Italy... The Food and Drinks

If one sleeps well, he eats well... and if he eats well, he is surely in for a gastronomic orgasm in everything he tastes!

As you wake up, the thought of that first cup of coffee and something to nibble along lingers vaguely in your mind. On a chill spring morning in Italy, after a lazy morning shower, you would hurriedly get dressed to find the nearest coffee bar. And that’s what I did every day. The robotic arms of a tender working his way on the equally fast, yet complex espresso machine, does catch your entry from the corner of his eye. A short and brisk “Buon Giorno” and he is back to his love of his life, making the best ristretti one would ever imagine. A ristretti is no humble coffee for the common coffee drinker. It is pure liquid adrenaline and has a tendency to keep the tourist on his feet all day. The warm smell of cornetti freshly being lined up for the customers’ tingles a very soft corner of your palate. Be it the residents or the tourists, the quintessential breakfast I witness being consumed day-in day-out in Rome is a coffee – either a simple caffè (espresso) or cappucino with a cornetti, normally just a cornetti.

The Streets in Italy are lively, full of expressive Italians and hurried tourists. But the one thing that stays still, are the tables on the streets. It is visually so appealing that it touches that part of your brain that tingles the hunger pangs! Be it lined up at the perimeters of a Piazza or by the already narrow streets, be sure to find at least a few cafe's every corner. The dim lighting, a smiling host, the chattering customers and the smell of a fresh wood fired Pizza.... hummppphhh.... makes me hungry writing about it!

Walking into the bi-lanes of Italy and be sure to find a mercato where locals and tourists who like to experiment with local produce, tend to buy their ingredients to create their Italian dish. One of the markets that I landed up was the Mercato at Campo de' Fiori in Rome. The freshest greens, olive oil produced from some of the nearby regions, Cheese to favor all taste buds and some home made grappa to work on your appetite are all here. As you walk around, listening to the competing shouts of the stallholders and letting an idea of the seasonal delicacies to sink in, you are already working up that great meal of seduction in your mind.

A stroll to the nearby and rather medieval part of Rome called Trastevere, would leave a mixed emotion in your mind. Initially it seemed like a seedy place, more of a working-class enclave in the heart of Rome, but one can soon fall in love with the down-at-the-heel vibrancy of the cobbled lanes. Furniture workshops stood cheek by jowl with the churches, orange trees competed with restaurants parasols for every square inch of sunlight, and the hereby odour of cannabis mingled with the smells of fresh coffee and pizza. Speaking of Pizza's, well not only are the hosts smiling and hugging, a gleaming waiter lists down an entire book (supposedly the Menu) with Pizza's called out. Pizza's made with Parmesan, Buffalo Cheese, Neapolitan styled, Mozzarella... I mean, the list is endless. Roman fashioned Pizzas: Thin slivers of dough, as crisp as poppadums, slathered with a sauce of tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. As simple as that, yet every 20kms you would travel, the taste some how changes. To a trained palate, it must be an extravaganza to gorge down these bursts of flavors. Locals say that traditionally, the correct cooking time of a Roman pizza is the length of the time the cook can hold his breadth. If done rightly, the pizza would end up crisp underneath but leaving the sauce still liquid. Every pizza takes you to a mental journey to some parts of Italy that one would have probably never experienced, but dreamed of for sure.

And to add to them, the Spaghetti is truly blissful. The cream and cheese just melt in your mouth and  if you are having the tomato based dishes, by the love of god they tingle every taste bud. The cheese needs to be inhaled and be sure that you would be transported to some of the tiny pastures of the hilly country-side around Rome. Tasting some of the cheese around the mercato, one in particular stood out for my palate. Being spring around the time of my travel and from the recent winter feed, this particular cheese had a touch of silage in the scent clubbed with aromas of fresh grass. Once you consume a small bite of the divine food of Italy, the faintest tang of thyme starts to emerge, which grows wild in the meadows and had been eaten by the sheep along with the grass. Cheese... a New meaning all together from here onward!

Predominantly one would find three types of restaurants in Rome. The most common would be to find the local osterie, most of which serve only Roman cooking. It is traditional cooking with ingredients sourced from markets and meat vendors. Every part of the meat is considered in such cooking and the recipe is passed down from generation to generation. While the traditional Romans are deeply suspicious of experimenting, a new type of restaurants seems to be emerging  along wit the osterie. locally known as cucina creativa, takes the tradition and experiments with it to cater to the variety of tourists flooding the streets. The third is gourmet, which the ordinary Roman would probably pass his entire life without ever setting foot inside one of them. It seemed that the newer-younger generation tends to experiment in a few larger cities though.

To experience some real street food, once has to hit the nooks and corners of every street and speak to a few locals. Someone in Florence said, that I must try two things, Limoncello and Lampredotto. And I was off hunting for one of the vendors stirring the hot pan of curry for the bun filled dish called Lampredotto. It was truly a delight to taste and boy would I have missed it if someone had asked me later. What a dish! Street food Bliss...! The right amount of Green Basil sauce and Red Chili sauce to create excitement and voila, A burger of sorts to create more than excitement. If you read what the dish means online, you may never taste it in your life, so try not to find out what a Lampredotto is! A few blocks away and we had this wine store giving out samples of all the local produce. Among them was this yellow milky textured drink called Limoncello. Made from Lemon (An idiot would have guessed it as well), the drink is smooth and surely potent for a shot. It is widely had across Southern Italy and as I got the taste for it, I was sampling and sipping the lovely drink all over the country. The best was some that I tasted at a Limoncello Laboratory at Capri though. Loved it and brought back some to remind me of the good times.

