jeudi 9 janvier 2014

Les Plats Corses: Corsican Dishes

Corsica has many different dishes and food special to just Corsica. Even though Corsica is an island, a lot of their traditional food does not have fish or sea food because through out most of Corsican history, the Corsicans lived in the mountains and not around the sea because it was a lot more dangerous on the coast. Raids and invasions would come from the Italians, Greeks and English plus with all the bugs around the sea, a lot more disease occurred.
Now there are many seafood restaurants all over Corsica but traditional Corsican food it still mostly based on their pork from the half wild/half domesticated pigs of the mountains. Their charcuterie is famous all over France.
Corsica's most famous pork product was the figatellu which is the liver of the pig, you can eat this uncooked or grilled. Another popular food item is the canistrelli which is some what like a biscotti but made with white wine, wheat flour and sugar, you can dip this in your yogurt or eat it plain for breakfast or of my favorite Corsican cheeses is le brocciu, it is a special kind of goat cheese that you can find mostly in Corsica. Spreading brocciu on warm, fresh baguettes are my favorite!
You can find many grocery stores in Corsica with signs, Les Produits Corses (Corsican Products) through out the island. They have the french produce, and Corsican specialties.  Down the street from my house in Ajaccio there was a canistrelli bakery that would always smell so delicious.
If you are looking for different cuisine besides Corsican, don't worry. Corsicans still eat a lot of traditional French food, including all the staples like baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat and nicoise salade. Plus because Corsica is so close to Italy, there is many authentic Italian restaurants or because of many Algerian, Moroccan, and Pieds Noirs immigrants, there is a selection of very yummy Arabic food. Plus with an assortment of Spanish (from Spain not Central and South America), Thai, Japanese and British restaurants to go to.
Food is a huge part of almost every culture, the Corsicans always are happy when a foreigner knows some of their traditional food, so try a little brocciu or canistrelli, you might be surprised at how good it is and maybe make a few friends a long the way!

1 commentaire:

  1. The canistrelli sounds absolutely delicious! I would love to be able to try that sometime. I love trying different foods so I really love this blog post!