March 29, 2011 - 8:09pm
Adventures Abroad: Tasting the food of the gods in Florence
BY MALLORY BEBERMAN
I took Italian to fulfill my language requirement during my freshman and sophomore years at the University and I thought when I came to Florence this semester, my Italian would improve drastically. I’m sorry to say this hasn’t been the case. So maybe this is one problem I have found with the city. There are so many students and tourists residing in Firenze (Florence), that the locals all know English well enough to converse. When I try to speak the little Italian I know, they recognize my American accent and answer back to me in English. It’s extremely frustrating and clearly not conducive to the expansion of my Italian language skills.
But other things definitely make up for this one glitch. For instance, who needs to speak Italian when you can stuff your face with Italian food instead? I’d choose eating over talking any day. The food is really too good to be true. I don’t understand how Italians can be so skinny when the majority of Americans are obese and all Italians eat is bread, bread and more bread. The eating culture here is also miles apart from that of the fast-paced lives we live as students in Ann Arbor. Here, you can’t run into Espresso Royale and pick up a coffee in a paper cup and a yogurt parfait to eat on the run. No way. Rushing and eating “on-the-go” simply don’t exist. Instead, people sit down and leisurely sip a cappuccino. The thought of taking it with you on your way to work is absurd.
The richness of the food here is astounding. Tomatoes as sweet as candy, pizza that puts NYPD to shame, and pastas and meat so fresh you might as well be eating the food of the gods. Let’s just say if you don’t want to gain weight, Italy is not the place for you. The other night I had the best pasta I’ve ever had and it was simple too: rigatoni with melted mozzarella cheese; a sort of baked ziti, if you will. Please someone explain to me how something as basic as pasta with tomato sauce and cheese can taste oh so good.
One of the classes I am taking is called “Pairing Food and Wine.” Basically, we cook a pasta dish and a meat dish, pair them with white and red wine, and decide which wine goes better with each dish. If the wine overshadows the food, it’s no good. If the wine does nothing to enhance the food, it’s doesn’t work either. The two and a half hours that I spend in this class every Monday afternoon have caused me to seriously consider never coming back to Ann Arbor, but instead to stay in Italy eating and drinking ‘til my heart’s content. This past week I made a dish called veal saltimbocca, which is beef wrapped in prosciutto, and pierced together with a few fragrant sage leaves. I should admit, I’ve never before been too keen on touching raw meat and I’ve sparingly eaten pork. But in the spirit of embracing all things Italian, I performed the task and ate the dish in its entirety. It was divine.
