ETHICAL GOURMET / Remind me to Tell You About the Time I Looked in the Heart of an Artichoke

  "In the heart of Santarcangelo, at the foot of the steps leading to the Clock Tower in the old Palazzo Nadiani, we find the Restaurant-Osteria La Sangiovesa: a true place of Romagna culture and culinary traditions."   The Italian Language of Food and Strozzapreti The relationship between food and language is interesting. In Italy, where gastronomy developed along provincial lines, this pairing is culturally informative as well as entertaining. Until the unification of Italy in 1861, one could not speak of a national cuisine. The reality of Italian cookery is an amalgamation of distinct regional cuisines more diverse and idiomatically inspired than anywhere else in Europe. The home is still the safeguard of Italian indigenous cooking and culinary traditions, which may account for the colloquial Italian expressions used as the colourful names of various dishes. The ubiquitous tiramisu, for example, is a Venetian colloquialism meaning “pick me up.” This dessert,

Is Tilapia a Sustainable Alternative? The ubiquitous tilapia is the broad name for nearly one hundred species of fish. Farmed tilapia, a lean white fish with a generic flavour, is the second-most popular farmed fish, after carp, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. China is the leading producer of tilapia, British Columbia and Nova Scotia also produce it commercially. Tilapia has earned a reputation in the food circles as “aquatic chicken” because it reproduces easily, matures early, tastes bland and is an inexpensive alternative. Tilapia is the model factory-farmed fish; it consumes pellets made largely of corn and soy, easily converting a diet that is similar to cheap chicken feed formulated to maximize growth and weight gain into into low-cost seafood. Tilapia appearing on a restaurant menu is generally my litmus test to determine whether or not the kitchen is sourcing generic products from a commercial distributor.   Sustainable Seafood I became a proponent of s