My little Italy

I haven't fully prepared my recipe this time round, so instead, I'll be posting about my holiday in the great country of Italy.

I actually only went to Rome, Italy. Stayed there for 3 nights then my family and I went back to London. We visited places like St. Petersburg, the Coliseum ( I'm not sure how to spell it), and other historical places.

But I'm not gonna tell you about those places, and I'm sure that's not you wanna read from this blog. All I'm gonna write about are the restaurants and food I tasted while I was in Rome.

We arrived in the evening, about 5, but it was already dark. Hungry as we were, after a lousy journey from London by Alitalia, my parents went to enquire whether there was a supermarket around so that we can make some sandwiches or something.

So they went out and it took sometime before they came back, not with loafs of bread with ham or something, but with 3 pizza boxes ( and soft drinks from the supermarket called Pam)!! Yummmmm!! The pizza was so nice, that in about 10 minutes, we finished it all!

Still hungry, my mom said that the pizza shop just behind the hotel sells pasta. I followed my dad and my sister to get more pizza(2 boxes) and 2 types of pasta. The name of the pizza shop is 'Jolly Pizza'! I mean, which shop owner would call their shop that! But after eating, I guarantee that you would be 'jolly'...lolz.

The pizza isn't like how it is sold here. Like Pizza Hut, their pizzas are cooked using a deep pan. This fills you up *snaps* just like that. But in Italy, I've always heard that they can eat lots of pizzas, and now I know why because it is quite thin and crispy, and the toppings there are delicious. I would say that, "if you haven't ate pizza in Italy, you haven't ate pizza at all".

We would actually go back to 'Jolly Pizza' each night for dinner...SO DELICIOUS!!!

While we were in Rome, we went to this restaurant ( ristorante in italian), called Pastarito (http://www.pastarito.it/). The variety of pasta and pizzas on their menu is just unbelievable!! I've never seen a longer list. We each ordered a different kind of pasta for ourselves ( which was gonna be a big problem for us). The portion was HUGE!! One serving can feed, I think, around 3 people!! And we even ordered pizza!! This meal was gonna kill us. The pasta came with tongs and plates, so I presume that it was for sharing...=)

I was the last one to stop eating, as I was enjoying the different variations of pasta on the table, and the pizza as well. The pasta was well cooked, and it had something different about than what we can get here in Malaysia. I just don't know what.

We also tried Gelato. An amazing kind of ice-cream, if you can call it that. It was very soft and smooth, and it would just melt in your mouth as soon as you put it in. The one thing I like about Italians, are that they love varieties! There are much more flavours there than that of Baskin Robbins, I think more then 50 flavours of Gelato. The place where they sell gelato is called the Gelateria.

I even had the weirdest form of kebabs in my life, and it was also at Jolly Pizza. It wasn't served in bread, but it was DAMN GOOD!! It was served on a bed of lettuce and topped with their own chilli sauce. WOW!! Their chilli I can guarantee you is the best I ever had! And they were so generous with it, unlike here in Malaysia. But it is typical Italian style to serve bread, any kind, to the customers, so I used it to put my kebab in. You can definitely tell that the kebab was freshly made that day itself. It was so tender and juicy; unlike the kebabs you can get locally here, which you know isn't freshly made as they are quite dry.

Jolly Pizza may be a small shop, but the number of pizzas being delivered were much higher than that of one outlet of Pizza Hut or Domino's. They deliver like a minimum of 3 pizzas each delivery. All the ready-folded pizza boxes, which there was easily 50 of them, finished being used up and they had to take out some more boxes and start folding them. All of this was happening, while we were there during one of our dinners!! Imagine that. And that was only like within 30 minutes or so. Beat that Domino's!!

I wouldn't mind going back to Italy for a holiday and I especially miss the food there. Real Italian food should be eaten at the origin of its cuisine,...ITALY!!!

Only a person which has tried Italian food in Italy, would truly understand the greatness of it, and enjoy it to the fullest.

Ask anyone who has been to Italy, and I know that they would give you the same answer. =)


Happy Days Mate!!