Monday, February 2, 2009

If you know your Latin roots (or a romance language) (oh, or English), you know why I had a moment of panic in the grocery store recently. I was dubious of finding this sausage in a Western country, but its position in the meat section (see below) and a quick check of the word "felino" in my pocket dictionary made me doubt my sure doubt. 


I inspected the ingredient list of the Salame Felino carefully, though, and there was no sign of feline components. Had I the internet on hand, I would have learned immediately that Felino is a city in Emilia-Romagna near Parma, and saved myself a few moments of concern. (I also would have realized this if they had included a di on the label between Salame and Felino, but perhaps that is too loquacious for the deli section.) Salame di Felino, it turns out, is a soft and delicately-flavored sausage, made of pork, fat, pepper, and a bit of pepper and garlic dissolved in white wine, which is added right before encasing. "Gatticus" and I are feeling much better about this.

4 comments:

Jessica Jones said...

Aw, too bad. I had hoped it was cat. I would like to taste that Equina horse sausage below it, though. Unless now you're going to burst my bubble and tell me that's from the city of Equina, and not made from an actual pony.

Swiss Ms. said...

No worries about your bubble - it's definitely horse. I also spotted something labeled "Horse Chips" (in English), which gave me a laugh recently. No social stigma associated with eating horse (or pony) here.

Though American media (Silver Spoons, for example) like to imply horse is tough and disgusting, I can testify that it's not.

JulieAnn said...

Yeah, I was going to say something about the horse... I can say that kangaroo is delicious.

Swiss Ms. said...

Kangaroo! Isn't that endangered or something?