In the area of Pavia, the “culture of pig” is deep-seated: quand’s gà fam, ghe’l pän e salàm (“when you are hungry, you can have bread and salami”) is still a common saying. In the past, breed a pig meant having a life insurance and when it was killed, once a year, in order to check whether the meat prepared to make salami was good, a little part of it was used to prepare a risotto.

Plov is one of the main Uzbek typical dishes, usually cooked with rice, pieces of meat, carrots and onions. The origin of this dish is bound to a legend!

It is a vegetarian dish where meat has been replaced with dried fruits, such as prunes, apricots and raisins.

Paloo is the Kirgiz version of a dish that in the Central Asia is commonly called Plov. It’s made of pieces of meat (usually mutton or beef, sometimes chicken) fried in a big qazan (a cast iron cauldron) and mixed with fried chopped carrots, jiuicai (Chinese chive) and cooked rice. The dish is garnished with fried garlic cloves and red peppers. Shirin Paloo is a vegetarian dish where meat has been replaced with dried fruits, such as prunes, apricots and raisins.