Do Italians eat Italian when they go out to eat?
Oct 17th, 2002, 09:59 AM
#1
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Do Italians eat Italian when they go out to eat?
On my last trip to Italy, I basically ate Italian all the time. I didn't want to dedicated the money or the calories to Chinese, McDonald's (gasp), etc. <BR><BR>My next trip will be to Rome, and I'm wondering, if I wanted to delve into "real Italian life," where would be the best place to do this, in an Italian restaurant or a Chinese restaurant? Are the Italian restaurants just mainly for tourists? Are the alternative restaurants mainly there to satisfy tourist or Italians?<BR><BR>Do not be alarmed, I plan on loading up on gnocchi, gelato, wine, and all the other goodies while I'm there, but I'll be spending over 10 days in Rome and I'll have plenty of time to try a lot of different foods.
Oct 17th, 2002, 11:30 AM
#3
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There is not as much integration in Italia as in the U.S. so not nearly the same voluminous variety offered here. Italians eat at Italian restaurants. There are a smattering of Chinese & Thai places in the larger cities (Roma, Florence, etc), but the Italians have a developed palate for their own food and that is all they generally eat.
Oct 17th, 2002, 11:38 AM
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When we visited some friends in Rome several years ago, they took us to their favorite restaurant. It was near the Vatican and it was a Swiss/ Austrian restaurant. We thought it was funny that they took us to a "foreign food " restaurant. It was good.
Oct 17th, 2002, 01:52 PM
#9
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Of those Italians we've taken note of or spoken with they do eat Italian for the most part. I understand from one of the board comments they may not enjoy our choice of mixed flavors. If you'll notice each menu item comes on a plate of its own and is ordered separately. M.
Oct 17th, 2002, 05:05 PM
#10
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No, they were from Naples! They drove up for the day to meet us and show us around. They said the restaurant was their favorite and they come all the time. And because they were from Naples, they insisted that the pizza in Rome was not "real" pizza, only the pizza in Naples was the real thing.
Oct 17th, 2002, 06:40 PM
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Following up on the resounding success of the Euro, please note that phase 2 of the move towards a centralized Europe has recently been approved by the ministers in the Hague.<BR><BR>All national designations for food have been removed to be replaced with the ubiquitous phrase "European". European Onion Soup, European Salad Dressing, European Fries, etc, etc.<BR><BR>In order to avoid confusion on duplicate items (Italian Salad Dressing, French Salad Dressing, Polish Sausage/Italian Sausage, etc, etc.) only one item will be allowed to be produced within the EEC. The ministers have proposed that the selection of the item be mediated by a neutral third party, Japan. So, for the next 52 weeks the theme ingredient used by the weekly winner of "The Iron Chef" television program will reign sumpreme as the official salad dressing, sausage, etc. of the EU. <BR><BR>As expected food in England will still retain the designation "England." It has been mandated to always carry that designation as the French refuse to recognize any English food item as fit for human consumption.
Oct 18th, 2002, 10:39 AM
#17
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in a side reply to Germaine:<BR>We always laugh when we hear back or peameal bacon referred to as "Canadian bacon". We don't call it that, it's just bacon! I remember a little ?American boy in a buffet line at a hotel in Niagara Falls last year ask his mum if the bacon he was choosing was "Canadian bacon", I couldn't resist replying before his mum. I told him that seeing he was in Canada it must have been! (she of course didn't get it!!)<BR>LOL
Oct 21st, 2002, 10:04 AM
#18
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As a matter of facts, the question is not as silly as many might think. Italian's attitude towards restaurants is not the same everywhere.<BR>Those who live in the main cities love to eat at exotic restaurants at least as much as the Americans. Personally, I love some Japanese, Greek, Romanian, Hungarian, Brazilian, and ONE Chinese restaurants. Also, in the main cities yo can find restaurants from the various parts of Italia, since Italy does not have one cuisine, but rather each regions have one or more cuisines. In this sense I love a few restaurants that make food from Sardinia or Friuli. Eating in these places is almost like eating in a exotic restaurants: for instance nobody from Milano would ever have dreamt of making ravioli with cheese and chocolate!<BR>In the countryside, usually people prefer to eat the food they are most used to, not only Italian food, but food from their own region and preferably prepared in a very traditional way; no experimentalisms, no creativity is requested nor desired. In Emilia.ROmagna in particular, often enough people eat out in places that serve mediocre food (this is why it is not easy to find a really _great_ restaurant in Bologna, for instance) so that they can go back home and say "I can make it better than they do!".<BR>Finally, youth often enough eat out at fast food places or at chinese restaurants, but is is all out of mere lack of money.<BR>By the way, with very few exceptions, in italy CHinese restaurant serve precooked food out of cans or out of the fridge, distributed by a very liite number of distributors. Therefore the food is both highly standardized and not tasty.
Oct 21st, 2002, 04:42 PM
#19
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I'm an american chinese, raised in US but still in a very chinese environment. I know the different between real and americanized (or in this case italianized) chinese food.<BR><BR>we were in rome for 3 days and had 2 chinese meals (the only ones in a 2 week period). why you ask? cause I'm chinese and as good as italian food may be, I still revert back to the familiar rice and veggie dishes. <BR><BR>both chinese restaurants were good ---the first was really good considering the size of the restaurant and my expectations. I was afraid they were going to serve chop suey and egg-foo young.....for those of you who don't know, those are NOT chinese cuisine items.<BR><BR>During one of our tours - the tour guide (Persian) also talked about chinese food in Italy and said he took his parents to eat chinese and they were shocked at the idea of eating chinese in Italy.<BR><BR>It's not THAT much different than chinese in america. If you have a decent chinese population anywhere - they will manage to get the ingredients to make chinese food. He (tour guide) asked me what I thought of what I ate and I told him honestly - the veggie dish was VERY good and very much the way we eat it at home.<BR><BR>I know also it was not out of a can --- napa cabbage (which I didn't see available anywhere in Italy) was VERY fresh and I am guessing was grown in the owner's garden. <BR><BR>I also asked the restaurant owner (who I conversed with in Chinese) about the population in Rome and he said yes, there was a reasonable population (which is why you'll see lots of chinese restaurants throughout the streets)....at least I did. <BR><BR>If you can spare a pasta based meal, go for it. I've had MUCH worse chinese food in the US (catering to non-chinese populations).
