The Alba White Truffle Fair has been underway here in Alba all week. It’s a big deal. And today is a market day, so vendors selling everything imaginable line the streets. The town is like a circus, full of food and people like us, just having fun.
As we walked around town, we could hear the sound of drums in the distance. It’s coming from a drum corps representing one of the neighborhoods that will be competing in tomorrow’s donkey races.
Drumbeats in the Distance
I’ve never heard drums sound like these drums. It didn’t sound like the local high-school marching band was practicing. They sounded like war drums.
I was amazed how menacing those drums sounded, even though they were somewhere off in the distance. If they’d have been real war drums from an enemy preparing for an attack on the city, I’d be looking around for the nearest way out of town.
Back in the day, they could have really been war drums. War and fighting between competing factions was just part of life. Central Alba, where we are now, was enclosed by a wall to keep invaders at a distance. The wall was six feet thick and surrounded by a moat. Parts of the wall have survived to this day.
The locals seem to have retained their fighting spirit. In more recent history, the city of Alba received a Gold Medal of Military Valor for the efforts of its resistance movement. The Resistance liberated Alba from Italy’s fascist regime a full year before the allies showed up. But let’s get back to the Truffle Fair.
Fiera Internazionale Tartufo Bianco d’Alba
In addition to regular market-day vendors, independent truffle vendors are out in force along the streets. Truffles are displayed like jewelry in glass cases. Each truffle on display has its own price tag. Wow.
But what, exactly, is a truffle, and what’s all the truffle kerfluffle about? I looked up the definition. A truffle is similar to a mushroom, but it’s complicated. It gets kind of creepy. We’re talking fungi, spores, fruiting bodies… I was afraid that if I kept reading, I wouldn’t like truffles or even mushrooms anymore. I guess there is such a thing as too much information.
Truffles are Finicky
Let’s just say that truffles are similar to mushrooms, except they grow completely underground. They’re finicky about everything. Truffles are so finicky that no one has ever figured out how to raise them as a crop – although you can bet that a lot of people have tried.
Truffles grow only in the fall, preferably in late September and October. No one can tell a truffle where to grow. They’re found only in a few isolated spots in the U.S., south-eastern France, northern Italy, and eastern Europe.
Truffles are either black or white, but the only place in the world where white truffles have ever been found is right here, around Alba.
Since truffles grow completely underground, located who-knows-where, people use specially trained truffle dogs to find ‘em. Once a truffle has been dug up and exposed to air, it doesn’t keep well at all. People try to extend their shelf-life by freezing ‘em, storing ‘em in oil, etc., but the truffles won’t have any of it. Like I said – finicky.
Truffles can have a really good, mushroomy, earthy taste. It’s said that if you add some truffle to any dish it will make it taste better. I’m not so sure about that. Although I have had an “amazing” truffle or two on occasion. There really is something to the madness.
Here’s the thing about truffles… In any given year, there aren’t very many of ‘em to begin with. They may be amazing when they’re fresh, but they don’t stay fresh for long. So chances are, if you order a dish with truffles, if you’re not near where truffles are found, and unless it’s autumn, you’re liable to be disappointed.
These Guys are Marketing Geniuses
That hasn’t stopped the truffle marketers, though. These guys are marketing geniuses. They’ve turned the unpretentious little truffle into a foodie superstar. The “Truffle Market” here in Alba is a good example. It’s indoors, in a separate building, away from the “common” truffle sellers. You have to pay to get in.
A panel of truffle experts award a special prize to the producer of the biggest, awesomest white truffle of the year. Accolades of all kinds are bestowed upon the prized truffle. Finally, they present the great truffle to the year’s Truffle Celebrity, thereby insuring even more accolades and press coverage.
They don’t pick the mayor or any old local celebrity to be the Truffle Celebrity. The list of people who have received the prize-winning white truffle includes Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, and of course, Sophia Loren. See? Marketing geniuses.
It’s been a good day, wine tasting in La Morra, having a big lunch outdoors on the top of a hill, driving through the Langhe, then taking in the sights around town. But we need to get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow is the final day of the White Truffle Fair, which means it’s the day of the long-awaited Donkey Palio d’Alba – a.k.a., the donkey races!
To be continued…
