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eG foodblog: CheGuevara - A sourcing journey through Europe


CheGuevara

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Good morning,

Fortunately for those of us on this side of the Atlantic there is the benefit of time: a failed attempt at an early morning first post to my first blog, will nevertheless arrive in time for breakfast for those farther west.

Before the necessary introduction let's get breakfast out of the way. It is a tradition of mine since i started my professional lfe - i wake up, shower and run out of the house as quickly as i can, thus breakfast always takes place at my desk. In our rudimentary office we have one luxury, our nespresso machine...free as long as you buy sufficient coffee each month. Not a problem in a company with many Italians and Portuguese.

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This is my desk, with coffee and today Bizcocho Dulce Don Satur, an Argentine classic. A week ago an importer of Argentine food which I know moved in to the warehouse next to us; that's how the biscuits from my home country made it for breakfast. The Bloomberg mug dates back to my days in NYC.

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The place is London, where i've lived for the past six years. The office is just south of Battersea power station (that amazing building on the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals album) where some of my blog will inveitably take place. I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and moved around a lot as my stepfather was a diplomat. Ten years of my life were in the US, Philly for undergrad and New York for work. A few years ago I finally managed to leave the banking world behind, now I run the UK business of an online shopping service - we're like a supermaket with far better quality of product; and needless to say a far different view on the role of food in society.

A little cheating will take place as I will include a trip I took last week to Italy to source some new products; aside from that everything will be chronologically in line...you'll be taken to the London fruit and vegetbale market as well as Rungis, the monster of a market with its own postcodes, hotels and banks outside of Paris.

I'll leave you with the start of the trip, taking the express train as we head south through the city to Gatwick airport with a magnificent view of one of London's icons.

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Back to work now...

Franco

Edited by CheGuevara (log)
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It is very true - I make an effort to remind myself how lucky I am to be doing what I do for a living.

Off we go onto Gatwick to get a direct flight over to Milan, Linate a city I visit often as my mother lives there. Additionally we buy primarily fruits & vegetables direct from the Ortofrutticola market in Milan twice a week. Unfortunately this time around I will not be able to take you there, it is an amazing place with some of the finest produce in all of Europe.

This lovely woman was sitting next to us, she was adminiring the wonderful view as we cross the alps from the north over Switzerland into Milan.

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Once in Milan our means of transport was a birght blue Fiat panda - very Italian if nothing else...which made Daniela (she'll soon join us) feel quite at home as she drives the same little car version red in London.

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Off we head to Merate, about 45 minutes from Linate airport to the north-east in the direction of Monza (shame we were not there this past Sunday). Merate is a very small town which is not well known, yet we were on our way to meet a very small producer of what in Italian is known as Prosciutto Cotto, or cooked ham - aka: Ham.

Prosciutto Cotto is not as refined a product as any of the dry cured types as are Parma, Serrano, etc.; however, finding an excellent cooked ham is seriously difficult. Mostly you'll run into very plasticky, strong tasting, wet prosciutto all a result of poor quality meat and improper cooking. We've been after a replacement for Citterio (yuou'd be suprised that for a mass produced product, their Cotto is the best we had tasted) - and we found it!

This is Daniela and the owner of the firm. Daniela is our Sales Director who is responsible for all our Wholesale department which also takes care of buying/sourcing a large selection of our products.

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Yes these are salamis top left, cacciatorini top right, salame milano bottom left and bottom right coppa; not in picture beautiful pancetta. He does not produce these himself, it is the result of bartering with a local producer.

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Raw pork legs are made into hams in three easy steps: 1. Ham is boned manually or by machine. 2. Hams are injected with a brine solution which contains salt and other flavourings like mace, nutmeg, clove, bay leaf among others. 3. Finally into a press they go (see below) to give them a manegeable shape and are cooked in an oven. An excellent ham will have fibrous meat that is dry, tastes of boiled meat in vegetable stock, and certainly must not leave any aftertaste whatsoever. This last point is crucial.

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Lunch was missed today but we did get to leave with three trays of sliced ham which we ate on our way to the butcher's....and what a butcher he is.

Franco

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Thanks to everyone for the early comments, they will serve as added motivation to wake up in the early hours for real market action.

As much as cooking is an outlet for my inspiration and creativity, I felt this blog would be best served if I gave my readers access to places which are not easily visited by the general public. Central markets in particular provide an interesting perspective to further understand the local food culture, particularly the histroy and its progression in a market dominated by large distribution. The observations become even more telling when two or more markets are compared.

