"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore!"

Dean Martin

I want to talk about food today because who doesn't love Italian food!  And I promised you yesterday that I would.  There's a good reason you can find Italian restaurants in almost every country in the world.  Probably second in the world in the number of restaurants only to Chinese restaurants.  I have rarely eaten in an Italian restaurant anywhere in the world that is equal to the taste of the food in Italy, even if they have an Italian chef.  One notable exception was a place I accidentally stumbled upon in the Roppongi district in Tokyo.  We saw the sign outside, "Gino, Casa Del Pescatore" (House of the Fisherman) went in and hanging on the wall was a photo of president Jimmy Carter in the restaurant, next to a dinner plate that he had signed.  I figured it must be OK.  The food was unbelievably good, one of the best restaurant meals I have ever eaten, the chef was Japanese and he had trained in Italy for several years before he returned to Japan.  The bill for dinner for two with wine was about $350.00 back in 1990, but I am willing to pay almost any price for fine food.  Did I ever mention that I love good food and good wine?  

Of course Italy is famous for its cuisine among many other things.  There is just something special about Italian cooking.  I might be a little prejudiced because my mother was an excellent Italian cook, but I don't think so.  Italian food is just good!  Many Italian dishes are simple and relatively easy to prepare.  One of the secrets to Italian food is to use the best, fresh, local ingredients.  I think that's the main reason Italian restaurants outside of Italy rarely taste as good.  My mother always said the fruit and vegetables in the US just didn't taste as good as the ones in Italy.  I think she was right.  Something about the terroir, as the French like to say as to why their wines are so good.  Like many well know cuisines, Italian food is regional and can vary quite a bit from region to region.  Bologna, which is the epicenter of Italian haute cuisine is located in the province of Emilia-Romagna, where everybody's favorite spaghetti Bolognese originated. Hence the clever name. The city of Parma, famous for Parmigiano Reggiano cheese for your pasta Bolognese, and prosciutto di Parma is also in  Emilia-Romagna.  Many dishes in the region have heavy cream sauces and involve a lot of slow simmering, and is similar to French cuisine.  In southern Italy, the cooking can influenced by the spicy flavors and spices from Northern Africa, a short distance away.  Naples is famous for its thin crust wood fired oven pizza, particularly pizza Napolitano, a simple fresh tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and anchovies, or pizza Margarita with just a simple sauce, mozzarella cheese and basil.  Of course popular dishes from any region can be found all over Italy.  Because Italy is a relatively narrow peninsula, seafood is available almost everywhere, but of course the best is in or near the coastal cities and towns.

Rome is located in Lazio and the cuisine of Rome is recognized to be some of the best in Italy (at least that's what any Roman will tell you) along with Bologna. In contrast to the rich, heavy dishes of Bologna, in Rome the key is simplicity.  One of the iconic dishes of Rome is spaghetti carbonara.  I am serious about my carbonara because my mother was from Rome and I want to settle something right now.  I'm going to have a little rant if you don't mind.  If you are in an Italian restaurant outside of Italy, and you see spaghetti carbonara on the menu, read the description of the dish.  If it mentions cream, peas, or god forbid, onions, RUN AWAY!  That is not spaghetti carbonara, it's an abomination masquerading as Italian food.  I can't imagine why anybody would want to use any of the ingredients above and call it carbonara.  I said one of the keys to Roman cuisine is simplicity.  Here is what is in genuine pasta carbonara. Fried guanciale (cured pig jowls) or pancetta (cured pork belly), eggs, butter, pecorino Romano cheese (Roman sheep cheese), and salt and pepper.  That's all.  No cream, no peas, and no onion!  Are we clear on that?  If prepared properly, which isn't too difficult it is a sublimely delicious dish.  You can have it with many kinds of pasta, spaghetti (#5 is the best size), or macaroni such as rigatoni, farfalle, penne, etc.  If absolutely necessary, you can substitute the pecorino cheese with Parmesan, and the guanciale or pancetta with bacon, but only if absolutely necessary.  OK, that's the end of my rant.  Sorry, but that's one of my favorite types of pasta, I make it often and I cringe when I hear what some places serve as 'spaghetti carbonara'.  Sheesh.

