Souvenir Hunt Winter Edition #4

At home, we rarely consider a trip to the supermarket one of the highlights of the day. But abroad, at least one supermarket visit is scheduled in the hunt for edible souvenirs to take home. In winter, too. What should you not miss from each winter sports destination? FavorFlav browses the shelves.

Today we return from the Northern Italian Alps with

1. Speck

The Alps are home to plenty of excellent cured meat. One of our favourites is speck. A South Tyrolean ham that spends at least two weeks in a spiced brine bath and another two weeks in a smokehouse before being hung up to dry for months. First produced in the thirteenth century and now protected by DOP certification (Denominazione di Origine Protetta). Eat it with crispy Tyrolean flatbread (take some home too).

2. Dried porcini (boletus edulis)

The ‘king of mushrooms’ has a meaty bite, flavour and aroma. So it makes an excellent meat substitute too. No risotto is complete without it. In summer, you can simply buy it by the roadside from a local forager. But luckily, even the dried specimens are superior in flavour. What’s more, they weigh practically nothing and keep for a very long time.

3. Gianduiotti

You can also buy plenty of cheese and sausage from a good specialist back home. Where things often get difficult are the local sweets you become addicted to in no time while on holiday. The kind that makes life back in the far north seem unimaginable without them. So stock up generously on those boat-shaped hazelnut chocolate treats developed in Turin in 1865, which are still wrapped in silver or gold foil.