A late meeting had me rushing out of the office earlier - there was a little more to the ham story...

We'd expect Cotto to be made with Italian pig legs yet the majority of it is produced with dutch ones. Of the imported legs top quality Dutch are the best, for anything better you need to use Italian. Roughly 75% of Cotto is made with imported meat; price is part of the issue as Cotto made with Italian meat costs 50% more. More importantly there are not enough animals in Italy to support the production, same goes for beef and veal.

It is dinner time soon, and for the moment i've managed to plan a drink at the pub. With luck that will not be the only food i consume until breakfast.

Franco

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The place is London, where i've lived for the past six years. The office is just south of Battersea power station (that amazing building on the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals album) where some of my blog will inveitably take place. I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and moved around a lot as my stepfather was a diplomat. Ten years of my life were in the US, Philly for undergrad and New York for work. A few years ago I finally managed to leave the banking world behind, now I run the UK business of an online shopping service - we're like a supermaket with far better quality of product; and needless to say a far different view on the role of food in society.

Your business takes a different view, or you do? Or both?

What has changed

a) since you started working for this company, besides your industry?

b) since this online shopping service launched?

Who do they see as competitors: Sainsbury/Safeway/Tesco, or whatever is Britain's answer to Whole Foods Market? Or something else?

Think you could provide a link to the site?

I assume you were an undergrad at Penn, specifically Wharton. When did you study there? Philadelphia has changed rather dramatically in the last decade or so, as a trip through the Pennsylvania board should convince you. (I doubt a look at my two foodblogs would do so.)

So what's a confirmed capitalist doing with "CheGuevara" as a username? :wink:

And thanks for providing me with the definition of "cotto" -- I'd always wondered what "cotto salami" was in the prepackaged cold cut case.

(Not to mention getting a train shot out of the way so quickly! Does Battersea Station still generate electricity?)

Blog on. I'll be drooling with anticipation for each subsequent post.

Sandy Smith, Exile on Oxford Circle, Philadelphia

"95% of success in life is showing up." --Woody Allen

My foodblogs: 1 | 2 | 3

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As someone who has shopped from natoora a few times I am fascinated by this blogg. I have been really impressed by the range and quality of food on offer. Having moved from a city to a rural part of the country I find having this sort of food supply available online is fantastic. I am really looking forward to seeing more on the markets. Thank you for sharing this with us.

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First of all I'll get on with our interspersed travel and London life reporting as I'm behind my self-imposed schedule...too many interruptions. I'll then post a reply to the questions above from last night.

We're back in London, in Maida Vale, where I've temporarily taken up residence with my great friends Walid and Olivia (pictures of them to come in the near future) as my own home is practically a building site. Last time we were there Olivia sarcastically laughed at my insitence that I'd be out of their house by this Thursday.

Off to the pub I went around the corner of the house for a few pints, Heineken and then Kronenburg 1664, nothing too exciting or clever. I walked the young lady home and off I coasted back home in the chilling breeze - we're well into early winter over here - thankfully the alcohol kept me smiling. Mentally I was on my way straight to bed with no dinner, it certainly would avoid having to post anything more than a sentence or two, but no, Walid having been raised in France was in the kitchen with an open bottle of Rioja; my jacket and shoes off, so was I.

There was a pot of water boiling on the stove however he had no idea what he was having for dinner; hot water seemed to him like a good starting point. As we meditated, we had some mozzarella di bufala and bresaola. The mozzarella is fantastic, we bring it in ourselves straight from Naples and is one of the few which is hand rolled...it was selected from over seven producers - shame i didn't blog the tasting.

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What follows is the result of scouring the fridge - a quick sauce with fresh baby san marzano tomatoes and salted butter (it was the only fat left in the house), some stracchino cheese, some more salt and pepper. I've never cooked with Strachino, at the time it seemed like a good idea...it was OK, like adding cream which I'm fervently against in any but a select few Italian dishes.

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We ate it in about 2 minutes with a lot of parmesan - by then the camera had been long forgotten.

Franco

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...back in Merate, it is late evening and we leave Mr. Ham in the direction of Mr. Butcher. Dani and I certainly feel significantly better after the cooked ham which was so generously gifted to us. The aroma of the ham in the car was fantastic, as it warmed up its flavour improved significantly. No bread or crackers, just ham. At least that's how you're supposed to taste these products, in their pure form.

