Italian customary Food

Italian traditional food is known for its breathtaking recipes and wines, but often an foremost side of it is secret or even unseen.

This side is what eating means for Italians. It's not just eating, it means much more.

Desserts Food

If you happen in a major Italian city you may find some shops with continued occasion time. But the most close from 1 to 4.30pm. Italians do stop for lunch.

Life has changed in Italy too, not allowing everyone to go home for lunch and maybe take even a rest. But most collective offices close at 2.00pm and the ones that work from 9 to 5 have lunch time, where citizen go to restaurants and have a real meal.

I went to meet a friend who works in a bank office in Rome and we had lunch together. She recommend a small well-known cafeteria (trattoria) where I ate breathtaking potato gnocchi and unforgettable artichokes with potatoes). A real lunch, that is maybe served in luxury Italian restaurants abroad, eaten while a lunch break from job.

This idea lead to another thoughprovoking fact about restaurants in Italy and Italian restaurants abroad.

Usually, the Italian restaurants abroad are good and sometimes luxury restaurants. Very well decorated and often a very pleasant environment, many times tied to society fashions.

In Italy, the luxury and the "environment" are secondary. Often an Italian friend takes you to a very good restaurant, and it looks too poorly decorated. Don't worry, he cares about you, because...you eat breathtaking food, and that's the foremost thing for your friend.

He does not think about taking you to a fashionable place where food is not good. He would fail towards you, and for an Italian, it hurts.

There are so many restaurants in Italy that are quadrilateral spoiled rooms that are honestly not inviting...but their food is wonderful. They just don't reconsider the decoration, but what you're going to eat.

In Italy go out to have supper is also a collective program, as all colse to the world. But what you eat has a stronger role in the whole evening.

Among other cultures, the food may be medium, and citizen talk about other things and have a good evening.

In Italy, may be the most enjoyable people, but if the food is not good, they will feel like the evening was a puny bit wasted for that. They will talk about it, comment it, showing that the food isn't merely part of the evening, but quite the main attraction.

Another side of tradition about Italian food regards eating at unavoidable times, following a established order in eating (never eat a meat dish before the pasta one, for example), and some other small but present rules.

Concerning time, Italians have lunch from 1.00pm to 2.00pm. Most restaurants close at 2.30 pm. It's frustrating for a tourist visiting Rome, for example, to find the cafeteria accomplished at 3pm.

Now some restaurants are contribution separate scheduled times, but these are the tourist restaurants, not the good ones. These keep pasta cooked and re-warm it. It's great not to trust them if you desire a good Italian homemade dish.

A traditional Italian meal begins with the antipasto (which means before the meal). Ordinarily it's "from land"(di terra) or "from sea" (di mare). Those from land are Ordinarily Italian cold cuts, olives, cheese and so on. Those from sea are seafood salad and similar.

After the antipasto comes the first dish, that can be pasta, soup or rice (risotto). After then there's the second, when you can select between meat and fish. It's important to add a side, because in Italy they are not included. If you ask for a steak, it will come by itself, with no French fries or salad.

After that, you can eat fruit and a dessert. Then a good coffee and a liquor called "ammazza caffe" (kill the coffee). It can vary between many choices, being the more used nowadays the lemon liquor (limoncello) and grappa.

At this point, your Italian friend looks satisfied. He will probably rest his shoulders on the back of the chair and take a long breath. After a perfect meal, these few minutes just enjoying it all are honestly needed.

Italian customary Food

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