{"id":248,"date":"2006-11-27T07:46:29","date_gmt":"2006-11-27T06:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sararosso.com\/index.php\/2006\/11\/27\/new-discoveries-the-feijoa\/"},"modified":"2009-12-29T11:04:16","modified_gmt":"2009-12-29T10:04:16","slug":"new-discoveries-the-feijoa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/27\/new-discoveries-the-feijoa\/","title":{"rendered":"Feijoa, Pineapple Guava fruit and Cacio Pepe Pasta"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>So maybe I&#8217;ll miss the <a href=\"http:\/\/alt.tnt.tv\/specials\/christmasstory\/\">24-marathon of a Christmas Story<\/a> this year, but it&#8217;s good to know that you can now <a href=\"http:\/\/www.achristmasstoryhouse.com\/\">tour the A Christmas Story house<\/a> AND <a href=\"http:\/\/www.redriderleglamps.com\/\">buy the Leg Lamp<\/a> you see in the movie. Ha!<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ve got something exciting coming up this week! Stay tuned!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I have to say I love discovering things, especially if it involves food. There are very few things I won&#8217;t at least try. <\/p>\n<p>When we were at the country house of our friends last weekend, we sat on their porch enjoying the sunshine in our stocking feet. My knee-high boots, so vital to survival in Milan, were hot and useless in that heat. <\/p>\n<p>They brought around a box full of round green vegetables? Fruit? I had never seen them before. Its name was <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Feijoa\">Feijoa<\/a>. They are not native to Italy but our friends were able to buy them from a tree nursery.<\/p>\n<p><center><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/msadventuresinitaly\/302595603\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/116\/302595603_17ddd4e740.jpg?resize=500%2C375\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Feijoa in a box\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<p>They quickly peeled it with a knife, cut it in half, and handed me one. Light yellow in color, it looked a bit like an unripe kiwi with no seeds. <\/p>\n<p><center><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/msadventuresinitaly\/302595586\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/120\/302595586_dcea661ced.jpg?resize=500%2C375\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Feijoa cross section\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<p>I actually had to write down what I was tasting because I knew I&#8217;d never remember it. When I try something new, until its taste is known to me, I try to place it into my &#8220;sensory containers&#8221; my tongue has memorized. For this fruit, it was a mix between a kiwi and a golden apple. Very tart, but I like that. Try explaining that to someone! <\/p>\n<p>When I spoke with the others about this, they offered up their own interpretations. The texture was similar to the graininess of a pear, and there were traces of passion fruit as well. Now that I&#8217;ve seen other pictures of the Feijoa, I can understand this more. It is also called the Pineapple Guava, but guava is not readily available in Italy which is probably why their &#8220;sensory containers&#8221; didn&#8217;t offer that up as a similarity.<\/p>\n<p>Our friend even mentioned the &#8220;flower&#8221; aftertaste which, after examination, I found to be true. It had a slightly bitter, but not unpleasant, &#8220;flower&#8221; aftertaste. Like after you eat petals of a flower (don&#8217;t laugh, Dad). There were no flowers when we picked them, but they say the petals are edible as well.<\/p>\n<p>I think some of the ones we were eating were just a little under-ripe but still quite good. They say the normal way to eat them is to cut them in half and scoop out the insides with a spoon but I liked eating the peeled, whole fruit. Maybe it was the blinding sun that day, but I didn&#8217;t get tired of eating these and must have had around 4-5 whole feijoas while we sat and sunbathed.<\/p>\n<p>I went to go look at the Feijoa &#8220;plant&#8221; &#8220;tree&#8221; &#8211; I didn&#8217;t know what to expect, but it resembled a large hedge about my height, and you had to look really close to find the fruit. They are the same color as the rest of the plant and so they don&#8217;t stick out. <\/p>\n<p><center><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/msadventuresinitaly\/302595572\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/114\/302595572_e8de4c05f5.jpg?resize=500%2C375\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Feijoa still attached\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve seen a few mentions for Feijoa wine and vodka, so I&#8217;ll have to continue my experiment!<\/p>\n<p>After our delicious &#8220;aperitivo&#8221; we went to a local restaurant for lunch. Everyone&#8217;s dish came out normally, except mine. Then I heard a cart approaching us and a large wheel of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pecorino\">Pecorino<\/a> cheese was sitting on top. The waiter, with a bit of flare, opened a bottle of alcohol and poured some inside the hollowed-out wheel. He then lit it and a big flame went up! I had my camera nearby but it was really hard to see the flame with it. He then poured in the nearby pasta which had been precooked and stirred it around so that it was coated with the melting cheese. You can see the steam rising from the cheese if you look closely.<\/p>\n<p><center><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/msadventuresinitaly\/307471114\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/108\/307471114_f9c4277054.jpg?resize=500%2C375\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"pic 439\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<p>Yum. <strong><em>Cacio e Pepe<\/em><\/strong>, a typical Roman dish. I didn&#8217;t recognize it on the menu because it had a strange name like &#8220;Longarelli con pepe mantecato nella forma di pecorino&#8221; which is basically Long noodles mixed\/whipped with pepper in the pecorino mould\/block&#8230;.essentially Cacio e Pepe but I was pleased at the new presentation so I was glad I ordered it. <\/p>\n<p><center><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/msadventuresinitaly\/307471125\/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static.flickr.com\/105\/307471125_a0d9775c0a.jpg?resize=500%2C375\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Cacio e