italy

Food! Food! Food!

Yes, everyone thinks that Italian food is yummy...I mean, how can you not like pizza and pasta right? Well, I found out that there are regional differences in attitudes towards food. The further down south the Italian 'boot', the more they love their food. By the time you get to the likes of Sicily, they are passionate about their food. Unfortunately, I'm at the northern end of Italy...

A Client explained the attitude difference to me in an anecdote - my Client's from Rome, so he's at the 'loves food' stage, since they're closer south. He had come up to Milan for a meeting, and by about 5.30pm, the group decided that it's time for dinner. So they all went to a pub (Italian version) and had drinks and some nibbles (probably the Italian equivalent of nachos and potato wedges). After a few hours, people started to leave for home. My Client was surprised, so asked them - "Hey, I thought we were going for dinner?" to which he got a strange look and the response "That WAS dinner!"

He was totally appalled that the Milanese would consider that as dinner, as that would never have happened in Rome. He said that ever since that experience, the next time there was any invitation for dinners, he made sure that he chose where they went - so that they don't end up in the pub having 'pretend food'. It's also evident in their lack of interest in having any a good Milanese dish. The most typical Milanese dish is the Italian equivalent of a schnitzel - except they don't call it a schnitzel. I mean, how creative and ambitious can you get with a schnitzel right?!!

The flavours also get stronger the further south you go, so you start with bland schnitzel in Milan, and then end up with STRONG Sicilian dishes. But I don't know what a typical Sicilian dish is...ha-ha! But I assume contains lots of herbs, sun-dried tomatos, strong-tasting cheeses...

The cost difference between eating out and eating in is huge, so I ate in about 99% of the whole time that I was there. Besides, it's depressing to eat alone in a restaurant. And in the 5 months, I had carbs EVERY SINGLE DAY - although in various forms, such as bread, pasta and rice. I'd have a prosciutto (exotic way of saying ham) sandwich for breakfast, and then a prosciutto sandwich for lunch (sometimes I'd buy from the deli downstairs from the office, so for variety's sake, I'd have a slice or two of mozzarella cheese in it). And then for dinner - a BIG plate of pasta or rice or potatoes. And guess what? I lost a ton of weight! So all those who believe in low-carb diet being a weight-loss method...it doesn't work!

What I found helped was not eating any deep-fried foods (only because I had no wok!)...so I actually didn't have any chips for the whole time! Didn't snack in the office either, which helps. Eating in pre-cooked food in the office was rather inconvenient actually - because they had NO MICROWAVE!!! I mean, we're in the 21st century and microwaves are not a common kitchen appliance!!! How is that possible?!! That meant that I had to cook every single day...which wasn't too bad, as I'm more Milanese when it comes to food than Sicilian! I was happy with a BIG plate of aglio olio pasta with nothing else.

Fruit is so cheap that I usually bought by the kilos. I was there during cherry season...I ate cherries for weeks and weeks! Then there was peaches and grapes and apricots and plums...oh, fruit, glorious fruit! There's a weekly fresh food market near my little apartment - but the only problem is that the stalls only start opening just as I'm catching the tram. So I regularly went to another market on Saturdays a train ride away - and lug kilos of fruit and potatoes back with me.

Gelato...gelati...I became a regular at the gelateria next to my apartment. How can you resist popping in for a scoop of gelato on a hot summer evening, just back from work? They had a 'chocolate festival' for two weeks - specially introduced 12 different flavours of chocolate ice-cream in various mixes. I had chocolate ice-cream coming out of my ears! But what was really disgusting was my discovery of a unique chocolate ice-cream flavour. I had gone in to buy my usual scoop of ice-cream and thought I'd try something new. I noticed 'cioccolato pepperoncino' and I thought - hmm, pepper and chocolate together? Surely that's a mistake - it's probably my lack of Italian language capabilities. So I got cioccolato pepperoncino. The first few licks were okay...it's chocolate...then another couple of licks and I thought that my lips were kind of burning. But it can't be, coz I was having chocolate ice-cream...so why should it be burning?

Elaine was visiting at that time, so I got her to have a taste of my ice-cream. Did she find anything wrong with it? She said no...Then I try a bit more, and then it got decidedly ugly. The chocolate taste was lessening with every mouthful until I can only taste bitter and spicy. URGH! It really was chocolate with pepper (as in CHILI pepper!)...oh gross! I threw it away, and ran back to buy plain old cioccolato to exorcise the taste out of my mouth. Just as well I found that out before the chocolate festival - imagine buying a TUB of that!!!

What else did I learn about Italian food? That the version that we get in most restaurants are bastardised versions of the real thing. Now I love cream-based pasta sauce. Give me a carbonara over bolognese any day of the week. So when I went with my Clients for lunch, I jumped on the "carbonara" (except pronounced with American accent on the 'a's). Well, first I get a laugh from Alessandro (the non-Alf Client) and I thought maybe I said the wrong thing, but no, it was just a very bad pronunciation of the real word. Then when it came, I looked down at it and said out loud, "Where's the sauce?!" There was a sudden silence, so I looked around. Someone asked "What sauce?" And I said, "Doesn't carbonara have a cream sauce?"

I got given the strangest looks (fortunately for me, it was only Ale, Fede, Desi and me at that time) and I realised that I've revealed my ignorance of true Italian food. Alessandro told me that what I have is the way carbonara is meant to be. "Oh...I see..." and then I tried to explain that the carbonara that I've always had is with white creamy sauce, and they all looked disgusted at the thought. They said that carbonara is meant to be only bacon, with the pasta lightly tossed with beaten egg and parmesan cheese until the egg is cooked, and then quickly served. I must say that Italian carbonara is really much lighter than the bastardised version. But I'd still eat the bastardised version any day!

posted by feddupfish @ 9:44 PM