IndyRita

We are traveling to Italy for the first time this Fall, and we have some worry over what we are going to do about meals, mostly lunch and dinners. My husband has serious food "issues" and is VERY concerned about what he is going to eat in Italy. They are more phobias than an allergy issue....but nevertheless real. He has even been hypnotized in the past, to no avail, to try and overcome these. He eats no sauces, no condiments, nothing mixed together, no pizza, hardly any vegetables except for potatoes and corn , and the list goes on. For the most part, he eats plain meats (beef, pork, chicken), potatoes, raw tomatoes, corn, most fruits and some plain lettuce with no dressing salads. I, on the other hand, eat about everything. So any help on where we can enjoy both of our types of meals would be greatly appreciated. We will be staying 3 days in Rome and then 7 days in the Tuscany area.

Gretchen

Go and tell him make do whereever you are. Let HIM deal with it. That is a controlling issue. Is he OCD? If he has agreed to go, he knows what he'll be facing.

adrienne

I suggest leaving him behind and taking ME!! LOL I won't give you any problems!

Italians aren't big on condiments so no problem there. The tomatoes are to die for - I love a tomato salad for lunch - they are huge and satisfying with a slice of bread.

You will always be able to find some place with roast chicken on the menu. All menus will be posted outside the restaurants so you can check before entering. I'm sure he'll find something. You can pickup fruit in green grocers located all over cities and in the countryside you can go to the supermarkets. Let him deal with his problem; you should enjoy Italy and not worry about what he eats. Tell him to bring packets of tuna and salmon with him to snack on so he doesn't starve.

adrienne

I can't imagine his life where he doesn't eat foods that are mixed together. Never a piece of cake or ice cream or a cheese omelet or soup. I hardly ever eat foods that are not mixed together. You have my sympathy!

Cathinjoetown

Well, I am sorry for your husband but he will not starve. Beef steaks are easy to find and considered a specialty in Tuscany. Roast chicken or lamb is common.

Potatoes, usually roasted or fried, are on almost all menus and if he will eat plain pasta, well that is as popular as pasta with sauce, although the Italians usually eat plain pasta with a bit of olive oil and perhaps grated cheese, but those are easily avoided if necessary.

Salad dressings are very light or salad is served plain for oil and/or vinegar to be added at the table. Learn a few phrases to request food to come unadorned. Tomatoes are plentiful as is fruit. For lunch, sandwiches are plentiful if he will eat those. Pizzas can be ordered with, for example, cheese and tomatoes, no sauce, so maybe he could try that.

You should be fine.

J62

Have you considered renting an apartment? Seriously.

If the phobia is limiting his ability to enjoy Italy, then the knowledge that you could make your own meals may be a nice fall back.

With an apartment you can shop at the local food markets or normal grocery stores, bakeries, etc. Breakfast & picnic lunch are a breeze - no need to find a stressful sit down lunch.

Some days you may want to get a take out roast chicken from the supermarket, or buy some hamburger or steak to cook. Or just soup and sandwich & home made salad. Lots of ways to be creative yet simple and easy even when on the road.

You always have the option of eating out every meal if he finds he's comfortable, but if the phobia is restrictive, then a fall back can provide good peace of mind.

qwovadis

Actually plain meat and veggies are available not too cheap.

Gnocchi is a potato based plain pasta dish that is cheap

He will be fine with that almost everywhere.

Breads and cheeses are good plain cheap found everywhere.

As long as you specify without sauce of any kind

Odds are great he will not starve to death.

rbnwdlr

No offense, but he needs therapy. I have a friend whose adult son has the same issues and it is a serious problem. He may have a medical problem or it may be ocd, which can be treated. I know you didn't ask and it drives me crazy when people give unsolicited advice on this board, but I guess it hit a nerve with me.

Gretchen

I would NOT rent an apartment and cater to this as you do the rest of your life. As many have said, he can find something to eat on a menu. If not, then go to a market and buy something for him to take back to the room.

k9korps

Did you want marital advice or gastronomic advice or long-distance psychothapy? You can get all three here, in one easy package.

Anyway, I would definitely rent an apt., for more than one reason. But as for dining out, I think he'll be OK in Italy. You can get plain-ish beef, pork and chicken dishes, and he could order caprese (mozzarella and tomatoes) w/o dressing. His options will be limited, but I'm guessing he's accustomed to that.

Josh_MacDonald

My fiancee is the same way...picky but no where to that extent, I'll eat anything, I've always found if someone is hungry enough, they'll eat anything

Therese

Italy's actually a pretty good place to have this sort of problem, as the Italians are also a wee bit phobic about having too many different sorts of food on one plate and it's consequently easy to order individual dishes: just steak, just green salad (they'll bring oil and vinegar to the table for him to dress it as he'd like), just tomatoes, just potatoes, whatever. Fruit's often available for dessert.

ekc

Echoing the prior responses, your hubby will be fine. In most restaurants the veggies (contorni?) are ordered separate from the meat so there will be no "mixing" issues. Tuscany is the land of roast meats and they are usually served very plain but you can always order the sauce on the side. One thing I found very interesting is that although you can see lots of corn fields, it mostly is used for making polenta - corn is not used as a separate vegetable. In fact I have several friends who tell me they have never eaten corn on the cob or corn separately.

maytraveller

Hi IndyRita:

I have no helpful response but do wish to thank you profusely for making me much more appreciative of my only somewhat picky-eating DW.

