Italian Food

Others may dispute this, but I happen to think Italy is the food capital of the world. Italians, I think, would back me up on this. And really, whether or not you agree doesn’t change the fact that millions of people visit Italy every year to satisfy a hunger for more than just Renaissance art.

While non-Italians tend to think of “Italian food” as one homogeneous menu, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Italy is intensely regional, and a dish considered one city’s signature will be unheard of 100km down the road. This is one of the many reasons why ordering a good restaurant’s daily special is a great way to sample what’s truly local. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

My Articles About Italian Food
Here are a few of the things I’ve written here about Italian food:

• Gelato is a food group in my Italy. Here’s a primer to help you figure out what all those gelato flavors really are. (And that’s not including the semifreddo!)
• Next, you’ll want to learn how to order gelato in Italy. Unfortunately, it’s not always as straight-forward as you’d like.
• Finally on the gelato front, I don’t want you wasting time on bad gelato - so here are my tips to finding the good gelato in Italy.
• Next to gelato, Italian coffee probably also deserves its own food group. And unfortunately, all that supposed authentic lingo you think you’ve picked up from Starbucks over the years isn’t going to help you much in Italy. Check out my Italian coffee 101, including a vocabulary list, for your re-introduction to this black gold.
• If your pasta vocabulary doesn’t go beyond spaghetti, then check out just a few of the more than 350 Italian pasta names.
• Looking for a cheap-ish way to eat dinner and still feel stylish and hip? Then check out aperitivo in Italy.
• Don’t let not understanding Italian keep you from non-touristy restaurants. Here are a few menu tips for Italy, and the book no Italy traveler should be without.
• Travelers always debate whether or not to tip in restaurants, because each country has a different set of norms. It’s a bit complicated in Italy, but you can read more about tipping in Italy before you go and find out what the “cover charge” in a restaurant actually covers.
• And to help you decipher the differences between an “osteria” and a “trattoria,” here’s an overview of the different kinds of restaurants in Italy.
• If, on the other hand, you’re renting an apartment in Italy, staying in a hostel with a kitchen, or are a budget traveler who’s doing picnic lunches to save money - or if you, like me, think that Italian markets are as worth visiting as the churches and monuments - then read up on the Italian market rules so you don’t commit a faux pas while trying to buy.
• And if you want to take it a step further, why not sign up for one of the many cooking schools in Italy?
• The Home Food organization invites travelers into the homes of real Italians for authentic meals - I went to a Home Food dinner in Milan, and it was fantastic.

>> I didn’t write this, but I think it’s handy - a list of the different kinds of stores where you’ll shop for food (and other necessities) if you’re renting an apartment in Italy, and even a suggested shopping list for that first trip to the store.

WhyGo Italy Recipes
I’m not the cook in my house, but here are a few recipes that I’ve posted on WhyGo Italy:

• Strawberry Gelato Recipe
• Limoncello Recipe
• Chocolate Gelato Recipe
• Italian Lentil Soup Recipe
• Fried Zucchini Flowers Recipe
• Pasta alla Carbonara Recipe
• Tiramisu Recipe

>> You can find them all in my WhyGo Italy Recipe Box - Italian Classics You Can Make at Home!

Where to Eat in Italy - City by City
I’m working on compiling lists of specific places to eat in Italy’s most visited cities, and will post the links here when they’re done. Keep in mind with these lists that things change - in addition to the hours and prices potentially fluctuating, the quality of a restaurant can also change over time. So use these lists only as a starting point, and then be sure to check out the menu yourself before you sit down to see if it still looks appealing.
Where to Eat in Venice
Where to Eat in Rome - Coming soon!
Where to Eat in Florence - Coming soon!
Where to Eat in Milan - Coming soon!

Why Italian Food is So Fabulous
Perhaps the thing that makes Italian food so appealing, both to those who eat it and those who make it, is the focus on high-quality ingredients and simplicity of the recipes. You’ll sometimes hear that every great Italian dish has only three ingredients, and while that’s often not true, you won’t find complicated dishes in most of the country’s family restaurants. Instead of complex flavors or processes, Italians choose instead to use the best fresh ingredients they can find - only what’s in season and available locally - and then not screw them up by adding a bunch of extras. This means that no matter what kind of restaurant you’re eating in, as long as it’s not one set up just for tourists you’re going to eat well.

