Kathy and Gerald's Great Adventure: Dining in Roma

Lardo with lemon

Parla Italiano? Si Si Si! I stared asking myself what is so great about Italian food. So far it has been good but nothing to write home about. Well while wandering the streets of Rome we stumbled into a neighborhood where tourism ended and Italy began. Nobody and I mean nobody spoke good English. The handful of words I knew in Italian meant the difference between having a wonderful meal and being told to get lost in a way I would not understand. The places we went the menus were in Italian and nothing but Italian. Spotting a few words here and there gave me a gist of what it was, but ultimately it came down to trusting the food...the food did not disappoint! Inny meeny miney moe-ing the menu lead incredible dishes to me with ingredients I would have not though to be good. Spaghetti with canned tuna (not Starkist) and tomato sauce was a dish with such simple flavors but sooo good. And I don't like canned tuna, but this did not have any of the negative qualities of canned tuna we would think of. Trust me it was good. I am sure most people have had buffalo mozzarella, but believe me when I tell you NOT LIKE THIS. The texture was out of this world, and the flavor had a new dimension to it. I could not tell you what. You think New Orleans has a good seafood pasta, sorry but we had a lovely spaghetti with mussels, clams, and calamari that would blow any New Orleans restaurant out the swamp. Then the desserts. Oh my, I have had tiramisu, panna cotta, and some wonderful chocolate lava cake type thing with vanilla cream that was o me o my. Then the waiter (all of which given our language handicap were extremely nice) brought over to us this wonderful port wine that had a lovely balance of cherries and vanilla. We need to ship some of this stuff back. All in all the food and the service has (now that we know where to look) been far greater than we ever expected. Bon appetit!