From Aioli to Egyptian Blue

One of those silly Wikipedia sessions where you start reading about something, then something else, oh, and then that other thing...then you're intrigued by an unknown term, and since it has a link conveniently embedded in the text to lead you to the article about that OTHER thing, of course you click on it to learn about it so that you can better understand that last article you were on...which was...wait...wait, no, the one before that, I think...wait, how did this all start again?

Today, it started out with dinner plans. I was thinking about making some grilled veggie sandwiches tonight, with feta and some kind of garlicky-lemony sauce thing. The word "aioli" came to mind. Having never actually learned the definition of or even read a recipe for aioli, I consulted the interwebs.

Aioli: "a sauce made of garlic and olive oil."*

I had no idea it would be that simple. Reading on, I learned about the other possible ingredients typically used in the sauce, like egg or mustard. Apparently, in Catalonia, they often put pears in their aioli. Catalonia...is...Spain? A part of Spain? All I can picture in my head is my mother (who happens to be a Spanish teacher) drilling into my brain the differences in pronunciation between Castilian Spanish and Mexican Spanish after coming home from my first Spanish class of 9th grade.

Catalonia: "one of the Kingdom of Spain's seventeen autonomous communities, the administrative divisions that represent the country's historical nationalities and regions."*

In simpler terms, it's a particular region of Spain, comprising of 4 provinces (including Barcelona) in the north-eastern corner of the country. Catalan is one of its 3 official languages...which I think I've been confusing with the Castilian dialect all this time...oops. Well, ok. Anyway...back to aioli! Or, rather, a sub-section of the aioli page...

Allioli: "a typical paste-like cold sauce of Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencia."*

The only difference between aioli and allioli is the required addition of salt into the basic garlic and oil mixture and the definite omittance of egg. "In the Catalan Countries, it is traditionally served with grilled lamb, grilled vegetables, arròs negre and paella..."* Paella! That tasty rice-and-vegetable casserole-ish dish my housemates sometimes feed me!

Paella: "a Valencian rice dish that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near lake Albufera, a lagoon in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain."*

It's traditionally made in a particular pan, a paellera, which is very wide and shallow, though the untraditional versions I've eaten were cooked in casserole dishes the oven. Paella was originally cooked with marsh rat...and I'm glad my experiences with it were NOT way back in the 18th century in the orchards just off the lake Albufera. I scroll down to the bottom of the page, and see a picture of what appears to be a very dark-colored paella.

Arròs Negre: "a Valencian and Catalonian dish made with cuttlefish (or squid) and rice, somewhat similar to seafood paella."*

It gets its black color from the use of squid ink. The thought of eating squid may make you cringe and/or gag...but it makes me smile a devilish little smile. Imagine a just-shy-of-nineteen-year-old Bre, studying abroad in Italy, on a class trip up to Venice and Florence for a week. Dining as a group of 20-something people, there were limitations. Once we found a restaurant that could seat us all, we would be given 2 or 3 choices of the evening's special - no substitutions, no special requests. On the night in question, we were sitting in the back courtyard of an osteria in Venice, and given a choice between spaghetti in a squid-ink sauce or some other pasta in a traditional red sauce. I, having just reached a point in my life where I actually ventured out to try new things, and was very enthusiastic about doing so, ordered the squid-ink spaghetti. And it was delicious.

Cuttlefish, however, isn't even something I've heard of eating. I'd always heard the word as "cuddlefish" and hadn't even bothered to verify whether or not it was even a real fish.

Cuttlefish: "marine animals of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda."*

Apparently, they're not technically fish - they're mollusks. Scrolling down to the "Gastronomy" section, I learn that cuttlefish is very popular in Italy, and both cuttlefish and squid ink are often used in the coastal areas of Spain for their "marine flavor and smoothness."*

Cephalopod Ink: "a dark pigment released into water by most species of cephalopod, usually as an escape mechanism."*

Scrolling down to "Use By Humans", I read that both squid and cuttlefish ink were once used for writing.

Sepia (color): "a dark brown-grey color, named after the rich brown pigment derived from the ink sac of the common cuttlefish Sepia."*

Closing out of that tab, and back at the bottom of the Cuttlefish tab, "Cuttlefish ink was formerly an important dye, called sepia. Today artificial dyes have mostly replaced natural sepia. However, recently some Jews have resumed using sepia for the techelet dye on their Tallit strings."*

Tzitzit: "specially knotted ritual fringes worn by observant Jews. Tzitzit are attached to the four corners of the tallit (prayer shawl) and tallit katan."*

Disclaimer: I am not Jewish, and do not mean to imply that I am educated on the subject of Judaism, so if I (a non-practicing anything) butcher the beliefs of Jews (or any other religion, for that matter) in any of my writing, please do not be offended.

From what I gathered on Wikipedia (which I realize is not the go-to source for religious doctrine), certain strings of the tzitzit are to be dyed with "tekhelet", which is a specific blue dye, acquired from some long-forgotten sea creature. Since the source of the dye is no longer known or available, Rabbinic Jews leave their tzitzit colorless, because dying them with anything else would be a sin.

Tekhelet: "a blue dye mentioned 48 times in the Hebrew Bible...Its uses include the clothing of the High Priest, the tapestries in the Mishkan, and the tassels (known as Tzitzit) to be affixed to the corners of one's garments."*

The chillazon is the creature said to have been the source of tekhelet. The Talmud mentions several characteristics of the chillazon, describing its form to be like a fish and its body like the sea. In the 1880s, one rabbi concluded that the cuttlefish fit most of the criteria, and started using a dye derived from it for his tzitzit. Another rabbi, however, had the dye chemically analyzed, only to reveal that it was the common dye "Prussian blue", and that the cuttlefish hadn't supplied any integral part of the dye.

Prussian Blue: "a dark blue pigment with the idealized formula Fe7(CN)18⋅14H2O."*

I had no idea colors had "idealized formulas". In fact, most of the wiki entry was devoted to the chemical makeup of the color. Growing up in a modern world, where we can have ANY OBJECT in ANY COLOR, I've never even thought about the chemical process of MAKING a color. It was always just there, in the text color drop-down menu, y'know? But it wasn't ALWAYS there. In fact, Prussian blue wasn't actually synthesized for the first time until 1706.

AND, "This Prussian blue pigment is significant since it was the first stable and relatively lightfast blue pigment to be widely used following the loss of knowledge regarding the synthesis of Egyptian Blue."*

Egyptian Blue: "Egyptian blue is chemically known as calcium copper silicate (CaCuSi4O10 or CaO·CuO·4SiO2). It is a pigment used by Egyptians for thousands of years. It is considered to be the first synthetic pigment."*

Did you know that "Egyptian Blue" used to be a "thing" and that, even now, after achaeologists have gone back and studied it, no one knows exactly how the Egyptians actually synthesized the pigment? I didn't. But don't worry, because Wikipedia can tell you all about it. Srsly.

And that's when I leaned my face back from the computer screen and tuned my senses back in to the environment around me, only to become aware of the ridiculous cyber-tangents I'd just clicked my way through.

To recap, it was:

aioli>>catalonia>>aioli>>allioli>>paella>>arròs negre>>cuttlefish>>cephalopod ink>>sepia>>cuttlefish>>tzitzit>>tekhelet>>prussian blue>>egyptian blue

goddamn.

*These direct quotes are the sole property of Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.