At Signor Mautino's shop, I have just met this charming young bearlady.
She was buying "Grissini", another Torino speciality.
Being Signor Mautino's friend by now, I got "Grissini" free for her
and then offered her a card and...
We have a date for this evening.
Her name is Giacometta.
I hope Colombina will not check my Pbase pages...
One of the stories about the origins of Grissini has a royal connection
dating back to the 1680's.
It seems that the son of Carlo Emanuele II (who was the Duke of Savoy) was a poor eater.
The doctors were called and they suspected
that the underlying problem was one of digestion, rather than temperament.
The court baker was then asked by the Duke to make a light, crisp bread
that was also easy to digest.
After much thought, the baker finally came up with Grissini
- the long baking time given to the thin strips of dough
resulted in a product that was basically all crust.
Even Napoleon couldn't resist their appeal
going so far as to institute a fast postal service
so they could be delivered daily to his court!
Please, visit also Bruna's galleries, clicking HERE