{"id":1461,"date":"2013-07-12T19:15:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T17:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=1461"},"modified":"2023-06-07T18:38:22","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T16:38:22","slug":"the-food-culture-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/the-food-culture-in-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Food Culture in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"food<\/a>
Lunch is served!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The food culture in Italy… Yes, I admit it, I\u2019m obsessed with it.\u00a0 And not just for the pleasure of it.\u00a0 That\u2019s the main reason, of course, but it also fascinates me as a social phenomenon.\u00a0 I love the way it\u2019s so woven into the daily life and perhaps even programmed into the DNA of every Italian.\u00a0 Whenever someone asks me to write a guest post for a blog, more often than not I gravitate towards discussing food.\u00a0 Admittedly, I\u2019m no expert.\u00a0 But I would suggest that being a learner has its advantages.\u00a0 The joy is in the discovery.<\/p>\n

Eat as the Romans do<\/h2>\n

This week I\u2019ve written a short article on a great blog called \u201cTravel Pizazz,\u201d written by fellow Italo-phile Victoria.\u00a0 In it, I mention a couple of options for a quick, but delicious and healthy meal in Italy.\u00a0 Now, Italians won\u2019t find anything particularly interesting about this concept. \u00a0But as an American, I\u2019m always amazed and thrilled to be able to eat such good food in such informal settings.\u00a0 In the U.S., we don\u2019t really have this.\u00a0 There\u2019s fast food, of course, which is disgusting.\u00a0 Or else you have restaurants, which are much more expensive but not much better than Burger King or Taco Bell.<\/p>\n

\"molecular
Can someone please tell me what this is?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sure, we have high-end restaurants that serve great food if you don\u2019t mind spending a week\u2019s salary on dinner for two.\u00a0 However, even those places are often disappointing when you realize that you\u2019re paying for the \u201cexperience\u201d of eating at some \u201ccelebrity\u201d chef\u2019s latest fusion cuisine concept.\u00a0 Hungarian-Thai?\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Asia de Cuba? Do we really<\/em> need that?\u00a0 The absolute worst are the so-called \u201cmolecular gastronomy\u201d places that create atrocities like hot gelatins, salmon roe foam, spherical ravioli, crab ice cream, and olive oil spirals.<\/p>\n

Let’s get back to reality…<\/p>\n

Food Culture in Italy<\/h2>\n

While living in Rome I had found that there are several tasty alternatives to restaurants\u2014places where the locals eat and you don\u2019t have to spend an arm and a leg (or as they say in Italian, \u201cun occhio della testa<\/em>,\u201d an eye of your head) to sample the regional specialties. The options are numerous, but let me introduce you to two of the most common.<\/p>\n

For lunch, I\u2019ll often eat at a tavola calda, which literally means \u201chot table,\u201d but it is more closely related to what we might think of as a cafeteria. Now, I know that you\u2019re probably recalling the institutional food that we were force-fed in grammar school, but let me assure you that this cuisine bears no resemblance to those lamentable meals.<\/p>\n

A true Roman tavola calda is more like a huge buffet that nonna (grandma) might serve at an extra-large family function. Everyone grabs a tray and moves down the line. This is helpful if you don\u2019t speak Italian, because all you have to do is point at what you\u2019d like. The prices at these places are normally very reasonable and you don\u2019t feel an obligation to order a full three-course lunch. You can get a simple dish of pasta, a sandwich, a slice of pizza, a salad\u2014there are many options including a bigger meal, if you\u2019re hungry. A glass of house wine normally costs 2 Euros.<\/p>\n

The tavola calda that I often go to in Rome is near Piazza della Repubblica and it\u2019s called Caffe delle Terme. It\u2019s good\u2014not the best one in Rome, but it\u2019s close to where I work and the prices are very reasonable. RosticceR\u00ec near Piazza Navona is better, but slightly more expensive. My absolute favorite is the Sicilian place Mizzica, but it\u2019s near Piazza Bologna and so not exactly in historical center. Definitely worth a visit if you\u2019re in the area.<\/p>\n

In the evening, one of my favorite things to do is to replace the big meal with an aperitivo. The term literally means \u201cto open your appetite,\u201d and it can be an affordable dinner option if you\u2019re eating alone or not in the mood for a big sit-down affair. It\u2019s part snack and part Happy Hour. For Italians, it\u2019s really about taking a little bit of time between the working day and the family dinner to socialize with friends in a festive atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Typically, aperitivo begins around 7:00 p.m. and lasts an hour or so. You pay one price and you get a drink of your choice\u2014traditionally a Campari cocktail or a glass of wine\u2014and an assortment of small bites. There are several grades of aperitivo; for example you might have one at your local bar and it will consist of merely a drink, some peanuts, olives, and small finger sandwiches, which will cost about 3-5 Euros. Alternatively, you can go to a fancier restaurant or cocktail lounge in the city center and for 10-15 Euros you\u2019ll get a much more elaborate display of food (un aperitivo rinforzato), including pasta dishes and sliced meats and cheeses.<\/p>\n

And YES, there are Rules…<\/h3>\n

In my effort to rescue the world outside of the Mediterranean from such culinary sacrilege<\/a>, I\u2019ve compiled my new-found knowledge about the food culture in Italy into a book, appropriately called, \u201cEat Like an Italian.<\/em>” \u00a0The cornerstone of the book is my list of Italian \u201cfood rules,\u201d which I also tweet-out via a new Twitter handle, @EatLikeItalians<\/a>.\u00a0 These are my attempts to distill down this wisdom into bite-sized pieces.\u00a0 (I swear, that just came out, the pun was completely unintentional.) Here are a few recent tweets:<\/p>\n