The Southern Table - Southern Italy - page 489

THE BIG FORK MANIFESTO
The year was 1987. McDonald's had just begun their expansion into Italy, and lunch outside the bun seemed to be
fading into fond memory. Enter Carlo Petrini and a handful of other journalists from the small Piedmontese town
of Bra, in northern Italy. Determined to buck the trend, these neoforchettoni ('big forks', or foodies) created a
manifesto. Published in the like-minded culinary magazine Gambero Rosso, the manifesto declared that a meal
should be judged not by its speed, but by the pure pleasure it offers.
The organisation they founded would soon become known worldwide as Slow Food. Its mission: to reconnect
artisanal producers with enthusiastic, educated consumers. The movement has taken root, with more than 100,000
members in 150 countries - not to mention Slow Food agriturismi (farm stay accommodation), restaurants,
farms, wineries, cheesemakers and revitalised farmers' markets across Italy.
While traditions in the south remain stronger than in Italy's north, the Slow Food Movement does its bit to pre-
vent their disappearance and to promote interest in food, taste and the way things are produced. For more inform-
ation, see www.slowfoodpuglia.it (in Italian), or you can look up the main website at www.slowfood.com (in
English).
Sicily
To Market, To Market
Only Naples' Mercato di Porta Nolana can rival the sheer theatricality and gut-rumbling
brilliance of Sicily's mercati (markets). Loud, crowded and exhilarating, these alfresco
larders are a technicolor testament to the importance of fresh produce in daily life. Watch
the hard-to-please hagglers bullying vendors into giving them precisely what they want to
understand that quality really matters here. It's these people, the nonne (grandmothers)
and casalinghe (homemakers), who keep the region's culinary traditions alive.
While it's perfectly normal to order 'a biscotti' or 'a cannoli' back home in Sydney or New York, these are
actually plural forms in Italian; use the singular form 'un biscotto' or 'un cannolo' when in Italy - unless, of
course, you're seriously famished.
Two of the most atmospheric markets are Palermo's Mercato del Capo and Catania's La
Pescheria, featuring souk-like laneways crammed with glistening tuna and swordfish,
swaying sausages and tubs of olives and pungent cheeses. Look out for pistachios from
Bronte; almonds from Noto; and caciocavallo, one of southern Italy's most renowned
cheeses. Don't panic: despite the name 'horse cheese', it's made from cow's milk. It has a
distinctive gourd-shaped, pale-mustard exterior, and the name is thought to have arisen
either because it was once made from mare's milk, or because it would be hung from the