BOOK REVIEW


Eating Rome: Living the Good Life in the Eternal City


E Eating Rome: Living the


Good Life in the Eternal City 241 pages, paperback By Elizabeth Minchilli Published by


St. Martin’s Griffin


Produce Shopping Don’t touch the fruit or vegetables.


Te vendor will, and they will put ev- erything in your basket or bag. Also, don’t bargain. It’s just not done when food shopping. Vendors will help you with recipes if you ask and you can watch them prep vegetables, too.


Street Eating Don’t eat in the street. If you do, you


might as well put a sign around your neck saying, “I’m an American tourist.” Tere are exceptions…gelato and pizza Bianca (baked pizza dough with olive oil on it). Eating in outdoor restaurants is fine, since you’re sitting down.


30 | | Summer 2015


lizabeth Minchilli’s delightful, mouthwatering new book, Eating Rome, Living the Good Life in Te Eternal City, is a wonderful gastronomic tour of Rome. Minchilli shows her passion for the city by weaving her personal stories of


discovery – from what to eat; where to eat it; and where and how to buy it, order it and cook it. Each chapter ends with her favorite recipes. When Minchilli was 12 and living in St. Louis, her family moved


to Rome. Initially a traumatic cultural shock, it soon became a lifelong love affair with all things Italian. How to best eat your way through the city? If you’re a tourist, here are some guidelines:


Breakfast Very few Italians eat breakfast.


It’s a nonevent, unlike lunch or din- ner. Tey drink coffee, all kinds, and they eat cookies (biscotti) and pastries with it.


Ordering Coffee Never, ever drink coffee with


milk after noon. Also, there’s no takeout. You go into a coffee bar, pay, get your coffee, and stand at the counter or sit down and drink it. It’s a Seinfeldian coffee-nazi experience.


The Restaurant Bread Basket It’s not free. It’s there to be eaten


with the antipasto or main dish. Don’t ask for a dish of olive oil and down all the bread before your food is served. Tere are hundreds of other won- tips


derful and anecdotes about


Rome in this paperback book. So sit back, make yourself an aperitivo at cocktail hour and enjoy this book… and remember, bitter is better. Te Italians invented the Negroni, Cam- pari and Soda, and Aperol Spritz. Why? Tey all contain bitters and stimulate the appetite.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32