Now that I've calmed down, let's talk about some other specialties of Roman cuisine. Romans love artichokes.  They eat the normal large variety and also a smaller more tender version.  They can be cut in wedges, dipped in egg and flour, and fried, or steamed, and they are very popular in season.  There is no specialty pizza but like all of Italy, very good pizza is common.  There are pizza shops, usually take out only that offer pizza rustica, or 'country style pizza'.  No, it isn't slathered in BBQ sauce and consumed with Hank Williams music.  It is a thick crust pizza, unlike the typical thin Italian pizza and it's baked on a large sheet pan in a normal oven.  It's available with many different toppings.  You go in the little shop, with a variety of the large pizzas on display and you ask for a certain weigh, usually in 100 gram increments.  When buying food by weight in Italy an etto (an abbreviation for ettogrammo or hectogram) is 100 grams.  The staff take some scissors, cut a piece with a practiced eye that is right around 100 grams, or however much, and weighs it.  They ask if you want it warmed or not.  If you want it warm they throw it in the oven for a few minutes, then score the slice with a knife to fold it on the scored line and wrap it up in some paper, so you don't get your fingers dirty as you eat it.  It is quite different than the thin pizza and I like it very much.  While we're on the subject of Italian pizza, don't expect your pizza of any type to be covered with thick sauce.  The usual sauce is a very light, fresh tomato sauce with a little basil in it and they spread a small amount over the pizza.  You might ask for extra sauce, but good luck with that!  When in Rome, eat as the Romans do, eh?  One last thing about Italian pizza.  It comes 2in two styles.  The thin, round dinner plate kind, and pizza rustica.  Don't go looking for deep dish pizza, Chicago Style pizza, pizza with chicken on it, stuffed crust pizza or Hawaiian pizza. Don't ask for it, don't look for it, just don't.   Because Rome isn't very far from the Mediterranean Sea, all kinds of fresh fish is available.  I think the best way to eat it is simply broiled maybe with a little butter and lemon on it.  If you prefer fried sea food, the 'frito misto' (mixed fry) is a good choice.  It's a platter with a variety of fish, squid and maybe some baby octopus if your lucky.  No really, the little tiny tentacles get crispy and they're good. The sea food is lightly breaded and pan fried in olive oil. Of course many, many varieties of pasta besides carbonara are offered, the classic favorite Bolognese, amatriciana, a red sauce with diced guanciale or pancetta, and on and on.  

Inexpensive drinkable wine is available in all restaurants, just look for the house wine in red or white.  Sometimes it's bottled wine, often it comes in a glass carafe.  Otherwise, bottled wines in specific varieties in on the wine list, but like restaurants everywhere the markup is big.  Unless it really matters to you, the house wine tastes reasonably good and is usually inexpensive.  The white house wine is often Frascati, which is grown and produced in large amounts amounts and is known to be the white wine of Rome.  Its light, fruity and refreshing and it doesn't cost much.  What's not to like about that.  If you insist on having the classic straw covered, glass fiasco of Chianti, expect to pay a premium for it nowadays, they usually make those bottles for the tourist trade.  If you don't mind spending a lot of money on wine, in recent years 'Super Tuscan' wines, blended with Sangiovese and other classic Italian grapes with wines form French Bordeaux blends such as Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot.  Many of them vary in their composition, the good ones cost $100.00 or more a bottle, the best ones even more.  Speaking of beverages, many Italian restaurants will automatically bring a bottle of fizzy, natural mineral water.  It isn't free, it isn't terribly expensive, they just assume you want mineral water because most Italians do.  If you don't want it, just tell them that and they'll take it back, while muttering something about silly tourists, but if you don't know any Italian then who cares..

