"Italian" Restaurant RED FLAGS | The Top Signs that Italian Food Isn't On the Menu
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- Опубліковано 13 кві 2024
- Over the years we've figured out a few easy-to-recognize signs that an "Italian" restaurant's menu, although it might be yummy, definitely isn't Italian. A lot of people ask us for recommendations on how to find an authentic Italian restaurant, and it's best to learn what to avoid if you want a taste of Italian cuisine.
To illustrate the signs we look for, we decided to play a game of "Restaurant Red Flag Bingo" with the (anonymized) listings of our own, local Italian restaurants on Yelp! Winner, winner, chicken parm dinner...
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If there's a cuisine you're very familiar with, what are some red flags that immediately tell you a restaurant isn't serving the real deal?
Cajun cooking.
Barbecue prepared with a tomato based sauce applied prior to smoking. That’s just wrong. Or even barbecue swimming in tomato based barbecue sauce. 🤢🤮
Too many dish choices (not made fresh)
Very cool video!! Thank you Eva and Harper... BINGO!! 😂
@@ragazzotexanobarbecue has dry rub before smoking, but what of brushing it with tomato-based barbecue sauce to form a type of glaze near the end?
Regarding Grammar Mistakes, there is an old joke.
A Roman Gladiator walks into a bar and tells the bartender "I'll have a Martinus".
The bartender replies "Don't you mean a Martini?"
The Gladiator replies "Look, if I had wanted a double, I would have asked for one".
😂😂😂 I absolutely LOVE that!
😂
Or when a certain Italian Food Network chef announces at the beginning of one of her shows, "today we're making cannolis!" 🙃
Me: I would like a panino with...
Waiter/ress: you mean you want a panini.
Me: if I was really hungry I'll have 2 panini, but I only want one panino. Thank you
and zucchini?😉
I’ve been waiting years for someone to validate my “no balsamic on caprese or bruschetta” rant. Thank you!
Yeah, a rare one to find done right. Whereas Caesar Salads are everywhere, one day I will see it in a Thai place. It is already in seafood places.
For me it's the use of the term 'brushetta' - a close second is calling a single sandwich a panini
I met Caesar and Alex Cardini many times. I grew up near San Diego and my parents took us to their restaurant in Tijuana many times back in the late 40's. Caesar would make the salad at the table. It was delicious!
I have a question.
Did they use lemon or lime juice in the dressing recipe?
Why I ask is that in Mexico the word often used for lime is limón. (but elsewhere, like Spain, límon = lemon).
Since the written recipe is said to call for "limón", there has been a debate whether lemon or lime was used.
Can you comment on this ?
Have you seen the 1996 movie "Big Night"? It describes the struggle of two Italian brothers to maintain standards in a 1960s Italian restaurant in New Jersey. One of the best food movies ever.
ty
One of our favorite movies!
Best scene is when a guy orders risotto with a side of pasta and the Primo, the cook comes out of the back and is like "why not order mashed potatoes as well?"
@@cinemaocd1752 HAHAHAHA i get it
Sir Ian Holm plays the "Joe Pesci"-type role better than Pesci ever would have. I loved that "I oughta kill you..." scene here he scares the hell out of Stanley Tucci for making a particular dish SO well that any other restaurant making it could NEVER equal.
Eva: "In America you like to dip everything"
Me: *dipping my toast in my egg yolk as I watch this* "She might be on to something."
Best way to eat eggs imo. Lol yolk dipping soooo good.
I hardly ever dip anything. Maybe fries but I do not eat them much.
dipping egg in toast is probably one of the few dippings Italians love just as any American
"Aioli" it's a Catalan sauce! It's name in catalan is "all-i-oli" which transaltes as "Garlic-and-oil), and those were the only two ingredients originaly, nowadays many people add an egg at home, and it looks more like a garlic mayonaise. In it's original form its a very thick and strong sauce.
But now, there's Hellman's Aioli. Why be like garlic mayo when it can BE garlic mayo?
but anyway it's not Italian...
Aioli is found in Provence, as well.
That sounds more delicious than garlic mayo. I might try to find an authentic recipe and do it myself.
This is not a criticism - thank you for doing this!
Y'all played BING, though. Bing-o is 5x5 (24 squares with a free spot)
This is just an amusing observation.
Keep up the fantastic work, I've personally learned tons from y'all and hope to continue learning.
I really appreciate your effort here. I’ve been to Italy myself a few times and really love Italian food. Americans are more familiar with grandma Italian food. so many of them came here and could not find the ingredients, so they “winged it”. Love your show and you are so cute!
Pancetta is too salty for Carbonara, I will test bacon some day.
Patrick McManus was a wonderful humor writer, who wrote about growing up in Idaho. His mother's recipe for spaghetti started with the box of Chef Boyardi complete spaghetti dinner that included pasta, sauce, and dried grated parmesan cheese. She cooked the pasta way past done, mixed in the sauce, mashed it into a loaf pan and baked until congealed. Refrigerated that, then the next day, sliced it about 1/2 inch thick and fried it. The cheese was sprinkled on top of this. I have always wondered if any of that was true. He was very funny.
