Electric Blue Food Archives - Quatro Fromaggio and Other Disgraces on the Menu

[Thoughts on the Table – 96] What makes a dish Italian? With Eva from Electric Blue Food

In this new episode of Thoughts on the Table, Eva from Electric Blue Food is back to help me break down a massive topic: What makes a dish Italian?

To non-Italians, Italian food may be what appears on the menus of Italian restaurants or anything tagged as Italian that goes viral on social networks, like Carbonara, Amatriciana, Neapolitan Pizza, egg-yolk ravioli. To the Italians, Italian food is what they naturally cook at home, and maybe the only thing they are able and equipped to cook. These are potentially two very different things!

With many cuisines, we see a set of iconic dishes that become famous around the world through some kind of selection (like Pad Thai, Chicken Vindaloo, Salmon Teriyaki). Despite helping to make those cuisines accessible to many, these dishes are really just a small sample of the foods originating in their native regions. Eva and I argue that the (often ill-formed) quest for “the original” or “the authentic” version of these recipes may contribute to weeding out all variations of those dishes except for their dominant ones. This is probably why abroad there tends to be only one kind of Tiramisu (the coffee/cocoa one), whereas in Italy important spin-offs happily co-exist.

Join us in this episode to hear more about the true cuisine of Italy by going over some unexpected Italian dishes, such as Mostarda, Bagna Cauda, Prosciutto and Cantaloupe, as well as evidence of many dishes sometimes labeled as “non-authentic” that are eaten daily all around the Peninsula, like Spaghetti alla Bolognese, Gnocchi al Pesto, Lasagne al Pesto, Carbonara with Pancetta, and Strawberry Tiramisu.

Finally, Eva describes her experience with the Polish cuisine of her grandmother and her encounter with Blueberry Pierogi, a sweet variation of the iconic potato dumpling that is equally unexpected outside of Poland.

You can learn more about Eva by visiting her website Electric Blue Food. You can also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Please also check out Eva’s interview in episode 87!

Eleven years of blogging, eight of podcasting

Another year! The good news is that this blog is still active and luckily keeps being found by those searching for Italian specialties like pizzoccheri or canederli or Italian misconceptions like my 6 Italian myths. The bad news of course is that I haven’t posted any new articles or recipes this year. I know, it’s terrible – but it’s also okay, given that social media has taken the place of blogging in many ways.

But I did resume podcasting (yay!) and produced 16 new episodes with as many guests and collaborations this past year! This continues to be a lot of fun for me and I’ve already started to work on a new round of episodes to hopefully reach my dream milestone of 100 episodes very soon!

Here is a list of the episodes this year. Thanks again to all of my wonderful guests!

79 Introducing Valeria and Benedetta from Local Aromas with Valeria and Benedetta Bianchini
80 Dining Out and Traveling During a Pandemic with Raffaella de Amicis
81 Questions Italians in North America Can’t Help But Wonder About with Sim Salis
82 Dissecting Ragù alla Bolognese with Tina Prestia
83 Introducing Cooking with Mamma Marzia Cookbook with Marzia Bellotti Molatore
84 Introducing Christine from Italian Dish Podcast
85 Introducing Local Aromas’ Advent Calendar and More with Valeria and Benedetta Bianchini
86 Christmas Traditions from Growing up in Sicily, Canada, and Milan
87 Introducing Eva from Electric Blue Food with Eva Grosso
88 Chinotto – The Other Way of Drinking Dark, a solo podcast on the somewhat obscure Italian soda
89 Introducing Kristie Prada from Mammaprada
90 Italian Words Gone Wrong – Mistakes on the Menu, another solo podcast, a reading on one of my older blog posts
91 Introducing Podcaster Wendy Holloway from Flavor of Italy
92 The Quest for Authentic & Original Recipes, with Diana Pinto
93 Introducing Becca and Sarah from Dietetics After Dark Podcast
94 Podcast Recording, Editing, and Production, with Sound Designer Geoff Devine

On a personal level, we keep well here in southern England, still working from home and enjoying plenty of homecooked food. We pretty much spend our time planning meals, cooking, cleaning the kitchen, and being grateful for having a dishwasher. As the government lifted all social distancing measures exactly two weeks ago, we are far from back to normal, unfortunately. Traveling is still not really possible, including to and from Italy which of course breaks our hearts. But we enjoy our area, which is wonderfully green after a very wet summer, and spending time with our cat Rascal, who just turned 19, overall doing great and still a great source of comfort and inspiration to us both.

I hope you’re all well, wherever you are, and please get in touch for collaborations, to be on the podcast, or just to say hi – I’d love that 🙂

[Thoughts on the Table – 87] Introducing Eva from Electric Blue Food

Eva (Electric Blue Food) is a photographer and blogger based in Sweden who is passionate about food, traveling, and language.

In the episode, we talk about Eva’s upbringing and the places she’s lived. We then focus on Scandinavia and what it’s like in winter for a photographer who works with natural light. We discuss blogging as a diary, but also as storytelling. And about the value of food-blogs over recipe books. To conclude, Eva shares her most special recipe, chicken livers with onion, as taught to her by her grandmother.

You can learn more about Eva by visiting her website Electric Blue Food. You can also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Bloglovin’, and Twitter.