Italian food taboos

Italian food taboos are not as rigid as those spread across the Internet. They are essentially unwritten preferences based on the original taste of ingredients and cooking traditions in different regions. 90% of the so-called "taboos" are divided into scenes and groups, and there are no uniform rules that must be followed across the country.

The first one to come out of the circle must be "You can't add pineapple to pizza". The difference between the north and the south is so big that it looks like two countries. I asked a hundred-year-old pizza shop in Naples if they had Hawaiian pizza. The bearded chef slapped the dough on the chopping board and said, "We only have Margherita and Sailor pizza here. Pineapple is an American cult." Then I went to a chain supermarket in Milan. Half of the frozen pizzas on the shelves were Hawaiian pizza. The post-95s guy at the checkout told me that he buys two boxes every week and gnaws them while watching football at home, and no one can care about it. To put it bluntly, the only real people in Naples are old chefs who rely on traditional pizza to make a living. Young people don't care about this at all.

Then there is the myth that "If you break the pasta, you will be beaten by the Italians", it is purely exaggerated. My friend in Bologna has a 3-year-old child at home. Every time he cooks long noodles, he breaks them into three or four pieces, cooks them until tender and mixes them with meat sauce for the child to eat. She rolls her eyes and says, "You can't let your child eat noodles with sauce on his face." But if you go to a family restaurant that has been open for thirty or forty years, and the white-haired grandpa sitting next to you sees you breaking the pasta, he will at most push up his glasses and say to you, "Young man, there is enough Bolognese sauce on the long noodles. It would be a pity to break it into pieces, which is my favorite sauce." No one will really worry about you, and at most he will think that you don't know how to eat it.

Many people have said that you should not order cappuccino at noon. Last time I was walking in Rome at 3pm and I was so thirsty that I ordered a glass of iced cappuccino. The waiter smiled and raised his eyebrows, but made it for me anyway. Before leaving, he told me, "Next time, try condensed and iced cappuccino, it will be more refreshing." This so-called taboo is actually because the locals think that the milk in milk coffee is difficult to digest, and drinking it after a meal can easily bloat the stomach. It is not an explicit rule at all. You will at most receive friendly teasing from the waiter after ordering it, and you will never be kicked out.

There is another detail that many tourists have tripped over: Don’t just sprinkle Parmesan cheese on your seafood meal. Last time at a small seafood restaurant in Venice, my friend didn't know it, but he sprinkled a layer of cheese on the cuttlefish pasta. The boss's face collapsed and he said, "The cuttlefish I just caught this morning was so fresh that it jumped. Are you spreading this cheese to cover up its taste?" ”But what’s interesting is that when a small restaurant next to Lake Garda in the north makes freshwater white fish risotto, they will specially scrape a little soft Ricotta cheese and sprinkle it on it. People say that the freshness of freshwater fish is on the weak side, and adding a little milk flavor will make it more fresh. To put it bluntly, the rules follow the ingredients and are not arbitrary.

The older generation still has some little bits and pieces, such as not sticking your fork in the bread before dinner, as it is said that it is unlucky to stick a cross in it. The last time I was at a family restaurant in Florence, I accidentally stuck my fork on the bread. The old lady next door patted my hand gently, took the fork off and put it next to the bread, and handed me a piece of butter without saying anything. Later, when I mentioned this to my friend who was born in the 1990s in Italy, he stuck the fork on the bread and shook it in front of me and said, "How can you be so particular?"

To put it bluntly, these so-called "taboos" are all "optimal solutions" discovered by local people after hundreds of years of eating - how to mix the ingredients to best taste the taste of the ingredients themselves, and how to eat them most comfortably, which gradually became a common practice. If you want to experience the authentic flavor when traveling, you will definitely not step into trouble if you follow the locals’ habits. But if you really want to eat pineapple pizza or drink cappuccino in the afternoon, just be bold. The waiter will make fun of you at most, but you can’t be kicked out just because you’re not eating right, right? After all, when it comes to eating, the most important thing is to be happy.