This made me remember my mother's spaghetti. It made me appreciate the school cafeteria version. Her theory - many spices together are better. Why not combine tarragon with oregano and 17 others?
I like it best when you cook. THAT's where we go for real authentic Italian food and to learn a little bit about the culture.
People think that there is such a thing as Mexican food. Mexico is so large and the geography so varied that there are Many Mexican food styles. The Pacific ocean has different seafood than the Caribbean. The mountains have different peppers than the deserts. Mexico City was built on swamps, so who knows what else is in there.
I'm so glad I found your channel. Eva must be the most informed Italian cook. I had no idea there were so many styles of cooking in Italy.
I want to try specialties from Yucatán (I live in Texas, so it’s mostly food from the northern states of Mexico or from CDMX). I’ve seen the show Comida Yucateca para Hombres, and everything looks really amazing. Their guests are awesome, too.
Edit (spelling because autocorrect)
Yes, that makes sense. Italian food is like that too. So is Chinese. I can only shake my head when American tourists go to Venice or Florence and order pizza.
@@gregmuonyup, that do be what i did as well... Me and my father went to Florence unprepared so we didn't have the best of times, but hearing a bunch of spanish girls order pizza with their italian guide took everything from us as southern italians, so hard to not just shout to them "no! Please no! We'll drive you back to naples with us if you really want pizza but don't order pizza here!"
I'm the first to admit i don't kkow much about florentine cuisine but i know at least two things: pizza isn't their thing, and they are very proud of their steaks.
I ate a lot of bugs (chapulin and others) in Oaxaca
@@iota-09 Yep, Florentine food is delicious, but pizza isn't part of it. They have schiacciata/focaccia instead. Sure, they eat pizza now sometimes, but it's not from there..American tourists should go to Naples if they want to be in the home of pizza. Otherwise, enjoy the regional specialties, IMO.
I eat hot dogs with mustard, but y0u can eat it how ever you want. Thanks for the education of Italian foods .
I’m American born 3rd generation Italian . I always thought that piccata is a sauce and not a bastardized word for scaloppine. It’s made with olive oil, flour, garlic, capers,lemon and parsley.
I've commented before about when our Italian-born ancestors came here, they used what is available to adapt recipes. Also, as time went by, we adapt them to our American tastes. I get the point of this video and I ADORE this channel. I'm truly not trying to be a 'Debbie Downer' BUT, would it make true Italian-born Italians feel better if we put a disclaimer at our restaurants that say something like, 'Italian-American Restaurant' or, oh what's the new phrase....Italian-American FUSION? lol. I feel bad that it brings such frustration to the Italian people. It's truly a love for your country's cuisine that inspires our cooking. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Love you guys
I live in Italy and a lot of my Italian friends enjoy these changes or at least don’t think it’s a big deal.
@@caramia4789 I don't live anymore in Italy and some things are made everywhere but, and it is good to point them out to non-Italians, because oftentimes it is all they know as Italian cuisine
I agree. Italian American cuisine is as old as America itself. This is disrespected and disregarded by Italy born Italians all the time.
@@supernoobsmith5718 Let's face it, much of American cuisine is disregarded by the rest of the world. lol. Fine. More for us haha. In all seriousness though, I totally agree with you. It's truly a beautiful fusion, in my unrequested opinion
@@ErinChamberlain Italians from the other side are just jealous at the size of our meatballs.
Il problema col Parmigiano Reggiano all’estero, in particolare in America, è tra l’altro anche dovuto alla traduzione. Se tu dentro un traduttore scrivi parmigiano reggiano, in inglese ti esce fuori “Parmesan”. Molta gente di conseguenza è portata a pensare che quel Parmesan sia semplicemente la traduzione del nostro parmigiano e che in effetti sia la stessa cosa. I traduttori, così come con altre cose, tipo gorgonzola, mozzarella eccetera, dovrebbero lasciare il nome parmigiano reggiano in maniera originale, senza “traduzioni”. Con certe cose non si fanno traduzioni. Esiste il nome originale e basta. Non è come la parola generica “formaggio”, che bisogna avere la traduzione di quella parola in inglese, o in un’altra lingua, per capire di cosa si tratti. Il nome proprio di un determinato formaggio, e qui parliamo, tra l’altro, del più famoso formaggio italiano e uno dei più famosi al mondo, così come anche di un altro prodotto, non deve essere tradotto in altre lingue, deve semplicemente rimanere in maniera originale dappertutto. Se ad esempio parliamo di un vino, non è che ci mettiamo a tradurre il nome dei vini (Barolo, Chianti, eccetera) in altre lingue.
The thing is, in Europe the simple name is protected in every language. So a Parmesan in Germany it's bound to be the original.
Outside of the EU that's not the case, which is why the long, specific and Italian name is being used.
