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Bruschetta |
There are as many ways of preparing
bruschetta as spaghetti, but basically it's a slice of stale bread, with
something on top. The bruschetta can be just bread with some oil and
garlic or a slice of bread with some very elaborate stuff on top. Like
with all Italian food, each restaurant makes a point of preparing in
completely different ways dishes with the same name - better check, don't
assume anything.
The best bruschetta I had was also the simplest: a slice of bread, olive oil and a slice of fresh tomato on top. But the kind of tomato you only find in Italy: red, ripe and firm, grown on real soil, under real sun. The gourmet restaurant was a nameless pizzeria, on the outskirts of Rome, near a bus stop - you would never set foot in it, without a local to take you there. |
| Where to eat? | You must have read and heard a lot about
Italian food. So, how come that you are only getting mediocre, tasteless,
expensive stuff?
Probably because you are a tourist. If you go after the "tourist restaurants", exaggerated versions of real Italian eateries, you will get lousy food and clobbered, too. The secret is: follow the locals. No restaurant would dare serve rubbish to an a local: they would get endless grousing and a terrible reputation - they would be out of business within a very short time. When you travel by car, avoid the restaurants with a majority of foreign or out of town cars parked in front. Look for the ones with local registrations - they are likely to be good. If you walk, look inside. If it's full of Italians, it's probably OK. If it's full of tourists - go elsewhere. If you can, ask a local where can you eat well - it usually works. Italians love foreigners and make a lot of money on tourism - but they also know that they can get away with serving them expensive junk - so they usually do. |
