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Wednesday 16 November 2005
Dinner at Squillace, birthplace of Cassiodorus: Thursday's food quotation
The meal came with no delay. First, a dish of great peperoni cut up in oil. This gorgeous fruit is never much to my taste, but I had as yet eaten no such peperoni as those of Squillace; an hour or two afterwards my mouth was still burning from the heat of a few morsels to which I was constrained by hunger. Next appeared a dish for which I had covenanted -- the only food, indeed, which the people had been able to offer at short notice -- a stew of pork and potatoes. Pork (maiale ) is the staple meat of all this region ... but the pork of Squillace defeated me; it smelt abominably, and it was as tough as leather. No eggs were to be had, no macaroni; cheese, yes -- the familiar caccio cavallo. And the drink! At least I might hope to solace myself with an honest draught of red wine. I poured from the thick decanter (dirtier vessel was never seen on table) and tasted. The stuff was poison. assuredly i am far from fastidious; this was the only occasion when wine has been offered me in italy which I could not drink.
1901 George Gissing, By the Ionian Sea chapter 14