshire are to be believed they were wasting their money.

A group of psychologists from the university carries out a blind tasting with a range of cheap and expensive wines (the wines were up to £30 a bottle - that is not expensive.....) including champagnes and vintage champagnes costing up to £30 (!!!!! very cheap for a vintage champagne). Also tested were varieties such as Rioja, shiraz, claret, pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc.

Unfortunately no information is available to tell which countries each of the grapes came from.

578 people were then chosen at random at the Edinburgh Science Festival and asked to decide which were the cheap wines and which were the expensive ones.

By the law of averages you should be able to guess correctly 50% of the time and surprise surprise this is the result that they got.

Their conclusion from this experiment - a quote from lead researcher psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman " These are remarkable results. People were unable to tell expensive from inexpensive wines, and so in these times of financial hardship the message is clear - the inexpensive wines we tested tasted the same as their expensive counterparts."

What a crock of shit

Apart from the fundamental flaws in the experiment information - small number, no indication of age or sex spread, what was the percentage of wine drinkers in the sample - the conclusion that they draw has no correlation to the question asked.

The test group were asked to determine which were cheap and which were the expensive wines, not whether they tasted alike or which did they dislike.

There is an observed fact that people will indicate a wine is cheap if they do not like it and many good wines are far to dry for normal taste buds given the high level of sugar in everyone's diet these days.

I will bet my bottom dollar that the rioja all went into cheap wine category due to the high tanin levels but I have had some wonderful rioja and many of them were not cheap

A like or love of wine is all about developing your taste buds and learning about what you like and what works well with what. Many better wines go great with food, as they are designed to be, but are not so great on their own.

Many of the New World Wines are "processed" to achieve a taste level to suit most palates so if you were comparing an Australian Shiraz against a French traditional style Shiraz the latter would almost certainly be classified as cheap.

A final point on the topic is that price has got bugger all to do with it. Five years ago you could purchase Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc for about NZ$5 but the price these days is nearer NZ$30. Why? Because it is a great wine and become very popular so its price has risen drastically - nothing else has changed.

So the conclusion to be drawn from all this - a lot of people in academia know bugger all about wines and it seems not a lot about conducting experiments and then reporting on the information gathered in a concise manner

I suppose the only good thing about this report is that if a lot of people read it and act on it there will be more of eh better wines that I like left on the shelves and who knows maybe the shops will be forced to have a sale....

Giving up Food

It may seem strange to talk about giving up food on a Food and Drink blog but we all do it from time to time and for the weirdest reasons. This blog is not about dieting for aesthetic reasons, or even for health reasons but instead for religious ones.

We are now in the period of Lent during which Christians around the world prepare themselves for the celebration of Holy Week culminating in Easter Sunday. Historically this always involved 4 areas of activity - repentance, prayer, alms giving and self denial and it the last of these that has carried forward into many parts of society with the first 3 falling by the wayside

Self denial has many forms and for the more religious this can often include giving up pleasures of a physical nature but many people will take an easier route and give up favorite foods or drinks.

Many people will give up sweets or cakes with others also giving up alcohol all of which is very simple to do whilst in many catholic countries the more traditional route of not eating during daytime and only having simple foods at night is taken. This can be taken to an extreme when no cooked foods are eaten during the 40 days of Lent which are a simile for the 40 days and nights that Christ wandered the desert and was tempted by the Devil.

All of this normally starts on Shrove Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras where historically people went to Church and asked to be shriven, or forgiven of their sins so that they could be pure for the run up to Holy week. Given that Mardi Gras festivals are some of the most exotic and in some places decadent parties of the year you have to somehow think they have lost the origins of the day but then modern day world often does this.

Shrove Tuesday also has another name - Pancake Day - and this religious date has spawned a whole new culinary style. Traditionally on Shrove Tuesday the matron of the house would prepare a batter mix of milk, eggs and flour as the first 2 items were not permitted to be eaten during Lent and then heated  in a pan to create a "cake" to which were added all of the other forbidden items such as fish, cheese and meats and then eaten by the whole house

Nowadays there is a whole industry around pancakes with franchise shops selling millions every day with some of the most exotic ingredients imaginable including Foi Gras or truffles.

The most traditional topping in the UK for pancakes and normally only eaten on Pancake Day is fresh lemon juice and sugar - a firm favorite of young children and hidden in the depths of history is that the lemon and sugar represent the bitterness of the Devil and the sugar the sweetness of God.

Whatever your religious beliefs they still make an excellent dessert although the American invention of Jubilee Pancakes consisting of hot cherries in an alcohol based sauce and served with ice cream has to come a very close second.

Carbonara Confusion

One of the most popular Italian dishes after pizza and lasagna is Spaghetti Carbonara which is served in restaurants of every type all over the world and loved by millions.

However many people that enjoy the dish do not realize the origins of the dish nor how it should be properly cooked.

Being a traditional dish many people think that Spaghetti Carbonara is hundreds of years old but its genesis is as recent as the mid 1940's. At the end of World War II allied troops that were liberating towns and villages in Italy and had to stop and eat at the end of each day. Many of these locations were desperately short of food often only having pasta to survive on. The allied troops however were often very well provisioned and being kind hearted shared what they had in their rucksacks.

One one occasion troops billeted in a small village added their tin of ham and powdered eggs to a bowl of hot pasta to create a meal for all involved and so Spaghetti Carbonara was born.

It is often served with a cream sauce but this is not traditional. The proper way to serve Carbonara is to take an egg yolk and beat into this a little pepper and salt and place in to a metal bowl. To this is added hot spaghetti and then mixed so that the egg covers the hot pasta and is cooked by the heat from the pasta. Bacon is then added to the top of this and served quickly.

Ideally the egg is still cooking as it is served at the table making for a very subtle yet filling dish.

Regrettably there are few places that serve the dish properly but I am fortunate to have a friend that not only owns an Italian restaurant but also has an Italian chef as an adviser so the dishes are all served correctly and in the traditional manner. They even have the correct wines from the right areas as a matching

Think it's time for a pasta night