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Pizza Blotter

Pizza blotters are only found in America. I have met a few (mostly when I was in high school) and had always been both intrigued and a little disgusted by their practice. For those who are not familiar with this breed of diner, they are the ones who, upon ordering a slice of pizza, take a napkin and sop up the excess grease from the cheese. The napkin usually comes back soaking and orange.

An English friend of mine, also living in Rome, recently recounted her run-in with a pizza blotter at an Italian restaurant. She had watched as an American couple ordered two small pizzas. The American girl was given her pizza and began to take napkins and press them onto her pizza. My friend had watched as surrounding patrons (mostly Italian) eyed the girl with confusion. The girl continued, but had seemed frustrated that the napkins were coming back clear.

"What was she doing?" my English friend asked me. "Is this an American thing?"

I laughed, and educated her on the practices of the pizza blotter. My English friend was appalled.

"If Americans know that the food they order is so greasy that they have to wipe the grease off themselves, don't they understand that it's not healthy?"

Posted by Kelsea at 4:29 AM | Comments (0)

Subway Crash

According to CNN.com, one subway crashed into another at a station today, killing one person and injuring about 60.

It was pretty scary at first ...especially since the first thing I saw when walking into my school this morning was the Worldwide Caution Announcement posted on the bulletin board. A short time later, I received a phone call from a friend who was on his way to school and heard the news on the radio. I immediately went to an Italian newspaper website to see what was happening.

As an American abroad, one of the first things on my mind when I hear of accidents on the public transportation system is terrorism. It soon became clear that this was not the case in this situation. But they still don't know what caused the crash.

As for now, we're all settled on our couches, tuned into the local news.

Posted by Kelsea at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)

Lunch and Deception

A continuation of the blog post Dinner and Deception.

Last weekend, I took a day-trip to the Tuscan town of Siena to do research for a travel article. My research included checking out inexpensive hotels, visiting the main sites and tasting some of the local cuisine (one of my favorite things to do)!

Along with the red wine, Chianti, the fennel flavored salami, finocchiona, and the fruit-cake-like sweet, panforte, this region is know for its wild boar, cinghiale. While wandering through the medieval streets, I happened upon a restaurant that was serving wild boar with mushrooms with grilled polenta as their specialty. The restaurant also advertised that it had been reviewed by the Rick Steves guidebooks in the past, so I figured it would be OK.

Well, I was in for a surprise.

Literally three minutes after I had ordered the potentially mouth-watering dish, it was placed in front of me. Now, I work in a restaurant that serves grilled polenta and I know that it takes longer than three minutes to cook – and even longer to get it as dry as the stuff on my plate. The entire dish was only lukewarm, and I had the sinking feeling that I was had been served yesterday’s leftovers straight from the microwave.

Real Italian restaurants take pride in their food and want nothing more than for the customers to enjoy a delicious meal…but this? As I looked around the dining room, I realized that over half of the patrons were foreigners; framed Rick Steves reviews loomed over their heads on the walls. I speculated that this restaurant once was a genuinely good-quality local hot spot, until it was written up in a guidebook. Now, it has become just another restaurant that caters to tourists, knowing perfectly well that the average American wouldn’t know the different between yesterday or today’s polenta.

In addition, my waiter spoke perfect English, and was figuratively jumping on me to translate the Italian menu before I had spoken a single word. I declined his offer in almost-perfect Italian, and should have taken it as a sign that customers were assumed to be foreigners.

A few snapshots of Siena:

Rooftops

The central piazza, il Campo.

A girl enjoys a book while sitting in the piazza.

Posted by Kelsea at 4:50 AM | Comments (2)