So this butcher I mentioned yesterday, he comes straight out of a Hemingway novel - quirky smile, old and wise, quiet but very attentive with that gentle stubble and soft eyes, when he tilts his head down and looks at you over his lenses you are caught in suspense and can't help but stare and listen. The wealth of information is made real by his actions, how he caresses the heart of the sirloin with his two forefingers while he explains why different breeds produce different meat. He's been in the meat business for over 35 years, his father all his life and his grandfather too. Both were meat merchants, while he eventually became a butcher.

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We came here to source a few specific products: bresaola which is cured meat, sausages and frisona (breed of cow traditional to Italy) beef. Introductions took a little time, with gentlemen like our butcher patience is really a virtue, as they've seen many who come especially from abroad, talk a lot and listen little. While we explained who we were, we had this man next to us hacking away...

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Our butcher makes all his own cured meats - i should correct that, he sells other sured meats, but everything we tried was cured by him - and from beginning to end they were magnificent. First we tried a Salame, coarse ground and containing pork, salt and time.

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Perfect is a good adjective, certainly not a French style saucisson as they are much drier (my preference), but damn was its flavour good. The aroma was incredibly fresh. We learned a lot from our butcher that day...

Good meat is becoming more and more difficult to find, cows are slaughtered earlier that years ago and this affects the quality of the end product. It saddened me to hear from him that what we know is going on in places like the US and the UK is also taking place in Italy - he believes meat is not as good as it was: "I now choose the best of what I can find...my father would simply not buy what I'm buying now, he didn't need to". To every question regarding the qiuality of the salame we had just tastes, he returned to the quality of the meat. (He reccomends buying meat from female cows as they are usually two years old since they let them breed before ending their lives.)

A sign of a bad saucisson is one which when you gently squeeze it the fats comes out and is very wet and liquidy...i found out why: extra fat which is added to the mixture - this is done to overcome poor quality meat which tends to dry out too quickly. Alternatively you can get meat that does not dry, many times it is because additives are in the end product, resulting in a bad aftertaste. Like with Cotto and other cured meats, aftertaste should be perfectly clean.

Everything he said is down to the quality of the meat. Sadly, the situation doesn't look great. Onto bresaola now...hmmm.

Bresaola is simple; cured meat. Even simpler: you salt meat with a few added spices (juniper berries, cinnamon, bay leaf, nutmeg, etc.), you remove the salt, you air dry it. Traditionally bresaola was made in the fields, when a cow died they hung some of the meat to dry in a net. We had only encountered the usual tasting bresaola which is found across Italy primarily made by Citterio and Rigamonti; this was all going to change.

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Here you have three types of bresaola. On the far left is sottofesa which is the under rump (?), in the middle the fesa or rump, and the small fella is magatello di vitello or veal eye round. They were sensational, I say this because i'm a terrible fan of bresaola. The veal was a revelation for me.

The tasting:

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If you thought that was as far as we could take the bresaola story, there's a little more and well worth it. What we tasted next was one of the best pieces of charcuterie I have ever tasted, almost a raw material in its own right which has the fascinating quality of providing true cooking inspiration.

Bresaola di Fesa:Work in progress

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How I wish I could taste this right now...30 day old bresaola. It has been salted for 25 days, salt removed and this one is 5 days old into its drying process. You can see the dark brown ridge especially on the top while the interior retains its intense red. A marvelous product, incredibly different, truly artisanal and absolutely delicious (If you're into raw meat). All I could think of was to slice it thick as he did and pour some hot olive oil with garlic and rosemary - that and some wine.

From cured to semi to plain old raw. Sausage stuffing was how it all ended; maybe this will say it all: Up to now I would have not served a pork tartare.

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Thus ens a day in Merate, it is past dusk and we close the shop with husband and wife butcher after forcing ourselves out. Back in our car we headed for Milan, for dinner, for sleep and an early breakfast at 5:30am.

Franco

Edit: Further infromation from our butcher...most of bresaola today is made with frozen meat. Ie- meat is butchered, producer purchases it in bulk frozen or freezes it, then cures when the time is right.

Edited by CheGuevara (log)
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This shall be done part by part or I'll risk getting lost with all these questions...

Your business takes a different view, or you do?  Or both?

What has changed

a) since you started working for this company, besides your industry?

b) since this online shopping service launched?

