Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Rome- The food-Il Cibo

The food:
I made a promise to myself before leaving London that if I ever get a chance to visit Italy(a country that I love and have always dreamed of visiting) I would try everything I get my hands on. It seemed that for generations the Italians have perfected their cuisine without an immense effort. It just comes naturally! The way that they make simple pastas taste wonderful without using many ingredients what a talent to encompass!




The wine was velvety and rich; it didn’t matter if you ordered the house red because they always seemed to take pride in serving the finest to there guest. And what with the local produce they could not have served anything less. We walked past a gorgeous bar one night and the fairy lights drew us towards the quaint little place. Even though Bothe Joe and I had already polished off a bottle of red with dinner we could not resist enjoying a glass on the way home.


One of my favourite dinners was at a place recommended by one of Rome’s local painters, he suggested Joe and I to walk down a deserted ally way towards a fountain and turn left he said it would be just around the corner. Now in London I’m not sure if I would take advice from a stranger to walk down some random alley way to find a hidden restaurant but when in Rome! We finally got to the little authentic ristorante tucked away behind the fountain lied an understated great little place that screamed Italia! The pasta was freshly made and the diners were far from tourist menus. The night that we dined there was an Italian engagement party which entertained me for the night. The way that the Italians hold and present them self in such a way that everyone in that place could have been a model or an eccentric artist. Little fashionable dogs were placed under the table and occasionally fed bits of anti pastos (was better than the scraps my dogs ever got!).

The Markets
I enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the Italian food market more than I did in Asia as the Italians don’t seem to try and sell you things they simple yell out what they have to offer almost in an opera-esque way! They set up the market with such precise measures and grace, everything has a position and is colour coordinated. It’s like your stepping onto a movie scene and you’re expecting a vesper to fly by and knock you off your feet. This was such a relaxing thing for me to do, there was a certain style about these markets that even the man who was selling the pasta was bellowing out his daily deals in Italian, It felt like a Broadway show and we had front row tickets. As you can see the colours and the arrangements it describes how the Italians are as people, they have a pride in appearance and they are passionate colourful people.They are proud of their local ingredients and know how to cook them well. One of the vegetables that just so happened to be the flavour of the month and Joe was obsessed with were the artichokes. We went for a walk through the local food market and came across an Old Italian guy eating a raw artichoke with a little lemon splashed over to bring out the flavour, so Joe thought he will do as the locals do and try one. He didn’t finish it but at least he tried as did I!



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