Found this to be an incredibly lovely add-on to this week’s topic! Hope you get a chance to enjoy it!
food
An Italian Excursion
Well hello again, dear reader!
Coming away from last week’s topic of technology in the global scheme of things, I decided to go for a completely different line of thought going into this week – food! In my very short excursion in Italy, when I was still in high school, I gained a pretty good idea about how the Italians navigated food in their culture. This week I’m comparing meal customs in the U.S. (mostly ones I’ve experienced, being a local, Mainer, etc.) to those that I experienced while I was abroad. Well, let’s begin.
Upon typing “American breakfast” into a Google search bar, I got exactly what I expected to find:
If you’re a citizen of the States or are accustomed to our food culture, you’re more than likely thinking that this looks incredibly appetizing. (Just like I do. I love a big, Americana breakfast.) Almost directly off of a IHOP or Denny’s menu, no? While we here in the U.S. – usually – expect a big breakfast in the mornings, the Italians, and much of the rest of the world, do things quite a bit differently and breakfast to them looks a bit more like this:
I feel it’s quite a bit smaller than what we’re used to having, but this picture holds fairly true! While I was staying in my various hostels across Italy, I woke up to a breakfast much like this. It consisted mostly of pastries, coffee/cappuccino/espresso, juice, and occasionally some fruit. Honestly being used to the big, filling breakfasts here made it difficult for me to have what I had considered to be a small morning “snack” (although it wasn’t actually bad at all).
Lunches can typically be anything that you could want. From very filling dishes and a three course meal, to sandwiches from a bakery, or a mixture of produce you could get from an open air market and a local deli – take your pick! I happened to gain experience in both while traveling as we were usually in our scheduled locations during lunchtime.Open air markets are a treasure! In the States, I’ve found that lunch generally is the smallest meal whether it be a sandwich and some chips or, at the very least, something lighter than what you would have for dinner.
As for the last meal of the day, the Italians tend to do three courses as a standard. Dinner is the biggest meal of the day for them, and also a great time for fellowship – much like what I could say we do in the U.S., but I’m generalizing. It usually consists of an appetizer, like cured meats, cheese, etc.; first course, which is generally pasta, rice, or soup; and a second course that is usually some type of meat and vegetables. (And if you want to see an example of a first course, look below!)
Dinners here take a different track as with the majority of the time we focus on one plate of food in which meat is the centerpiece and vegetables, potato, bread, and other such things take on a peripheral role. (At least this happened to be pretty standard in my family growing up.)
So, what do you think of the Italian food culture course by course? While traveling, I found it to be an incredibly unique and wonderful change from what I was used to. It was nice to be able to see what sorts of things another culture held as priority during meals and take part in it. If you would like to read a couple of other articles that I found hold true to my experiences, look no further than here and here! Thanks for tuning in!
Culture Shock 
