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Miss Tina
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Re: Legends from your country
Hope so 
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Jul/11/2005, 5:24 pm
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babila
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Location: Italy
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Re: Legends from your country
Me too. 
Another legend for you.
This is the story of our most popular sweet:
THE PANETTONE.
Three-fourths cup lukewarm water, three packages of active dry yeast, one-half cup of sugar, four cups flour, one-quarter pound of unsalted butter, three egg yolks, one grated lemon rind, one-quarter teaspoon salt, one-half cup raisins and one-quarter cup candied citron.
These are the ingredients that make up northern Italy’s traditional Christmas cakes, known as panettone. But there is more to these golden-brown treats - shaped like giant mushrooms - than the mere physical components that go into them. There is history, traditions and several fascinating tales of baker’s rivalry.
Traditionally, panettone was Milan’s Christmas gift to the world. And for centuries, the heavy cakes have been associated with this industrial city. Just as there are many varieties of the traditional cake recipe, there are also numerous myths and mysteries surrounding its origin.
By far the most romantic of all the panettone tales is that of a Milanese baker named Toni di Borgo alle Grazie. Toni, so the story goes, ran his shop with a stern hand, as he did the life of his young and beautiful daughter, Adalgisa. Because of this, his faithful employee, Ughetto della Tela, knew that he would never receive Toni’s consent to marry Adalgisa, despite the love between the two, unless he could somehow raise his status from that of a "low-life" kitchen hand.
Thus, to win Adalgisa’s hand, Ughetto worked feverishly after hours creating a bread that would be sweeter and richer than anything the city had ever had in the past. Through word-of-mouth, friends of Ughetto soon came into Toni’s shop asking for the special bread containing flour, sugar, candied fruits and grapes. The bread became an instant success. But rather than taking the credit himself, Ughetto gave the fame to Toni. And soon all of Milan was asking for "Toni’s bread" or "pan ad Toni." The true inventor of the new treat did not mind, however. You see, he soon became one of the family - Adalgisa was his forever.
Another account of panettone’s origin takes the "oh well" attitude of many mediocre bakers and stretches into a true success story. According to the legend, Antonio, a lazy Milanese baker, happened to spill a jar of sugar, candied fruits and raisins into his daily bread dough.
"Oh well," said Antonio. In a hurry to complete the task, he covered the foreign ingredients and slipped the dough into the oven. The following day, customers bought bread as usual. To their surprise and delight, upon cutting the loaves they discovered the sweet candy-and-raisin-laden new product. Soon after, the "bread of Antonio" was in such demand that the baker was forced to abandon his life of laziness forever.
More realistically, panettone probably evolved as an off-shoot of the ancient pan grande (large bread) that was a popular Christmas treat as far back as the 10th century. According to historical authorities, this simple bread was eaten to simulate the Christmas communion rite: broken and offered to each family member. As time passed, the dry loaves were given a more appealing taste by adding raisins and candied fruit.
Soon, panettone became a luxury item of the holiday season.
The Christmas bread remained a Milanese specialty until the turn of the century. Because of the high cost of bakery-produced cakes, many families made it at home and, had it not been for the rivalry of two bakers, the world-renowned holiday delight we know today might have remained a well-kept culinary secret of the northern Italian city.
In 1900, Angelo Motta and Giovacchino Alemagna - very popular names to those who live in Italy - both came to Milan from neighboring towns. Each baker was in search of employment and eventually found it: Motta at the Caffe’ Roma; Alemagna in one of the city’s new factories.
By 1919, at age 36, Motta had saved enough money to open his own panettone manufacturing plant, producing a dense loaf a few inches tall. After a few years of experimenting with additional eggs, butter and natural yeast, his cakes became light, high and an instant hit. In fact, during the holiday season of 1921, the crowds outside the Motta bakery waiting for the "new" panettone had to be controlled by police.
Like most monopolies, however, competition - in his case Giovacchino Alemagna - soon arrived on the scene. Filling his own cakes with white raisins, Alemagna soon took a large share of the Motta clientele. In any case, both bakers went on to create two of the greatest industrial bakeries in the world.
With the deaths of both Motta and Alemagna, a state-run financial group bought out the family-owned establishments and began exporting both panettone products to over 75 countries. Six-hundred-fifty-thousand pounds of panettone with the gold logoed boxes, displaying the Cathedral of Milan (Alemagna) and the eye-appealing slice of panettone (Motta) were sent to the United States each year, followed by West Germany and France, with 50,000 pounds each.
