In France, and probably everywhere in Europe and North America, the « goûter », the afternoon snack, is a sacred moment of the children's day as well as of the adults', I have to admit. So when I arrived in Italy, the homeland of ice cream, I rejoiced over the pounds I would gain after tasting all the different « gelato » flavors.
Therefore, when my host mom offered to get a snack during my first walk with my host family, I was ready to taste the most delicious ice creams, cakes and candies. Imagine then my face when my host mom offered me a slice of pizza ! In my oh-so French-mind, pizza is for lunch or dinner and the afternoon snack is supposed to be composed of sweet things.
Of course my first thought was worthy of an Asterix and Obelix comic: « These Romans are really crazy ! ». Who would dare eating pizza for the « goûter » ? But on a second thought, I looked at the situation with a different angle and understood what I could gain from it: it was the occasion for me to discover a different culture, another way to view food, a new way to view my cultural knowledge.
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| Vegetables and fish pastas |
The Italian family I lived with and all the italian I knew would eat pizza and focaccia at 10 am and 4 pm, they considered pastas as a starter and peanut as a desert. The typical meal in my host family was composed of pastas with a sauce as a starter, meat and vegetable and a fruit for desert. In fact, they consider nuts and peanuts as (dried) fruits, therefore they were offered in desert in the same way an apple or an orange would be.
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| Simple Focaccia and Tomato Focaccia |
In a world where the cultural globalization is still growing, the things we borrow from other cultures are multiple and diverse. We "stole" pizza from them and created our own pastas according to their model. Try to show an italian your mac&cheese and observe his reaction ! As for them, they took « croissants » from us the French and adapted them to their taste. The italian croissants are made with orange blossom and filled with cream, jam and chocolate. When I told them that in France, croissants were eaten plain, they had a hard time imagining it. C'est la vie.
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| Brie cheese and ham Pizza |
There was the interest of my experience in Italy: discover the daily life of a culture that was different from mine and enriching myself with our differencies. Each country, region or city creates its own way of life and that's what makes a trip abroad so interesting: to open our mind to the world and te people around us ! Why not doing so by eating a slice of pizza for the « goûter » ?
Blondyn_Bubble
(translated from French by Absolute B)
Your post made me hungry :(
ReplyDeleteI think discovering other eating habit does in fact broaden your mind and it's a necessity when you want to interact with locals abroad. Eating together creates a certain bond. Giving people food is showing your hospitability. But I've had my freak-out moments as well: fries at 10AM in Romania, pig fat as a sandwich spread in Poland, ... Still, it's always an edventure. Cool post!
I concur with the comment above, this post makes me hungry too (well most of it - I'm a vegetarian) ! I consider myself an adventurous eater and would try almost anything (that's meat free these days) so if I had the chance to travel any where in Europe (or anywhere in the world), I would try as much of the traditional dishes as possible. Food is most definitely one of the most wonderful ways to learn and experience different cultures.
ReplyDeleteWow! What a fantastic post! The last pizza with brie and ham is going to have to be replicated here in LA!! Eating is one of the great pleasures of life and I couldn't agree more with the above comments...
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Thanks a lot for your comments ! I agree, food is the best way to discover a country, I hope you guys have the opportunity to do so, I know I loved it!
ReplyDeleteAnd a special thank @Shophopper for sharing your experiences, I can see we've experienced the same kinds of problems... but in the end, it's good to be openminded !
Blondyn_Bubble
Really agre with your point of view, food allows us to know a lot about cultures. It's not only what & how the food is eaten, it's also where & when. It tells a lot about the country's costoms.
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