We were having dinner down in the wine cellar at Fallon & Byrne in Dublin last night ten years or so ago when we saw a reference to “The Ark of Taste” in a description of one dish’s ingredients. I have to confess that the image that sprang immediately to mind for me was that of an ornate gilded box carried on poles between a couple of ceremonially dressed waiters, and if naughty people should attempt to open this container in the wrong way, the lid would leap off and a flurry of fiery menus would stream out and slay them.
(Maybe this says a little too much about the mindspace where I spend my working days…)
But it turns out to be more interesting than that. The Ark of Taste is an international catalogue of endangered heritage foods, the list being intended to spur people into preserving these endangered species and food styles by appealing to that favorite influence among human beings — self-interest: i.e., by increasing the foods’ cultivation (and preservation) so that people can keep on eating them. At present there are some 6500 entries in the Ark.
The top / Italian end of the list is pretty long, but if you keep going, the international section under it makes fascinating reading. Included on the list are such often-rare wonders as the North American geoduck, the legendary Norwegian stockfish, Cypriot Halloumi cheese, the Saskatoon Berry, leatherwood honey and bunya nuts, Argentinian yellow socorro corn and white carob flour, the black turnip of Pardailhan, Icelandic skyr, Macroom-style stoneground Irish oatmeal, Mananara vanilla from Madagascar, and the Yurlov rich-voiced chicken. (Sudden image of a choir of Russian chickens singing vaguely-depressive bass-baritone choral music…) And on and on…
Have a look at the list. It’s fascinating reading.
(I also can’t help mentioning the German Wuerchwitzer mite cheese, and the little town with a monument to the cheese mite. There’s even a picture…)
Diane Duane
She writes. She cooks. Sometimes she even has time to eat.