There other kinds of food in Rome and in Italy besides pasta and pizza and seafood of course.  Beef isn't common however good restaurants in Rome might offer a dish made famous in Florence, bistecca alla Fiorentina, a big, thick, like 2 or more inches thick, T-bone steak, charcoal grilled.  It's expensive because Italians don't raise a lot of beef cows, usually you pay by the weight of the steak. One reason that you don't see a lot of beef in Italy is because for Italians do eat a lot of veal (vitello) so the baby cows don't grow up to become beef.  Just don't think about it and enjoy the veal, OK?  It's prepared in many ways and if you like veal you will like them all.  Another Roman specialty is saltimboca alla Romana.  It's a thin veal cutlet with prosciutto on it, and sage.  It's sautéed in a little olive oil and butter and a dash of white wine.  If prepared properly it's sublime.  It is probably my favorite meat dish of any kind.  Of course it's best eaten in Rome!  Pork (maialle) and chicken (pollo) are popular meats in Italy.  A simple roasted chicken with rosemary and potatoes becomes a work of culinary art in the hands of a competent Italian cook.  Remember I said simplicity is the Roman cuisine.  Wild meat such as boar(cinghiale) and rabbit(coniglio) are available in better restaurants if you feel adventurous.  Don't expect them to be cheap.  One final treat from Rome are suppli, or the full name suppli al telefono.  These tasty treats can be had as an appetizer in a full service restaurant or as a light dish in a casual or take out place.  They are balls of rice which is cooked with tomato.  The cooked rice is then formed around a chunk of mozzarella cheese  into an oblong shape, rolled in bread crumbs and fried in olive oil.  The telephone part comes in because when you pull  apart the hot suppli, the melted cheese inside forms thin strings like a telephone wire between the supporting poles.  They are incredibly good and can become addictive, so beware.  I can eat them until I'm ready to burst and then I still keep eating them.  One last Roman specialty that is sometimes sold on street carts or in a restaurant is porchetta.  Porchetta is an entire suckling pig that has been deboned and flattened.  Then a paste of lard and seasonings, particularly sage is spread on the inside surface of the meat, it's rolled up, tied and slowly roasted.  The result is a big pork roll full of flavor.  No, it's nothing like New Jersey pork roll, be quiet!  It is sliced and can be eaten hot or cold.  There are far more Italian dishes, stuffed zucchini flowers, mussels steamed in wine, butter, and garlic, and on and on.  Just about all of it is good except tripa (tripe) in my opinion.  Italians like to use every part of the animal, they say that they eat every part of the pig except the squeal. I'm pretty sure it's true, and one time I think I even saw a can of pig squeal in a shop although I might have been confused. Tripe is a cooked cow stomach, and in my opinion, it's as gross as it sounds.  Many people in Italy love it.  Go for it, you can have my portion.  I've tried it, and I don't like it.  Not a bit.  It's awful.

So know that we know of some classic Roman dishes and some other Italian food, let's talk about where to eat it.  Like many things in Italy, it can be a little complicated.  But in a culture that values food over almost everything except family, what would you expect?  Besides, many things in Italy are complicated, it's just their nature.  We'll start with the basics.  There are occasional food carts with porchetta or tripa, but not nearly as ubiquitous as they were years ago.  Then you have the pizza rustica shops which only offer pizza rustica of several varieties.  Next up the chain are Tavola Caldas, literally hot table.  You go in, there is a glass fronted counter with various foods, some pasta, some meat, suppli, maybe some fried peppers, fried artichokes, etc.  You just tell them what you want and how much of it.  They will pack it up for you and off you go.  Some of them might have some small tables or a stand up counter where you can eat, but you are expected to eat and go.  Then there is a rosticeria, the most casual of casual sit down restaurants.  They might have bare wood tables or paper tablecloths, a simple menu and wine will usually be in a carafe.  Good, honest cheap food.  Next up is the trattoria.  Often a casual place as well, this is the kind of place with the red and white checker tablecloths, simple wooden chairs and often a rustic look.  They usually have a pretty good assortment of dishes, pizza, pasta and meat dishes, etc.  Again they are typically not too expensive.  One caveat.  With the low airfares of the last number of years and the increased glut of tourists, but also in Italian restaurants where no tourist go because they aren't in the touristy parts of town, it has become chic to ironically give your very expensive Michelin starred restaurant a humbly ironic name, calling a place where you can drop a few hundred dollars on a dinner for 2, a 'Trattoria'. or 'Rosticeria'  Then there is the ristorante.  They can look similar to a trattoria at one end of the scale all the way to places with fancy waitstaff, fine linen tablecloths and prices to match.  Most restaurants in Europe will post their menu outside somewhere so you know what they offer and what it costs.  So always check that before you go in to avoid an expensive shock.