Who do they see as competitors:  Sainsbury/Safeway/Tesco, or whatever is Britain's answer to Whole Foods Market?  Or something else?

I certainly have a different view and in turn so do the people that work with me. Our colleagues in France share our ideas; althought certainly in the US and the UK large distribution has taken a bigger bite out of total food consumption.

As to what has changed - I will go into it later in my blog as I take you to the markets and we are able to compare what is on offer. If you were to pick one event which has changed the food industry it's the advent of industrial agriculture. From a distribution perspective, our preference for convenience (one-stop shopping), price sensitivity, and reduced free-time (ready meals) has lead to the emergence of supermarkets to the detriment of small scale farmers and producers who are unable and ill-equipped to sell into such a large-scale distriobution model.

Think you could provide a link to the site?

Not on my blog - but you should have no trouble finding it

I assume you were an undergrad at Penn, specifically Wharton.  When did you study there?  Philadelphia has changed rather dramatically in the last decade or so, as a trip through the Pennsylvania board should convince you.  (I doubt a look at my two foodblogs would do so.)

That's slightly scary - spot on regarding my undergar studies; how'd you guess Wharton? I graduated in '96, at the time I loved heading over to South Philly, I remember this deli which had the best Italian charcuterie and cheese in town. Every week-end I'd head over there and while I bought all sorts of things, the owner would feed me; he'd actually rip pieces of country bread and throw them at me to accompany all the extra cheese, coppa and ham he'd cut/slice for me at the counter. Friends of mine have returned to Philly (Walid for one) for grad school and have told me about the changes to the city - particularly in gastronomy.

So what's a confirmed capitalist doing with "CheGuevara" as a username?  :wink:

it's my romantic side

And thanks for providing me with the definition of "cotto" -- I'd always wondered what "cotto salami" was in the prepackaged cold cut case.

(Not to mention getting a train shot out of the way so quickly!  Does Battersea Station still generate electricity?)

No electricity, but in keeping on topic, it would make a superb venue for a restaurant.

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Quite simple really - I was lucky enough to know early on that I had a passion, something that inspired me, that didn't bore me...it then took me a few years to figure out how to make the jump in the right way.

This seems like a very interesting blog.  What made you change careers?  And who is your target customer?  Thanks in advance.

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Great blog and as others have commented, you are in an envious position for a food lover. You company website is very good.

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I felt this blog would be best served if I gave my readers access to places which are not easily visited by the general public. Central markets in particular provide an interesting perspective to further understand the local food culture, particularly the history and its progression in a market dominated by large distribution. The observations become even more telling when two or more markets are compared.
Excellent move, Franco. Another reason why eG foodblogs are so fascinating. Most illuminating so far, thank you. However... um, even though it is a very public place, I haven't seen the inside of a London pub in over ten years and never, I think, on an eG foodblog. Care to snap a row of taps off an oaken bar while wallowing in a Young's Bitter stupor?? :cool:

"I took the habit of asking Pierre to bring me whatever looks good today and he would bring out the most wonderful things," - bleudauvergne

foodblogs: Dining Downeast I - Dining Downeast II

Portland Food Map.com

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What you tend to find is cured; however one would consider it semi as it is soft when you press it. The colour will be the same throughout as they use additives to preserve the bresaola, furthermore it is vacuum-packed to extend shelf-life without any additional drying.

As far as our butcher was concerned, the main reason is that consumers are used to gentle tasting, clean looking bresaola. Any dark markings would put them off...even in Italy.

Beautiful charcuterie.

I have had some locally-made bresaola that was still red on the inside, as you have shown, and found that to be superiour to fully-curred. Is semi-cured usually available for sale?

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Without a doubt! Off to Paris tomorrow morning until Thursday evening, so you'll have to wait a few days. Glad you're enjoying it so far.

I felt this blog would be best served if I gave my readers access to places which are not easily visited by the general public. Central markets in particular provide an interesting perspective to further understand the local food culture, particularly the history and its progression in a market dominated by large distribution. The observations become even more telling when two or more markets are compared.
Excellent move, Franco. Another reason why eG foodblogs are so fascinating. Most illuminating so far, thank you. However... um, even though it is a very public place, I haven't seen the inside of a London pub in over ten years and never, I think, on an eG foodblog. Care to snap a row of taps off an oaken bar while wallowing in a Young's Bitter stupor?? :cool:

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As to what has changed - I will go into it later in my blog as I take you to the markets and we are able to compare what is on offer. If you were to pick one event which has changed the food industry it's the advent of industrial agriculture. From a distribution perspective, our preference for convenience (one-stop shopping), price sensitivity, and reduced free-time (ready meals) has lead to the emergence of supermarkets to the detriment of small scale farmers and producers who are unable and ill-equipped to sell into such a large-scale distriobution model.

