What makes superior Italian meals and a great Italian restaurant? This is what I believe.
Italy has a excellent tradition of fine food. Italian food’s importance to Italian culture can’t be overstated. It is one of the central components, and why shouldn’t it be? Feel about Italy’s geography for a second:
It runs a extended way from north to south. For that reason, it has a wide array of developing seasons and soil types. This signifies a wealthy diversity of components for food.
It is a peninsula, which means it is almost surrounded by the sea but also connected to the great Eurasian land mass. There is an abundance of fresh seafood and foreign components from neighboring lands.
best pasta sits between Europe and Africa in the Mediterranean. All Mediterranean cultures have excellent food traditions from North Africa to Lebanon and Israel, France, Greece, Spain and, of course, Italy.
When you believe of noodles and pasta, you likely assume of Italy, but those great inventions came to Italy from China thanks to Marco Polo. It tells you a lot about Italian food culture that some thing so simple became associated with Italy even though it did not originate there.
Anyway, meals is a crucial element of Italian culture. Therefore, the food is the most vital element of the restaurant. Of course, a wonderful Italian restaurant will have a great wine list, a clean and elegant decor, and superb service, but a superior Italian restaurant can get by on terrific meals alone, even if they have a crummy wine list, poor service, and a dingy decoration scheme.
By the way, if you leave an “Italian” restaurant hungry, it is surely not genuine. A white tablecloth and higher bill do not a terrific bistro make. Frankly, I cannot stand these fancy Italian restaurants in Manhattan that charge you $400 for a morsel that makes you want to stop for a slice of pizza on the way residence. A terrific Italian ristorante will leave you complete, not stuffed, but complete.
The second aspect of a good Italian restaurant is the service. The service will be warm and skilled, but not overly friendly. Immediately after the orders are taken and the meal gets rolling, the service really should be almost invisible. Run — don’t stroll — from any Italian restaurant where the waitperson address the table like this:
“How you guys doin’ tonight?” when ladies are seated at the table. This is most un-Italian of them. An Italian would never call a lady “guy.” Even in spaghetti-and-meatballs-sort areas, the waiter may well say, “How is every person this evening?” The won’t tarry with compact speak in the white-tablecloth areas, not the good ones, anyway. It is all about the meal and your comfort.
The third aspect of a good Italian restaurant is the ambiance. I don’t know what it is, but Italians seem to be capable to make a wonderful atmosphere anyplace. I have eaten at places in strip malls in the suburbs of Denver — as un-romantic a setting as there is — that come close to wonderful. A genuinely outstanding Italian restaurant will just have a particular feeling from the minute you walk in the door, a warmth and a glow that can’t seriously be described.