Food in Italy.

Well, the food was a shock.  Some friends who had been to Italy told me about how good it would be and I thought I was ready.  But I still made a fool of myself.  I ate a lot of really tasty food, and in spite of an e-mail sent early in the second week that I had gained 42 pounds, I actually lost about a half pound while on the trip, mostly attributable to walking an average of 7 miles each day (which does not count the stairs, most of which went straight up).   Remember - pictures will enlarge if clicked on.

Ate a lot of pizza, mainly for lunch.  Everywhere we went we saw Italians walking about with a quarter pizza slice folded over and eating it while on the run.  I tried that too although I always found a place to sit down and enjoy some of their fine Italian beer.    Most of the pizzas I ate were Marghereta pizzas.  Liked to keep away from meat, although I did try one with ham and one with pepperoni/salami/something. The really good part of the pizzas was the dough - I know that sounds weird but you have to taste it to understand it.

Was their beer as good as German beer?  Of course not, but it will do in a pinch.  We did not find local beers to be prevalent where we went in Italy, and that is the problem.  You order a beer in Italy and they ask “What kind?”.  You will NEVER have that happen in Germany or even France for that matter. They will just bring you their LOCAL beer.  Which will be the best you have ever tasted. Even America now has good beers if you stay local.

A lot of the main meals were delicious because they often surprised us.  Sometimes it was with an extra piece of bread for dipping in the olive oil that was the best either of us had EVER tasted anywhere. Once it was  a piece of bread that was a tossup between cracker and cornbread with toasted Italian cheese (delicious!).  Another time it was a salad dressing with a mixture of olive oil, salt and balsamic vinegar whipped up by our waitress in a spoon with a fork and then put into the salad.  We kept looking up from our plate and smiling as a familiar taste was detected, and we kept frowning as some taste had come to puzzle our memories.  

So their food was tasty. But they could do better.  And easily too.  Here's how.  Start with a couple of pieces of their famous bread. Let you swirl that over a little pool of their famous olive oil with a drop or two of their famous balsamic vinegar on a small plate as a glass of their famous Italian wine or a good German beer is brought to your table. 

Then you could order a fragment of one of the famous Italian salads, perhaps a small mix of onion pieces with dark green leaves and a piece or two of arugula (which the Italians call “rocket”), a slice or two of those great Italian tomatoes and pine nuts or bacon with cumin and lemon juice  made magic by more oil and vinegar. but keep it small, no more than 6 or 8 bites so you can enjoy a couple of sips of their good wine too.  And why not a tiny cup of famous Italian soups like minestrone or ribollita or a small saucer of anti-pasta?   

Now you can order your pasta.  Again, it will be a small helping. More bread perhaps, and perhaps another glass of wine, maybe a different type.  This would be the consecration of the meal because these tastes would be the ones you will remember. Thoroughly blessed with garlic, oil, spices and some kind of a surprise - these would be the tastes that would bring a smile to your lips or maybe haunt you for days. 

There could be a small helping of meat perhaps, for those who like that kind of thing, or fish or chicken but keep it small.  Perhaps another kind of wine.  Hey, this meal is not going to be finished in less than a couple of hours.  And another question, already asked in another blog: why so MUCH white bread and white pasta, and so much meat?  This is really not what the human body needs to continue its constant rebuilding process.  For a week or two, on vacation, this is just a little bit of looking the other way, but for a constant lifestyle, it is not what the human body needs.

And it really doesn't make sense to have as much really good tasting food as Italy has and then be served HUGE helpings of salad and soup and great servings of antipasto and pasta and meat, fish or chicken, and then TOO, if you place a complete order with your waiter he will bring you your salad or soup AND your pasta AND meat all at virtually the same time.   Why?  Why not just put it all, salad, soup, pasta, fish, chicken and wine and desert in a great big pot and roll it in?  Oh well.  Now I’ve had my say.

Finally, how did Italian food on this trip seem to compare with French food on our trip last  year?  Well, obviously this is a problem not easily resolved.  It would require endless trips to the two countries to collect data, determine alternatives, select criteria, evaluate opportunities and so on.  I would need a large number of graduate students to conduct such experiments, or have to dedicate my life to finding the answer.  But I was struck with the thought that perhaps the food in France was more of a glorious experiment with the human soul, a series of unexpected initiations, and mystical steps leading to gastronomic glory, whereas the Italian food was more like precious memories from a previously lived, and mostly forgotten lifetime full of happiness, contentment, joy and good food.  At any rate, we noticed a lot of Italians having their parties at their restaurants and having a blast!