Wow!

maytraveller

Lexma90

Italy will be an easier country to eat in for your husband than, for example, France, where you find more sauces on meat dishes. You both will be able to enjoy many restaurants without any problems; in fact, I bet HE won't need to think much at all about which restaurant to choose - most restaurants will have more than enough for him to choose from.

In Italy, especially Tuscany, meats are commonly served in a rather simple (plain) style, without a sauce. Bistecca alla fiorentina, for example. For meats in Italy, I primarily eat beef, lamb or veal, but I assume the same is true of pork or chicken. Some restaurants have, or specialize in, meats grilled over an open fire; that's called "alla brace," and those would probably also be appealing to him. You'll see this more in Tuscany than Rome.

Main dishes are most commonly served by themselves. If you want a vegetable, you order it as a side dish, for the entire table or just for yourself. For example, potatoes (which are usually simply roasted with olive oil) or artichokes, also roast or grilled with olive oil.

Lettuce salads are not so common in Italy, though if a restaurant has them, they may be listed under side dishes. You'll see them more on Roman restaurant menus than in rural Tuscany. Your husband will love the Italy use of dressings on green or mixed salads - pretty much only one dressing, oil and vinegar, which is served to you in their bottles, so you can dress your salad to your liking (or leave it off entirely, of course). Caprese salad is usually slices of fresh mozzarella and tomatoes, sometimes with olive oil on top. He could certainly ask for it without the olive oil.

Sauces on pastas. Italians use MUCH less sauce than most American pasta dishes. In fact, once when we were in Rome a woman at the table next to us ordered spaghetti cacio e pepe, which is a traditional Roman dish of spaghetti with cacio cheese (basically, a light, fresh young pecorino cheese) and a little pepper. I love it, and we make it at home often, though the cheese we use is not as good as the actual Roman cacio. The cheese is grated onto the fresh pasta and soaks right into the pasta. The woman received her dish, and whispered to her husband - "I think they forgot the sauce." No, it was there, just light and delicate. So if your husband wants to push his comfort zone a little, he could try something like that.

Another item you might both enjoy, though it's not a restaurant item, is the Roman pizza bianca. It's foccacia, baked in the over with a little olive oil and salt on top. It's available at bakeries all over and so delicious.

More high-end restaurants will have more elaborate dishes, and may even provide sides on the same plate as the main dish, but even there, I'll bet he'll be able to find steak and potatoes.

To relieve his anxieties prior to the trip, your husband could look up online some menus of restaurants in Rome and wherever you're staying in Tuscany. Once he sees the variety of items on the menus, he may be more comfortable about the dining experience.

All of the dishes I mentioned are very tasty and appealing to people with OR without phobias, so I encourage you to try these, too, as well as all the other dishes that your husband won't like!

LoveItaly

Hello Indy, you have received a lot of wonderful advice! I note that your husband loves potatoes. Personally I love the french fries in Italy so I imagine he would also. I agree with ekc about the corn. I have many people I know in Italy, a few even have corn fields, and they never ever eat corn except for polenta. If you are not interested in renting an apartment your husband will be just fine ordering in restaurants and you will be free to try all of the marvelous dishes.

IndyRita

For those of you who provided helpful suggestions and comforting thoughts, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will share these details with my husband and I know it will put his mind at ease during our time in Italy. He has managed this problem his entire life including dealing with it during a very successful business career, travel demands here in the US, business dinners, etc. For those of you who were less than kind in your reactions, shame on you. My husband of 31 years is a wonderfully kind, loving and extremely supportive and self-less man. He wouldn't even know how to begin being controlling. He is not OCD. He just has a "rare" phobia that causes him much more distress than me.

wayfinder45

Just want to echo the advice to definitely have a few phrases under your belt to explain how you would like your dishes prepared and served. Many restaurant staff speak English, but you will run across a few who don't or who may not understand your instructions or questions clearly. Also, check out some menus on line to familiarize yourself with the options and to research how certain dishes are prepared. My daughter, who is vegan, landed on one or two dishes that she liked and found them on almost every menu. She was quite content having "spaghetti al pomodoro" nearly every day for two weeks, and we were all surprised at the variety of ways in which it was prepared! Have a great trip!

annhig

two words, Indy - "senza sugo".

it means without sauce.

your DH is a lucky man.

LoveItaly

Hello again, Indy. I just remembered a website that I have in my Favorites that might be of good help when you two are in Italy. I have never ordered a card but I saved the website as I have some serious food issues. The website was highly recommended by "someone", I don't remember who it was, some years ago.

http://www.dietarycard.com/