All this week hundreds of people have been making their way down to the Johhny Moscardini sports stadium to enjoy this year’s annual Fish and Chip Festival. The new covered seating has meant that many more people can now enjoy the very best that is on offer come rain or shine. (those quick summer storms that can sometimes hit Barga)Freshly cooked pasta, grilled steak and sausages are on the menu but all eyes are on those freshly crisp fried fish and chips that you can only get once a year prepared by the expert hands of the AS Barga cooking team who have now been serving up pesce e patate for 27 glorious years.
Some of the story behind the Fish and Chip festival: It was from this town, population 10,000, that harsh economic conditions caused an exodus to the industrial centres of Scotland at the end of the 19th century.
In such places as Ayr, Largs, Glasgow and Greenock, to hungry dockers and shipbuilders Italian immigrants sold fish and chips in the winter and ice-cream in the summer and so created a culinary culture that continues to this day.
The names of Nardini, Conti and Marchetti became high street fixtures as the Italians grafted unremittingly.
Some of the settlers returned upon retirement and, by way of homage, started the Pesce e Patate festival 27 years ago as a greasy-lipped celebration of emigration and homecoming. source and more from the article about the fish and chip festival from Oliver Bennett
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27 Luglio al 16 Agosto si svolge la tradizionale Sagra del Pesce e Patate – Fish and Chips. Tutte le sere si potrà gustare la specialità del pesce e patate, cucinato secondo la migliore tradizione bargo – scozzese. Ma si potranno mangiare anche diversi primi piatti, grigliati di carne, piatti freddi, dolci tipici, crepes ed altro ancora. La struttura, interamente coperta, permetterà di mangiare anche in caso di maltempo. Tutte le sere musica e ballo con orchestra. Sarà presente anche un’area attrezzata con giochi per bambini.
Click on the link below to hear the sounds at the festival. It lasts only 45 seconds but on it you will hear the fish frying, learn the Italian word for “fish”, hear the sound of the Liscio music playing in the background and what sounds like men about to start a fight. This is in fact a game called MORA which is played in groups of 4. It is actually still illegal to play this game in Italy due to the number of murders that took place in the past as tempers flared but the game is still a tradition hard to stamp out here in the mountains.
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