by Victor Caneva
Friuli Venezia Giulia’s diversity is staggering. The impressive variety of topographical, linguistic, cultural and gastronomic peculiarities contained in Italy’s fourth smallest region make it a truly special place to call home. Exploring the region has been a lot harder as of late, but SET, a recently opened boutique located at Via di Cavana 13A, allows Trieste residents to sample the finest of FVG’s delicacies without leaving their city.
SET stands for Sapori Eccellenti del Territorio or “Excellent Flavors of the Territory” and that is exactly what the establishment is devoted to. Born out of a palpable passion for their beloved region and the traditional products that set (see what I did there?) FVG apart, Ervin Rama and his team endeavor to provide Trieste with carefully crafted, territory-defining specialties. From the Carso to Carnia to Pordenone to the hills of Friuli, SET sources salumi, cheeses, wine, oil and more from artisans who put a premium on preserving cultural production methods.
After a decade of running a hotel/restaurant in Arta Terme, Ervin and his partner, Jessica Urban, were drawn to Trieste for many of the same reasons I was. The enigmatic allure of this capital of Mitteleuropa, where north, south, east and west converge in a delicious cultural cocktail seemed the perfect place to share their expertise in regional gastronomy.
Aside from making the very best products FVG has to offer accessible to Triestini and tourists alike, Ervin and Jessica desire to share their stories as well. Often, the origins of regional ingredients and dishes are a window into the broader cultural and historical makeup of an area. Ervin envisions SET as a place where customers are warmly welcomed, taste new flavors that recall the heritage of the region, and learn more about the towns and producers these delicacies hail from.
Ervin and Jessica travel the region twice a week, visiting their artisanal suppliers to get to know them and their products better and to ensure a constant stock of fresh ingredients. Exquisite fresh cheeses are brought from around the region, including the nearby Carso and Carnia, where one of their sources is a caseificio in Sutrio, one of the last remaining social dairies in FVG.
Social dairies, where members of a cooperative raise dairy cows privately as they were in times gone by, use community-supplied milk to produce cheese in traditional fashion. I could expound upon the communal impact of social dairies, including one that is near to my heart, but perhaps that is best saved for a later article. All that to say, enjoying these morsels at SET can open your eyes to the wider world of FVG history. However, academic perusal and romance aside, the best part is sampling these delicious mountain cheeses.
I asked Ervin which products he was most proud of and, aside from the cheeses from the caseificio (cheesemaker) from Sutrio, he highlighted a succulent smoked salame from the Tolmezzo area. Made from only Friulian swine raised ethically in a pristine environment, this salame is crafted without modern machinery, preserving the traditional Carnian methods of curing and smoking the salame. If you’ve read many of my articles, you may know that I have a soft spot for Carnia, but the objective lusciousness of this salame renders any rose-colored bias I may have for Carnian goodies irrelevant. This salame is simply first-class.
One of Ervin’s favorites is a truly unique formadi frant made with pear. Formadi frant or “crushed cheese” was born out of the need to preserve portions of malga (alpine meadow) cheese not suited for aging. Wasting food was not an option, especially in impoverished and isolated areas, so ingenious cheesemakers created a creamy cheese from the bits they couldn’t use normally, and the result is a rich cheese that has been recognized as a regional treasure. These cheeses are not usually available in a supermarket and to find one flavored with fruit is an uncommon treat.
All learning is valuable, but a learning experience that involves good food is my favorite way to expand my mind. If you head down to SET, you may learn a lot about FVG’s rich gastronomic heritage and how it ties in to the region’s cultural identity, but at a minimum, you will leave with some of the choicest treats FVG has to offer. I encourage you to go there hungry and curious. Have a coffee in SET’s stylish cafe, decorated to remind us of the land where all these products originate, and learn by experiencing the flavors that tell the story of our incredible region.
