Blog #1
Having been in Italy for just over a week I’ve learned a few things. One is that everything here takes time. If you want to eat food fast, go to McDonald’s and even then you’ll wait longer than in the U.S. The food here is good because it takes time, nothing is made quite the same at each restaurant you go to, and the food is a very personal experience. Many Italians identities are tied directly to the food they serve you. I was at a nicer dinner and we had made it to dessert, I had already eaten prior to dinner, which made me significantly less hungry while eating dinner. By the time we got to dessert, I was full and only took a few bites, just to try the Mille Feuille, a common Italian dessert that has cream and wafers and lots and lots of chocolate. (At least where I ate.) When the waiter came to take our dessert plates he asked me three, yes THREE, times if something had been wrong with the dinner and dessert, I reassured him that it was all delicious but felt like I had offended him, personally. While walking through a small town grocery store I found the variety startling, but also reminiscent of the variety of American products in a U.S. store located outside the U.S. As if the people in my neighborhood are missing something from somewhere in Italy, despite being in Italy. My expectations of food were far surpassed upon arrival, I naively thought of Italian food as the few products my old 3rd generation immigrant roommate whose family came from Sicily showed me my freshman year. From Muffaletta from her grandfather’s company to the Pasta alla Arrabbiata she would make for us. Don’t even get me started on the alfredo sauce she could make from scratch. While all of that was delicious and flavorful and not overly complicated. The food in Rome is just so easy, and maybe it’s just being in the Eternal City but everything here just tastes better.
One of the things we’ve talked about in class from our readings is the regionality of Italian food, there is no one Italian food. Depending on the region you’re in in Italy you’ll have completely different meals and kinds of foods from another part of Italy. However, this doesn’t surprise me. My mom is Filipino and while we have a similar basis for many dishes, everything is slightly different depending on where you’re eating in the country. I find that the vast differences between the regions of Italy are what makes it greatly unique. As for the idea of Italian food not being peasant food I have to agree, the advertisements that show a country farmer eating a huge Italian dinner is unrealistic even now.
A short bit about me, my name is Analise, I’m a senior at Loyola University Chicago. I’m studying Film and Digital Media Production because I love movies and I love making people happy and movies are one way to do that. My interests stretch from Archeology and history, music, sports and food to whatever else you can think of. I absolutely will try anything once. I’m interested in new experiences and adventures and I want to live a life where I’ll never be bored. Which might be why I like so many different things and keep myself busy with lots of activities. I’m taking Italian culture food and wine because I wanted to go to culinary school right out of high school, ultimately I had to go to a four-year academic university. But I still dream about opening my own restaurant one day and I’d like to gain as much knowledge about food and drinks as I can before that day comes. Along with not wanting to be bored, I felt that by opening myself up to a class like this I could expand my opportunities. I could find out that I’m really good at distinguishing different kinds of cheeses or wines and then make a career out of that. I’m from Texas but I’m a military brat so I’ve moved around my whole life. I have been to Italy before and as a middle schooler spent one week each summer in the North of Italy outside of Pisa, although I didn’t have quite such a refined palate then as I do now so my diet consisted of pizza and nocciola gelato. I’m looking forward to eating, drinking and embracing the culture of my host country for the next three months.