To boost sales, modern panettone comes mixed with chocolate drops, chocolate icing, dates, almonds, ice cream, and even a champagne cream, in addition to the traditional candied fruit and raisin fillings. The once Milan specialty has also taken on regional tastes with pan dolce from Genoa; nut-filled, chocolate topped panettone from Abruzzi; the central Italian cakes of potatoes and corn flour or those filled with ricotta and dried fruits; and the simple, unfilled golden pan d’oro of Verona.
This traditional "dolce" is delicious.I love it! 
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Jul/11/2005, 5:43 pm
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kasel
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Re: Legends from your country
Well, my banaladies...are your ready for another legend from Galicia? 
THE "LAVANDEIRAS" OF THE "SIL" RIVER
This legend belongs to a place named "Ribeira Sacra" (would be something as "Sacred Riverside" ).
In this place, there is a town named Quiroga where, long time ago, lived a nobleman's daughter.
This girl liked to pass some time between the humble people, careless. 
Returning to her castle, the girl found in the forest a young hunter. 
This boy fell in love with her  , and said to her that he was liegeman in the neighboring town (Salceda), when in fact it belonged to the nobility.
Then she didn't say the truth either. 
The meetings followed one another, but the father of the girl didn't allow that she fell in love with a poor person.
Then, their meetings were in secret  , using a system of tunnels that was under the Sil river, and that communicated both towns.
When the evil father discovered the deceit, rage plenty  , made close simultaneously the entrance and the exit of the tunnels thus punishing the secret lovers.
The legend says that their love became eternal and that "lavandeiras", fairies that live in the Sil river, are their daughters.
THE END
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Jul/14/2005, 8:52 am
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Bacwood
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Re: Legends from your country
Here is one of the Legends of the Netherlands.I hope you like it.
The Lady of Stavoren
A Dutch Legend
About the Story
Stavoren is a coastal town in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands. It reached the height of its glory as a port city in the late Middle Ages. This is the legend told of its downfall.
My retelling is based largely on “The Lady of Stavoren: A Tale from the Province of Friesland,” in Tales Told in Holland, edited by Olive Beaupré Miller, The Book House for Children, Chicago, 1926. However, the romantic element on which I’ve so heavily depended—rare in versions of this story—comes from a brief synopsis of the legend in The Netherlands, edited by Doré Ogrizek, McGraw-Hill, New York, London, and Toronto, 1951.
Other versions consulted were in Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks, by William Elliot Griffis, Crowell, New York, 1918; The Golden Cat Head and Other Tales of Holland, by Marian King, Whitman, Chicago, 1933; The Owl’s Nest: Folktales from Friesland, by Dorothy Gladys Spicer, Coward-McCann, New York, 1954; and The Sunken City and Other Tales from Around the World, by James McNeill, Henry Z. Walck, New York, 1959.
My thanks for help and comments to Coby and Hans Siegenthaler in Los Angeles, and Claire Metz and her mother in Charlottesville, Virginia.
I you wan't more information than go to this site.
http://www.aaronshep.com/stories/017.html
Last Edited by Bacwood, Aug/14/2005, 11:34 am
--- For me, the definition of acting is being someone you aren’t
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Aug/14/2005, 11:32 am
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diana6echo
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Location: ..right behind your back ;]
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Re: Legends from Your Country
Baba Yaga
Baba Yaga is portrayed as a hag who flies through the air in a mortar, using the pestle as a rudder and sweeping away the tracks behind her with a broom made out of silver birch. She lives in a log cabin that moves around on a pair of dancing chicken legs. The keyhole to her front door is a mouth filled with sharp teeth; the fence outside is made with human bones with skulls on top — often with one pole lacking its skull, so there is space for the hero's. In another legend, the house does not reveal the door until it is told a magical phrase: Turn your back to the forest, your front to me.
Baba Yaga also appear in Russian, Czech, Bulgarian and Ukrainian folklore.
The Drowning of Marzanna is a traditional folk fest in some parts of Poland. The two festivals are to symbolically welcome the spring and bury the winter. The ritual involves burning of a straw mannequin representing Morena. Although nowadays it has no more religious meaning there are apparent Pagan roots of this fest, which makes the tradition attractive for Slavic Pagan reconstructionist movements. - I remember that we practise this in primary school 
..you also may heard of famous Janosik (sort of Robin Hood) but latest researches show us that Janosik is originally a Slovak... .
Last Edited by diana6echo, Jun/27/2007, 2:49 pm
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Jun/27/2007, 2:48 pm
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Atani
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Re: Legends from Your Country
Hey, I've heard of Baba Yaga before!
There's a movie with Sam Rockwell with the title "Lawn Dogs" and there's a girl that's talking about Baba Yaga! 
--- Atani
****
Humor is by far the most significant
activity of the human brain.
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Jun/28/2007, 1:11 pm
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