The website Charming Sardinia came up an “infographic” showing the 15 symbols that define Sardinia, as chosen by Sardinians and foreign lovers of the island as well. Wandering Italy’s viewport is too narrow to display the humongus graphic, but you can enjoy it here.
I will be commenting on some of these choices for the “best of” Sardinia sweepstakes as the days pass (somberly and wetly in California). We’ll start with the iconic foods, one of which, Porcetto Sardo, made the list. Suckling pig, skin on. You might get it served to you like this, the moist hunks of wood-roasted young pig piled on a piece of “Carta di Musica” flatbread and covered with myrtle leaves:
This isn’t a great picture, but it comes from a restaurant in Cagliari you’d better have trained well for—Su Cumbidu—where you can eat pretty much every delectable food the island offers as its own in one sitting. You are forewarned.
What would you wash this down with? Well, there was the red table wine we drank, but I can’t help thinking that it was wrong. What you really want to wash down the preciously rich chunks with is a cool Ichnusa beer. That’s on the list, too. The beer of the separatists. It’s good too, for a southern beer.
But then there are the eels. Festival eels skewered and grilled over hardwood. I haven’t had them in a while, but I’m feeling the urge. It’s ok that the pig won out over the eels, but still, I’d put them in second place.
Oh, and there’s a Porcetto Sardo facebook page, and it has over 17,000 fans. You know it’s good when folks say (about the skin….I think), “croccantisssssimo…” and “mmmmmmmmmmmmmm troppo buono.”
Porcetto is Porceddu in the Sardinian Language; sa limba sarda as they say—and the language is on the “best of” list, too.
And finally, Clifford Wright, one of my favorite food writers, gives us a recipe for Porceddu: How to Cook a Whole Pig Mediterranean Style