First day in Parma

November 19, 2007 Monday

First impressions of Parma. It’s COLD! During the day, it’s not cold enough for your breath to frost, but the soft of chill that soaks to the bone. Damp. My leather jacket and wool sweater are barely sufficient. I bought a fleece hat to keep my head warm.

The music season was over in October, and it appears that there are no musical productions from the time I got here through January. A shame, as Parma is known for its music. There are a couple events that could be of interest: a solo piano concert of Schumann’s works and a review of Italian folk music (pizziche and tarantellas). The latter actually sounds interesting (and free at a jazz club?). Not much is open in the afternoons (museums, churches, shops, are all closed). The museums only seem to open in the morning (and don’t reopen after riposta).

Parma has several interesting sounding museums: one is an pharmacy that has been in the Benedictine monastery since the 900s (I’m thinking Cadfael here). Another is an old hospital that has been around since 1201. There is a museum of typography and font design (open only by appointment). Plus the usual art galleries and churches. It’s not a large city, but there’s enough to see.

Since most things were closed Monday afternoon, I decided to go to Modena to find out about Balsamic Vinegar (all true balsamic vinegar comes from Modena). Modena isn’t the sleep little town I expected. It’s fairly large (although Parma is bigger) and very nice. Like Parma, it, too, was the seat of Ducal power. Modena’s streets are wide and spacious with lots of open piazzas surrounded by shops and caffes. If it were warmer, it would be ideal. And, like Parma, much of its life centers around its culinary traditions. I’d almost rather be in Modena than Parma as my base in this area.

I stopped by the tourist office and asked if they knew of any tours of balsamic vinegar manufacturers. The staff person said she’d call to see if any were available, but that most of them were outside the city (you could take a bus). She finally found one that was within a 20 minute walk. She gave me the address and said that it was in a “casa” (which is “house”) and to press the bell for Barbieri Guiliani. Well, I found that a peculiar thing, since I expected to see a factory for making large volumes of balsamic vinegar. So starts the story:

L’Acetaia Marisa Barbieri Giuliani

After following the map to the designated address, I indeed find a “house”. Actually a 2 or 3 flat building in a very nice neighborhood with lots of fancy homes and buildings. It certainly wasn’t a factory. I pressed the button for “Barbieri Guiliani” and there was no answer. But shortly someone drove up and the gates opened. I asked if they knew the “Acetaia Barbieri Guiliani” and they took me up to the front door.

Mrs. Barbieri Guiliani came to the door and said, yes, she was expecting me. Please follow me up to the attic. Attic?!?!? She asks what I know about balsamic vinegar, and I tell her I buy it in the market and use it to cook lots of dishes, make salad dressing, etc. Apparently there is balsamic vinegar from Modena, and then there is balsamic vinegar from Modena TRADIZIONALE. The last word is VERY important. All balsamic vinegar from Modena Tradizionale are handmade in the attics of people’s homes and are therefore usually very small productions. They have created a consortium of producers that has obtained a Denominazione Origin P????, or D.O.P. Each producer, once a year, brings their vinegar to the convention of assembled registered tasters/judges. Some 1000 producers come each year. The master tasters rate each production pass/fail and give an analysis based on the D.O.P. criteria. Those that pass must bottle their entire production there and then in front of the judges and seal the bottles with the D.O.P. stamp. The bottles (shape and size) are specified by the D.O.P. (see picture). There are 2 grades in the D.O.P., >12 years old, and >25 years old.

The Acetaia Marisa Barbieri Guiliani has been around a while. Mrs. Barbieri Guiliani is the daughter of Marisa Barbieri and conducted the tours of her attic. The first item that was evident were barrels. Lots of barrels of various sizes. Mrs. Barbieri said the barrels are handed down from generation to generation. Some she still used were from the 1700s. The only large producers of tradizionale method balsamic started shortly after the D.O.P. was created in 1995, so their >12 year old vinegar is just coming on the market. These producers built large buildings out in the countryside with large attics and started with slightly old, but mostly new, barrels. The age of the barrels and their conditioning over years of use distinguishes the older producers’ balsamic from the newcomers’.

The true tradizionale balsamic is produced only using juice (must) from local grapes. The weather in Modena is key to the development of the vinegar (many have taken barrels from Modena and tried to make vinegar elsewhere and failed). Modena is extremely hot in the summer (over 115 degrees Fahrenheit) and humid. And this is the outside temperature, it is even hotter in the attics! During these hot summer months, the vinegar “cooks” and evaporates from the barrels. The winters are cold and foggy.

The barrels come in a series of graduated sizes. The grape juice (must) is cooked down to a fraction of its original volume and introduced into the barrels only once each year. Before the new reduced must is introduced, a liter or two (depends on size of the barrel) is taken from the barrel with the oldest vinegar. This is the production for the year from that series of barrels. Then the barrel with the oldest vinegar is filled from the barrel with the 2^nd oldest vinegar. And that is filled from the 3^rd oldest, etc., one barrel for each year of aging (e.g., 12 or 25). Then the new cooked must is used to fill the barrel with the youngest vinegar.

You can see from this that the oldest barrel is also the smallest since each year more water evaporates from the vinegar, so the volume that comes out is much less than the volume that starts. Also, some leaks from the barrels. In this way, every balsamic is a blend of vinegars from multiple years—not all of the oldest vinegar is removed from the last barrel, only part of it (not even half!). So the average age of the vinegar in the production is much more (probably at least 2 times) the 12 or 25 years on the label (which is only the minimum time allowed).

Acetaia Marisa Barbieri Guiliani has won many awards at the D.O.P. convention over the years and the “donna”, Marisa herself, is a master taster and on the panel of judges. So instead of visiting a factory, I visited an attic. And I was pleasantly surprised!

I had dinner at the Gallo d’Oro—the golden cock (no, don’t go there—this is the poultry kind). It’s almost next door to my hotel. And the recommendation came from the cab driver, who, as we all know, are gourmands par excellence! The Gallo d’Oro is also listed in Michelin with 1 fork, so it was a pretty good recommendation.

Anyway, the choices were the Gallo d’Oro, or an osteria one street over (2 forks in Michelin). The osteria specialized in various ways to fix horse. Yes, here in Parma, horse (cavallo) is a delicacy. One of these days, I might get over my provincial objections, but not tonight.

The Gallo d’Oro does serve “Pesto di Cavallo” (or minced horse meat), but at least there were lots of other things. Instead of horse, I had an appetizer of Parma ham with Parmesan cheese (THE standard antipasto here). It came with “torta fritta”. Literally, this means “fried cake”, but it was more like a fritter that puffed up when deep fried so it was hollow inside. Served still hot from the kitchen, you take some of the torta fritta and wrap up some ham and cheese in it and munch—delicious!

The primo piatto was “tortellini misti” or mixed tortellini, of 3 kinds. Tortellini is another one of those items that seems to appear on every menu in town. In Parma, tortellini aren’t what I call tortellini, but rather what look to me like ravioli—square bits of pasta with stuff sandwiched inside. In this case, the “stuff” was either Parmegiana style (ricotta and spinach), or pork shoulder (also with some cheese), and zucca (or pumpkin) with a bit of anise or fennel (not sure which, but might make a good risotto, too). All were very good. All washed down with a ½ bottle of Sangiovese di Romagna (Cenegio by fattoria Zerbina). After all that, I couldn’t possibly have had dessert. But I did try an espresso—let’s see if this ruins my sleep. [N.B., It didn’t.]