An Italian Job!

When you want to really eat some pizza near Pisa, where do you go? Fly to Italy. Yes! Italy has always tugged at my heartstrings with her beautiful Murano glass, with her renaissance art paintings, with her Catholic hymns and songs, with her Sicilian gang stories, and mostly with her food.

(This was the first thing I shot on my first day. The only marketing gimmick I saw in the whole of Italy. Yeah, authentic 'Roman' water ;). We do that a lot in Kerala. hehehe.)

As I had written earlier, after Indian food, I love Italian food. It is not because they both start with an 'I' but it is because it is 'I' as in love. I have this nice warm image of their food cooked with much passion, pots stirred by the chubby little Italian mothers and grand moms. The sauces, the breads, the pasta, the 'ooo ma olive oil'. She reminds me of Kerala with her oil fanaticism. Just like a Malayalee would swear by the coconut oil, Italians would kill for Olive oil.

All we ate was street food and skipped the restaurants. This made our food costs much lower, got the real local flavor and could move between places much faster. So here are some quick shots I found interesting.

(Italy is dotted with small coffee shops like these, where you can get a quick drink or a bite to phonecards. They are called Tabacchi.)

(The rich fruit cake to the many Italian desserts)

(Pizza, Pasta, Rice, Panini, Sandwiches. Choice is unlimited even for a quick bite)

(Italian Gelato. I asked the shop owner whether what he served was the real authentic Italian gelato and he got mad at me. hehe. Maybe he is the Gelato Nazi there.)

(Sicilian fried rice balls)

I was in a small shop in a quaint little town in Florence, Italy and asked the shop owner whether I could take some freshly pressed olive oil in a plastic bottle. And that pleasant sweet man frowned at me. No, he threw up his hands in horror.

"You Americans, don't respect Olive oil", he said. "Never store olive oil in plastic bottle". Ha! I wanted to show him the Olive oil in plastic bottle that lines up in Wal-mart to Costco. He told me I could take some Chianti wine in a plastic bottle, but not olive oil.

--These olives are from November, you know we had a bad season for olives. So the price is little bit up. This will be very bitter. As olive oil ages the bitterness goes away. But we Italians love the bitterness. Only in Tuscany you get the best olives. Up North it is too cold and down south, it is hot.

(This is the shop where I bought some freshly pressed olive oil. All those barrels are wine.)

He was excited to explain to me in his broken Italian accented English. Being so used to pushy cunning salesmen, Italian shop owners were a surprise. They were sweet and kind, telling me what I shouldn't buy and sometimes even telling me the shop I should really explore and not waste time at their shop. You could just stand and talk to them for hours and they would never ask you to buy anything. It was like good old times where you never 'buy' but you build a relationship with the store.

(Roasted Water chestnuts on the streets. I was reminded of Indira. This is the first time I am having them and guess what does it taste like? Roasted jackfruit seeds. Jeez! I am too much of a Malayalee as I always try to find parallels with Kerala food. But really it tasted like roasted jackfruit seeds. If not, I would tell so, right? :) )

(Where else to have the famous Tiramisu other than in Italy?)

(Look at that Salami! - It was perfect)

(All this for nine Euros. Didnt I tell you street food was cheap?)

(Italian Olive trees dot their parks and their streets are dotted with orange trees. Even their tiniest homes have grape vines hanging on small trellis. They are passionate. Aren't they?)

Italians buy their wine, oil, cheese locally. They have not yet embraced the supermarket-everything-made-in-some-far-flung-place-colorfully-packeted-and-marketed system. They bring their old bottles to buy wine, or else if you want a new bottle you are charged one Euro more. Life looks much simpler there reminding me of India a lot.

(Well, Isint that coconut? Do they eat coconut slices? Didnt I tell you Italians are from Kerala? :-). This is a small fruit shop)

As we know, slow food movement started in Italy and it clearly showed when you visit restaurants and small coffee shops. They really eat, not shove it down the throat with a large coke.

My biggest surprise was the less or minimal use of plastic while serving food. Even at the smallest quick coffee shops, we got everything in china. No plastic plates, no plastic spoons and no plastic mugs.
--Wow! So, you mean you really clean the plates and don't throw them away? Really? We do that in U.S only at organic stores.
--Organic?
--Oh that's the new fad in U.S, never mind
(Well, pizza it is and pizza it will be. Tuna toppings. Pizza tastes heavenly in Italy. I have heard this a hundred times while in U.S and yes I do agree. After this the Pizza here tastes like cardboard)

After the daily travel and being a tourist for weeks, back in the plane to U.S all I could think of was having a plate of kuthari rice with some fish curry and I was repeating this recurring dream to my husband dear. When I travel, I am on full alert and hardly get any sleep and I can do this for weeks, but when I am really home I hit the bed for a deep slumber. I slept straight for fourteen hours and what do I find when I wake up? He had prepared some fish curry and rice. He, who rarely enters the kitchen except for an occasional coffee and still gets confused by salt and sugar, Well, that was the best part of my vacation.

(Back home with the real olive oil and some crisp Sicilian bread)

(I hate it when someone gives wrong information about India or her food, so please go ahead and correct me If I have given any wrong information)