Beaujolais Noveau

Eat like the Romans

I was lucky enough recently to be invited on a trip to Rome by a fantastic group of people who I hardly knew, but you can be rest assured got to know pretty well in the course of the long weekend! Always central to my travels is sampling the food, and Rome was no exception. The challenge when visiting a bit city like this is twofold: there are a lot of tourist traps and you might not easily find local food, but food from all over the country.

After a trip to the Coloseum, we had lunch at the Pantheon. This restaurant in this very touristy area was certainly not the best, and they did cheat me into giving a double tip, but the pasta was decent. I had a Spahgetti Scoglio (I think -- my Italian is horrible) consisting of les fruits de mer (my French is better), i.e., shellfish, with spaghetti tossed in olive oil, chili, parsley and garlic. Cooked al dente, it was a nice fresh tasting dish for an early lunch.

On our way to meet the others in the group, I jumped into what looked like a promising gelato place. Now Rome has lots of gelato, or ice cream, but this was utterly fantastic. The best. Ice. Cream. Ever. I had a pistachio, which was obviously not colored but had a nice grey-green color, fully nutty taste and creamy consistency that was perfect. My attempts later to find the place (between Pantheon and Piazza Augusto) were in vain, so I must have dreamt it. Despite the picture.

My group was settling down for a second lunch, while I decided to go shopping and dragged along a couple of the girls. We bought lots of nice clothes, saw a beautiful fountain, the spanish steps and had cappuccinos. Later in the evening we all ate a a great restaurant called simply 59, at 59 Via Brunetti. The focus here, as in lunch, was seafood which is important to the Romans. Anti-pasti and an artichoke lasagne was followed by sea bream with a kind of fresh tomato sauce. We struggled with the wine choice but settled on a red Dolcetto for the fish which worked out great.

The next day, hungover as I was, we had coffee at a café at Piazza San Lorenzo, and lunch at a really great restaurant, "Gusto", again at Piazza Augusto Imperatore. The atmosphere was modern and white with popular music coming out the loudspeakers. The waiter with the big arm tattoo really sounded like he was in charge (maybe he was) and knew what he was talking about. He learned our names so he could address us individually! I asked about the best pasta, and he knowingly recommended the "warm spaghetti salad with marinated sea bass", which was a surprisingly unique dish. It was colorful, with a perfect balance of pasta, vegetables including diced peeled tomatoes, cabbage and carrots, and little fish bits. A great but not too filling lunch, so I had room for the luscious tiramisu.

On the way back from lunch I visited the Castel S. Angelo, and found a great little market with a small food stand from Puglia. The young man there did not speak much english but was friendly and helpful. I tasted all his sausages and cheeses, and found something odd, long and flat wrapped in vacuum packing. I asked what it was and he did not know the english word for it, and asked all the passers-by. No one knew (presumably there is no english translation for this speciality), but one older man looked at me intensly and said "Bene! Bene!" an made smacking noises with his mouth. So how could I not buy it? It seems to be some kind of cheese wrapped in speck which can be eaten as is in slices or fried in a pan. Look forward to trying it. Also about pasta and a big jar of anchovies. Yum!

Dinner was salami sandwiches consumed before the violent football game (enough said about that). To calm my nerves after watching crazy Italian football fans clobber each other, we went to a wine bar "Enoteca Antica" which had a delicious Nero d'Avola. I ordered Pizza Capprioccioso which had ham, mushrooms, artichokes, olives and boiled egg. The teasing about my taste for egg on pizza never ended. But damn, it's good!

The last day we had a nice lunch again at the Pantheon, on the other side, where I tried another dish which was new to me. It was paper-thin sliced beef cooked in olive oil, garlic and chili. The first mouthfull got a chili straight down my throat and I nearly choked on it, but after that it became more palatable! :-)

So there you have it, I felt like I got a lot of nice Roman food: street food and restaurant food, regional food, pizza, pasta and seafood. Delightful!