@@finestPlugins. Ich glaube, nach dem Namen und auch, weil Sie von Deutschland gesprochen haben, Sie sind Deutscher und ich als Italiener lebe schon seit vielen Jahren hier in Deutschland. :) Ich bin einfach der Meinung, man sollte die eigenen Namen von bestimmte Produkte nicht in andere Sprachen übersetzen. Wenn wir zum Beispiel von Wein sprechen, da werden auch nicht die eigenen Namen der verschiedene Weine (Barolo, Chianti und wie sie alle heißen) in anderen Sprachen übersetzt. Man übersetzt eventuell das Wort Wein oder das Wort Käse in anderen Sprachen, um zu wissen, wovon man spricht, aber nicht die eigenen Namen von diese Produkte.
@@aris1956 Darüber können wir reden wenn man in Italien von Deutschen redet und nicht tedesci.
Dann auch bitte Grauburgunder und nicht Pinot Grigio. 😂
Nö, eigentlich ist es Quatsch und nur affig.
Darum geht es auch nicht, es geht um Produkte mit in der EU geschützten Namen. Auch wenn diese je nach Region unterschiedlich sind.
P.S. Ich bin für Bambini Schokolade. 😂
Eva, Your enthusiasm was extraordinary in this episode! First time comment, started watching during covid.... have loved the evolution of your shows.
I worked as a Chef for Wegmans for twenty years . Talking to the Chinese Chefs that worked the wok station what they make here is American Chinese food . They said there are similarities in some dishes but for the most part it would be unrecognizable in China
Like "sushi" in the US. Japanese people don't recognize it. The rolls I mean. It's bizarre food to them, an American food, they think. They don't see it as Japanese at all.
'Swedish' meatballs containing things like panko breadcrumbs, tomato, cayenne pepper, garlic, oregano, basil, coriander and cumin are definitely not 'Swedish' and you can't replace lingonberries/lingonberry sauce with cranberries. Spices that are allowed in Swedish meatballs are cloves, allspice, black or white pepper, nutmeg and perhaps caraway (very uncommon but not outruled). A herb like thyme could work, but it's seldom used. There isn't a standard recipe, but there definitely are rules. If you want to make authentic Swedish meatballs google "recept köttbullar" and translate the recipe to your language if you don't understand Swedish.
I remember as a kid going to a real Swedish smorgasbord type restaurant & the way the meatballs tasted was something I have never tasted since…Probably because of the spices you mention.
I also sometimes add tarragon into mine along with thyme. It doesn't overpower the more standard herbs and spices and fits right in with ythe others. My Swedish neighbor in my childhood taught me "the rules" which basically are the same as yours. She also made her own ground meat blend, and we double-ground the meat adding certain spice amounts into the grind, and the others flavored the gravy. That gave the meat a brighter flavor.
I literally laughed out loud at the prize for winning😂😂😂
Would love it if you did this with restaurants in Italy too!
What I’d find more interesting is Eva’s take on Italian-American cuisine-not whether it exists at all in Italy, but have her take on what’s good and what isn’t. Personally, for instance, I think a Caesar salad is a fine thing, while fettuccine Alfredo is a travesty.
Eva has only ever had Italian American *restaurant* food. Very different from what people eat at home.
Caesar Salad ain’t italian. It first came into existence in Tijuana, Mexico in the 1920’s.❤
@@71jvf ummmh….i know….thats why I listed it as a non-Italian food Eva should try.
Fettuccine Alfredo is my favorite food (if it's made well, never that jar stuff 🤢) but I'd really like to try the original recipe that Eva demonstrates
Sometimes I dip my croissant in my cappuccino...I picked that up while living in Paris.
it's the best way
I'm from Germany. My biggest pet peeve is the hot dog place Wiener Schnitzel. How do you turn a pan fried breaded piece of veal with a slice of lemon on top into a hot dog?
An attempt at a pun gone horribly wrong
I worked at a place that served their Wiener Schnitzel with gravy, because that's the way Canadians liked it. So if I was serving Germans, I'd warn them.
So when I first moved to SoCal, one day my co-worker and I were driving out to lunch. I asked where should we go, and she said “how about Der Wienerschnitzel?” I said “Yeah! I haven’t had a nice breaded veal cutlet since I moved here!” She gave me a quick sideways glance, said nothing, and drove us there. Yeah, she’s a stinker.
@@lindamarshall3485 Jägerschnitzel ("Hunter's Schnitzel") is schnitzel with Mushroom Gravy) and is a very popular dish in Germany' and Austria. Basically, a Wienerschitzel with mushroom gravy. It's fantastic. Wiener = 'of Vienna' or 'Viennese.' I think the Canadiens have figured it out correctly! Accompanied with spätzle, which you can use to sop up leftover mushroom gravy.
@@bacca71 Yes, the restaurant I worked at served that one, too. But we put just normal beef gravy on the wienshnitzel, which was not very welcome to German customers. They just wanted a wedge of lemon.
