I spend a lot of time writing about Rome and Italy travel. Today I got to thinking about What Italians think of the United States when they visit. Mainly, what they think of American food. I was a bit shocked at some of the opinions I got.
For example, here are a few of the top choices published by a reputable Italian travel blogger:
Denny's: "One of the best places to get fast food. Excellent and abundant burgers and sandwiches, an ideal place to have lunch".
Hooters: "Generous portions, excellent service provided by scantily dressed girls, great buffalo wings"
Taco Bell: "The best of tex-mex fast food, tacos, nachos, quesadillas, watch out, some are spicy!"
Pizza Hut: "If you absolutely must have a pizza, this is a great solution. Very cheap, huge portions, but obviously nothing like a real Italian pizza-thicker crust and instead of tomato sauce they use ketchup..."
Sbarro: "Cant miss this place, it has a huge Italian flag for its sign. Great salads and cold pastas, good pizza by the slice".
I could never quite put my finger on what the problem with Pizza Hut's tomato sauce was...
7 comments:
Thanks for these. I often wonder what the opinions are in other parts of the world.
Hi! Thanks for stopping by my blog! This is hilarious! I don't eat at any of those places! It's all junk food! Although, if i had a denny's near me I'd eat that!
I am shocked!
Honestly, I think it depends on the type of Italian tourist. I took my in-laws (who are apparently very open minded) to a great Thai place, and they LOVED it. Two much younger visitors balked at the idea of a non European meal (they were traveling all over California, and they thought hamburgers were all you could get) so we had to take them to tapas.
whoever wrote that list is apparently 10 years old.
Hi, I am Italian and I had written a wonderful (and long) comment but something went wrong and I lost it.
Anyway, the idea is that most italians think that only Italy has the priviledge of having a gastronomic heritage (and an impressive one, and that is true) and the rest of the world only has stereotyped dishes (and not that many). If you ask the average italian what he/she thinks you can eat in the USA for example, the answer will be hamburgers and steak, and tex mex.
To be honest, I am going to NY (leaving tomorrow) and to get an idea of what I could find interesting enough to eat I looked up the Slow Food New York web site, and selected a few restaurants (avoiding italian ones, if I want to eat like at home, I stay at home :-))
ciao
Eleonora
@ Eleonoro: good for you! Buonappetito e buon viaggio!!
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