Italian Food

Everywhere
Obviously, no matter where you are in Italy you can find pasta, pizza, cappuccinos, and gelato. Gelato is particularly refreshing at this time of year when temperatures soar to 90-100 degrees regularly. The trick becomes to eat your gelato (and maybe photograph it) before it becomes just another puddle on the sidewalk. I've largely been unimpressed by the bread. It usually doesn't have any flavor and is often unsalted or hard. The Brioches are very good though, especially for someone with a sweet tooth like myself.


Venice
I had some great dining experiences in Venice. The first night there Kevin and I randomly chose a restaurant near the Ponte Rialto. Our criterion for choosing it was based on two things: 1) that they were willing to serve dinner at the early hour of 7, and 2) that they had risotto, an Italian specialty. We sat down and ordered the Black Cuttlefish risotto, the raviolis, a dish of fried vegetables, and fried calamari. The raviolis were AMAZING, the risotto was also very good, but had an unexpected side effect, the calamari was very salty, so I loved it and Kevin thought it was OK, and the fried vegetables were not great. When Italians do vegetables, they don't flavor them and they cook all the juice right out of them. Mostly when the menu says vegetables it means eggplant, and in my opinion, there's nothing worse than dry, unsalted eggplant. Maybe I'm just spoiled having tasted the wonder of chinese eggplant dishes. The risotto was really good, but neither Kevin nor I were really ready for the fact that the ink from the cuttlefish would end up all over our mouths. Silly, in retrospect, but unexpected none the less! The photo is slightly blurry, because of the lighting, but you get the idea...

I had two other notable dining experiences in Venice, both at similar "Osterias." Defined by splendid table, an Osteris is "A tavern or humble restaurant where wine is served as the main attraction and tasty food is prepared to wash it down". It is a perfect description. Both Osterias I tried were small, one had only two tables and the other none, with customers instead utilizing a long counter attached to the wall. I was at first intimidated and almost decided to go elsewhere by both places as they were crawling with old, Italian men. But I garnered my courage and am so glad I did. The panini, or little sandwiches, were the best I've had anywhere. So tasty. I wish I could tell you what they were but everything was in Italian so I just pointed randomly. If ever I go back to Venice, I will certainly be going to those Osterias.

Parma
The food in Parma is very good. You may or may not know, but Parma is famous for its Prosciutto, thinly sliced pig, and Parmesian Reggiano, which we all put some form of on our pasta at home. In fact, all types of pig meat are very popular in Parma and every dinner that I ate at a restaurant (three) started with a monstrous plate piled high with at least 5 types of pig meat. At first I eagerly tasted them all, but then I got kind of sick of it. One particularly interesting form was the thinly sliced pig fat--it looked just like someone had opened a can of Crisco and delicately shaved some layers off the top. In fact, it tasted a lot like it too. I didn't eat much of it. The pasta was delicious, usually in the form of ravioli and bathed in olive oil and cheese. Along the same lines, I had some amazing gnocchi. Again, the vegetables were not great, and if the menu said the pasta came with vegetables, you could expect one tiny cube of eggplant swimming in your bowl of pasta.

As for beverages, of course, the wine was good (as far as I could tell). I tried my first bubbling red wine--the equivalent of champagne but red. It was ok, refreshing, but not really my idea of wine. As for other drinks, I typically downed around 4 cappuccinos per day. I am used to taking a full cup of drip coffee and nursing it for about a and a half hours, especially when attending classes. The cappuccino does not allow for such luxury. Even if you nurse it it's gone in about 2 minutes. Also, I learned halfway through the week that Italians find it very distasteful to order a cappuccino after 10 in the morning. One of my classmates went as far as calling my roommate Jessica and I "barbarians" for doing it so frequently (joking, in a serious way). To avoid the dirty looks, we instead ordered caffe freddo, or iced coffee after 10. Although it was good, I'm really looking forward to my regular old drip coffee.

The last notable food to describe is the pizza I ate for lunch nearly every day. At the university's cafeteria (albeit the fancy one for rich students) you have the option of ordering an entire, freshly made pizza. AND, you get to watch it made, starting from a ball of dough right in front of your eyes. I was astounded by how well the woman behind the counter could whip out 5 pizzas in close succession. And they were really good too--the crust was thin, but that was good because you got a whole medium sized pizza. I can't imagine eating it if it had a thick crust.

Trento
Trento had nothing really extraordinary food-wise, EXCEPT, a street cart that was a block from my hostel. There I got the best kabob I've ever had. Well, it certainly was good anyway. Partly, I think it hit the spot because so much Italian food is rich, cheesy, or oily. I find myself really craving spicy flavors, or just anything that isn't creamy and rich. The kebob did the trick.