Words from Mel — Eating Big in Little Italy
You haven’t eaten until you have been to Italy. As I write this I am sitting at the table in our apartment in Otranto revelling in the feeling of a completely satisfied stomach. Meanwhile Vaughan is groaning with something between ecstasy and agony with his stomach fully distended. Today we were invited to lunch with our landlords, Ike (pronounced Ekay) and Antonio and their family. The two other students staying here Hiroshi and Ako came along too. Lunch in Italy is not just a meal, it’s an occasion. Firstly we ate lasagne, real lasagne, lasagne with about ten layers of pasta, with egg, ham, mince, etc. I thought great — that was a nice lunch. Then appeared the antipasti (tomatoes, mozzarella, salami, vegetable salad), which we all munched on somewhat happily but wearily.
Knowing as I do that Italian’s always have dolce
(sweets) with their lunch, I expected this next but no — there was more — the secondi piatti — beautiful tender breaded chicken breasts baked to perfection. Yum! Vaughan had two (they were forced upon him — no really, they were!!). By this time my stomach was nearing saturation point (the F mark on the tank) and my mouth was buy saying ‘Pieno Pieno’ (Full full) which Ike must have translated as ‘I need more filling’ because next I was confronted by a green salad and dutifully ate a plateful with delicious vinegar and home made olive oil. This devoured it was time for Ike to present the ultimate in tiramisu. Vaughan nearly fell off his chair with delight and promptly ate two helpings. Ike insisted she give me the recipe after seeing the effect it had on Vaughan. I was searching for the Italian word for heaven to describe how I felt.
This eaten and with four foreign stomachs attempting to cope with the Italian pranzo (lunch) Ike took pity on us and offered us a coffee and liqueur. The Italians drink their coffee strong and sweet — bellissimo! So, after a total of five courses, two bottles of wine, a liqueur, espresso and much pidgin Italian, lunch ended with much laughter, many photos (if only the remotes would work!) and an open invitation upon our return.
With all experiences in a foreign country, we had a couple of good chuckles over misunderstandings. Today for example, I told Antonio’s daughter Laura that in Australia kangaroos are welcome into houses for dinner (not ON the table but AT the table!). It was five minutes before I wised up to my mistake…as you can imagine everyone was very surprised at this piece of information!
Italian’s are known to be very kind people so when Antonio walked in from work with two small sparrows I immediately thought he was going to keep them for pets. But then as soon as Marcella (Ike’s son) turned on the gas and stuck these stiff bird-like things on the heat, I promptly changed my mind. (I think she was burning the feathers off??). Ako, being seated very close to the stove was not at all impressed. Antonio was eyeing them up for lunch but thank God Ike persuaded him to eat them for dinner instead. yuk — not all Italian food is to my liking!
All in all a fantastic Italian experience — thank you Ike and Antonio!