CULTURE|FOOD
If Someone Told Me This Would Happen To Me I Would Have Never Believed It
It’s been a little more than 3 years and I am still in disbelief
A few nights ago, I was watching one of the episodes of Netflix’s show Chef’s Table that featured one of Italy’s renowned chefs, Massimo Bottura, who is one of the best in the world.
He opened with a remarkable story about an earthquake that literally shook his famous restaurant in Modena and the surrounding area which is a top producer of parmesan cheese worldwide.
The story is an incredible one in which over 300,000 wheels of the famous and expensive Parmigiano Reggiano cheese wheels were damaged from the earthquake and Bottura created a recipe for chefs around the world to use that helped every single one of those wheels sell.
My mouth began to water…
For most of my adult life, I rarely bought cheese. Yes, I ate pizza and macaroni and cheese at times, but they weren’t regular parts of my diet until the past few years.
Frankly, cheese selections in the United States are expensive and the quality of more affordable cheese options were questionable to me.
Thus the reason I rarely bought it, but enjoyed eating the delicious and wide assortment of cheeses that I came across every time I visited Italy (which I started doing almost every year since 2014).
Just look at these creations!
However, an entire wedge of parmesan cheese was literally a bit much!
….or so I thought at the time.
Before I even opened it I had decided that I would cut off pieces of the huge block of cheese and share it with friends and family.
How on earth would I ever use up that much parmesan cheese, which I never ever bought, before it went bad?
Little did I know how much I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE eating this incredibly delicious cheese that has become one of my favorites!
Now when my friend sends me these huge pieces, I don’t share them with anyone else except my partner.
The day after we watched that segment of Chef’s Table, we went grocery shopping and splurged on a wedge of this cheese.
In the United States, this wedge was priced around $10–12 the last time I was there.
Here in Germany, it’s about $5 and worth every penny, especially when paired with a DOCG Chianti (my mouth is watering just thinking about it).
And guess how much this wonderful bottle is?
$3.24…and it is the perfect thing to drink with Parmigiano Reggiano.
This is one of the reasons I appreciate living in Europe and am doing everything that I can think to help me gain residency here.
The quality and cost of food and wine is unparalleled.
Call me a mouse because I’m all about the cheese now as well…
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