Farina (food)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Farina cereal with shelf price at Shaw's Supermarket in Watertown, MA, October 2004.

Farina is a bland-tasting cereal food, usually served warm, made from cereal grains. In contemporary English use, the word usually refers to semolina or Cream of Wheat made from soft wheat. Wheat farina is a carbohydrate-rich food, often cooked in boiling water and searved warm for breakfast, or cooked with milk and made into semolina pudding. It is used as an ingredient in many dishes and in processed foods such as breakfast cereals and pasta.

The word farina comes from either the Italian word for "flour"; the old Romanian word for flour, "fărină"; or in Portuguese, "farinha". This is not surprising, because these languages are all closely-related to each other, being derived from ancient Latin. The Spanish word is "harina", also very close.

Farina is made from the germ and endosperm of the grain, which is milled to a fine granular consistency and then sifted. Although the bran and most of the germ are removed, this cereal is sometimes enriched with Vitamin B and iron. Farina, by itself, is most often served as a breakfast cereal, but can also be cooked like polenta. Farina can also be used to make farofaCream of Wheat and Farina Mills's Farina (see the photo at right) are brand names of a type of wheat farina used for breakfast cereal.

It is also one of the single best sources of dietary iron available, especially for vegetarian diets, with most brands offering as much as 50% of the recommended daily value in a single 120-calorie serving.

[edit] See also

Grits

[edit] In popular culture

Allen Hoskins's character in the Our Gang comedies was named "Farina" after the cereal.

In Futurama, Professor Farnsworth orders a "mild farina" in a restaurant - after talking about "living life on the edge" to his date. The contradiction is that farina is an extremely-bland food.

In Dr. Katz, Katz refers to farina as "The thinking man's oatmeal".

The punk band Screeching Weasel mentions Farina in their song "Supermarket Fantasy".

In the Seinfeld episode "The Dinner Party" Jerry talks about when he found a hair in his farina cereal when he was younger.

In the movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, Mississippi governor Pappy O'Daniel's son tells Tim Blake Nelson's character Delmar O'Donnell that he hopes Delmar will eat his daddy's farina and vote him into a second term.

In the book "Four Blind Mice"(page 133), part of James Patterson's Alex Cross detective series, farina is referenced as the favorite breakfast food of one of the main characters (John Sampson) .