I've never had white truffle honey, and have never really given trying it much thought, but after Manhattan Users Guide pointed out in today's newsletter that it goes well with roast pork, I felt I had no choice but to put it on my to-do list. How could I possibly say no to something that goes well with both bacon and ice cream? $15 for a 30g (1.05oz) jar at Urbani Truffles.
Pim's just posted a great entry on Marthe Delon, the legendary truffle hunter and pig trainer, and her Kiki: "From what I gathered, Mme.Delon got her first pig the year she was married, and over sixty years later she is still hunting truffles and training generation after generation of pigs –one each year, and each one given the same name, Kiki. She said she couldn't be bothered remembering the names of them all, so she just called them Kiki. Easy enough, yes?"
As a city dweller most of the food I see is pre-packaged now and in stores, so it's easy to forget farmer's markets aren't just novelties in other parts of the world—they're the way people buy and sell food every day. Pim visited the famous Lalbenque truffle market in France recently and posted photos of the lovely baskets the truffles are brought to market in. I talk to the chefs in my neighborhood who prepare my meals, but seeing these baskets, "some handsome, some old, some new, some quite wretched workmanship, and others a marvel of homemade glory", is a reminder of how rarely I have a human connection with the people who work with the ingredients that make up those meals.
The U.K.'s Guardian digs butts its nose into truffle madness:
Hearing "Dov'è! Dov'è!" (Find! Where is it?) sends [the dogs] away to sniff. If they stop at a particular point the hunter asks, "C'è o non c'è?" (Is it there or isn't it there?) Now comes the tricky part: check the tail. If it looks as if the dog is going to take off, bum first like a furry helicopter, you need to get to him before he gets to the treasure. They are trained, yes, but they find truffles as irresistible as we do. "If they eat one, we just have to tell ourselves it was a small one," says Marco Pinarelli, another of the estate managers.
Fast-forward one minute in to this video for the explanation.
Maki of I Was Just Really Very Hungry visits the Marché aux Truffles in Richerenches, France:
I choose a modestly small one, a tad bigger than a golf ball, too shy to touch one of the big, multi-lobed ones. I take it to my nose, and inhale. I wish that at this point I had more poetic words to describe the sensation, but the only thing I can say i s "Wow". That pungent aroma is so unique that it's impossible to articulate. Earthy? Slightly gamey? It's just what it is -- truffle.
From choosing the truffle to cleaning, preparing, and eating it.
About the author: Adam Roberts is The Amateur Gourmet. His book, The Amateur Gourmet, will be published by Bantam/Dell in summer 2007.
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