Lidia Bastianich Suggests Friuli for Your Next Trip to Italy
 

In a recent interview Lidia Bastianich did with us she talked at great length about the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in northeast Italy. Does the area have fans here as well? You can read the full interview here if you'd like: http://www.fodors.com/news/story_2870.html

Well, I'm a big Lidia fan, but all I can say is the specialty of the region - shredded pickled turnips served with a gelatinous sausage - could do with some re-branding if they're looking to draw tourists there.

Katie, that is the region my husband and I plan to go to next when in Italy. It looks intriguing!

topping for the morning crew...

StCirq... gelatinous! That word sounds strange.

I've been and ther's a hell of a lot more than that "specialty of the region" to eat and no "re-branding" required for this traveler.

Isn't Lidia from that part of Italy? (or close to it) If so, there's reason enough right there to go. Lidia is one of my favorite chefs!

She is from Istria. Near Pula, I believe. Her family owns vineyards in Friuli and she also has a travel/tour company that runs trips to the area and to other regions of the country..

My Fruili includes Trieste and it is one of my (our) favourite cities on the face of this earth. DH wants to spend his sixtieth birthday there and I am going to do my best to make that happen. This time we may actually get further beyond the city than the top of the funicular!

And on the subject of Trieste, DH and I are not the only ones, check out Jan Morris: Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere.

I am going to link to the interview but would be happy to wax eloquent all day about Trieste alone. And the food is marvelous BTW...much beyond sausage and turnips. Excellent fish, great white wines, superb treatment of vegetables and more varied cheese and pastries than most of Italy offers. (yes, you can get tired of Parmigiano!)

Great interview and refreshing after the lunacy (on both sides) on the totally misguided Pagan Christ thread (what is it doing here?)

My Fruili is a city named Pordenone.
Lived in this delightful town for six months. It is just south of Aviano, where the U.S. airbase is.

It is a nice city/town with a beautiful/vibrant old town. I miss the Saturday night passegiata.

St. Cirq!

ROLF!!!

Melodie

My daughter is a chef and worked for Lidia. I would have to say, I still see her influence on my daughters style of cooking, and this was in the late 90's! Last year we did a driving trip thru Istria and Slovenia, but our base for flying into and out of was Trieste. I thought it was a fantastic city. The main square, and historic center were great for people watching and just strolling around. Istria and Slovenia were beautiful with lots to do, and yes, the food was pretty exceptional. I don't know much about wine, but my husband was happy. The lady knows her food & wine!

zwho, how interesting! I, too, am a chef and would just love to meet/cook with Lidia. Talk about an adventure! :)

travel2live2, Where do you live? You know Lidia has restaurants now outside of NYC. My daughter was at the one in KC. I know she does promotional dinners every now and then. You should investigate and go as a diner if you can't actually apply for a job in one of her restaurants.

Unfortunately I live way up north in northern Canada, thousands of miles away. :(

Lidia also has a restaurant in Pittsburgh - in fact, we're going there tomorrow night. Great food and wine!

That's true - I had forgotten about that. Will you post back to let us know what you had and how it went? Thanks!