Diamonds of cuisine world

By Xu Xiaomin (Shanghai Star)
Updated: 2006-11-23 15:30

The "Savour Piedmont" Italian food promotion in Shanghai is offering feasts fit for royalty.

The biggest attraction is the white truffle, which plays a leading role of the four course lunch at the Favola Italian Restaurant & Bar in Royal Meridien Shanghai.

We discovered why the white truffle is so attractive ahead of our meal. Known as the "diamond of the cuisine world," the production of white truffle, which is an Italian specialty, is limited to only several thousands of kilograms every year.

The white truffle needs particular types of soil and equally particular climatic conditions. The soil must be soft and humid for most of the year, and must be rich in calcium and well ventilated. It is gathered from September to December.

The good weather in the Langhe and Roero hills in Italy's Piedmont region enable
it to yield plenty of truffles.

Truffles are a kind of mushroom and looks like ginger when it is raw, and the history of the food is quite interesting.

People in ancient times considered it to be the "Food of the Gods," and Roman recipe books recommended them to be cooked under the ashes and eaten with honey. In the Middle Ages, people were suspicious of these strange creatures of nature, fearing they would be poisonous.Their popularity has soared only during the last two centuries.

The hunt for truffles is not an easy job for humans as we don't have sensitive noses. First, people found pigs could find truffles. But the pigs would also eat truffles quickly when they found the treasured food. Then, people turned to certain breeds of dogs.

After learning about the basic background,the first course was served. Roastedscallops,diced button mushroom with creme farce and Tartuffe di Alba. It is a French-style dish. Several thin pieces of truffles covered the scallops. Combined with the scallops, the taste was rich and full of good flavour, and the truffle pieces melted quickly in the mouth like ice cream.

The second course was also of French style: Emulsion of tartufo bianco and coco bean, again with white truffle pieces. But this creamy soup was a little too salty for me.

 
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