Off topic, but amazing hair game. Love y’all’s channel!
Most of the pretty authentic Italian restaurants I've been to in the US will still have a few Italian-American items on the menu because they're expected here, e.g. a side of marinara for dipping because they know 3/4 of orders will end up with someone requesting a side of marinara.
My mother was British and having grown up with one leg in England I have a huge problem with American tea Houses. America does not understand that High tea is not, was not fancy! Yet tea houses push this on unsuspecting Americans in the states and in England, as fancy dress up! High tea was for servants that worked on estates and had to serve dinner to its employers as late as 8 p.m. or later. They had tea at 5 p.m. their “high tea”. It is afternoon tea that had the tiny sandwiches, cucumber, ham, or egg sandwiches, scones and small sweet treats. I have given up on telling friends the difference, they don’t want to know.
...And the hilarity ensues! Keep the fun coming.
Dipping things into other things is the best, so much fun and flavor combos!
I love you two and your recipes! My wife is a wine snob and I think Eva follows the same path with American Italian lol! Like you said in the beginning, food is subjective. That’s what makes cooking so fun!
fun notes from around rochester ny, which has a healthy population of both italian-americans and italian-italians. Several menus around here are split, with one page being 'italian american' food and another page being 'italian' food :) - - Also, at a properly italian restaurant run by an italian friend, he makes his caprese salad the way he and his family made it back in italy. With balsamic drizzled on top. Ho ho ho.
Even Guy Fieri differentiated 'American Italian' to Italian Italian food. American Italians LOVE garlic... lots and lots of garlic.
Infantinos is long gone sadly.
There's a Chinese restaurant like that near me. An actual Chinese menu, and then a Chinese-Canadian menu.
@@Objective-Observer Americans drown the food in garlic because the vegetables here (in North America, at least) are less flavourful. For reasons I don’t understand (is it the soil? Or farming methods?) vegetables in Italy are much stronger in flavour. I was in Italy for a month once, and recall buying a bunch of celery. The whole apartment smelled green, grassy, fresh for hours, just from walking the celery from the front door to the fridge. Similarly eggplant is far more earthy, and tomatoes are far sweeter (hence the “no balsamic” rule). (I think it’s why Italians, in Italy, are not overweight despite the food-based culture. When food is that flavourful, you eat less. You feel full so much faster.)
@@jpp7783i dunno about that last bit... The better the food is the more i eat it as an italian 😅
But then again my parents were chefs and i'm not exactly normal either so it's probably a worst case scenario...
Anyway, i'm glad to know how it's done in some parts, i actually don't mind American italian cuisine too much, some things are actually pretty good, like spaghetti and meatballs... Ok maybe i would use a different pasta format but meatballs in pasta in italy aren't really a thing outside specific areas of italy and even then it's still fairly different, yet the american italian version of that dish can be good.
The only thing that bothers me is the absolute claim that it's italian cuisine... It isn't, and it's fine that way, there's no shame in it unless admitting it isn't italian but italian-american was seen as a disgrace, which, if the food quality was good enough, shouldn't be such.
So yeah i'm starting to wonder if people who get angry when italians say that chicken parmesan isn't italian aren't really just being self-conscious instead... I kinda hope that's not the case.
18:31 Wait a minute on the carbonara. Eva is from Calabria. So how do you guys feel about the Calabrese version of carbonara where they add the ‘nduja to it? It’s not the traditional Roman carbonara, but my guess is that they don’t care and it’s still delicious.
I’m a Vienna Beef Chicago dog snob so NO freaking ketchup. guess I’ve been watching you two long enough that I knew almost all of them.
I'm resigned to ketchup of hot dogs, but absolutely draw the line at ketchup on bratwurst.
Thank you. My daughter in law had told me that there are many foods in American Italian restaurant that aren't really Italian!!
In 2014 my wife and I were touring Lake Como and went to the city of Bellagio and for lunch had Caprese (spl?)salad which had tomato, baratta, basil, with a drizzle of balsamic glaze
Oh, you’ll find all kinds of stuff like that outside of the region where a particular dish is from. Lake Como is pretty far from Caprese territory
But you are speaking Italian FOOD vs American- Italian food.Lake Cuomo is in Italy even if far from Caprese land.Still Italy so it would be better to correct your region in Italy vs other regions in Italy as well.@@PastaGrammar
@@MsAure Ha ragione Eva non e' Italiano e' sta mania di fare tutto Masterchef del cazzo, dove ormai mettono di tutto per fare i fighi,ma non e' la ricetta della caprese
@@MsAureI think the point that PastaGrammar is trying to make is that those dishes are “fluffed” to accommodate the tastes of tourists. If you go to a tourist destination, you get tourist food unless you venture off the beaten path. I’ve seen much of the same in Germany.
@@sevenandthelittlestmew Lake Como is not a common tourist destination, at least no where like Milan, Venice or Rome. Next time I am in Pietravairano I will have to see what my great aunt says when I ask her to pass me the balsamic glaze 🤣
Big laugh today! Thanks for the fun!
