Instead of whales. The idea, it is said, came to gods fishermen, maybe Basque (but there is little clarity about their nationality) in navigation in the northern seas whaling: stumbled upon large schools of cod, they decided not to miss the opportunity and to try to keep them as they already did with the meat of large cetaceans. Successful experiment. And if whales are no longer part of our diet today, the cod, in reverse, long-lasting food and available all year round, it has reached i ports and kitchens around the world (today it comes mainly from Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Iceland and Canada) becoming protagonist of the table of tradition. If we look at the most typical recipes, not only Italian, we discover a paradox: the fish is from the North, but always yes accompanies Mediterranean ingredients, those of the shores where he arrives after the long voyage by ship from the cold seas, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, olives, capers, garlic. The cooking? Steamed (in which to sink large pieces of bread) or in frying (often with potatoes). A greedy and nutritious way of tasting it, which however has been changing in recent years.
Uses and recipes A excellent food that the people like chef Rich in noble proteins, vitamins And mineral salts, low in fat, white and soft if well desalted, cod turns out to be an extremely interesting food for many chefs, who interpret it with creativity. MorenoCedroni, for example, it offers it with sauce and diced hare; the Neapolitan Marianna Vitale puts it in a savory cheesecake; Gennaro Esposito presents it with chickpea cream; Luca De Santi, an eclectic pastry chef, even turns it into ice cream. That's what they say "discounting" of an ingredient, the approach to the trend of the moment, to the evolution of taste and palates. And so the cod has changed its appearance even in everyday cooking. It is similar to ethnic rice and pasta, it is combined with legumes and vegetables such as cabbage, colored carrots, turnips, asparagus and sweet potatoes. It is enjoyed in salad with seasonal fruit: it is excellent boiled and mixed with oranges and onions, all seasoned with orange juice reduced on the fire, oil and pepper. And again, it is used as original stuffed with artichokes and onions, is prepared in crispy meatballs and breaded with unusual spicy blends. Do you want to try? These pages will inspire you.
This is endingfatal year, perhaps there is no better way to describe it. On the street today there is a different air, much quieter than the one that accompanies the turning point every year. But the smell of cooking arrives anyway. Thank god. Many lights in the street have already turned on and gaps, ladies, take home the shopping bags full of goodies. They look satisfied, who knows what recipes they blend in their heads and who knows with how much love they will prepare their dishes for this occasion too.
Come to the end of this 2020, have you wondered how, especially this year, the habits of us Italians have changed? How our mind has changed perspective … how many questions we have not been answered. We made do, we changed on our own, embracing and experimenting with new habits, which we may not have even thought of before. A real style "residential" what we have adopted, substantially revolutionizing food shopping and spending.
In the era pre covid, from which it seems a century has passed, I remember the frenzy of the streets of Milan, people running from one side to the other, anxious to enter the office late. Tourists competing to buy the last dress in the store, lazy students crowded into the bar below school, ignoring the bell that rang madly. And here in a moment we found ourselves in the chaos of smart working, word for many, before then, unknown. Above the suit an apron, a take off and put between a call and a sauce for lunch to prepare. The small child to feed, the older one to supervise while experimenting with online lessons. At the end of the story, we have become multitasking.
March 2020: "Run to the supermarket for yeast and flour", this was the title of a newspaper of those days. How many baked pizzas, how many new desserts tasted in the suspended time of that first lockdown. How much chaos has been created for fear of being left with an empty fridge. We Italians have been champions in this: i consumption trend they showed us that classic family recipes were preferred, rediscovering not only the pleasant time together, often faded by the hectic everyday life, but also good food, healthy food, prepared with care and with good ingredients.
Dear holy technology, we would say in chorus. Yes, you really supported us in this time of emergency. Grandma's entry on zoom or whatsapp chat is something we will remember. Yes, because to feel closer we had no choice but to embrace digitally. There digital kitchen, with the so-called basket of "Cooks at home", exploded wildly: "I don't see how much sugar you put in, the connection is off", many said. The candles blown in front of the phone with the applause of our friends in the background. Graduations celebrated in the living rooms of the house with jackets and pajama pants. The hard workouts with personal trainers live on instagram. The glass of wine accompanied by the taralli tasted on the terrace. Online shopping, shopping on Amazon. Memories collected, habits still very current.
But you know that thanks to all this, the Italian mass market has acquired a growth three times higher than in 2019? The highest growth trend of the last decade. In short, something positive had to come (Source: Nielsen Trade * Mis). With the closures of bars and restaurants, the shops have been able to reinvent themselves and have proved to be more suited to the new purchasing needs, with a good location and good assortment, registering a growth of 8.1%.
But think about the boom in e-commerce? This has seen an exponential growth equal to + 117% compared to last year with a contribution to growth of + 13% in food categories he was born in + 21% for personal and home care. Try your hand at the kitchen for lunch and dinner, too tiring for some, here are the services of home delivery just a click away they have gone wild. Yes, it must be said that this pandemic has brought with it many new needs and priorities, reflected in the products purchased by all of us.
