3330, 3349, 3373 SLOVENIA (Slovene Littoral) - The olive harvesting and manufacture of extra virgin olive oil in Piran

3330 The olive harvesting (1)

Posted on 03.01.2020, 11.01.2020, 19.01.2020
Native to the Mediterranean Basin, the olive tree is one of the oldest and more important domesticated crops raised by humans, and it seems that the olives were turned into oil since 6000 BC. Even today, after thousands of years, the olive oil is an important cooking oil in countries surrounding the Mediterranean, and it forms one of the three staple food plants of Mediterranean cuisine, along with wheat and the grape.

3349 The olive harvesting (2)

A blend of sun and sea breeze, along with the microclimate of the salt pans add a distinctly bitter and spicy flavour to the olives grown in Istria Peninsula, in the area between the Adriatic Sea and the Karst Rim, therefore also in Piran. As a result, the extra virgin olive oil from Slovenian Istria has a protected indication of origin, and the region was proclaimed the best olive oil region in the world in 2016 and 2017. The olive harvesting season extends from October to November. Carefully picked olives make their way to torklje, a special oil press from which oil flows.

3373 Manufacture by cold pressing, in the manual torklja press,
of extra virgin olive oil

 

2922 UGANDA - Matooke

 
Matooke, also known as ebitookye in south western Uganda, and ibitoke in Rwanda, is the fruit of a variety of starchy banana, commonly referred to as cooking/green bananas. The fruit is harvested green, carefully peeled and then cooked and often mashed or pounded into a meal. In Uganda and Rwanda, the fruit is steam-cooked, and the mashed meal is considered a national dish in both countries. Bananas/plantains were a common staple crop around the Lake Victoria area of Uganda, and in the West and Kilimanjaro regions of Tanzania.

2883-2885 MOLDOVA - Moldavian cuisine

Moldavians are Romanians, so of course that the Moldavian cuisine is part of the Romanian cuisine. It has been greatly influenced by Ottoman cuisine, but has also elements from other cuisines in the region. Probably the best known Moldavian dish is a well-known Romanian dish, mămăliga (a thick cornmeal mush). This is a staple food on the Moldovian table, served as an accompaniment to stews and meat dishes or garnished with cottage cheese or sour cream. Actually, it is often used as a substitute for bread.

There are quite a few different types of dishes, which are sometimes included under a generic term. For example, the category ciorbă includes a wide range of soups with a characteristic sour taste. These may be meat and vegetable soups, tripe (ciorbă de burtă) and calf foot soups, or fish soups, all of which are soured by borş (made from bran), zeamă de varză acră (sauerkraut juice), vinegar, or lemon juice. In Moldavia, the word borș means simply any sour soup. Chicken soup with meat, known as zeamă, is very popular.

A traditional holiday dish (especially for Christmas, and for wedding ceremonies) are sarmale, prepared from minced meat (usually pork, but also beef, mutton or poultry), mixed with rice and spiced, and rolled into leaves of cabbage or vine (fresh or pickled). The combination is then slow boiled, preferably in large clay pots. They are often served with sour cream, mămăligă, and hot pepper. Can be prepared also sarmale for fasting, replacing meat filler with rice, mushrooms or chopped vegetables.

I find extraordinary this set of postcards, and I can't abstain to reveal the link where you can find them all, so you can enjoy them.

2821 FRANCE (Grand Est) - Tarte aux myrtilles

In France, the tarte aux myrtilles (the bilberry pie) or the tarte aux bleuets (the blueberry pie) is a seasonal dessert, in particular in mountainous areas where blueberries grow. In the Vosges Mountains it is called tarte aux brimbelles, and is the favorite dessert of the hostel farms. It is cooked at home as well as by professional pastry chefs and served at home and in the restaurant. It is available ready to use in bakeries, pastry shops and supermarkets. It is also a traditional dish in Finland, United States and Canada. Blueberry pie made with wild Maine blueberries is the official state dessert of the U.S. state of Maine.

2780, 2784, 2798 FRANCE (Saint Martin) - Caribbean cuisine

2780 Accras de morue (cod fritters)

Posted on 27.09.2016, 30.09.2016, 04.10.2016
Caribbean cuisine is the simple result, without artifice, of an osmosis of all the peoples who made a stopover in this region, a fusion of African, Amerindian, European, East Indian, Arab and Chinese cuisine, which reflects the way of being and living of a people, but also its history. Accras de morue (cod fritters), also known as marinade of the West Indies, a denomination little used now to avoid confusion with the marinade of French cuisine, are of African origin. In the Ewe language, the word means vegetable fritters. In the form of small donuts, they are usually served as a mise en bouche, as appetizer, or as entrée

2784 Chaudeau

The chaudeau is a kind of eggnog in the Caribbean style, and is a specialty of Guadeloupe. It consist in a mixture of egg, milk, vanilla, lime, nutmeg... It is served at weddings, communions and baptisms. It comes with a cake: sweetbread or Mont Blanc. Traditionally, by belief (some think that it is a sign of misfires), must not, for instance, have other preparations on fire. The woman who prepares it, had not be prepared should not be during menstruation. It is served warm or even hot.

2798 Blanc-manger coco

Blanc-manger coco (literally "white dish”) is one of the lightest, creamiest and most delicious dessert that you will encounter in French Caribbean countries. The main ingredients are regular (dairy) milk as well as coconut milk, sweetened a bit, combined together with gelatine and then refrigerated to obtain a jelly-like cake or elegant individual verrines. No baking required. A light and fresh dessert for the hot summer days.

