This month, I have once again the honor, together with six other bloggers, of being a judge in a challenge that has a theme suited to today, April Fool's Day. All the details of the challenge are explained on this page, so I won't repeat them here. The page also has the list of judges. You have until Monday, April 30th to submit your entry according to the specifications laid out on the page referenced above. We are looking forward to reading about interesting variations on the theme of "fooling" someone at the table. As a judge, I won't participate, but I will soon present a recipe to complement the challenge.
As you can see from the title of this post, in Italy we don't have a special name for the day — we call it simply primo Aprile, April 1st — but for what happens during the day: pesce d'Aprile is a trick played upon someone. The exclamation Pesce d'Aprile! is how the person learns that what happened to him/her is a joke.
The traditional pesce d'Aprile is a paper cutout of a fish that is attached with some tape to the shoulders of someone, who remains unaware until other people's laughter (risate) make him/her suspect something's afoot.
It's been a long time since I last participated in the merry pranks of April Fool's Day, so I am glad to be involved in a food-themed version of it. My contribution will be up soon. In the meantime, think about a way of making your guests believe they will be eating something, while the dish is made of something completely different.
Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:
or launch the pesce d'Aprile audio file [mp3].
[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]
Mi sa che ho ancora tanto da imparare (da te) su come si fa il giudice...!
Posted by: Francy | April 01, 2012 at 11:20 AM
Aha! So now I know *why* people say pesce d'Aprile. Knew about the custom, of course, but never the origin of the expression!
Posted by: Frank | April 02, 2012 at 05:36 AM
Non ti preoccupare, Francy. Ti scrivero' alcuni consigli basati sulla mia esperienza.
Ciao Frank. Indeed, that's where the fish comes from. So, even if the trick has nothing to do with fish, we squeal Pesce d'Aprile! which I think is nicer than using the word fool.
Posted by: Simona Carini | April 04, 2012 at 04:35 PM
How funny-- fish cutouts on people's shoulders! I need to try this out next year!
Posted by: Molly Hashimoto | April 06, 2012 at 07:12 AM
It was indeed fun to do this, and quite harmless, in the sense that it was difficult to get upset at a paper fish.
Posted by: Simona Carini | April 08, 2012 at 08:23 PM