FROM APPLE AND PEAR PEEL SOUP IN RUSSIA TO GRATED WILD ORCHID ROOTS IN TURKEY: THOSE WHO LEAVE THEIR COUNTRIES ALWAYS PUT SOMETHING FROM THE HOMELAND IN THEIR “CARDBOARD SUITCASES”

Apple and pear peel soup in Russia, grated wild orchid roots in Turkey, soup for neo-mothers in Morocco - these are typical immigrants dishes. When they leave their countries they always put some flavors from their homeland in their “cardboard suitcases”. This was the topic of the roundtable discussion at the taste fair, Salone del Gusto, with Andrea Pieroni, professor of ethno botany; Rossella Cevese, University of Verona; Sebastian Ceschi of Cespi (development and migration circuits research center) and other scholars. “Herbs and spices especially,” Pieroni says, “become vehicles of identity, together with seasonings and, often, medicines”.
And to strengthen the identity of those who prepare and eat them “there is also their history. Immigrants are often proud to explain what they eat, and why”. Like the women of the Moroccan community of Verona, who prepare for each other, when one of them has a child, “rfisa with msakhn” a dish with a spice called msakhn, brought directly from Morocco. The popular belief is that this spice stops bleeding and restores fertility. Or, the Senegalese workers in Bergamo, who, according to Ceschi, “eat their typical dishes, here in Italy, only when their wives come to visit them. Otherwise, they cook Italian style”.