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For lunch in Belgium I ordered half of a chicken (literally). It came with salad on the side, gravy with mushrooms, and crispy french fries to top it off. Again different from Italian cuisine, where everything would be separated and not brought out all at once, but it was perfect beer food to pick at in the cozy bar!

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Angelina hot chocolate- thick like how they serve it in Italy!

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In Paris we tried French onion soup and we had it with rose. Maybe not the best pairing but both were delicious! The soup was made with beef broth,caramelized onions, and finished by being toasted with a slice of bread/toast and Comté melted on top.

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Macarons from the famous Ladurée in Paris! We tried the pistachio, hazelnut, salted caramel, and double chocolate! Melted in your mouth! Haven't found a similar Italian dessert/pastry but haven't given up yet.

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Food>

In the late 1900’s Italy experienced a lot of modernization in terms of food. Back in the day and still to this day, Italians like to sit down and enjoy their meals with friends or family. They believe the pleasure of food should be shared and enjoyed.  However, when fast food places starting opening and the pace of life started getting faster, this “sit-down-meal” custom, slightly changed. AutoGrills started opening up with food that was packaged and processed, something not common for your known Italians. Although Italy started growing and constructing all these new fast/modern food places, they still have no jumped completely on board with it as Americans have. When looking at the American lifestyle and mindset versus the Italian, I do not think that Italy will ever become a fast-food nation, simply because Italians themselves are not fast-paced people. They take time to enjoy life, stop and smell the roses as one would say. They talk on the phone and finish their conversation and I see this translating into their “food lives” as well too. If Italians are not stressing over helping you while they are at work, then I don’t believe they were ever fully emerge into the fast food lifestyle like Americans. This is especially so, because meals are so important to them. They are part of their family time and socializing. Italians respect food too much and find so much pleasure in it that fast food will not make the complete cut. Having said this, they still have come along way with this new food modernization.

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Recently I visited Venice and when I went to the restaurant I asked our waiter to recommend something that is tasty and special to Venice. He recommended the “Seppie Al Nero”, which is cuttlefish in squid ink with polenta. I had no idea what was coming but I knew I liked seafood and squid ink specifically. I really enjoyed this meal, the seafood was very fresh. The polenta was not my favorite, mostly because it was pretty tasteless, which would make sense because everything else was so flavorful! I would definitely order again, however prefer to eat it without the polenta. 

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Spaghetti alla Carbonara Tartufo agli Spaghetti at La Scala in Trastevere! Very tasty and the pasta was fresh (looked like little squares when you looking at the end)!

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The Not So Holy Palate

When we think about Italian cuisine, we think pizza, pasta, and gelato! Am I right? Yes, however that was not always the case. As we know from previous history it took a while for Italians (including the different regional specialties) to develop the great cuisine we know of today. Even though it might be quite shocking to someone that Italians/Romans did not always eat pasta, what was more shocking to me was the futurist and fascist contributions that occurred in Italy in the 1930’s. Before reading about Mussolini and Filippo Tommasi Marinetti’s (FT) plans I would never think that Italy went through the food “revolution” that they did. During these movement the Holy Palate tavern was created, which at the time was the only futurist restaurant. In this restaurant there were many odd dishes with odd directions (stroke sand paper while eating or only reserved for women) that people were encouraged to eat and participate in. Futurists also aimed to abolish pasta (crazy) because they believed it was “too weighty and bulky for the speed and dynamism" (Dickie 273). It was appalling to me how many ups and downs Italy has had with pasta in particular any how no matter what pasta “stuck it to them” and remains an essential part of Italian cuisine.

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Krakow, Poland.

In Poland I tried one delicious dish that reminded me a little of the Italian gnocchi. Gnocchi is a potato and dough dumpling that can be served with a variety of different sauces. In Poland I tried a Pierogi which is a dough dumpling filled with meat, cheese, potato, etc. I tried all of these kinds and the potato one (duh) tasted almost like a gnocchi you would find in Italy!

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Berlin, Germany.

