What Foods Were New To You When You Visited Italy For The First Time?

Rosie

Rosie

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Apr 6, 2013
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Italy
I'm sure every country has it's own foods and it's own traditions, and I was curious, what foods did you find in Italy and were reluctant to try, or didn't even try yet?

There are a few items here that I had heard about, but didn't really find in my home country.

For instance, I had heard about turnip greens, artichokes, fennel and other vegetables, but never really had them until I came here.
Same with the gorgonzola cheese. I knew there are eatable cheeses with mold available in France and Italy, but I never tasted them until I moved here.
And fruits... well, I've never even heard about lychee fruits until I came here, same goes for the "kaki" fruit (some sort of persimmons, not bad at all :) ).

What about you? :)
What sort of foods did you try out here, for the first time?
 
Some round zucchinis! And some funky broccoli, with a spiky spirally look rather than the normal broccoli heads we found. I also bought fresh fennel for the first time there. I swear, the markets were so colorful compared to where I live now!
What I did not try was the "flower" thing coming out of the zucchini. I mean, I saw zucchinis being sold with it on top, and I thought they were the leaves to put away. Then, I saw them sold separately, and I sort of figured there was something special about them. Did not try it though!
 
^ Oh, you must try the zucchini flowers!
This is also one of the foods I tried here for the first time.
It's weird, because they are flowers! But I have read about them online and found a few recipes and decided to try them out. I first tried them pan-fried, they were delicious! I still have to try them out stuffed with cheese and raw (you can also eat them raw, apparently).

Speaking of unusual foods :) is this the broccoli you mentioned?

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I've seen it, but never tried it. I've also seen purple cauliflower, by the way. At first I thought it was a joke, that they added synthetic color to make it purple, but it seems that the purple color is given to the cauliflower by some of the antioxidants it contains. So.. it's all natural and safe to eat!
There are also orange cauliflowers available in the supermarkets. The orange color is given by the vitamin A, as orange cauliflowers contain 24% more vitamin A than the normal, white cauliflower kind. So.. don't be afraid, it's still cauliflower :D
 
YES THAT IS THE BROCCOLI I'M TALKING ABOUT! It's so funky, right? I'd have it on my table as a centerpiece any day! XD With a couple of round zucchinis... It'd be lovely deco.
http://age.ofaquari.us/?tag=farmers-market

Unfortunately for me and my zucchini flower experience, I never saw some where I live (Germany)... Guess I missed my chance for now! I also regret not buying artichokes when the season came. I had artichokes before in my life, but it looked like so little to eat and I was on a budget. Still sad that I did not even enjoy one or two, though.

Now that you've mentioned it, I'm pretty sure I saw the purple cauliflower.
 
You know, I was familiar with everything I came across, really - my family heritage is Italian, so despite not being born there or living there, I was familiar with Italian food in quite a bit of detail. Honestly, I would say in our household growing up that probably 5 out of 7 dinners for the week were Italian, or had Italian origins to them!
 
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