Now a word about the warning I gave you yesterday.  With the glut of tourists from all over the world, everywhere in the world nowadays, many problems have occurred.  Europe especially the famous cities, are all choked with tourists, especially in the summer.  The amount of tourists in Rome today is an exponential increase from what it was 40 or 50 years ago.  Yeah, I know progress.  I hate to sound like a snob, I hate it.  I know, I travel as a tourist to other cities but I've lived in Europe for more than 20 consecutive years now, and I try not to behave like a typical tourist.  If you want to behave liek a typical tourist, go ahead, it's OK, there will be plenty of company.  But at least try to be polite and respectful, which I'm sure you will do.  Most of you anyway.  No, I'm not naming names, you know who you are!  Years ago I could walk into Saint Peters Basilica in Rome, and gaze at Michelangelo's Pieta unmolested.  Nowadays, not only is there a thick glass wall in front of one of the most moving and beautiful pieces of art in the world, but you sometimes have to push your way through a throng just to see the sculpture.  Many of these tourists know nothing of real Italian food.  I'm not judging, why would they.  So the restaurant owners can cut corners and provide barely adequate food at a higher profit, but it's not nearly as tasty as it should be.  So what to do about this quandary, how do you know where to eat?  Good question!  One way is to let me know your coming, send me a plane ticket from Berlin to Rome, and I'll fly down and help you.  But that's not terribly practical.  First and foremost, never eat around the popular attractions, the Coliseum, ST Peter's, etc.  You will likely pay too much for bad food and possibly poor service.  Avoid places where a waiter is out front calling to you in English with an armful of menus.  Avoid places that have signs in English and 6 other languages offering a fixed price 'Tourist Menu'.  Please avoid places that offer Italian, Greek, Spanish, Croatian, and Tex Mex food all on the same menu.  Run from places that advertise American Hamburger and American Hot Dogs.  Believe me Italians make great food, but they have no idea how to make a proper burger.  Hardly anybody in Europe does, believe me.  I've been searching for that elusive item for 20 years now, and I have found a couple that are close, but none that are great.  But, you might say, Wait Ed, I have kids that exist on chicken nuggets and nothing else but chicken nuggets, and this place offers spaghetti Bolognese and chicken nuggets.  NO!   There aren't many of them but Even Rome has a few McDonald's especially in the tourist areas, just leave the kids and their older sibling to watch over them, and they can eat their nuggets.  You and your partner can sneak off to a real Italian restaurant, and have a little peace and some good food.  You can thank me later for that tip.  Finally here is the best tip.  Go wander around Rome, get out of the tourist areas.  You will know when you are far enough away when you only hear people speaking Italian.  Then, walk around, enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the real Rome, and look for little trattoria.  The weather in Rome is very temperate and like in most of Europe Italians love to eat outdoors.  Almost every restaurant will have tables outside.  Look for a place that has a fair amount of people, but has a few empty tables so you can sit outside.  If you see a place packed to the gills and everybody is speaking Italian, and you are not in a hurry and willing to wait, then wait until somebody leaves and snatch the table.  If the place is full of locals, then there's a good reason and that is that the food must be really good!  You might have figured out by now that Italians love to eat good food.  Italians love their cuisine, they rarely eat any other kind of food.  You won't see many foreign restaurants in Italy, except the rare American fast food chain, and an occasional Chinese place because even Italians like Chinese food now and then, and Marco Polo brought noodles to Italy from China a few hundred years ago.  No, I have never seen a Pizza Hut in Italy and perhaps they do exist, but I hope not.  

So, that just the tip of the Italian culinary iceberg, but I think now you have some idea.  Like many things, I could go on and on about Italian food, but I'll leave it here for now.  I don't want you to get too stuffed.  Buon appitito!