This is an informative and educational episode, fun.
I ALWAYS eat hotdogs with ketchup. I didn’t know it was a big thing until I was well into my thirties, however, it didn’t stop me from putting ketchup on my hotdog. In fact, that is how I raised my children. They are adults now and they also eat hotdogs with ketchup. My husband eats his hotdogs with mustard and relish, but he never corrected me for using ketchup.
Canadians often put ketchup on hotdogs. It's such a loved condiment here that we even have ketchup flavoured potato chips.
I'm an odd Canadian though; I put bbq sauce on my hotdogs.
I don’t eat hotdogs or ketchup. Am I missing something?!
Very creative video…really enjoy them each week…😂
In Poland, especially when it comes to pizzerias, there is a very strange trend in listing ingredients. The word "pelati" is used to describe the "type" of tomatoes LOL. So it looks like this for example: olives, nduja, and "pelati" tomatoes :D In times where everyone has a dictionary in their phone!
Pelati = peeled
@@mmbarbon2955 exactly 😂
Even as a southern italian it took me a while to realize why that was odd ngl lol
Harper " We can't check it off since it's not exact. " Eva gives him a look like it's a sin anyway. LOL
"Parmesan" might just be an attempt to make it comprehensible to Americans.
But I've seen some strange things on menus. Like one that had pasta listed under "secondi".
It is such fun to watch. I love italian food and I am greatful to be able to visit Italy usually two to three times a year to enjoy local italian food as it should be.
So glad that you posted this. Italian food is so delicious. Perhaps we would have more authentic Italian restaurants if these other restaurants correctly called their dishes Italian inspired American cuisine.
Referring to an earlier video on meatballs. My grandparents who are from Molise in fact did make pasta and meatballs and these two items were served together every Sunday at their home.
My. In-laws were from Calabria. When she served in dont think it was ever with pasta, but if she did it was always as a separate dish..
This was fun. I love catsup on hot dogs. But with mustard and relish also.
Yeah, I was going to say, ketchup on hot dogs is American, and it is a popular way to eat them! I understand eating bratwurst with mustard, but they are German sausages, so you eat them in the German style. Hot dogs (for the most part), while they started out as a German style sausage, are basically American now, and ketchup is a very popular condiment for hot dogs; everywhere I've been that sells hot dogs (West Coast, Midwest, and Far North of the U.S.) has offered ketchup as an option to put on them!
This is a fun and fascinating video, because I'm EXTREMELY Italian in the sense that my family has a lot of deeply rooted traditions in Italian-American cooking. A lot of the things that are on your list as "unauthentic" are actually, to me and my family, extremely authentic! Recognizing of course that there's a huge difference between Italian-American cooking and true Italian cooking. We've got a real mean meat sauce for our pasta + meatball/sausage meals that has been passed down through generations of Italian immigrants. I'd never expect to see that in Italy proper tho unless they're catering to American tourists.
Love seeing these comparisons!
Eva's Hair needs it's own social media channels.
It probably could serve as an antenna.
I am no gastronomic authority, but what I have always read is that the two fundamentals of Italian cuisine are 1) to make the most of the freshest ingredients available in the moment, while 2) keeping the dish as simple as you can so that those ingredients can shine. When Italian immigrants created Italian-American dishes, they were following those principles, adapting their old cuisine to new shopping and gardening climates (and changing those climates, too). As tempting as it is, these days when you can get anything delivered from anywhere, to judge Italian-American food by its authenticity to Italian food, I would argue that a lot of it _is_ authentic in the ways that matter.
I stay out of chains like Olive Garden for Italian but where I grew up there were lots of little "red sauce places" run by people who put a lot of pride into what they did. (RIP Calitri's in Danvers, MA) Living in the South now, I think about those places quite a bit.
I have been to Italy 4 times, and can say that the restaurant I frequent in the Paris region has authentic Italian food.
Also, people need to realize that Northern and Southern Italian food is very different.
@@maureenmolleron747 In my experience the French do not often settle for mediocrity in food and drink, and Italian cuisine is the only cuisine they'll admit is within spitting distance of their own.
@@maureenmolleron747 "wait, you guys don't eat polenta and lampredotto?!"
A random guy who just saw that one james may show and didn't realize that not everyone in italy eats everything in italy(although polenta is fairly popular everywhere despite being a north italy thing)
I think Americans have developed palates that reflect the “melting pot” nature of the country. While Italians might feature one herb in a sauce to make it distinctive, Americans will put oregano, parsley, thyme, and more all in one sauce. That’s what Americans have come to expect. American adaptations are delicious, but I think everyone should should at least try authentic old world recipes so they can learn to appreciate the taste of individual ingredients.
When I was a kid, I didn't care what other people said about what goes on a hotdog. I put relish, mustard, and ketchup. I'm from Maine BTW. Where I grew up (in a little town called Stetson, about 30 minutes from Bangor.), every corner store in a 30 minute radius, had whooie pies, cold "Italian sandwiches", with oil and spices, and pizza.
