To eat well in Italy there are guidelines you should know.  I have heard it said that you can’t get a bad meal in Italy – not true!  While most good meals in Italy are better than any great meal anywhere else, you have to know a few things in order to avoid disappointment by picking a bad restaurant or the wrong thing on the menu.  Many was the time that I was at a restaurant in Italy with American friends and they were ambivalent about what they had eaten and envious of my order mostly through their own fault for not listening to my suggestions. (If there’s anything I know, it’s what to eat.  Do not second-guess me on this subject.)  So even though I probably won’t be with you at your next Italian – and I mean Italian in Italy – meal, try to remember these simple rules:

• Read the menu posted outside.  Even if you don’t understand all of the terms, a serious establishment in the tourist areas will include a translation in English beneath each item, in smaller font usually.  If the menu is written solely in Italian, this is okay, actually better.  Serious chefs and restauranteurs are not interested in feeding the masses and won’t take the time to translate.  If you find a place with the menu on a chalkboard with only ten items, it’s probably going to be a memorable meal.  Eat there.
• Don’t get caught in a tourist trap.  How will you know?  If the menu posted outside is written in English, Chinese, Cyrillic, and German, and especially if there are photographs of the menu items,  that would be a tourist trap.  These restaurants cater to tourists and will offer subpar food at high prices.  Their standards don’t need to be as high because, let’s face it, they know that most of us couldn’t come back even if we wanted to; and they don’t need any Italian guests, who would demand better quality. (Italians are extremely fastidious about the food they eat and are known to chastise their own mothers if the pasta water has been under salted.)
• Eat Seasonal Foods.  By this I mean that you should order food prepared with fruits and vegetables that are in season, but it goes deeper than that: eat heavy stuff in cold weather, light stuff in hot weather.  It’s quite simple, but Americans don’t get it.  Lasagne, pasta with Bolognese sauce, gnocchi with gorgonzola, are winter dishes.  Spring and summer dishes are risotto alla primavera, pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil, fried artichokes.  You can certainly order lasagne with bolognese in the summer (if it’s offered it’s probably by popular demand from tourists), but the fresh choices are going to be better.  If you’re not sure, though…

•  Just ask!  Waiters and restaurant owners love to hear the words “what do you suggest?”  Eating is more important than breathing to an Italian, and they are happy to share their opinions with you.  Often, here in the States, you may ask your waitress to describe a dish to you only to hear that she’s never tried it so she doesn’t know what’s in it.  Never happens in Italy.

• Eat Regionally.  This is harder and you should do some research on local specialties, but, in general, eat seafood near the ocean, fish near lakes, pork inland, and steak in Florence.  Again, just ask, “what is your local specialty?”

•  Don’t have dinner at an outdoor café.  My friends wanted to have an afternoon snack in Piazza Navona, in Rome, chose an outdoor table at the famous Tre Scalini Café and proceeded to order wine and a plate of cheese and crackers!  There was a Russian family near us having pizza and some sort of spaghetti dish, which looked almost as unappetizing as the lit cigarettes held in their non-dominant hands while eating.  You are all crazy, I thought as I scarfed down an ice cream sundae.  Naturally, the wine was mediocre, the cheese plate was anemic, and everyone wanted my gelato and I wasn’t sharing.  (By the way, cheese, crackers, and wine  isn’t a thing in Italy.  They go to dinner on an empty stomach with very big intentions.  A mid-day snack while out and about is usually gelato.)  

My next post on Eating Well in Italy will include more tips on gelato, pizza, doggy bags, and what not to eat in Italy.

 

 

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