Archives for the 'italy' tag

Quick Bites: Bantastic Edition

skitched-20100318-075944.jpgFrench exile TV show because it promotes wine. [Telegraph]

Italy bans molecular gastronomy. [Overlawyered]

England may ban disposing of food in the garbage bin. [Guardian]

US Senate bill would ban all junk food from schools. [Reuters]

Maryland keeps its interstate wine shipment ban in place. [Baltimore Sun]

Polar bears still OK to eat as ban fails UN vote. [AP]

Mar. 18, 2010 Comments

Turtle Soup Ingredients Slowly Crawl into Ristorante

What to do when five-dozen, cute, flippering, endangered little turtles show up in your restaurant? Soup?

About 60 baby sea turtles wandered into a beachside restaurant in the southern Italian region of Calabria….

The turtles, which were hatched on a nearby beach, were on their way to the sea when the artificial lights distracted them, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported. At first diners in the restaurant were startled. Then they called coastal authorities, who notified Colucci. WWF collected them and released them into the sea.

Fortunately, turtle soup is not a Calabrian specialty.

Ah. Well, that’s too bad.

Especially since it doesn’t seem it would be too difficult to turn the classic, Creole version into something Italians could call their own. (Substitute Marsala for Worcestershire, basil for marjoram, etc.) Serve it with an Italian red. Voila! (Er, ecco!)

The Family Robinson of Italy - Google Book Search.jpg

But lest anyone think that turtle soup has never occurred to the Italians–or some non-Italians living in Italy–look no further than Cyrus and Salvator in The Family Robinson of Italy, a 1919 novel I believe to be a Swiss Family Robinson knock-off.

More on that here. Bonus, unrelated two-headed turtle theft here. Bonus, unrelated four-eyed turtle birth here. Bonus, unrelated giant turtle sighting here. Bonus, unrelated GPS-enhanced, pot-detecting turtle named Jimmy (seriously) here.

Aug. 21, 2008 Comments

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