Italy’s Regional Cuisine
Because each of Italy’s regions has specialties which will only be found there, it’s impossible to really list all of the things to look for in each region here. And such an exercise would be pointless, anyway, because someone else has already done it. The book I never leave home without when I’m going to Italy is The Hungry Traveler: Italy by Pat Mozersky. This pocket-sized guide is jam-packed with all the information a foodie in Italy needs, even if you don’t speak a word of Italian. It’s got sections on “comfort foods” (for those times when you’re just craving a taste of home but aren’t desperate enough to go under the Golden Arches), market buying tips (if you want to try your hand at cooking) and Italian beverages, but the most valuable sections in my opinion are the menu primer (an alphabetical guide to most menu-related words so you can decipher what you’re reading on those Italian menus) and the guide to regional and seasonal specialties. The latter part of the book is broken down by region, so you can read all about the region you’re visiting to find out what it’s known for in the food department. It goes without saying that a regional specialty is the thing you want to order, and with this handy book you not only know what the regional specialty is, you learn how to pronounce it. Fantastico.

Home Cooking is Always Best
If you’re a serious - dare I say professional? - foodie, you’ll know two things about Italy already - that the famous Slow Food movement was born here, and that the best cooking is usually done in home kitchens. In an excellent marriage of these two things, the Home Food organization has created a network of Italian home cooks throughout the country who are willing to open their homes to and share a meal with visitors. Italians pay an annual premium to be a part of the organization, but tourists need only pay a small monthly fee for the time you’ll be visiting Italy. Then you’ll pay a per-person charge for each dinner you attend. The homes run the gamut from tiny apartments to expansive palazzos, but all the cooks are screened to make sure they’re proficient in cooking regional specialties with local and seasonal ingredients. For foodies, this is something akin to gastronomic heaven.

Golden Arches Be Damned
Of course, there will be some among you for whom eating is not considered a pastime. You don’t want to spend your precious vacation time sitting in a cafe for a two-hour lunch, and you cringe at the idea of spending more than €50 on a nice meal for two. Let me say that while I understand there are people like you out there, I don’t understand you. I am one of those people for whom great meals are some of the best souvenirs, especially when traveling in Italy. I avoid fast food places like the plague, and if a restaurant’s menu is translated into several languages I steer clear of that, too. If food is absolutely not an interest for you, however, there are fast food places you’ll recognize in almost every Italian city and lots of tourist-focused restaurants where you won’t have to worry about not being able to read the menu. Still, I encourage you to step outside your comfort zone and have one gloriously slow evening at a restaurant where no one speaks English. Do it for me - and for your soul.

Tipping & Service Charges
When you’re traveling, it’s one of those questions that you often don’t think about until you’re faced with a bill at a restaurant - then it dawns on you, “Wait, am I supposed to tip here?” Well, if you’re reading this before your trip to Italy, you’re in luck - I’ve covered both tipping in Italy and service charges in Italy, so you’ll be armed with all the information you need.

Gelato
No matter whether you’re a foodie or not, you’ll enjoy one of Italy’s greatest contributions to the gastronomic world - gelato. I’ve got a major sweet tooth, and gelato is probably one of my favorite things about Italy. If you’re out there thinking that gelato is just Italian ice cream, let me set the record straight - gelato is actually made differently than ice cream, as it’s made with whole milk rather than cream. That means that it’s less fattening than ice cream, folks. So when I recommend that you eat at least two scoops of gelato every day while on vacation, that’s not as crazy as it sounds!

The quality of Italian gelato will vary from shop to shop and from region to region, but you’ll be able to find the good stuff easily with my guide to good gelato. And you won’t need to speak any Italian at all to order the flavors you want with my guide to Italian gelato flavors!

Because I love food, I have a tendency to write about Italian food quite a bit on the Italy Logue. You can browse through all the posts I’ve written about Italian food if you don’t believe me.

And check out the information about vineyards in Italy, too - even those of us who aren’t even close to being wine snobs can appreciate the history of Italian wine-making!