Yay! Been waiting for this one. I ALWAYS sound like a snob to my friends--- now I can at least bolster myself to be reasonable🙆
As always, this was a fun video. 😁
I absolutely love Eva!!! She IS Italian to the core!! She gets so animated when she talks. Love her so much! Takes me back to when I lived in Catania.
Harper, you such a lucky man!!
Ciao ragazzi…bravissimi!
Panini/sandwich….😂😂
I have had falafel in the Middle East which was fantastic. I have had some really sad examples in my small Midwestern American town and even in the big city, 100 miles away. I kept telling my friend about the great cuisine and we journeyed 100 miles to a food festival. I pretended to like the food since we traveled so far. My friend didn't know the difference but later he said he didn't know why I liked that cuisine. The pita bread was the packaged stuff you get at Walmart and falafel tasted like it came from a mix and was undercooked. The pita wasn't packed with an array of vegetables. Instead of tehina, it had some weird mystery sauce.
I've said it before, but Eva's hair is the third host on Pasta Grammar... looks amazing!!
Just as Abbot & Costello said: “Mustard was made for the hotdog “…😁😉
This is fun. I've been doing this for years as I gained knowledge in Italian cuisine. You can tell by the menu. I hate when they put onions where it doesn't belong like in vongole.
The way Harper says "parmesan" sounds so derogatory 😂
2:11 What Eva refers to is called a “blackout” in Bingo, I believe. It is not invalid. She clearly did not have a great time, or was distracted, when she previously played. Bingo is a very social game, unless you are in a huge hall, filled with older people carrying bags full of lucky charms. Those people are very, very serious about Bingo.🤗
I remember as a kid my Catholic School and church would have Friday bingo and sometimes fights would break out 😂 over something stupid. And the hall they played bingo in was directly under the church. Some times the priests would come over from the rectory and see what was going on when the fights would break out . The priests would break it up but laugh afterwards. It was all good fun .
Love these two. I've made quite a few of their recipes and every one has been amazing. (Eva, do you have a sister ?)
I had a friend who loved dousing his spaghetti pasta in ketchup. I shiver to this day. And I am not Italian!
The garbage you would get at school taste the same, flavorless tomato sauce sort of like brands like Ragu taste, Paul Newman's was pretty good, I gave it a try once.
Complimenti.
Ciao Harper and Eva my name is Adriano and I was born and raised in Napoli but i have lived in the US for over 20 years I see it a bit differently. In my opinion 99% of “Italian” restaurants here are really Italian American restaurant. Nothing wrong with that but people should know that is far from the same thing, often.not even similar. Personally I do not enjoy most Italian American food but to each his own . What truly bothers me is the restaurants that too often use the word authentic and their food is everything but. I hope many of you get to visit my country and in alternative use some of Eva recipes the are 100% authentic. Eva thanks for the cannelloni recipe I just did my own version and my gf loved them . Thank you guys for your fantastic content if you are ever in Florida hope you come and visit
Fun facts 😂good job.
This video reminds me of trying corned beef and cabbage for the first time in Boston, something I’d heard about from media but that I’d never seen, never mind eaten, growing up in Ireland. Ended up taking out my passport as proof of origin!
The thing I love most about the food in Italy (mainly Rome, great place to watch rugby) is that the average food is so good. You can get great food anywhere if you’re careful and prepared to pay but almost every hole in the wall restaurant there seems to be really good.
Aioli is interesting, it really makes me think about the complex history of the Mediterranean, how certain Spanish, Italian, French, and Arabian things were shared and combine. My favorite sea by far. It even lays claim to fame of Latakia tobacco which I have also sampled and is immensely unique, aged, and flavored... just incredible history resides in the region!
Love you guys! Just wanna say; we have a local BYO Restaurant that has a wonderful menu, rather non-“traditional” Italian; their pizzas are small, very non “American” pizzas, and the entrees and starters are delicious! Would be very curious whether Eva would enjoy their menu; If you are ever in Central NJ, let me know! We love their food! It is NOT “fancy” cooking; it is brilliantly simple cooking, but rather boldly created…and some of the best bread I have ever had in a restaurant! They will supply oil for dipping if requested, but traditionally offer good butter. Best “cacio e pepe” I have ever had!
I adore Eva's incredible talents and hair! ❤
You might have already listened to it but the most recent episode of the Gola podcast is an interesting chat about the complexities of translating Italian restaurants from Italy into American locations, like Bonci Pizzeria in Chicago.
One of my pet peeves in American restaurants is the "Tuscan salad." It's just a salad with a lot of things in it, most of them not Italian or anything an Italian would put in a salad. I like to ask, "What makes this salad Tuscan?" They never know.
The grammar thing can possibly be explained due to many US Italian families immigrating before Standard Italian became widespread. They passed down their regional dialects, so you can get odd spelling and pronunciation.
