What makes Italian food so unique and compelling ?

Ed Pawlowski wrote:

"brooklyn1" wrote in message

You know better than to say everyone in the US subsists on Spam and
Velveeta and no one in the US drinks booze, because that would include
you. There's more proscutto, parmesan, and dago red consumed in the US
than in Italy..


With population difference of 300 million to 58 million, that is true. We
are one of the largest markets for produce from Italy.


Italy exports most of their gourmet foods production and the US is the
biggest importer. Most Americans who visit Italy (or any country)
primarily stay at American style hotels; they may as well have stayed
home. The regular everyday Italians don't eat what Americans call
"Italian Food", most eat exactly what typical Americans eat on a daily
basis...


in other words they eat half the quantity and pay twice the price. The
main difference between typical Americans and the typical Italians is
that
Italians spend more than twice as much time preparing their meals... and
they don't eat better, they simply spend more time cooking because
prepared foods that Americans consume are much too expensive...

Disagree. I've spent time in Italy I've eaten with the locals, stayed at
homes, not hotels. I've also shopped at the supermarkets and bought
groceries to cook our meals.

In Italy you will see very little of the processed foods, the Velveeta
cheese, the Kraft mac & cheese, and many other products of that type. You
will find the prosciutto hams, the large selection of local cheese,
sausages, and regional items. Yes, they have Coke, but the same store is
likely to have twice the amount of shelf space for wine than soda. I was
blown away at the prices too. In some restaurnats when yhou order wine,
the
put a pitcher on the table and you drink what you want. Sliced white
bread?
There may be two kinds available while fresh baked will line the shelves
with a half dozen or dozen varieties and sizes.


didn't you see all the pictures of dishes Pandora posted, all fussily
prepared, but small portions and no expensive ingredients, what Italians
call pasta for six would barely feed me and you. The reason pizza in
Italy is so bare bones is because with the way Americns pile on toppings
hardly any Italians could afford it. And per capita most of the world's
developed countries drink more Coke than Americans... if you think
Italians don't drink Diet Coke then you spent your time there with your
eyes closed...

You will find it at some of the bars and smaller shops, but it is not the
staple that soda is in most American homes. Aqua with gas is even more
likely. You will find it a pizza shops too. A typical side street shop
may have 6 to 10 pizzas with different toppings ready for sale by the
slice.



That's because guinea WOP households are very primitive places, not only do
many dwellings not only lack basic refrigeration, but also cooking gas and
plumbing and thus modern appliances and so the facilities for food
preparation are very limited...

Refrigerators and air conditioning are considered still by many in Italy to
be "works of the devil", the cool air they produce is considered to be "bad
for health"...

Not only do they lack modern refrigeration and A/C over there but Italians
do not believe in the use of window screens, that is why malaria and polio
and other vermin - borne and filth - borne diseases are so practically rife
there...

Italy really is still Third World, just look at a place like Venice, MOUNDS
of rubbish in the streets...and the canale of Venezia are open sewers, they
dump the contents of their chamberpots right off of their balconies every
morning...


Q: What is the Venetian term for "flush"...???

A: "Morning tide"...!!!


--
Best
Greg

"The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other
people's money."~~~~Margaret Thatcher