Lunch time for Lydia

As we are slowly slowly approaching lunch here, I’ve decided that this weeks blog- will be a regional break down of eating in Italy- because, eating is 90% of the reason to move here of course.

1- Rome- Pasta based in eggs, good cheese & pancetta. Typical sauces include Carbonara (egg and cheese and pancetta – oh my!), Amatriciana (made with Guanciale- essentially- another type of bacon). They are also big on veal, which I enjoy immensely. For the more adventurous eaters- they are big on intestines in Rome as well. They are surprisingly delicious. Last night I was at a happy hour with my roommate who is from Viterbo- I was eating something and saying “hmmm, this is interesting.” Agnese turns to me and says “oh yes, I like nerves too.” Nerves??? Hmmmm.

2- Firenze- aka- Flo- When in Flo, it is appropriate to eat Pasta Fagioli (the word is FAGIOLI- I don’t care where your family came from- if you’re Italian-American and you say something that looks like Fajool- please correct this), and well, any beans for that matter- Funghi Porcini- Porcini Mushrooms which are delicious fried or incorporated into pasta. Additionally, there is the fantastic Florentine steak which, per regulation has to be able to “stand” on every side- which should give you an idea to how thick it is.

3- Naples- Closer to traditional Italian-American food, because the majority of Italian Americans are of southern origin. Worth of trying are Arancini (what we’d think of as rice balls) & Mozzarella di Bufala (made with Buffalo milk), although not right now because Naples is having some trouble with garbage at the moment.

4- Venice- A surprisingly interesting food area. Baccalà is big (salted cod) as well as Polenta, which is like mush that can be baked or caked, or other verbs as well.

5- Milan- Unfortunately the Milanese kitchen is a little, well, boring. Cotoletta is big- which is essentially just a cutlet (of veal). And of course- there is Risotto with saffron, which after getting really sick once on a train, I can’t really eat, although I do enjoy it. A typical Milanese dish that you don’t find all over the place is cassoeula, which I happen to love- however its also extremely heavy, because it is made with various pork parts (like tail, ribs, feet, ears) and green cabbage which is important as vegetables go.

That’s my brief summary on eating here- and unfortunately I still have 45 minutes until lunch….darn. Name some other cities- I’ll brainstorm dinner plans for you all!