...From today:
Woman: "Do you have bacon and eggs every morning?"
Me: "Erm, no. Well, occasionally when I’m in England and not working. Otherwise I normally have cereal."
I'm not putting the bacon on at 6:30am, and even if I had insomnia, it's not easy to find.
Woman: "Do you eat better generally here or in England?"
Me: "Here" *
Woman: "I suppose you can always go to McDonald's or Burger King if you want food from home."
Me: "Prego?" Oh deary deary me.
* "Here" because *generally* the food is better here. Meaning that wherever you go, take away, restaurant, bar, someone's house, the food goes from good to fantastic. Whereas in England some places have no shame in serving trash. They’re much more proud of their food here. This is not to say there is some fantastic food in England, it can be just a bit harder to find :)
Benvenuti/welcome!
A few tales and insights about my daily life and adventures in Naples. Enjoy! ... All words and photos Copyright© 'Delinissima' 2007-2008
17 comments:
And yet, crap or not, I will still eat it. Because it is English, and thus, I cannot usually get it.
I did enjoy a proper English breakfast while I was at home. Mmmmmmm....
The last time I went back I had cooked breakfast a few times during the week, mainly because I was in a hotel and it was "there", calling me. However, when I lived in England full time I'd very rarely have a cooked breakfast.
I make bacon and eggs about once a month. Actually, come to think of it it's usually when I've had a few too many drinks the night before. And to put an Aussie twist to it, I slather the buttered toast with vegmite and put the fried egg on top. yummm....
I just can't believe that ANYONE thinks McDonalds represents American cooking, let alone English cooking. When I still lived in New York and boyfriend visited me there I took him to the Corner Bistro (fantastic burger joint in the back of a bar) and we had the idea of opening a real American style burger place in Rome. I've told a few Italians I know and inevitably their response is "but we already have McDonalds." Do they REALLY think that McDonalds serves real American burgers? That's like saying that the Olive Garden serves real Italian food.
Anyway, Delina - you should tell them all about your fabulous garbage disposal services in your town back in the UK. :)
A real burger place in Rome...That would be *nice*.
From what I've seen, McDs is usually packed with kids here. I think it's more adults in the UK.
Garbage disposal...Hmm. My first lesson would be to pack it in with the plastic plates + cups. They'll see that the rubbish problem halves itself in no time. :)
Ps Where do you get your bacon from Kata?
I'm laughing at the Mickey D comments.
Kataroma, I ate once at an Olive Garden a very long time ago. A friend dragged me there. Even at that young age, I knew it was wrong. The food was foul.
Oh, please, I'm so sick of Italians saying "in America si mangia male, in Inghilterra si mangia male" --- many of these people haven't ever even been there. I ate some wonderful pub grub and delicious food on my last trip, just outside of London visiting a friend. And, in the States you have the good, the bad, and the ugly, but there's no way you can dismiss the entire culinary range of a country just because it's not pasta all'amatriciana!!! And, yes, I have gotten the "you can eat YOUR food at McDonald's" comment too. So ridiculous. Good post!
Delina - I usually just use pancetta since you can't get bacon here (or can you?) When you're a bit hungover eggs, vegemite, toast and pancetta does the trick. :)
I just can't believe that so many Italians feel it's OK to put someone else's food culture down like that. I got a bit of revenge when I went to Paris on holiday. I raved on about the yummy food I'd eaten in paris, the great cakes, fantastic fish, amazing wine...as you can probably imagine certain Italians had steam coming out of their ears. How dare I imply that any cuisine other than Italian is yummy???
See, I just don't get it...not all Italian cuisine is great. Some things that Italians go CRAZY over, I have a hard time getting my mouth to water. Like if you put a plate of pigs feet, snout, or cows tongue in front of me.
People everywhere have such weird ideas about what Americans eat. There are a lot of foodies in America! AND there are a lot of immigrants in America, in fact, unless you are a Native American your ancestors came from somewhere else, which means a lot of people in America are used to eating their own ethnic food! For me, that is Italian-American food - because, yes, I know the difference. My Sicilian grandfather used to eat pigs feet. ick! I am not going for that!
Shelley I'm italiano (so forget my english :)) but I completly agree with you.
Often I'm in UK for work and I *love*, repeat *love* to have a real, original english meals.
I don't understand other italian and their claustrofobic mania's about meal!!!
Ciao!
Hi Jezzdz... ok you right. But give me an example of complete -american- meal.
Could be useful for the future...
Here are a few complete American meals:
Broccoli and cheddar soup
Garden Salad
Baked Potato
T-bone steak
or
Garden salad
Grilled/steamed fresh vegetables
Corn on the cob
Grilled barbeque chicken
Those are meals I would have in my American home.
Anyone else?
Some other "American" foods, some of which were originally brought by immigrants but which have now changed and become American:
-pumpkin pie
-pecan pie
-turkey
-cranberries (cranberry sauce etc.)
-ketchup
-brownies
-red velvet cake
-key lime pie
-New York cheesecake
-bagels with cream cheese and lox (New York specialty)
-Boston baked beans
-New England boiled dinner
-Boston clam chowder
-New England clam chowder
-cobb salad
-waldorf salad
-millions of different kinds of cocktails (martini, sidecar, Manhattans, gin gimlets etc etc)
-tex mex cuisine
-Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina etc (million of different kinds) of barbequed meat
-hamburgers
-coleslaw
-gumbo
-muffelata
-po'boys (a type of sandwich from Louisiana/Texas)
OK...I could go on. There's a lot more to American food than even many Americans realise!
Oh, and I forgot to mention "soul food" ie traditional African American food. I used to live near Harlem in NY and go to some great restaurants in my neighbourhood which had soul food. Typical foods:
-collard greens
-fried chicken
-barbequed meats
-black eyed peas
-biscuits and gravy
-cornbread
-chitlins (sp?)
-sweet potato pie
That's quite a list Kata!
I miss the hearty Brit grub like a good Sunday roast, I've tried to do one here before but it didn't go too well...Bangers and mash...Yorkshire puds...Shepherds pie..I adore the desserts too like jam roly poly and custard. Yummy.
kataroma/mimi thanks for the suggestion!!
I will "google" a little bit to find the specific recipes (I'd like to make some of that by myself)!
Thank you!
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