The description of a caprese? Salad explains why I never liked them when I enjoy tomatoes and mozzarella. I thought it was the basil being over powering but now I’m going to try it with just oil next time
Very interesting lol.
But let's see to answer your question... in Chinese restaurants things to look out for
1. Use of pot sticker over dumpling
2. No hot oil on table or western style condiments present in general
3. Ice water instead of hot tea. Some places offer both now to cater to everyone but hot is usually default
4. Fork and knife by default offered
5. Cheese dishes
@@katrinlausch3078 I consider those places American Chinese. For me it's restaurants passing off as authentic Chinese
I live in Atlanta so I can offer one more- wings
Every Chinese place in Atlanta has wings and often the wings are the best food while the "Chinese" food is an afterthought. Also probably 90% of Mexican spots will also serve wings
You forgot the main one. When you see general tso chicken
@@ohdaUtube 😆
@@EdwardM104 @EdwardM104 ha! This happened with us. My friend and I got invited to a college dinner. They took us out to an all you can eat buffet. She and I were going to town on the wings while everyone else had like orange chicken and other stuff you normally see. Everyone was asking why we would come here and eat only that. My friend was like, it's the only thing that is close to being Asian 🤣
Adding a new one to the Eva phrasebook: "Always I am ready. Always to play!"
Would be interesting to explore the origins and history of some of these non-Italian Italian dishes and/or ingredients. You guys briefly mentioned on some of them like Caesar salad (which I only recently learned!). But I feel like many things, from marinara to pepperoni, have a deeper story behind them and the subgroup of people that popularized them. E.g. could pepperoni be some thrice removed adaptation of nduja?
What? Ketchup BELONGS on hot dogs-just like mustard and diced red onion! Great episode you two lol... An aside, when I lived in Arco Felice outside Naples for 6 years we would go to a place named Aquario... It was a Chinese restaurant with a glass flood and underneath the entire place was an aquarium full of fish. Real cool BUT, they served like normal Naples restaurants-course by course so the white rice ALWAYS came separate... like they waited for you to finish the white plain rice before bringing the meat and sauce to go on the rice lol. It took 4 years for them to get used to us have 2 courses at the same time...
Ciao Harper! Ciao, Eva! I studied in Japan and lived there for years. Sushi here in the US is only kindred to the way it's made there. Sushi in Japan usually contains fish, veg., pickles, or a combination of them. And the rice is seasoned with sugar, salt, and vinegar. It's party food there. But, it never has cream cheese, avocado, or meats and it's never turned inside out. I don't order it anymore! It's just not the sushi I know & love.
I studied Italian for a few years and it drives me nuts when I see the canoli/cannolis thing. I feel the same way about panini/paninis. I refuse to eat at a place that serves panini’s.
This bingo was fun, thanks
Can you guys check the Italian restaurant in Plainville CT. It is called "CANTINA" and I have to say I had some really good food there, like "SICILIAN SALAD" and the pork chop was delicious. I really enjoy your videos and wish you best of luck.
I saw Spaghetti bolognese (sic) offered in an Italian restaurant in Lyon, France just last month!
The French love spaghetti bolognese. Maybe we can blame it on the French instead of taking blame ourselves? lol.
There IS a Spaghetti Bolognese, but it's made differently than the one you're used to. They've even made a video about it.
@@telebubba5527 I know -- I've already watched Pasta Grammar's video about that. But that's not what this restaurant in Lyon was serving...!
QUESTION: Is Cacio pepe e polpo (Caio Pepe with Octopus) authentic Italian? Is it linguine alla volgole (Linguine with clams) - pasta plus seafood = authentic Italian? Pasta with meat (besides ground meat) = not authentic? Pasta Grammar is a good description for what is required! So many food rules, but so excited for my first trip to Italy coming up in 2 weeks!!! Love the content
So-called authenticity of food served in Italian restaurants here is tough to pin down. Only among the priciest restaurants catering to food-savvy diners, are you likely to find a menu of authentic Italian dishes (albeit made with American ingredients). Otherwise, Italian restaurants here will offer dishes likely to attract a mass palate, which, sadly, has been debased by commercial Italian products; eons of Italian dish bastardization, etc. Some of these dishes can be good, if not recognizable to Italian diners.
Salsa di pomodoro alla Marinara (American translation "Marinara sauce") is a real italian thing , it was a sauce popular with neopolitan merchant sailors. So its not like "Sauce from the ocean" (like seafood) more like "Sauce of the sailors".
they know it's real, it's just not served as a dip with random things.
But they use it as base tomato sauce for any kind of pasta and even pizza's.
So this is one of the easiest and biggest alarms when checking menus out if Italy.
What’s an American translation? 😂😂
its the pizza alla marinara, with tomato garlic and origano. marinara sauce nobody knows what is it in Italy.
It's hard to find a carbonara. Most restaurants put heavy cream in theirs. The closest I've come is a Japanese / Italian hybrid. They use guanciale but parmesan cheese.
