Eat as the Italians do Blog #1
Ciao! Mi chiamo Melissa Chiaro. I am a Chinese American studying abroad in Rome, Italy for a semester. I am a Junior at Loyola University in Chicago majoring in International Studies with a minor in French and Marketing. My hometown is an itty bitty town one hour from Chicago, two blocks from Gary called Griffith.
My family on my dad's side is Italian, but we don't really celebrate Italian traditions. Mostly we just love eating Italian food. I love food. It is one of my passions to cook and bake, but as much as I claim to be a foodie I always forget to take pictures of my food. Most of the pictures included will revolve around the scenery rather than the food. But when in Rome, you gotta eat Italian food. I've never been out of the country, let alone to Italy before. I am certainly lucky that I don't have any food allergies, but I am a little picky. My resolution here is to try everything even the things I wouldn't normally like. Another resolution I have is to find a wine that I really like. I don't like the sting of alcohol, but it is my goal while in the country of wine, to find the perfect wine for me. These three factors (foodie, try new things, and perfect wine) are some of the reasons I've chosen to take this Literature class on Italian history through food and wine.
I've only been in Italy for about a week, but I have been lucky enough to try some really amazing meals, not only in Italy but in Sperlonga as well. In Rome I have had the traditional 3 hour long meal which consisted of more food than I thought. For the first course we had margarita pizza, bruschetta, and a fried pastry dough that contained meat and cheese in it. If anyone knows the name of this dish please let me know! Then we had an amazing pesto (in the American sense of pine nuts and olive oil) pasta dish. Then to finalize it we had a delectable tiramisu. All paired with a red wine, sparkling mineral water, and flat mineral water. It was an incredible dinner and experience.
Then tonight I went to a little restaurant near the Trevi Fountain. I unfortunately cannot recall the name, but I know it was right next to a Sephora. So play a little hunting game and see if you can find it! Back to the restaurant, a friend and I were feeling extremely hungry so we randomly went to a restaurant that seemed good (what doesn't?) and cheap. At this restaurant you could order the menu vegetable, the menu meats, the menu of the day, etc. I promise here on out I will get better recording where I went and what I ate.
Tonight I ordered the meat menu while my friend ordered the menu of the day. The menu I had ordered consisted of meat lasagna, chicken and peppers, and dessert and coffee. My friend got a salad, spaghetti, and wine. We ate and talked and actually took a whole hour to eat. It was a great meal and the prices weren't too bad. Hers was 10£ and mine was 16£. Which considering the portion sizes was not bad at all.
These two meals just reminded me about the Italian culture and the differences between American dinner and Italian dinner. First of all Italian dinners have a ton of food, but you relax and take your time eating it. You enjoy the moment and the people you are with rather than rushing off to the next thing. Second Italians eat a lot for how skinny they are and it has a lot to do with the culture. This is a walking culture where you walk everywhere and it's not always flat and smooth. Walking on cobblestones and uphill and downhill, you burn off the calories before you even eat them! Thirdly it was incredible how fresh the food was. It was a sensation where you could taste the freshness. It wasn't a particular taste, but it felt like I'd just stepped into a garden and plucked tomatoes off a vine and ate it right there. Americans are so separated from the origins of our foods and you can taste that in the foods. Sure there are fresh apples in America but unless you handpicked them they do not compare to Italian apples. And finally Dinner creates a sense of community. You don't eat by yourself. You eat with other people whether you specifically went there with them or they are simply the couple sitting in the table right next to you. As I was eating my dinner someone came up to me and asked what I was eating. Suddenly I wasn't sitting there with just my friend having dinner, I was interacting with a complete stranger and commenting on the food. Food brought me to interact with the person and from there we had a nice conversation until our meal ended.
I've only been in Italy for about a week, but I have been lucky enough to try some really amazing meals, not only in Italy but in Sperlonga as well. In Rome I have had the traditional 3 hour long meal which consisted of more food than I thought. For the first course we had margarita pizza, bruschetta, and a fried pastry dough that contained meat and cheese in it. If anyone knows the name of this dish please let me know! Then we had an amazing pesto (in the American sense of pine nuts and olive oil) pasta dish. Then to finalize it we had a delectable tiramisu. All paired with a red wine, sparkling mineral water, and flat mineral water. It was an incredible dinner and experience.
Then tonight I went to a little restaurant near the Trevi Fountain. I unfortunately cannot recall the name, but I know it was right next to a Sephora. So play a little hunting game and see if you can find it! Back to the restaurant, a friend and I were feeling extremely hungry so we randomly went to a restaurant that seemed good (what doesn't?) and cheap. At this restaurant you could order the menu vegetable, the menu meats, the menu of the day, etc. I promise here on out I will get better recording where I went and what I ate.
Tonight I ordered the meat menu while my friend ordered the menu of the day. The menu I had ordered consisted of meat lasagna, chicken and peppers, and dessert and coffee. My friend got a salad, spaghetti, and wine. We ate and talked and actually took a whole hour to eat. It was a great meal and the prices weren't too bad. Hers was 10£ and mine was 16£. Which considering the portion sizes was not bad at all.
These two meals just reminded me about the Italian culture and the differences between American dinner and Italian dinner. First of all Italian dinners have a ton of food, but you relax and take your time eating it. You enjoy the moment and the people you are with rather than rushing off to the next thing. Second Italians eat a lot for how skinny they are and it has a lot to do with the culture. This is a walking culture where you walk everywhere and it's not always flat and smooth. Walking on cobblestones and uphill and downhill, you burn off the calories before you even eat them! Thirdly it was incredible how fresh the food was. It was a sensation where you could taste the freshness. It wasn't a particular taste, but it felt like I'd just stepped into a garden and plucked tomatoes off a vine and ate it right there. Americans are so separated from the origins of our foods and you can taste that in the foods. Sure there are fresh apples in America but unless you handpicked them they do not compare to Italian apples. And finally Dinner creates a sense of community. You don't eat by yourself. You eat with other people whether you specifically went there with them or they are simply the couple sitting in the table right next to you. As I was eating my dinner someone came up to me and asked what I was eating. Suddenly I wasn't sitting there with just my friend having dinner, I was interacting with a complete stranger and commenting on the food. Food brought me to interact with the person and from there we had a nice conversation until our meal ended.
Food has a deeper meaning in Italy and I am extremely excited to study the symbolism, meanings, and history ingrained in Italian food.
Ci vediamo dopo.
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