Given that I brought up Whole Foods Markets in my question, your fingering industrial agriculture as the signal event that changed food production is quite astute indeed.

The US' leading natural/organic foods retailer struggles with competing desires, those being to promote local producers in its stores and to provide a consistent supply of products of consistent quality to all of its hundreds of locations across the US. I think you will even find on the blog of John Mackey, WFM's CEO, posts documenting efforts to address critics' complaints that, in pursuit of the latter, WFM has shortchanged the former; the response IIRC was to restore to individual store managers their power to purchase products at the back door.

Think you could provide a link to the site?

Not on my blog - but you should have no trouble finding it

I noticed after posting that there was a link in your .sig. Nice operation you have. Probably the closest analogue we have over here are the various nonprofit organizations that sponsor farmers' markets in cities across the country, augmented by larger, established operations like LA's Farmers Market, the Reading Terminal Market (which I'm sure you are familiar with) and Seattle's Pike Place Market. These latter entities find themselves also torn between their missions to promote local producers and their status as popular tourist draws.

I assume you were an undergrad at Penn, specifically Wharton.  When did you study there?  Philadelphia has changed rather dramatically in the last decade or so, as a trip through the Pennsylvania board should convince you.  (I doubt a look at my two foodblogs would do so.)

That's slightly scary - spot on regarding my undergar studies; how'd you guess Wharton?

You were in the banking industry, you grew up outside the United States and you studied in Philadelphia as an undergraduate. When I add up these three pieces of data, I somehow don't get Temple as an answer. :smile: I was employed in Penn's public relations office while you were a Wharton undergrad.

I graduated in '96, at the time I loved heading over to South Philly, I remember this deli which had the best Italian charcuterie and cheese in town. Every week-end I'd head over there and while I bought all sorts of things, the owner would feed me; he'd actually rip pieces of country bread and throw them at me to accompany all the extra cheese, coppa and ham he'd cut/slice for me at the counter. Friends of mine have returned to Philly (Walid for one) for grad school and have told me about the changes to the city - particularly in gastronomy.

Might that South Philly deli have been DiBruno Brothers on 9th Street?

They continue to enjoy a reputation as the city's premier fine food emporium, reinforced by a fabulous new store on Chestnut Street near Rittenhouse Square. I took folks on a tour of the place in my first foodblog (link in .sig). But there is also a butcher who offers unusual fresh sore-made sausages, as well as relatively exotic meats like venison and ostrich, in the 9th Street market. I'm guessing you never made it to that shop because you didn't mention it. (I forget the butcher's name.)

The city has become quite an interesting place for food lovers, both diners and home cooks. As the editor of Food and Wine confessed in an essay that was much discussed locally, the whole of the Philadelphia food scene is greater than the sum of its parts, and while you won't find all that much bleeding-edge stuff going on in our restaurant kitchens, you will find plenty of chefs turning out stellar dishes from a variety of cuisines, backed by a plethora of restaurants that offer similarly globe-spanning fare, prepared well, at Prices You Can Afford, and a population of consumers who have learned a few things from their dining out experiences and now seek them at local markets.

(Not to mention getting a train shot out of the way so quickly!  Does Battersea Station still generate electricity?)

No electricity, but in keeping on topic, it would make a superb venue for a restaurant.

That restaurant would have a spectacular interior!

It should be a barbecue joint. That way, they could suspend a pig between the smokestacks as an advertisement.

Sandy Smith, Exile on Oxford Circle, Philadelphia

"95% of success in life is showing up." --Woody Allen

My foodblogs: 1 | 2 | 3

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I am enjoying this so much - I envy your job, your travel and your home country! I am a devout Anglophile - don't know if I'll ever be able to afford to visit, but England is on top of my travel wishlist. I would also love photos of a pub and any other pictures you might like to post from home :wink: !

Kim

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That restaurant would have a spectacular interior!

It should be a barbecue joint.  That way, they could suspend a pig between the smokestacks as an advertisement.

When capitalism and architecture intersect with Pink Floyd, in a food blog from Che Guevara, I get very excited. This blog has everything! I need a cigar.

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

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