"Mischief", like adding peas, or cream or using Pancetta so it is super salty.
Albanian Burek. I've had burek all over the Balkins, but the street stall, across from the Tirana park with I "apple" Tirana, is amazing. Still trying to find something like it in Chicago. It's been 5 years, so...BUREK needs help in Chicago.
I'm surprised that any mention of the world Alfredo on the menu didn't make the bingo card.
As far as grammar mistakes I have encountered, I found one back in college I will never forget. Never went to the restaurant, just browsed the menu online. They had a past dish with mussels, and wrote on the menu muscoli instead of cozze. Also, a lamb dish where they wrote anello instead of agnello!
Spaghetti alla Bolognese is one of most popular dish used by italian university student, obviously with tuna!
Wish I could post a photo but at Trattoria Antico Gafaro in Venezia they serve a side of salsa pomodoro along with my calamari fritti without batting an eye. Course, they get much tourists and I do try to order in Italian.
In the UK parmesan is just the English word for Parmigiano Reggiano nor a different (inferior) product. If you want to market something that's similar (and cheaper) but not parmigiano you have to resort to "Italian Hard Cheese" or similar circumlocutions with is rather funny because hard cheese being idiomatic for bad luck if you have been served "Italian Hard Cheese" that really was either bad luck or judgement. 🤣
Same here in the US.
Kraft, or any other "Parmesan" in a can.
If I am not mistaken, the EU outlawed marketing something as "parmesan" if it is not parmigiano reggiano. Here in Denmark, it is mostly sold as "Grana Padano", though much of it is actually from Italy, and it usually just tends to be Parmigiano that has aged for a shorter amount of time, than the time required to obtain the designation.
Parmesan here in the US is cheese made in the same way (and same standards) as Parmigiano Reggiano, but made with American milk, etc., and not made in Italy, since the Italian cheese is, I believe, D.O.P., so we cannot call it Parmigiano Reggiano. Same cheese, different place of origin. --The thing that bothers me at "Italian" restaurants, is when they make up Italian words (Freshissimo), or make Aioli with a mayo base, rather than the right way.
@@Chef-Bret Isn't aioli originaly spanish and french turned it into garlic mayo? That's not even a thing in Italy... Our's is more of a trinity: oil garlic chillie...😂 , so no aioli...
One of my red flags is a place that on the menu the diner has to choose the pasta and the sauce, mix-n-match style
I had chicken parmigiana (Trader Joe’s) on fettuccini a few days ago, but I’m careful not to cut into the pasta much. And I’ve heard a few (supposedly) real Italians say they have seen spaghetti & meatballs at restaurants in Italy, but only as a kids menu item (like many American restaurants have chicken nuggets and small basic burgers on).
Spaghetti and meatballs actually exist in Teramo (Italy) but it uses small meatballs, Vincenzo's Plate uploaded a video of the recipe.
@@GODAXENkinda not rhe same thing tho and not seen everywhere in italy that's the thing, like i live in naples and i never knew of that until just a couple years ago, same for pasta all'assassina.
One thing that's hard to understand from the outside is that there's italian cuisine and regional cuisine, but while nearly all italian cuisine is often also regional cuisine, not all regional cuisine is also italian cuisine, in the sense that some dishes really exist exclusively in certain regions or even just cities, completely unbeknownst to the rest of italy.
They are still italian dishes in the sense that they are part of the overarching italian culture, but i would be VERY surprised if, i dunno, i saw pane carasau on a venetian menu, and some of these dishes would be a hard sell for most regions in Italy in fact, they are, quite literally "the exceptions that make the rules"
Now if only italian-american cuisine could understand that and act more the part of a regional cuisine instead of claiming to be all-round italian, that would probably make everyone happier and more proud of each other and each other's achievements i'm sure.
Off topic: If I am looking for a tasty very stretchy mozzarella for a pizza
in US stores like Krogers, Walmart, Publix, which type/ brand would you recommend?
Eva's hair is AMAZING!
I have a red/yellow (orange?) flag. Oddly, it's one about American food in Japan - putting corn with mayo.
It's a weirdly common combination - as a sandwich filling, bread topping, even on their fast food chain pizzas.
Maybe it's because their mayo is a bit different? It's still bizarre to me though.
Now, if it was a little spicy and cheesier, it'd be like elotes, which are amazing.
Actually Harper, I think you should show Eva a Japanese pizza menu like JP Domino's or Pizza-La, just to see her reaction. 😂😂😂
When most Italian immigrants came to USA we substituted many Italian products we couldn’t find in USA “ Substituted “ & improvised ❤
I was partially ignorant about the grammar thing... I knew cannoli was plural, but I thought it was also singular! I have always avoided saying "cannolis" though
Nice inventive video! I live in Thailand and just like Italian recipes, if you change even one ingredient, Thais will declare that it is not Thai. Seems like Italian recipes are the same! 😂