Florence Friday: Picky Eating

A glass of fruit and gelato

I was having trouble finding a theme to blog about today, ironically, because I didn't want to post about food.  In my apartment, I'm the picky eater (but my roommate eats damn near everything, so I don't really think that's a fair judgement).  I also have a reputation for not getting hungry.  My stomach can rumble loud enough to wake a hibernating bear, but I will not be hungry. (trust me on this one)

Despite the unfairness above, I am a picky eater---yes, mom, I will acknowledge that--but I've been getting much better at being open to try new things.

San Marzanos--Italian tomatoes

As a result, one of my *fears* of going to Italy was that damn near every meal would include some version of one of my least favorite foods:  tomatoes.

Currently, my biggest intake of lycopenes comes from ketchup.  I can stomach them if they're in burgers, and I do eat tomato sauce in small amounts, like on pizza or spaghetti (I definitely prefer the noodle part of spaghetti).  But if you hand me a vine of cherry tomatoes to munch on, or offer to add them to my omelet, I won't touch them.  

There's just something about their almost-sweet-almost-watery-too-juicy...tomato-ness that I just can't get my tongue around.

So you understand the fear of going to a country where pizza, spaghetti, and red sauce came from. (do correct me if I'm wrong).  So I didn't think motivating myself with pictures of these colorful foods would be particularly effective.  In fact, I might be liable to run the other way and abort the trip altogether.

But my good friend told me I should do a Florence Friday on restaurants in Florence that I'd like to go to, and I agreed to the suggestion.  Unfortunately, I realized I didn't know (specifically) what other kinds of Italian food there were, beyond the cheesy amazingness of a good alfredo sauce.  And instead of finding restaurants (they'll have to appear in another post), I found pictures of my favorite food in every country of the world:  bread.

droooooooool....

Here's a list of some of the breads they make in Italy:

*filone (long sticks of classic, Tuscan, unsalted bread)
*rondeggiante (round, flat loaves)
*bozza or pagnotta (tall, round loaves)
*pan di ramerino (rosemary bread, decorated with a cross and once sold by traveling bread salesmen called "semellai" outside churches during Holy Week)
*panina gialla aretina (a rich yellow bread, often enhanced with raisins, saffron and spices, eaten at Easter with eggs blessed in church the day before) 

----Courtesy of Dianne Hales 

As it turns out Italians do some delicious things with flour and water.

They mix it with all kinds of spices, throw in raisins, rosemary, and *egad* vegetables...but really, what it all comes down to are the carbs.  The picture above shows me (and you, mama), that I will not starve during my time abroad.

There is one ingredient, I found in my travels through other Italian blogs, that is not included in Florentine bread, and that is: salt.

That's news to me.  

They don't use salt so that the bread doesn't conflict or overwhelm the abundance of flavor they have in their main dishes (hrm..looks like I'll have to taste the tomatoes after all).  

But I think it'll be okay.  I'm not necessarily fond of a lot of salt...It'll just be a change from how very salty American food is. 

They have bread, and they have wine, and they have cheese.  

That's all that matters.  

I'll just be fat and happy.

After all that carb excitement, I decided I ought to look for one last picture--to give me an idea of what kind of meat I'd be looking at...and I found this:

bistecca florentina

I have decided that the Italian food is not all bad, and not all slathered in evil red sauce.  This cut of steak is HUGE (I've been warned to make sure I'm sharing with someone), and they cook it rare...just the way I like it.  =D

Now even my tummy is excited.  =)  

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Do you know of any other delicious anti-red sauce meals I can find in Italy?  

What kinds of food can't you stand? (mushrooms are at the top of my list...even higher than tomatoes)