Tasty Treat Number One: I had a pork dish called schweinsbraten at Gasthaus zur Alten Press, and if that sounds extremely Austrian: yeah. The whole restaurant was extremely Austrian.
Italy’s done, so you know what time it is? Photo time!
Rome is generally not the cheapest city ever, but there are bargains to be had. Example: a great little pasta joint called Pastificio. It’s been around since 1918 (it’s always a good sign when a restaurant has that kind of longevity); it doubles as a shop where you can buy pasta to bring home and cook yourself, and starting at 1:00 P.M., as a purveyor of delightfully cheap (and delicious) meals.
Cannolis aren’t exactly a Roman thing, but there was no possible way I was going to leave Italy without eating at least one. A quick “best cannoli in Rome” search led to a very conclusive answer: everyone seems to be in agreement that a Sicilian bakery called Ciuri Ciuri has the tastiest cannoli in the city.
I mentioned, in an earlier post, that I had some gelato from a place called Fantasia Gelati and that it might have been the best gelato I’ve ever had. I’ve been there a couple more times since then and I feel much more confident making that pronouncement.
I’m not going to post about every pizza I eat, because that would get boring pretty fast (what’s that? It’s already boring? Tough but fair!).
However, just in case you think that every pizza in Naples is a mind-blowing, life-changing experience, it’s probably good to know that mediocre pizzas exist here too (though to be fair, mediocre for Naples would still be pretty damn good back home).
In case you can’t read that sign, it says “Restaurante Gluten Free.” It actually deeply saddens me to see that the idiotic gluten-free trend has even managed to infect a city whose main culinary export (pizza) is pretty much a love letter to gluten.
I was walking around after eating a pretty great pizza at Pizzeria Brandi, when I saw a huge crowd lining up for what appeared to be some kind of food. A bit of investigation revealed it to a place called Zia Esterina that’s actually really famous for their fried pizza.
If you’ve read my post about Las Fritas in Barcelona, then you’ll know I’m pretty much entirely powerless to resist a line for food. What’s at the end of that line? How delicious is it? I must know.
Pizzeria Brandi claims to have invented the margherita pizza back in 1890 (though Wikipedia disputes that fact); true or not, a lot of people want to check the place out. It’s tourist overload. When I went, it was the most Asian people I’ve seen concentrated in one spot since coming to Europe.
Still, as jammed with tourists as it was (and it was jammed), how could I not go here? They invented the margherita pizza. If you love pizza and you don’t pay this place a visit, you’re doing it wrong.
If you’ll recall, a bunch of terrorist jerkfaces did their stupid jerk thing in Barcelona and kind of made me question my desire to stay in Europe.
Well guess what, jerkfaces? I’m still here. And boy am I glad I am, because I’ve been in Naples less than a day and can already tell that the food here is, in the immortal words of Guy Fieri, out of bounds.