A Giada/Lidia Coincidence
Monday, May 21, 2007 | posted by Mike
If you watch enough TV food programming (or any kind of programming, for that matter), you're bound to come across little coincidences. For me, it usually comes in the form of something I've never heard of before being mentioned and explained and then hearing that same thing again shortly thereafter. I'm never sure if I've actually heard of it before but never noticed (as in the case below) or if it is just a strange coincidence that the first two times I've heard of it occurred in the span of a couple of days. For some reason, this seems to happen quite a bit with Jeopardy! answers that I get wrong and then are referenced somewhere else. It's a pretty strange feeling.
Well, I had one of them this weekend. Now, for something to be mentioned by both Giada De Laurentiis and Lidia Bastianich isn't that much of a stretch, considering they're both Italian chefs. But I managed to catch the rerun (must have been daydreaming the first time) of the Giada's Weekend Getaways in South Beach and Lidia's show on the Puglia region, both of which included a burrata.
What is a burrata? Well, it's basically a sack made of cheese...with cheese inside. If you're thinking what I'm thinking ("How do I get my hands on a cheese-bag that holds more cheese?!?!"), you should know that the recommendation is that you get one that is extremely fresh. Giada got hers at a restaurant called Casa Tua, which is apparently is Italian for "hard to find because we don't have signage." Lidia recommends one actually made in Puglia.
Her son, Joe (who is MUCH more knowledgeable than some second-generation food TV personalities we could mention...) made an excellent point in relation to these water balloons of creamy goodness. He contends that the one factor that has changed the way we eat more than anything else has been the ability to transport fresh food quickly thanks to overnight and air shipping. It is the availability of these authentic ingredients that makes all the difference, and the ability to actually get those types of (particularly fresh) ingredients at your local store -- no matter where you are -- has improved dramatically in recent years. Lidia herself mentions having to make puttanesca with black olives from a can when she started her restaurant. Yuck.
Anyway, just thought that was interesting. Your food déjà vu experiences and strange coincidences are, as always, welcome in the comments below.
Labels: Giada De Laurentiis, Lidia Bastianich
