After crossing over the pedestrian bridge to Tiber Island, we met up with Maria, Van, Roberta (our food tour guide), and six others -- four Americans from Texas, and a couple from Scotland (near Edinburgh). Everyone turned out to be great, and Roberta proved to be a fantastic guide.
She talked with pride about Italian food and culture, making the tour fun.
Trastevere is considered a trendy, hip neighborhood just out of the crazed hustle and bustle of ancient Rome. The neighborhood name mean "across the Tevere" -- the other side of the Tiber River. It's a hangout for young people, and a place popular with younger families and old-times who never cross to the opposite of the river.
Our first stop was at Enzo's, which is considered the top restaurant in trendy Trastevere (easier to spell than to pronounce). The people lined up for a table shot us dirty looks as we skipped the line and were seated prior to opening.
We had the best Jerusalem artichokes I've ever had and burrata/cherry tomatoes. The bread was fantastic.
(Editor: Um, would that be the first Jerusalem artichoke you've ever had? Writer: Perhaps.)
A quick note on burrata -- we've liked it for a long time, but our spring trip to Northern Italy has cemented it as our go-to cheese. Sorry to offend anyone (Editor: No, no you are not sorry.) but Burrata is far superior to Mozzarella.
Sorry, Mozzarella, I still like you as a friend, but I am in love with Burrata.
(Editor: Um, that's very odd of you. Writer: Sometimes I have write with emotion about how I feel. I'm in love with Burrata and I don't care who knows!)
Jerusalem Artichoke Hearts.
Jealous diners waiting in line at Enzo's.
From there we went to Restaurante Spirit Di Vino, which was built on the site of a synagogue. This wine bar/restaurant in the basement has Roman arches from 80 B.C. The dish of beef shoulder that we ate was Julius Caesar's favorite meal (his chef wrote a recipe book that still exists).
Wine racks in an old
Roman basement.
The group with beef
shoulder and wine.
A view during our foodie
stroll in Trastevere.
From the two stops at sit down restaurants we moved on to the street food stops. First we went to a place for Suppli, a tastier Roman version of Arrancini. It was so darn good I focused on eating it and forgot to take a picture.
The middle of the Suppli is a chewy heart of heated mozzarella cheese that is so good you want to slap your mouth because it should be illegal to feel so good. It's encased by rice and meat sauce, making it a perfect snack/appetizer.
Part of the fun (besides the taste) is to see how far you can stretch the "telephone wire" of the cheese, pulling a long string of mozz with the Suppli ball in your hand and the start of the cheese in your mouth.
I'm not bragging, but I had the best telephone wire of anyone in the group, so I got that going for me.
Showing off my telephone
wire/Suppli skills.
It took many years, but I
finally found my talent
in life.
(Editor: You ARE bragging. Writer: Well, yes. It's also important to celebrate life's little victories, and stretching the cheese "telephone wire" as far as I did certainly counts as a victory.)
Pizza!
Our next stop was for street food pizza. In Rome, you order your piece(s) of pizza by the size, and get charged by the size. We had two pieces each, a white cheese with little slices of potatoes on it, and a more traditional red sauce pizza with, well, I don't remember. The potato pizza was okay, but there's also a reason I've never seen it in the U.S.
Italian restaurants in America should bring Suppli (pronounced "soup-LEE") to the U.S. but leave the potato pizza back in the old country.
Our next stop was at a meat sandwich shop that bills itself as the best porchetta (pronounced with a hard "ch" instead of the soft "ch" we use in the States) in Rome since 1924. Based on a sample size of one porchetta tasting in Rome, I'd have to agree. It's fabulous, and gives me hope that I can make a better pork belly dish than I've made up to this point. Of the five-six times I've used pork belly, I've probably been happy with the way it turned out just once. The shop's proprietor wouldn't divulge his exact cooking method, but did tell me what to put into the meat, and to cook it slowly for eight hours.
I've got a mission to experiment when I get home! Pork belly will no longer intimidate me!
The proprietor's son, who
looks like he should have his
own cooking show and
make the ladies swoon.
"The Hunky Italian Meat Guy."
Clock Tower In Trastevere
Icon at the top of the tower. Why yes,
my lightweight travel camera has a
better zoom lens than your fancy
camera has.
When the moon hits your eye like a big
pizza pie, that's amore. When the world
seems to shine like you've had too much
wine, that's amore.
So we had one more taste of food before finishing with gelato. It was a stop at another sit down restaurant, where we had Caco e Pepe served with both a red and a white sauce. The group consensus was that the red is tastier than the white, and that we were on the verge of a food coma.
Roberta then took us to an authentic gelato shop, where we each got small scoops of two flavors. She filled us in on the difference between so-so gelato and really good gelato. It's good to remember the difference (too long explain here, but ask me), although when it comes to gelato, when you want it, you get to choose from what's in front of you. The better stuff is better, but the "bad" gelato is still pretty good.
This picture of a bridge over the Tiber
River to Tiber Island gives us a
beautiful reason to reflect on a
fantastic evening spent on a
Trastevere food tour.
1 comment:
It all sounds delicious and beautiful!
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