Salone del Gusto

As we walked into the great halls of Salone del Gusto, the world's largest food fair, I was beyond overwhelmed. There were hundreds of booths and stalls offering information and samples of their products. It isn't only about tasting food, it is about learning about the products, but of course, in a food fair, there are people who grab samples without looking at the name, where it's from or barely recognizing what it tastes like before they stuff another sample into their mouth. Some of the booths have abundance of samples, some require a payment or donation, some have really nice packaging and marketing campaigns that they hardly seem small scale or artisinal, some are really enthusiastic to talk about their products, some use unique techniques like half dressed women in aprons to attract patrons, while others lure you in to buy their products so that they can fund their way home. It was fantastic to taste these products from all over the world with people who wanted to share, until there was the pressure to buy. Then it lost the point of the fair.

Just one of many Italian cheeses.

Calabrian Chili Peppers. Beautiful.

Tuscan Beans. Made friends with them and their minestrone bean cart. Delicious. 

Women weaving Tomatoes.

 The largest of the rooms was occupied and sorted by different regions of Italy. Cheese, Emilia-Romagna cured meats, Tuscan olive oil, Basilicata cured meats, Piemontese cheese, Sardinian cheese, Trentino wine, balsamic vinegars, artinsal beers, Val d'Aosta cheese, grappa, Friuli wine, chocolates, preservatives, bread, Puglia olives, Lazio cured meat, Sicilian cannolis, cheese, Campagnia olive oil, bread, Tuscan wine, artisinal beer, Calabrian spices, cheese, cured meat, cheese (notice a common Italian theme?) let alone a ton of Slow Food Presidium products - red celery, turnips, onion, peppers, lentils, beans, biscuits, fish, fruits, and cheeses and cured meats of course. 

Dried Goat Jerky.

Beautiful Chocolates.

Spicy Cheese.

Red Aubergine.

Cannoli the size of his foot. and he ate it all. 

We wandered through, wide-eyed. We were unsure of the etiquette - could we just taste and sample our hearts out without having to buy anything? We couldn't walk more than 2 steps without having more overloaded plates of samples in front of us. A new pant-size amount of cheese samples and a rice-based beer later, we made it into the international hall - my favourite part. Here were booths with most, but not exclusively, international presidia products from all over the world. Honeys, Spanish cured meats, Latvian bread, Bulgarian beans, Scottish haggis, French foie gras, Norwegian dried cod, German cured meats and cheese, Polish sausages and knishes, American craft beers, Mexican mescal, French ground-cured-multi-aged cheeses, Tibetan Yak wool and cheese, Chilean peppers, Peruvian potatoes, Latvian tree sap beverages, a Korean restaurant, Swiss cheeses that were shaved like truffles, Spanish seaweed, Austrian pit cabbage, Afghanistan raisins, rums from around the world, UK beers, Welsh salt, German beers, Macedonian dried figs and pickled cabbage, Central American coffees, Dutch oysters, lobsters, and cheese, Czech beers, and of course Irish raw milk cheese and a stall from Board Bia. 

Tibetan Yak Cheese. Way Fattier Than Cow's. too cold for an internship.

Scrumptious Latvian Bread, with leaves...

The Mexican Stand.

American Craft Beer. Way to represent, America. Hello, NH!

Japanese Oysters.

Dutch Oysters.

Spicy Mexican Insects. we tried to go back for more...

I could probably go on and on and on but it would be impossible to taste everything. It wasn't just about the tasting the different products, it was about talking to the producers and asking them questions. Some of them were asleep at the stalls, some look bored, but most of them were enthusiastic to talk about their products. They had a lot of pride. They had a lot invested in their products - to most of them, this was their livelihood. They had all traveled a long way to be here, they should show off what they have to offer.

Waldo and Juan from Chile. 

The international pavilion was by far my favourite.