Foodie Friday-Meal time in Italy!

Ciao ragazzi!

Welcome back!  I hope you’ve all had a great week!  I’ve been pretty busy myself!  My cold is finally giving me enough peace that I can breath again, I found myself an adorable apartment to move into for March through May so I can move out of the tiny hotel I am in and do things like cook in an oven, have breakfast in my PJs, and not have to ask someone for my key every time I enter the building.  I also took the test to transition from B1 to B2 and passed!  Just barely, though I wasn’t the bottom at least.  I blame the combination of being sick for two whole weeks and the tense Passato Remoto… Which is basically the least used and most irregular tense in Italian (and I was out 2.5 days during the week we learned it soooooo, yeah).  I’ve been assured that my grade wasn’t actually bad for B1 but I hold myself to a pretty high standard.  Now I just have to worry about my big bad scary official certification B1 exam in 15 days… GAH!

Okay, so this weekend I am going to a little ‘Merenda’ party and I realized, I haven’t written about what Merenda is on here yet!  So this blog is about the types of meals Italian’s have!

Now, obviously my pictures are examples of what one MIGHT eat as a typical Italian, not what everyone DOES eat.

So lets’s eat!

First: Breakfast-Colazione

So this is my typical breakfast here in Roma and it is a pretty standard Italian breakfast (minus the tea, they drink an espresso, but I was sick).  Breakfast is a quick pastry and an espresso, sometimes some fruit, or yogurt.  Another option if they don’t have cornetti is cereal or a biscotto (a hard cookie) with honey, or jam or nutella, and milk.  Italians keep breakfast light, fast, and sweet.

Second: Lunch-Pranzo

Italians tend to have a pretty healthy diet, so vegetables and meat are both staples of the true Italian diet.  Most Italians eat lunch around 1-2pm, and it’s usually the main meal of the day.  This of course depends on your living situation, your job, and your social plans.  Lunch though is very similar to the States where it’s a salad, sandwich, Pizza al taglio, something similar.  Here in Rome it is easy and relatively cheap to get a little lunch if you know to avoid the touristy places.  I spend about 5 euro for a salad or sandwich, or 3 euro for a slice of pizza!  I prefer light lunch and heavy dinner, but mostly because I don’t have time for an extended lunch.

Third: OPTIONS!!! Merenda-snack/Aperitivi-Aperitifs

So, since Italians have about 6 hours between lunch and dinner, they usually grab something in between.  This can be a sweet, like gelato, fruit, cornetto, biscotto, or pastry (This week I had a cannolo with chocolate ricotta filling… omg…), or it can be some crackers, a slice of pizza al taglio, or you can opt for what they call Aperitivi, which occurs every evening between 5-8pm, and is basically Happy Hour!  In fact they sometimes use the words Happy Hour to advertise to tourists.

This is very similar to the Spanish tapas, where you go to a little bar or restaurant, they have a little buffet at the bar, you pay for your drinks and you get to eat for free!  That’s how it usually works anyway, some places have a fixed aperitivo price.

Now, I don’t know many people who do aperitivi and then dinner… but then I also am done aperitivi around 8 and go home to bed because I’m not a crazy Italian who wants dinner at 10pm, but I am sure it occurs.  If I go for aperitivi I usually am having that for dinner.  Sometimes I’ll grab pizza al taglio afterwards or one time at the restaurant my friend and I decided we wanted some pasta so I had aperitivi and a primo piatto and that was nice!  For me though, I rarely do aperitivi unless it is a social thing.  I grab a merenda instead because it is smaller, faster, and I love gelato.

Fourth: Dinner-Cena

So finally, dinner! Now I have already written a post about dinner and the different courses you can get eating out, but an Italian family doesn’t necessarily have a three course dinner every night.  Dinner is usually pasta, meat, and vegetables.  Pretty standard!  This meal usually takes place around 8pm.  The reason I posted the pizza pic here (other than to show off this amazing pizza I ate last week) is because dinner is really the only time you can get the brick oven pizza as shown above.  If the place isn’t touristy, you can get this beautiful piece of work between 7:30pm and 10pm.  Also, if you are at a restaurant that has Primo, Secondo, and Contorno options on the menu AND a section for pizza, you do not order a pizza and contorno…. please just don’t.  It’s weird. You can do a pizza with an antipasto (like suppli or bruschetta or olives) or a pizza and dessert (dolce), but not a pizza and a side salad or something.  That’s just weird.  You’re there for pizza, enjoy the pizza!  Eat a salad tomorrow!

And then of course, there is the any time at all, every time of day, after every meal… Coffee-Caffè

Now, the ONLY rule about coffee in Italy (besides taking it away from the establishment in a paper cup is a sin) is that you reeeeeeeally look like a tourist if you drink cappuccino after around 10am.  Cappuccino and other high milk content coffee drinks are for breakfast, or a mid-morning pre-lunch snack/pick-me-up.  After 10am you can have any other type of coffee but easy on the milk.  I guess it’s a digestive thing, but now that I have been here for 5 months I’m realizing, yeah, that milk does feel a bit heavy.  Of course it is probably because they all use actual milk and not skim, or almond, or soy (unless it is a touristy place maybe and then only by request).  Also, if you ask for a coffee, you get espresso.  Basically two mouthfuls of coffee.  You don’t need 5-10 minutes to drink this thing.  It is a fast, strong, delicious, teeny shot of energy and that is what it is for.  It’s so fast that it is normal to drink it standing AT the bar.  In some places if you sit to have your coffee there is a fee, so be careful.  Of course, the espresso here is usually 1-2 euro depending on where you go so it’s a pretty affordable little drink and it is great for taking a break from work or school, to chat with the bar owner, and if you’re a tourist it’s usually enough to get you access to the restroom.  You’re welcome travelers!

So!  I hope you enjoyed today’s post on how the Italian’s eat and what and when they eat!  Leave any questions in the comments!  A dopo!  Buon fine settimana!