It ends this year: it's a party, dream. Another one begins: we hope it will give us a new, brighter future. For now, turn on the lights and turn off your thoughts.
The new health regulations are forcing many locals to archive expensive old paper menus. Here then are the alternatives put in place by technology
The menu, as an object, has its undeniable charm. Its details, its paper, the character with which it was written and yes, even its state of conservation can tell us a lot about the place where we are going to eat, making us anticipate – or fear – the imminent gastronomic experience. Can you imagine, for example, a restaurant in haute cuisine with menu written in Comic Sans on crumpled blue paper? No, here it is. There is a problem, however, far from marginal: the health emergency triggered by coronavirus it is forcing us to do without any tactile experience. Because even browsing through a very simple list of first, second and side dishes – enclosed within your own leatherette folder – could turn into an opportunity for contagion. And no, in this case any greasy patches on the pages – which remain always and in any case unforgivable – really have nothing to do with it.
The truth is that unfortunately the virus can lurk on surfaces, including paper or plastic. And for this reason exchanging the menu between diners or, even worse, between tables can involve a risk. True, it would be roughly enough sanitize the pages and give customers the opportunity to clean their hands immediately after ordering their dinner, perhaps with a gel kindly offered by the house. But many have preferred to avoid this practice a little hospital, opting instead for the road – sustainable also on an environmental level – digital.
Many had stopped betting on it. that square convoluted in black and white, which sometimes our smartphone categorically refused to recognize, seemed to have taken the avenue of those technological innovations potentially capable of epochal revolutions, but defeated to the test of facts. Instead, the QR Code has become the ideal ally of all those restaurateurs who have decided to stop distributing their menus as a precaution. Yes, because basically the menu problem can be solved by disseminating some here and there in the restaurant totem that the customer can frame with their smartphone and then calmly consult the card directly from the screen.
Of course, there remains a basic problem, which should not be underestimated: to which page to redirect the customer's smartphone? The solutions implemented are the most imaginative, and range from the photo published on the Facebook page of the restaurant – with words so blurry that they cannot distinguish a "carbonara pasta" from a "the cost of the cover is 1.50 euros" – to some pdf. Sometimes well done, sometimes ugly enough to have been commissioned for a few pennies to the cousin of the cousin of the tomato sauce supplier. But he did an online graphics course, so he knows about it.
However, there are those who have decided to use a little more structured services, such as those of SafeTable. In this case, the restaurateur has the possibility to choose between three different types of menus, totally customizable: only with text, with introductory photos for each category, with photos for each individual dish. All translatable into 12 languages, to help that international clientele that – we hope – will soon return to popular clubs and bars in our cities. SafeTable also offers small Plexiglas totems with printed QR Code, to be distributed on the various tables, and any photo shoots made ad hoc. So no, no fluttering piece of paper that passes from customer to customer, and no ambiguous photos of fried squid surrounded by Paint.
It is possible, however, to think of going a little further, always starting from a QR Code, but making the menu vaguely more interactive. It is the case of Kill-Bill, a service with a curious name from Taranto, which however does not include duels of forks and bloodshed between tables rivaling the cry of "You stole the last tiramisu from me". No, don't worry, the idea devised by two young people from Viterbo is more simply to integrate the possibility of order independently. In short, just like with food delivery proposals.
Each QR Code is actually also connected to a table number and this allows the waiter to simply check the correctness of the order remotely and then pass it to the kitchen. This makes everything safer and further decreases the chances of contagion between staff and customers, although perhaps it could make the dynamics of the restaurant a little too cold and automated. So all perfect for i younger and more informal places, a little less for those who have always seen one of their flagships in service. Although in the times of Covid-19 the rule of "less frills and more Amuchina" still applies, beyond any possible cuteness.
The QR Code, as we have seen, is undoubtedly the most immediate ally to transport the paper menu to the digital world. But it is not the only one, of course, among the various possibilities there is also that ofapp to download. Definitely more invasive, because it presupposes that the customer invests part of his time and his Giga for download, and above all that he has sufficient free space in the memory of your smartphone, usually clogged with memes of kittens, screenshots of the ex's Facebook states and unidentified videos from some group chat. That of the 4B parents, perhaps, but who knows.
Those who decided to bet on the app, therefore, are above all those who have sufficient strength, scope and diffusion to justify such an IT effort. Like the big fast food chains. Burger King, for example, has decided not only to transfer a large part of its services to smartphones, but to further expand them always with a view to Covid Free.
The new app of the American chain of hamburgers allows you to browse the menu of proposals, order completely independently and even pay, always via smartphone, thus also reducing all the risks related in some way to the passage of money or the use of cards. Not only that: customers are even allowed to book your table at the fast food restaurant, to make sure you find a free place without having to wander around the restaurant with the harness of a mask with the desperation of a Milanese looking for a parking space in Porta Romana. Interesting, without a doubt.
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