Traveling through Europe is in full swing. From France to Italy. And what is Italy if not the famous Italian pasta? We devoted the whole day, as expected, to sightseeing. There were many of them. And a good 10 kilometers were covered on foot. Considering that there is no other means of transport except water taxis and gondolas in the tourist districts in Venice, one can imagine how tired and hungry we are.
But "vuyala", or rather "viva", we already have a dinner ordered on a prepaid basis from real Italian cuisine. Our tour group received an offer to taste the famous Italian pasta. I no longer remember the name of the cafe that organized the Venetian meal and even the cost of this dinner. Something around 18 euros. For this, we were offered a choice of a choice: either lasagna, or spaghetti bolognese, or spaghetti carbonara. To this salad and a glass of red or white wine.
Lasagna.
Spaghetti is such hard Italian pasta made from special durum wheat. It's yummy. Spaghetti bolognese. Mom mia. The name is already dizzy. The sauce should be so on tomatoes, elegant and tasty. With minced pork and beef, basil, parmesan, carrots and garlic and red wine. Or spaghetti carbonare. Bravissimo. Freshly cooked spaghetti is added with guanciale - thinly sliced bacon or carbonate with brisket, grated parmesan and egg yolk, cream. While you read a sensible recipe for this dish, you will already salivate.
And all this awaited us in the performance of the most real Italian chefs at the end of a difficult day of conquering Venice in one of the usual cafes on the narrow streets of this famous unusual city. Naturally, we pulled ourselves up to the appointed time, having never had a bite, and maybe not even dined. Saving time, we walked past showcases with tempting pizzas, of which there is an enormous amount for every taste and color. And even of enormous sizes.
Only fruits and drinks were sent to our stomachs quite often. The fruits are sold here cut into slices in plastic cups in different combinations. Very comfortably. And very tasty.
The Venetian cafe was a cramped space. Having only one tiny toilet became stressful at once. The queue lined up not joking. The whole group agreed to taste the famous pasta. And, as it turned out, the cafe was not quite ready to receive so many visitors. Doubt about the correctness of the choice began to arise almost from the hanger. But the benefit of outerwear was not on us, since it was July. Doubts about choosing such a dinner grew stronger when the waiters began to work.
There were only two of them. For some reason, they started by pouring wine. Red or white wine, by the way, tasted almost the same. For dinner, which, with such a shortage of time, could have been spent half an hour, it took us more than an hour. And an hour in Venice, if you have all daylight hours here, is a lot. But the most interesting thing is that there was nothing special. The salad was... a salad. Regular salad. In the sense of large lettuce leaves, not even carefully chopped with hands, not hastily chopped, just whole. Just leaves. And yes, there were a few slices of tomato and slightly grated carrots. All. Well, this is also not the biggest disappointment that a tired, hungry traveler can expect in Venice.
I chose bolognese. I regretted my choice exactly three minutes later. It took me so much to eat a dish of overcooked dough for some reason, completely white. There were, indeed, pieces of minced meat. And even some coca sauce. Wife was lucky, less, her amount of pasta did not bother. But the lasagna looked like a small lump of something shapeless, stuck together. And it was very difficult to find something meat there. Apparently a vegetarian option, we joked. By general appearance, in general, all pasta dishes were almost the same. Although the bolognese should definitely differ in the color of the sauce. Must. But it was no different. Yes. I confess. We did not know Italian cuisine. And our ideas from our recipes sometimes fail.
According to the reviews of Italian Russians who have lived in Italy for many years, their dishes differ from those that can be prepared according to our recipes.
Our recipes are refined or add a special gastronomic charm from the cuisine of Italian restaurants to Russia, when the clever chef found a special thorny path to the heart of a demanding Russian client through his stomach. Pasta in Italy, pasta in Venice, which we had to taste there in a cafe, is somewhat different from what one can imagine.
Let's just say, heavily digested and not even very well thrown in a colander pasta. And not even baked in the oven at all.
This is how they prepare their pasta. And you just need to know. This is not bad, this is not good, you need to know this. Our guide, who took us around Venice, threw up his hands to the almost unanimous bewilderment of Italian cuisine. Well yes. This is how they cook. And so they serve. Although it may not.
Our variant of gastronomic delight was budgetary. And if a budget "not expensive" client, then his service is appropriate. We were convinced of this right there in the neighboring pizzeria, where we had just dined. Because I, like that Mokiy Parmyonich, "have never been so hungry as after this dinner party" I wanted to have a snack again.
We were given a table only inside the cafe, wobbling. Although his wobbling was surprisingly quickly eliminated by the cheerful waiter, who persistently tried to sell us two pizzas instead of one. There were two of us. And we sat on two chairs. He suddenly became very serious when we pointed to a wobbling table. Immediately, he quickly put something under his leg. And before that, he so significantly justified the high style of high prices, pronouncing meaningfully theatrically and stretchingly in Russian “Ve-ne-tion”. Yes. Like, what do you want? This is Venice ...
Venice. Masks. Venice is the city of masks. And weird Italian pasta. It is not unambiguous to remember that visit to the Venice cafe.
Author: Stanislav Ivlev
More interesting articles:
Scientists have told why you should not eat a lot of eggs
TOP-8 products for cleansing clogged blood vessels
Named 6 foods that boost metabolism after age 50
Like, comment, share in social networks,subscribe to our channelis the best reward for us!
Good health and culinary inspiration :)
Your friend and helper, Vilkin!