Oink Oink

Wow, what a full day! We drove down to Bologna early this morning to meet up with our tour group for our Food Extravaganza ... Or as we all called it later, our Food Orgy. There were 12 of us, along with our leader, Alessandro, who was wild and crazy!

We started out at the Parmesan cheese factory. He gave a little intro everywhere that we went and he started out this one with "this is the real deal, none of that Kraft crap" quickly followed by "I hope none of you work for Kraft!" We, of course, had to confess to him that our daughter does ... And then he felt really bad. It was pretty funny. (Sorry, Beth - couldn't resist sharing that.)

Anyway, this was really an interesting tour. They still do almost everything by hand and there are only five regular workers who each have their own job to do. I cannot imagine doing this day in and day out. They start each day at 4:00 a.m. and work six days a week all year long...no vacation time. Crazy.

Here is our group getting the scoop from Alessandro ...















Going in for a salt soak ... For 18 days.


Thousands of wheels of cheese!


They have to age for at least a year before they can sell them. Each wheel weighs at least 110 pounds and they all have to be flipped over every single day.





Afterwards we tasted Grade 1 and Grade 2 chunks of cheese to compare, along with a dry Lambrusco wine. Then they served little mortadella sandwiches ... I lost count of how many Kent ate!

Then we headed to a balsamic vinegar production farm. We had done one similar to this a few years ago, so we knew most of this scoop. Again, SO time consuming for just a small amount of product. Has to age either 12 or 25 years and is labeled (and priced) accordingly. Most of these casks have been in the families for over 100 years.






We tasted a commercial brand, followed by a 12 year and a 25 year one. Then they served dishes of fresh ricotta cheese with balsamic vinegar drizzled on top and then vanilla gelato with it on top.



Then we all loaded up and headed to a "small" prosciutto ham factory. Again we were able to see each stage of the process along the way.

The fresh hams...









These guys spend all day coating the skinless portion of the ham with lard, so it stays tender while it is aging. They have to age a minimum of 14 months before they are sold.







Then we had to taste, of course. Lots of wonderful thin slices of prosciutto. Along with bread sticks and a sweet Lambrusco wine.

Now we are off to lunch, because we are all starving - not. But, my oh my, what a "lunch" it was! We had three appetizers, followed by three pastas, followed by two meat dishes, followed by dessert. AND lots of white and red wine, followed by a digestivo and grappa! The meal took 3 hours! (Hence the oink oink title of this post.) No photos of us eating, but here is the whole gang getting ready. Such a fun day!




We made our way back to our hotel and collapsed for a while. Finally around 8:00 pm we ventured out for some gelato, which was all we thought we could handle for supper. A self portrait ...




Tomorrow is a tour of the Barilla Pasta Academia and factory in Parma and then off to Milan for our last night here.

Ciao!

Location:Modena