Don't forget to put vinegar on your chips!

The singular of spaghetti, apparently. It means 'little string'

Exactly. No alcohol tax.

Not my bag, but sounds perfect

True. I remember watching the documentary. (But it was a spaghetti tree. A spaghetto tree would be silly.)

Having home brewed for many years, I never once managed to make the tropey vinegar. When I browsed home brew forums (which had a sub forum for vinegar) it seemed that it's not as easy as the jokes make out.

I've now refined home brewing to home distilling :)

Oh I made some cider once, and didn't really like the taste of it but didn't want to throw it away.

A couple of years later I was about to do that but tasted it to see what it was like. Top grade cider vinegar!

I do like the tang of vinegar. There really is nothing better for *chips* (note: not fries).

So only "gullible Anglos" live in Modena these days?

I never knew that.

Where did all the original Italian inhabitants disappear to?

It's the summer, dear boy. They're all hard at work in the spaghetti orchards.

How did you communicate with the restaurateur? If it was anything else than Italian, I bet it was a tourist trap. Did it have a giant Italian flag and the picture of a fictional fat chef with mustaches? Any chance the restaurant name was "Gino Mama Mia Pizza Mafia"?

It was in Italian (not mine - I have good bilingual Italian friends in Toscana, Rome and Catania).

Despite my own comparative lack of Italian, I could have ordered antipasti, aqua frizzante, focaccia, spaghetti ragu and a carafe of rosso tipico in the language. And limoncello to finish.

That's the one immediately facing the Torre Pendente across the Campo dei Miracoli, isn't it?

The one that takes the piss, serving the worst absolute pizza in the world? Tried it once for lunch while waiting fora lift (arranged for an hour later). Never again.

:-)

Le 01/08/2024 à 01:34, JNugent a écrit :

You couldn't have named a more tourist-trappy menu than that. Any chance the "authentic" Italian restaurant was called "The Olive Garden"?

But I tend to be limited ordering those items if I am trying to order for myself. Luckily, I have friends.

Oh, I forgot seppe (the variant with all those flaky sections of white flesh... delicious (and no ink!).

Not a single one, unless "Trattoria da Enrico" is Italian for "Olive Garden".

I've seen a restaurant chain with the name "Olive Garden", by the way, in Texas. Never used it, though. In the Austin / Lockhart area, we prefer barbecue, or steak at Perry's.

I don't reckon all that much to Italian food outside Italy. It's nowhere near as good as the real thing. Or as reasonably priced.

I've got to get back there soon.

Some of the old US mom and pop restaurants run by Italian emigrés were great back in the day.

But really, it's all food. No Indian native would touch a British curry. Completely inauthentic, but still bloody delicious.

Which reminds me I have a saucepan fill of *My* interpretation of a Bolognese sauce.

And f*ck whether its authentic or not...

as, of course, were/are the Scottish Ice Cream shops.

I dare say. The trouble is that I spend too little time in the NY/NJ area.

Absolutely.

Well done.

At the insistence of domestic management, we have only home-made ragu, chili, etc. Never out of a bottle or jar.

Unlikely. The Olive Garden is in Canterbury.

One of the joys of being able (and willing) to cook is you can make your own versions of dishes.

I can't stand aubergine. WTF would I put it in *my* moussaka ?

Similarly I very much view garlic as a seasoning, not a ****ing ingredient.

Oh, I rather like it. Many people have been known to put in potato, instead

Its a spectrum

Quite honestly I wonder why we don't just do as seems fit to us (and as a few recent posters have said quite firmly), and two fingers to all the woke tossers who try to insist otherwise. And see below.

That this, that, or the other is f'rinstance "cultural appropriation" is a matter of indifference to me.