Half Moon

     Half-Moon

    There is no Italian blood in my family, as far as I know.  But, I did have an ancestor who served in the British Army in India.  He never was posted to Italy, hence, there is no Italian blood in my family.  There is no record of our having any Indian blood either. Perhaps he was gay. We may never know.

     That's why I never heard of this wonderful Italian cutting tool called "Mezza Luna." And I never studied Italian either. Translated it means "half-moon." I really wish that my ancestor had been posted to Italy, so that I would have known about this cutter years ago. My information about a mezza luna comes from a great new book written by a female PhD in Cambridge, England, named Bee Wilson. The book is called "Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat. It is an excellent work. My rating would assign it many, many stars. Everything
I know about this cutting instrument comes from this book.

     But now, getting back to the mezza luna, and the fact that I had not known of it because my ancestor had not been posted to Italy, remember?  Well, as the name suggests, the instrument is about six inches wide, and has a curved blade about two inches wide, and sharp as hell. There are two wood handles, one at each end. In orde rto use a mezza luna, you must grasp each handle. It is a real finger saver. Simply by rocking the mezza luna and moving it around, a lot of cutting can be achieved in a very short time. My wife (Tonto), ordered one for me and I have road-tested it. I am impressed, as it works really well. One thing bothers me, and that it is sharp, and one must be careful. There is no guard for the blade. I plan to take a section of garden hose and split it in half to make a guard. Any number of materials could be used.

I am stil upset that my ancestor in the British Army, was never posted to Italy, and I skipped learning Italian, and I would have known of a mezza luna many years ago.

              Aloha
              Grant