Once in Rome, we really hit the ground running. Dropped our bags off at hotel and hiked over to the Colosseum, named after a statue of Nero converted to Helios and nicknamed Colosseo. In its heyday, it was known as the Flavian Amphitheater. Finished just one year after the destruction of Pompeii, the Colosseum served as a prime entertainment venue for Romans until the 500s, when economic conditions in a Rome on decline basically couldn't support any of the acts anymore.
One of the entertainments was running from wild animals, which was either a bloodsport for those forced to do it or something akin to rodeo clowns for the professionals. One of the pros' tools was apparently a pole for vaulting over the chasing animals. Something the guy in the right drawing probably wishes he had.
After doing a couple laps inside, we attempted to do part of a self-guided app-based food tour. The tour had some significant scheduling flaws. Many restaurants have a pretty long time between lunch and dinner, and thus trying to go in the early afternoon could lead to spotty availability. And that's exactly what happened to us, with multiple restaurants already in the dead zone. We managed to view through a few of the points of interest, but had to keep walking deeper into the tour as we struck out with the first couple restaurants. We had strayed far enough away from the Colosseum that we called a cab to hey back for our bike tour.
The ride delivered to my expectations -- some casual riding around the city interspersed with some basic narrative on the most major sights. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and as afternoon rolled on to sunset, the golden Italian sun cast the Colosseum in a perfect light as we finished the loop. Sights seen:
- Colosseum (where the guide filled in a lot of details)
- the archaeological dig site created by Mussolini as a side effect of his aspirations to be the total leader of a fascist world power
- Piazza Venezia and the Altare Della Patria, where artists worked on how to jumpstart Italy as a unified nation, culture, and history
- Spanish Steps (or the not-Spanish steps outside the Spanish embassy, as the guide would like you to call it)
- Trevi Fountain (cool but not worth the mob scene around it. But not that bad in this off season)
- Pantheon
- Piazza Navona
- Piazza del Popolo
After the tour, we went back to the food tour and caught up, with one restaurant being almost fully booked up the moment it opened. We were able to convert that ticket into one on another tour in the app.
It was for a fried artichoke, which is a typical Roman dish. But it was at a glatt kosher restaurant in the Jewish part of town. Pretty impressive to offer all kosher meat, and they have to make up for the Italian love of pork products.
It was for a fried artichoke, which is a typical Roman dish. But it was at a glatt kosher restaurant in the Jewish part of town. Pretty impressive to offer all kosher meat, and they have to make up for the Italian love of pork products.
Once done with the food tour, we rolled right into actual dinner, walking a couple km over to a cluster of restaurants recommended for their pasta. The first was booked up all night. The second was closed on Wednesdays. But the third was open and had an open table.
I ordered 3 pastas, making up for our short stay. The big 4 of pasta dishes in Rome are centered on the local cheese: pecorino Romano, made with sheep's milk. 3 of them use guanciale, pork jowl.
- cacio e pepe: just cheese and black pepper.
- graciale: Greek style. Same as above but with pork jowl
- carbonara: rigatoni with eggs as well as jowl
- amatriciana: rigatoni with tomato, jowl
Muslimah got the porkless cacio e pepe:
And I got amatriciana from those big 4:
And I got amatriciana from those big 4:
There's also something called quinto quarto -- the 5th quarter of the animal -- the leftover offal. This restaurant was well represented here as well.
- pajata: veal intestines. Can be a standalone dish, but I got it as rigatoni with tomato and pecorino
- coda alla vacciara: named for how leather makers would prepare oxtail. Also in rigatoni, unfortunately, so a bit repetitive
The cacio e pepe was good, and really the only dish subtle enough to show off the sheep's milk flavor. However, it wasn't quite flavorful enough to make up for its simplicity. This restaurant was recommended for pasta in general, and not cacio e pepe specifically.
My amatriciana was also good but imo lacking in pork. Took a few bites before even seeing any jowl bits.
The pajata was tremendous. Well made beef has a way of tasting very beefy, and that's what was going on here. The intestines were cut into macarono like segments, blending in shape-wise with the rigatoni. They were extremely tender, not quite melting in your mouth but easily breaking apart into small morsels. I would get that dish again at another restaurant.
This place served a lot of pasta with not a lot of meat, and the oxtail fell in line with that, just a single small vertebra's worth of meat. I think I would have preferred the non-pasta version of the dish, so I would feel so guilty picking through the rigatoni looking for scraps.
Muslimah got a beefroll stuffed with greens:
Even though I ate an insane amount of pasta, this was one of my favorite dinners of the trip.
Muslimah got a beefroll stuffed with greens:
Even though I ate an insane amount of pasta, this was one of my favorite dinners of the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment