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Monday, January 3, 2011
Dallasfood.org about to tell us more than we ever wanted to know about gianduia
Gianduia, also spelled gianduja, is the Italian confection made from chocolate and hazelnut.
Dallas food blog Dallasfood.org has launched a new series, "Focus on Gianduia," which may well give the city a new obsession on the chocolate-and-hazelnut confection.
The first entry was posted this morning, and will continue over the next 10 weeks. Cut and paste:
Why focus on gianduia? Well, beyond its intrinsic culinary merit, it has an interesting history that remains largely unknown to chocophiles outside of Italy. Most English-language accounts of gianduia consist of just-so stories rehashed from modern travel writers and print journalists —- poorly sourced (if sourced at all) and often conflicting with historical facts and probabilities.
Take that, print journalists!
Dallasfood blog garnered international attention in 2006 with its expose on Noka Chocolate.
While the series emanates from Dallas, its intended audience is international. How can you tell? The blog offers a "translation widget" for non-Anglophones to read the series in the language of their choice.
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Tahini, anonymous:
yawn
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:
Tahini, maybe you would've liked the topic better if it were about sesame seeds?
i myself am not a fan of gianduja, nutella, hazelnuts, hazelnuts-and-chocolate, or any combination thereof, so i'm looking forward to getting edumacated about it. maybe it'll make me like it more, she said skeptically
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luniz, anonymous:
I've never been a huge fan myself, but I've also not really had any of the good stuff. It's always enjoyable to read Scott's in depth stories though.
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:
this week's chapter of "Focus on Gianduia" is a copy editor's dream as it covers spelling and pronunciation
http://dallasfood.org/2011/01/focus-o...
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OEsophagus, anonymous:
Gi-ar-di-a.
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:
Parts 2 and 3 debunk the myth that giandiua was invented in the early 19th century. it happened later. exactly how much later, we cannot say. not yet anyway
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OEsophagus, anonymous:
How about now?
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:
This week's chapter of "Focus on Gianduia" is very studious and book-reporty. It's about this 12th century tribe called the Waldenses. (Tangent: It seems like it should just be Waldens; isn't that sufficiently plural? But no, it's Waldenses.) Anyway you read and you read and you read about the Waldenses and how they were poor and persecuted, and then FINALLY the last line explains why they matter:
"...as we shall see, Waldenses came to play a crucial role in the industrialization of chocolate-making in Turin. More to the point, Waldenses invented gianduia."
Well hallelujah! Finally we're getting to the CANDY part.
Here it is, all 1761 words' worth (plus some neat photos, serigraphs, and what-have-you) http://dallasfood.org/2011/02/focus-o...
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:
this week's entry brings us that episode we've all been dread-- oops, i mean, anticipating -- the one with the PUPPETS. it even has a YouTube video starring the puppet Gianduia Crinòira himself:
http://dallasfood.org/2011/03/giandui...
notice the URL has gotten a lot jazzier with the dual spellings of gianduia and a little nutella in there too. wow, are we already at part 10? seems like only last week it was chapter 5. this thing's whizzing by
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:
DallasFood's opus on gianduia has jumped forward to the 20th century. Chapter 16! When they publish this as a book, I sure hope they include candy samples.
http://dallasfood.org/2011/04/giandui...
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:
Now on Chapter 24 (seriously), the topic turns to the unique shape of gianduia -- "which many Italian writers have described as a citrus wedge or an overturned boat."
dallasfood.org describes it as "canonical", which is not a word you get to use every day.
http://dallasfood.org/2011/06/giandui...
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:
at long last, Part 31 of the gianduia series covers the chocolate-hazelnut product known by most people: Nutella
http://dallasfood.org/2011/10/giandui...
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SitizenKane, anonymous:
Nevermind.......
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What do you think?