AN IRRIVERENT GUIDE TO REAL ITALIAN COOKING AND HABITS FOR PEOPLE ABROAD
Little Italy represents the Italian community abroad, our emigrants that took hold of their lives and made all they could to improve their situation in search of new opportunities. It’s the place where Italian emigrants live and transmit their culture to their families, where you can find most Italian restaurants and shops.
Why should we deny it? Italian food and cooking tradition is one of the most famous and appreciated worldwide.
You can find Italian restaurants and Italian cooks almost anywhere out of Italy, and also out of Little Italy but I really must say it!!! Most of them have really a little (sometimes nothing) to do with Italian genuine cooking.
I’m not saying you’ll eat despicable food! It can also be nice, but IT’S NOT ITALIAN! It’s a kind of fusion food created by emigrants, and it’s very interesting too, because right in this food you’ll see the paths of the evolution of our emigrants, and their adaptation to a new culture.
Many Italians that live abroad have been out of Italy so long that they have adapted their cooking style to local habits and ingredients. Many others profess them as authentic Italians. My friend, I don’t care if your grandfather’s arrived in New York from Italy with his family in 1920 after the war. You’ve never lived in Italy. You have an Italian surname, you’ve visited Little Italy in your Country. Maybe – if you’ve had the possibility – you’ve even spent a couple of holidays in the region of your ancesters! Yes…you inherited the handwritten recipe book of your grandma that you keep as a relic. God bless it! But I’m almost sure that this recipe book contains dishes that in Italy you won’t find or that you can find, but with quite different ingredients. Your granny emigrated when she was 7 years old…
So many times Italian restaurants and Italian cooks sell people load of commonplaces that represent Italian food abroad, but that Italians of Italy observe with great irony, because they don’t belong to us.
I’m Italian, I love cooking and I live in Italy. My aim is not to change the cooking habit of Italian restaurants abroad, but to give you the opportunity to cook according to real Italian recipes and to understand many false commonplaces regarding Italian cooking and also Italians in general.
In this way you will also understand because Italians (living in Italy) avoid Italian food abroad.
I don’t want to be opinionated, because I’m sure it’s the same in any country. I guess you can’t find real Indian food outside India, English food outside England, and so on… but yes! Some of our traditional recipes get mistreated and tortured, and I want to show you how according to our culture. When you’ll try to cook your own Amatriciana with the Italian original recipe and you’ll see that it’s amazing, I’ll really feel rewarded!
I’ll post some recipes, commenting the main mistakes that abroad get done, and sometimes I’ll just post some commonplaces that shouldn’t exist. I’ll also show you what in supermarkets is sold as Italian but it really isn’t!!!!!
I’ll be sincere and direct! I won’t sugarcoat the situation! Sometimes I’ll be irriverent but I’m sure you’ll lough with me at my ironic or sarcastic posts.
My Little Italy is my new project, an Italian community you can find anywhere in the world, but that keeps “Italianity” (I know this word doesn’t exist) strong! You don’t need a plane or a cab to reach it! You just need your internet connection.
I’ll be pleased if you want to come and visit, and even more if you want to comment, ask and share your experiences with me. You’re all welcome and I hope that in My Little Italy you’ll feel at home ad I do.
(I hope you’ll pardon me if I do any mistake. I’m Italian and I’ve studied English as a foreign language. I apologize in advance for my bad writing.)
C.