What I noticed in German cuisine was that there's was a lot more meat/protein incorporated in their everyday meals. When looking at a menu in a restaurant almost every appetizer,main, and even salad had some kind of meat in it (mostly beef and pork). One of the first meals I had was German style meatballs called Konigsburger Klopse. They came with green beans and potatoes (with bacon bits). The meatball was made of quart duck and then the rest beef. My second meaty meal was a pork knuckle called Schweinshaxe in Germna. It came with vegetables and a traditional, German potato dumpling . It was all very delicious and super filling! A difference in German cuisine that I noticed from Italian is that they serve everything on one plate. They do no have separate courses like in a typical Italian meal. The meat, potatoes, and vegetables were all on one plate. I felt like exploding after all of the food and beer.

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Food and Wine Class Dinner in Testaccio at Flavio Velvavedetto!

The first picture is suppli which was our anipasti. Suppli is a fried rice ball with a little tomato sauce and cheese, covered in bread crumbs and then deep fried-very delicious. I had not tried many suppli before this, however from the ones I had tried this one was my favorite. The second picture was our pasta dish. We had Cacio e Pepe and Carbonara-both traditional Roman pastas. The noodles were fresh pasta noodles, which I really enjoyed eating. 

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Chocolate Making Process!

1.Plucking/Opening the Pods

2.Fermenting the cocoa seeds (5-8 days)

3.Drying the cocoa seeds

4.Roasting the cocoa

5.Grinding the cocoa

6.Blending and molding 

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8. Cioccolata!!!

This weeks reading was on the chocolate making process and how chocolate came around. Before this I thought chocolate was a bean that was simply grind down and then mixed with other ingredients to make a delicious, milky chocolate bar. However the chocolate making process is a lot more complex than what I imagined. Chocolate had many other uses back in the day other than just satisfying your sweet tooth. Ancient Mayans called chocolate, Cacahuatl, they would roast, peel, grind, and make the chocolate seeds into a powder and then boiled it with other spices to make a drink. This “bitter and spicy” drink was given to the priests and the Gods. It was known as the “food of gods”. Not how one would ever imagine chocolate being consumed. What was originally a bitter spicy drink, became the sweet chocolate that we know today thanks to the addition of sugar. Chocolate was seen as an elite drink for a long period of time throughout Europe and later on became solidified into the chocolate bars we know today. 

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Truffle tasting in Siena! 

Siena is known for their black and white truffles. Truffle is known as the “diamond of the kitchen”, and apparently can only be found in very few places throughout Italy. Siena is one of the places and also a place that you can go truffle hunting! Truffles are in season in the months of October and November, which is when we visited Siena!

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While in Siena I tried the red wine, Chianti. Chianti is produced in the Tuscany region and can only be Chianti if it is made in this region. The Chianti blend is 70-100% Sangiovese grapes. Sometimes the other 30% can be 10% Canaille and the other 20% is another red grape(Cabernet, Merlot, etc.). Another interesting fact about Chianti is that in order for it to be called Chianti it also must be labeled as a DOCG. The wine pictured above is what we had with our lunch and it paired very well with my Ossobuco.  

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Ossobuco alla Senese- Stewed shank of veal served with the bone. 

This week I went to Siena (Tuscany region) and sat at a small restaurant were the owner was our waitress and our cook. It felt like I was at home. I tried the Ossobuco of Siena, which is a secondi. It is made with fried onion, celery and chopped carrots, and tomato and basil for the sauce. It was very delicious especially after finishing the meat I was able to dip my bread in the tasty sauce. Yum!

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7. Slow Food

What struck me most from this week’s reading on slow food/fast food is how everything has simply flip-flopped. Back in the ancient times people used food to show case their wealth, while the poor were eating whatever they can find simply to survive. Food was a material thing. When fast food started emerging, people could eat very cheaply to survive and afford more things such as cars, an education, phones, etc. Earlier in the semester when watched the small clip of the Romans feasting it seemed ridiculous to us how there was so much food presented so grandly just to show how wealthy the people were. However, we are doing the same thing today except not with food but with material things. The Romans did not need to stuff themselves and then purge just to eat more, just like we do not need an iPhone, iPad, and Laptop! What I enjoyed gaining from the reading was how passionately they described the idea of slow food and the benefits that the world/humanity will face (possibly) if we all ditched fast food and started a slow food movement. There is an idea that “by eating well we can do good”. I believe this is true, because when we are taking care of our food we essentially take care of our bodies. We are more conscious of everything surrounding us and our planet. They discuss the idea that we are living in excess and if we keep moving in this direction we can potentially harm our world. When thinking about slow food previously, I imagined a gourmet restaurant where good food takes time, however slow food is so much more than that.