2673 DENMARK (Faroe Islands) - Traditional food

2673 Faroese specialities. From ther left: hares, whale meat strips,
guillemots, intestines, cod's heads, dried fish, and dried sheep meat.
In the front: beets, sheep stomach and tallow, and potatoes. 

Traditional Faroese food is mainly based on meat, seafood and potatoes and uses few fresh vegetables. Mutton is the basis of many meals, and one of the most popular treats is skerpikjøt, well aged, wind-dried mutton, which is quite chewy. The drying shed, known as a hjallur, is a standard feature in many Faroese homes, particularly in the small towns and villages. Other traditional foods are ræstkjøt (semi-dried mutton) and ræstur fiskur, matured fish. Fresh fish also features strongly in the traditional local diet, as do seabirds, such as Faroese puffins, and their eggs

2564 CHINA (Inner Mongolia) - Tsagaan sar, the White Moon Festival

Tsagaan sar (literally White Moon) is the first day of the year according to the Mongolian lunar calendar, and is a big celebration for the Mongols. The traditional Mongol calendar is a lunisolar calendar based on Tegus Buyantu zurkhai system developed in 1747 by monk Ishbaljir. The Mongol year is composed of either 12 or 13 lunar months, each beginning and ending with a new moon. A thirteenth month is added every two or three years, so that an average year is equal to the solar year.

2533 CHILE - Marraqueta

The marraqueta (a soft bread made with flour, salt, water and yeast, with a crunchy texture) is the most widely consumed bread in Chile. It is, strictly speaking, a se-tenant pair of small rolls, baked with another pair attached, comprising four rolls in total; some confusion can be caused when ordering one marraqueta, as this may be interpreted as either two or four rolls. It is also popular in Bolivia and Peru, but can be found as well in Argentina and Uruguay. It is called pan francés (French bread) in the south of Chile and pan batido (whipped bread) in the Valparaíso Region.

2264 BELGIUM - Moules-frites and beer

2264 Moules-frites and beer

Belgian cuisine is widely varied with significant regional variations while also reflecting the cuisines of neighbouring France, Germany and the Netherlands. It is sometimes said that Belgian food is served in the quantity of German cuisine but with the quality of French food. Moules-frites is a popular main dish of mussels and fries originating in Belgium but also popular in France and in Northern Europe. It is sometimes considered the national dish of Belgium.

2102 FRANCE - Jambon de montagne

Jambon (ham) is pork (traditionally, the hind leg of swine) preserved through salting, smoking, or wet curing. There are claims that the Chinese were the first people to mention the production of cured ham, whilst  Larousse Gastronomique claims an origin from Gaul, but it was certainly well established by the Roman period, including an import trade from Gaul mentioned by Marcus Terentius Varro in his writings.

1958 FRANCE (Grand Est) - Munster cheese at the window of a farm in Vosges

Located in eastern France, near its border with Germany, Vosges are a range of low mountains which forms the western boundary of the Upper Rhine Plain. As in most mountain regions, the animal breeding, is a basic occupation in Vosges. There is even a breed of cattle native of this mountains, exceptionally healthy, fertile and long-lived. Originally a working breed, was transformed into a dairy type. The origin of the breed traces back to the 17th century, when Swedish soldiers brought Scandinavian cattle into the region after the Thirty Years War.

1245 ROMANIA (Sălaj) - Baking moşocoarne on House-Museum of Ligia Bodea

Although in nowadys it has a population only slightly more than 800 inhabitants, the village Iaz in the commune Plopiş (Sălaj County) is known throughout the country due to the House-Museum of Ligia Bodea, which hosts an ethnographic collection with hundreds of folk costumes, thousands of ceramic pots, glass icons and dowry chests, and other traditional objects. The museum has a short history, but very special. In 2003, at the death of his grandmother, Ligia Bodea, who was then only 12 years old, persuaded his parents to not demolish the old house, built around 1880. She also kept in good condition the objects with which had grown, as ordained them her grandmother, and began to gather other from the village. Amazed by the girl's tenacity, her parents were also involved and thus the house became a museum, extending then on the yard, where, in an gazebo, are exposed various agricultural machines. Ligia dreams of a ecomuzeu and, until be able to fulfill this dream, participates in exhibitions and cultural projects, teaches children to paint icons on glass, and talks to the elders, because the memories of the old world must not disappear along with them.

1003 NETHERLANDS - Tulip fields & cheese girl

As wrote Wilma, this is, obviously, a touristic postcard, following three clichés about Netherlands: the tulips, the cheese and the Dutch bonnet. But it fully attains its purpose, because the image is catchy, and the bright colors and the pleasant smile, added for diversity, on the house, successfully contribute to the overall impression. From the first glance, you say, dreamy or enthusiastic, "I want to see this country." Am I wrong?

0740 SWITZERLAND (Bern) - Chästeilet in Bernese Oberland

In the 15th century, the people living north of the Alps began to use rennet (a substance from the stomach of a cow) to make hard cheeses, much more durable than the cottage cheese. This was the foundation of the Swiss cheese culture. Until the 18th century, this cheese was made only in the summer, because the cows were dry in the winter. This changed in the early 19th century, and the cheese made year-round in the valleys in the mountainous regions is now known as mountain cheese, to distinguish it from Alp cheese, which is still produced ​​only in the summer, from milk which comes from cows that spend the summer up on the Alps.