Hello! It´s been a while since I have written anything, basically because so many things have happened so quickly. One of the best things that happened was having one of my best friend from Panamá, come visit us in Italy with his girlfriend; it was so amazing to see them again and spend some time eating and drinking around.
During their visit, I thought a lot about the fact that most people travel and never have the chance to experience real local food. If they had come with, for example, a tour group or something, they would go eat at specific restaurants that have menus designed for tourists, with fake "italian" dishes that are nothing but overpriced trash. We wanted to offer them a more authentic experience, like taking them to a caffe and have breakfast like all normal italians do: a coffee and a brioche. The coffee in the morning is usually served with milk (caffè latte or cappuccino), because for the rest of the day they drink expresso coffee. The brioche is a soft bread similar to the croissant, filled with chocolate, cream or fruit jam. That is your typical italian breakfast, not the continental or american breakfast that thousands of tourists are eating right now inside their hotels, missing completely the experience of sitting in the caffè with old guys talking about politics or reading the newspaper. You pay 1.50 euro for a fresh, high quality coffee and brioche, more than 6 euro for an "american" breakfast" made for tourists. Not worth it. If you want eggs and bacon, eat them at home.
We had lunch at my house, I cooked spaghetti carbonara and my husband made calamari al sugo; before eating we introduced them to the italian tradition of the aperitivo, which is having a drink (you can have anything you want but it is quite common to have a white wine, prosecco, spritz or a beer) and some snacks to stimulate your appetite. After the meal, you have a coffee (espresso) and then it is normal to have a little shot of "amaro" , that is a slightly bitter liquor used as digestive. In the restaurants located in tourists areas, there is nothing of this; no aperitivo, no primo piatto, secondo piatto, contorno, etc. They just offer one single dish because they think that is what tourists are used to eat, and that's it. Again, in these restaurants you only find overpriced pizza and pasta, made with low quality ingredients because, it's for tourists.
Italy is best known for its wines, but a lot people forget to give a chance to beer. We live in the north of Italy and there are excellent wines available everywhere, but it is also true that the more north you are, the more you can see the influence of Germany mixed in with the italian culture. Here in Trento you can eat pizza and pasta of course, but you will find more restaurants offering typical trentino food like canederli (bread dumplings), polenta, spinach gnocchetti, sausages, and stinco di maiale (pork knuckle, roasted). Beer bars or birrerias are everywhere, so of course we visited them, and tasted excellent german beers in 1 litter mugs with pretzels and speck (a type of smoked ham). In Milan we visited a nice craft brewery, and please don't expect to find little tasting samples in an italian craft brewery; beer comes in two sizes: piccola (25cl to 40cl) and media (half litter).
Fast food is another issue. There are McDonalds if you want. I recently read that self-serve kiosks are still being introduced in some states in the USA and that people were complaining about losing their jobs. Here the self-serve kiosks are more than a year old, nobody complained, nobody lost their job, and McDonalds is still hiring staff. But that is not the point. The point is that fast food and street food in Italy might not be what tourists think. I remember going to Naples once, and you find a lot of authentic italian street food such as pizza fritta (fried pizza), arancini (rice balls fried, filled with meat, sauce and/or cheese) and other things. But the reality of the common italian citizen, is that the most popular fast food is the kebab. Kebap or kebab, is a traditional middle eastern dish, where the meat is formed into a giant roll and cooked on a vertical grill; then the meat is sliced and served on bread with vegetables and sauce. Kebabs here are everywhere, you can order your kebab meat on a piadina (italian flatbread) or a panino (round puffy bread) or even on top of your pizza. And don't worry about the calories, the meat they use is mostly turkey meat.
We did have an unpleasant experience in a restaurant... we arrived in Verona very hungry, it was in the middle of the afternoon so most restaurants and pizzerias were not open yet for dinner, and our only choice was a a restaurant close to the center that looked suspiciously very american. My husband warned us; he said that the food was probably shit and we should find something else. But we were hungry and decided to give it a try. It was a big dissapointment. The pizza was made from frozen pizza dough, the ribs tasteless, the fries also from frozen bags, and the hamburguer not even close. Even the beer on tap tasted weird. I was so sad, because this restaurant had a lot of customers, all foreigners, innocent travelers that were getting the wrongest idea of italian food ever. We washed down our dissapointment afterwards with some good vin brulè (spiced wine, served piping hot, on the street, during winter season).
And talking about winter season, we had a wonderful experience in the Mercatino di Natale which is the temporary street market that cover the plazas of the main cities during the month of December, where you can find everything that is Christmas related. We actually visited two of them already, one in Verona and one here in Trento. This is another story, because in the mercatini you can see a lot of tourists, even coming by bus, but what they sell is premade crappy touristy souvenirs... what you find are the most beautiful and original handmade christmas ornaments made by experienced crafters, organic cosmetics, handwoven wool scarfs, and so on. And of course there is the food; from the farmer directly to the mercatini you can buy artisanal cheeses and charcuterie, or try in one of the many food stands a wide variety of typical dishes made with local meat and fresh ingredients. Craft beer and local wine complete the offer. If you are a tourists, at least eat at the market, and absorb from everyone of your pores the beauty of experiencing a different culture.
Cheers and Merry Christmas!