What is a plate of hot Pizza or Spaghetti made to combo with??? Beer! Well at least that's what I thought. Peroni out of the Tap was such a bliss. It is crisp, light and refreshing and is perfect to wash down that heavy, cheesy spring noon lunch. For once I preferred the tap version better than the Bottled version. The evenings start with an orange colored drink with a Lemon wedge. Once I found this drink on every table, I had to have one to figure out its fame. They call it the "Spritz". It is usually had as an apertif and is a mix of some sparkling wine and with some bitter liqueur such as a Campari or Aperol. To me, the drink tasted very bitter by any standards.

Speaking of Beer, for some reason and by chance, during my walks in the winding streets of Florence, I landed up at an Irish Pub. The place literally takes you to one in Ireland. Football match listing at the entry, Lot of hand written t-shirts pinned up the roof and not to miss, Guinness taps to spark your wild side. The unfortunate part was we landed at noon, and there were a few tourists sipping on one the Guinness dark. Lapo, our friendly Bartender did good with some bar table talk and tell us that the nights does get loud-and-wild all through the week. I always wanted to get to an Irish pub, drink Beer all night, sing aloud during a football match and get into a brawl... this was the nearest I could probably get to (Fingers Crossed, next trip maybe Ireland!)

As you find your way past other tourists and locals equally, you would find Romans and their belief in eating well and drinking to your hearts full. I remember two boards peeking through the low hanging creepers from a few places that I hope to imbibe in my life as well. 
1. "La vita e` troppo breve per non bere e mangiare bene!" - Life is too short to not drink and eat well!
2. "Anni, amori, e bicchieri di vino, nun se contano mai"- Years, lovers, and glass of wine, these things must not be counted.

Not surprising, a romantic dinner is not very common around. The ordinary Italian would rather eat under floodlights than by the candlelight. I think it comes from the cook to judge the blissful expressions on the faces of diners. A particular dinner at Venice was spent in such a fashion. Fresh catch of Salmon grilled in honey and spices with some Fries and a large wedge of juicy lemon... Aaaghhhh... It was the best fish I had tasted in a long time. The smell of mushrooms combined with the hot butter and garlic awaken sensations in parts of you that have remained quiescent for a long time. It was as if these flavors always existed, but now you were tasting them for the very first time. Each course was more intense than the last one. I usually tend to avoid tasting sea food in many places, but this was different. The sun setting at the canal, a glass of Prosecco and some lip smacking food to excite your culinary appetite. It was enough for me to try out some sea-food from the warm Mediterranean waters.

Gelato, the famous pass-time of tourists and Italians like-wise. Starting from the famous "Giolitti", where the endless queues would trickle down the tiny bi-lanes of Rome, to all the smaller Gelateria's one could find in every street (By no means are they less tastier though). You can find a taste for every tourist in town. Tiramisu, Oreo, Snickers, Caramel... ummmm.... mouth watering. They are just so creamy and smooth and that's what probably makes them one of the best in the world. Even with some seriously breezy and cold evenings, we did find more than one occasion to fill ourselves with some fine Gelato.

It would be a crime if come to Italy and not write about their Wine. My trip to the Tuscan region of Florence and a short drive to Chianti took us to "Castello del Trebbio". A 600 year old castle nestled among the painted green hills of Tuscany was truly worth the experience of both wine making and wine tasting. To start of with the tour with the help of a local guide, we first entered the living rooms of the castle, which till today are occupied by the family and have art and furnishing that are probably centuries old. The walls would have been over a meter thick, maybe that's why they stood the tide of time. We took a tour of the cellars deep underground and the huge barrels to understand the ageing process. I always believed that my palette was never really designed to understand the notes of wine, until I sipped down one from these Sherry barrels.

The realization that you have taste buds in those corners of my mouth that have never tasted anything like this before is pertinent. It was like burst of flavors, aroma and the scintillating feel of having to taste one of the best on world, was mind-boggling. After trying one of their whites and one of their reds, we also had the opportunity to taste one of the award winning reserves. Each one was so uniquely enticing. Along with us on the tasting table was a young-at-heart couple and their daughter from America and it did turn out to be quite a session of Wine tasting and conversations. Wine does tend to break the ice on most days. We were given a plate full of salami, some cheese and bread with olive oil produced from their plantations. They were brilliant taste neutralizers and did excite all parts of the tongue differently with wine. 

Italy.... would remember the trip for the vast variety of tastes that each city kindled and the different types of drinks that help me wash down the breads. After spending half the fortune I carried on Food, regret is way of my dictionary. From street food at every osterie to some of the best cucina creativa in town, we tried it all and I would love to do it all over again... Well, that's the wish I made at Blue Grotto!