My Story in Italy #5 - About Genovese food

03:58 Jia Ying 0 Comments

Anyway, I just realized that I haven't mention about the city I live in Italy in my blog.
Genoa ( in Italian : Genova), historical port city in northern Italy.
Not as famous like Milan, Rome or Venice, but definitely is a nice city to stay and travel....
There are so many famous food that is originate from Italy, and of course origin from Genoa.
Thanks to my lecturers and some local Genoa people, I had tried some local Genovese food.
Here gonna introduce some Genovese food.

1. Farinata
Typical food in Ligurian sea coast, unleavened pancake which mainly made of chickpea flour
Taste of farinata-- oily, salty...
It is worth to try this food, which is quite unique as a street food .

Farinata sold in stall opposite of Port Antico, Genoa,Italy.

2. Panisette
This snack use chickpea flour too, with some pepper, salt, water.
The special about this snack is it's look exactly like french fries.
However, when you taste it, it's totally different, a bit taste of seafood...( I suspect maybe the stall I tried panisette, selling fried seafood too, maybe the taste a bit mix, I will try again to confirm the taste...)

3. Cuculli
The ingredient used for Cuculli is almost similar like panisette and Farinata. The only special ingredient added is yeast and a herb called maggiorana
Anyway, the shape and overall look made me think of Jemput pisang ( a popular street food/ dessert, mashed banana fritters in Malaysia)

The main ingredient of 3 Genovese food above use chickpea flour ( ceci in Italian )
Ceci is popular bean used in Liguria region for cooking. Flavor of ceci depend on the way it's used. Anyway, taste is smooth and pleasant.
When I searched more information about this kind of flour, there are benefits to our health,
"Very high in protein, iron ; good for stabilizing blood sugar, preventing digestive disorders, lowering your LDL cholesterol and lower the risk for heart attack. "

Source: http://passionandcooking.com/tag/taggiasche-olives/

4. Focaccia
It's a type of bread, very popular in whole Italy.
It is typically rolled out or pressed by hand into a thick layer of dough and then baked in a stone-bottom or hearth oven.
The unique about this bread is the dotting on the top of bread. This creates multiple wells in the bread to poke the unbaked dough. As a way to preserve moisture in the bread, olive oil is then spread over the dough. Therefore, the bread is sometime oily, especially if keep it for few days...( The best is to eat it fresh)
I like fococcia.... even the taste is plain.