Pepe\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So maybe I&#8217;ll miss the 24-marathon of a Christmas Story this year, but it&#8217;s good to know that you can now tour the A Christmas Story house AND buy the Leg Lamp you see in the movie. Ha! I&#8217;ve got something exciting coming up this week! Stay tuned! I have to say I love discovering&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/27\/new-discoveries-the-feijoa\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[100,3,2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-discovering-food","category-food","category-italy","category-rome","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4uB1-40","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":621,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/28\/springtime-in-romes-campagna\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":0},"title":"Springtime in Rome&#8217;s Campagna","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"May 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks everyone for comments on my Latest News...it's going to be exciting! And Wow! over 80 comments for a free jar of an organic Nutella-substitute! You guys really want these! Congrats to Mandy, Comment#58, winner of a free jar of Deanocciola flavor of your choice! Send me your address! And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Discovering Italy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Discovering Italy","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/discovering-italy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_8808 copy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3271\/2530641670_e37cbe4389.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":435,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/11\/marzipan-fruit-and-ischitella-puglia\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":1},"title":"Marzipan Fruit and Ischitella, Puglia","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"December 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Since we're going to India over the Christmas break, we decided to go visit S' family since we have spent the past 3 years with them. This time we made a special trip deep into the National Park Gargano. S' father was born in Ischitella, a small town with less\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/italy\/italian-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ischitella's main square","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2221\/2102989718_3ba6d68f0e.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1224,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/17\/a-wedding-in-sicily-and-a-sicilian-food-feast-the-desserts\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":2},"title":"A Wedding in Sicily and a Sicilian Food Feast: The Desserts","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"At the end of my last post about the A Wedding in Sicily and a Sicilian Food Feast! I asked if you forgot about the desserts...I sure hadn't! Be sure you check out the savoury side of this Sicilian wedding, too with A Wedding in Sicily and a Sicilian Food\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Chocolate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Chocolate","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/food\/chocolate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tower of Prosciutto and Speck at a Wedding in Sicily, Italy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3586\/3350225943_1c0894eef4_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":640,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/28\/how-to-love-granita-siciliana-with-a-briochefor-breakfast\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":3},"title":"How to Love Granita Siciliana with a Brioche&#8230;for Breakfast","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"August 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome ivillage.com readers! I'm an American living in Italy and I love to cook, eat and travel! You'll find recipes (like My Sweet, Fried Balls of Ricotta), posts about discovering Italy (like An Army of Orecchiette on a Sunny Day in Puglia), exploring new food (like How to Order an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Discovering Food&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Discovering Food","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/discovering-food\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Strawberry Sicilian Granita and Brioche - for Breakfast","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3278\/2802114351_8073b1def1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":396,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/03\/frutta-martorana-marzipan-and-other-sicilian-pastry-porn\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":4},"title":"Frutta Martorana &#8211; Marzipan and other Sicilian Pastry Porn","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"October 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Update: We really didn't plan this...Shelley from At Home in Rome is talking about Sicilian-Swiss pastries (and frutta martorana) today on her blog, too! After I stopped salivating over the Setteveli cake at the Pasticceria Cappello, I noticed that they indeed sold other things in the pasticceria other than the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Chocolate meringue cake","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1231\/1475122060_5d759c9a94.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1867,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/09\/a-little-taste-of-prosciutto-di-parma\/","url_meta":{"origin":248,"position":5},"title":"A little &#8220;taste&#8221; of Prosciutto di Parma","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"September 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent Saturday with Jessica from Italy Travel Guide in and around Parma for the annual Prosciutto di Parma festival. Here's a little taste of what we saw: More tomorrow!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Behind the Scenes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Endless hall of Prosciutto di Parma, Italy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2430\/3903927424_7820ba52c8.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2248,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions\/2248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}