I should have looked more closely. I wanted to order Mortadella from Coupang, and I saw the sausage being sold at several price points. I went for the midrange one... and the midrange one turned out to be a seeming Russian knockoff (see the Cyrillic text?). Note, too, what's missing from this "Mortadella": do you see any peppercorns, green olives, or pistachios? I tried a slice of what I'd ordered (it's not pre-sliced, either), and the gristle-y feel of the meat indicated a rough grind. Ideally, Mortadella has the fine texture of bologna, with a smooth chew.
Damn, I really should have looked more closely.
Next time, I'll order the more expensive Mortadella... after looking closely to make sure my purchase is from Italy, of course, and not just an Autentica Recetta Italiana from Russia that isn't autentica at all. Yeesh.
You get what you pay for.
We must be cosmically aligned my friend. I was at Wegmans over the weekend and felt the urge to get some Mortadella myself. So I did. It was great. It was also Italian.
ReplyDeleteHumorously, daughter #2 was making a sandwich in a dark kitchen early in the morning to take to work. She wasn't paying attention to what she pulled out. When she took the sandwich out at lunch she bit into it and wondered what the hell was crunching in her mouth. She got a pistachio. It was actually her first taste of Mortadella.
We have a John Cook Deli Meats branch up the street from where I work, so I'll see what they have. With "Deli Meats" in their name, they'd better have Mortadella.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Rachael on widening her horizons!
What does mortadella mean besides the dead part?
ReplyDeleteFrom Dictionary.com:
ReplyDelete1605–15; Italian Latin murtāt(um) sausage seasoned with myrtle (murt(um) myrtle-berry + -ātum, neuter of -ātus-ate1) + -ella diminutive suffix