La Sagra della Cipolle
That’s right, I said The Festival of the Onion. Aoi’s boyfriend, Michele, is the owner and head chef of a fantastic restaurant in Perugia. It’s sad that I only know of it, called Alter Ego, now instead of the previous six months I was here; he would have made a killing off of me!
Well, Michele is always looking for a twist on a familiar recipe or even a new dish to serve his customers, hence our little adventure to this festival a mere town or two away (kilometers continue to baffle me). We parked and walked about ¾ of a mile (1.2 km) to the center of this town and joined the crowd in wandering the streets, hanging a left or a right, following the scent of these onions.
I’ll stop here to tell you that I was hesitant about these onions. Everyone had assured me that these were special onions, really particular to Italy and grown with care and love and I came to understand that I should consider myself lucky to be allowed to participate in such an event. Well, still, we were heading to a dinner where we would be ordering 3 different plates a piece, and each plate was showcasing this onion and I was not looking forward to the head and stomach pain that were sure to follow. Of course, I didn’t say anything about that.
In the town there were stands of all different types of vendors: Artists of every variety, trinket tables, antique booths, clothing, balloons, and, lest we forget the cheeses, sausages and this celebrated onion! After struggling our way through a couple of bustling piazzas, we rounded a corner and headed into a square designated for a restaurant being showcased during the festival. La Cipolleria (The Onionery) or something like that. We ate whole grilled onions, onion pate, onion soup, codfish sautéed with onion, spaghetti with diced onion and olive oil, and even dessert pastries and cookies, made with a sweet onion, that were quite tasty indeed!
Walking was a bit tricky after all of that food and wine (did I fail to mention the wine?), but we did make it back to our cars and back to Perugia before 1am. When Aoi and I asked Michele when the next sagra was happening, he informed us that this was the last one of the season. I gave him that “awww, shucks!” look on my face as my stomach settled with a gurgle of relief.
Well, Michele is always looking for a twist on a familiar recipe or even a new dish to serve his customers, hence our little adventure to this festival a mere town or two away (kilometers continue to baffle me). We parked and walked about ¾ of a mile (1.2 km) to the center of this town and joined the crowd in wandering the streets, hanging a left or a right, following the scent of these onions.
I’ll stop here to tell you that I was hesitant about these onions. Everyone had assured me that these were special onions, really particular to Italy and grown with care and love and I came to understand that I should consider myself lucky to be allowed to participate in such an event. Well, still, we were heading to a dinner where we would be ordering 3 different plates a piece, and each plate was showcasing this onion and I was not looking forward to the head and stomach pain that were sure to follow. Of course, I didn’t say anything about that.
In the town there were stands of all different types of vendors: Artists of every variety, trinket tables, antique booths, clothing, balloons, and, lest we forget the cheeses, sausages and this celebrated onion! After struggling our way through a couple of bustling piazzas, we rounded a corner and headed into a square designated for a restaurant being showcased during the festival. La Cipolleria (The Onionery) or something like that. We ate whole grilled onions, onion pate, onion soup, codfish sautéed with onion, spaghetti with diced onion and olive oil, and even dessert pastries and cookies, made with a sweet onion, that were quite tasty indeed!
Walking was a bit tricky after all of that food and wine (did I fail to mention the wine?), but we did make it back to our cars and back to Perugia before 1am. When Aoi and I asked Michele when the next sagra was happening, he informed us that this was the last one of the season. I gave him that “awww, shucks!” look on my face as my stomach settled with a gurgle of relief.
posted by Unknown at 3:13 AM
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