Italian food and drink

[bangerjim]

I am NOT Italian at all (Scottish), but I totally appreciate and savor and appreciate good Italian food........and especially drink!!!!!!

If you go to a REAL "Italian" restaurant, check their bar. If they do not have authentic Italian amari's or liquere Strega on the bar, walk out! They know nothing about authentic Italian cuisine.

All Italian foods start with an amari, a bitter/sweet pallet cleanser. Several amaris are out there, pick a good one. The bitter taste opens the pallet for what is to come.

Enjoy the excellent true authentic Italian meal pared with excellent authentic Italian wines!

Afterwards, sit around the table with friends and savor a small glass (or 2) of Strega liqueur! Best after dinner drink around.

You will NOT find this offering in Olive Garden or other fast food types of "Italian" eateries.

Enjoy!

[bakerjw]

There are certain foods that I use to rate ethnic restaurants.
for Italian, it is spaghetti. If you can screw that up, well...
Chinese. General Tsos chicken and hot and sour soup.

[Outpost75]

Grappa is an acquired taste for non-Italianos. To the unfamiliar it might be compared to resemble a cross between West Virginia moonshine and AvGas.

287392

Common use is for cafe' correcta after the meal.

I greatly enjoyed my pilgrimage to Italy in 2010 where our VFW volunteers assisted in recovering remains of downed USAAF fliers who didn't make it over the alps in their damaged B24s, recently being exposed by receeding glaciers.

http://warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/ghosts-of-the-po-river-valley-finding-the-lost-flyers-of-the-italian-air-campaign.html

The Carabinieri and Alpini Regt. treated our honored dead with great reverence and respect and I have maintained friendships established then.

in boca al lupo!

[farmbif]

I love good Italian food, its not easy to find the good stuff, as far as chain restaurants, some of the stuff carrabbas makes is pretty good, depends on the owner and cooks though.
in knoxville, altrudas is one of the best.

[gwpercle]

Pizza and a bottle of home made Dago Red ... Now That's Italian !

I worked with two brothers who made about 200 gallons of Dago Red each year , for "home" consumption ... that was the best vino ever .
Gary

[WebMonkey]

troop trip to rimini beach 3 years in a row.
dated a girl in a small town in italy.

(this was while i was stationed in germany in the 80s)

never gave me a palate cleanser the jerks.
just ate the nummy food.

;)

[Bmi48219]

Common use is for cafe' correcta after the meal.!

My maternal grandparents were from the Roma region of Italy where Caffe Corretto was usually consumed after dinner. Dad’s parents were from northeast Italy where Caffe Forticato was consumed in the morning to warm up or ‘fortify’ workers for a day laboring outside. In the north the practice goes back to when coffee was introduced in the region, while in the south the rampant inflation of the early 20th century lead to coffee substitutes like chicory which proved more palatable when ‘corrected’.
Dad’s family history on his father’s side notes they moved to the area from the Grappa Mountains in the 15th century because “life there was hard”.
Outpost75 is right, Grappa is Italian Moonshine produced with the dregs of the wine-making process. The different grape varieties grown in each region result in different subtle flavors that are overwhelmed (to me) by the bite of raw alcohol.
Italians in general don’t need much of an excuse to drink. As a teen I worked summers with two immigrant Italians pouring concrete. Our morning ‘coffee break’ was a thermos filled with a 50/50 mix of ginger ale and white wine.

[brassrat]

That Strag or whatever drink is in the package stores here. Its a liquor and yellow in a really tall and thin bottle. I have some in a really, really, tall bottle and old. I think my Dad referred to it as Strag.

[imashooter2]

I prefer a nice Limoncello.

[JimB..]

Grappa is made from what is left after pressing grapes for wine, and until recently there was no regard for the mixing of different varieties of grapes or even of including stems. Today there is more attention to detail and I understand they've begun aging the stuff, but I haven’t tried that.

[brassrat]

So I am reading up and downloading some 165 page book of Galiano which is the drink I was thinking of

[JimB..]

So I am reading up and downloading some 165 page book of Galiano which is the drink I was thinking of

Always had a bottle in the house growing up, I never liked it but haven’t tried it in at least 20 years.

[brassrat]

I am on a mission to get some. Today a store owner said he didn't think he had any and no one asked him in 11yrs but that didnt make me a bad guy.

[Outpost75]

I was successful in getting the Virginia ABC to import some of the better varieties of grappa from Tuscany and Lombardia after contacting distillers I visited and encouraging them to make the effort to export to the USA.

[bedbugbilly]

When I was young, I dated an Italian girl (Italian heritage( and her folks owned and operated a small and very popular Italian restaurant in a nearby city. I ate their often - her parents liked me and I was always treated like part of the family. The food was out of this world. The girl was beautiful, bubbly and a real sweetheart but the relationship never got that serious - we parted ways and were always friends. My wife and I just celebrated our 49th Anniversary - it's been a great life, but every once in a while, usually when we enjoy a great meal at an Italian restaurant - I think about that girl - the fun and laughter we shared - her family and the great Italian food they served to their dedicated customers and friends. They all were great folks and they taught me the pleasures of all things Italian.

[farmbif]

this threads back up, got my taste buds watering, I sure do miss paisanos home made sausages and wide variety of olive oils in Cape Coral , one of the very few things I miss in Florida.

[Bmi48219]

Grandfather had a grappa export business a hundred years ago. He didn’t speak English. I remember he would get a twinkle in his eye when he thought something was humorous. ‘Designer’ Grappa would certainly have made him smile.