Europe Fall 2024 - Third Gastronomic Post from Italy

As mentioned in my second Italian gastronomic post, eating while we are traveling is more of a stream-of-consciousness type of activity than a true gastronomic focused adventure. The last week covers our period at Francavilla al Mare and Ostia on the opposite coast by Rome. 

 Despite which side of the coast, whether you were in the countryside or in a city environment, if you were on the water, we found the Pesce (seafood) menus to be almost identical with minor variations. This meant me focusing on the seafood pastas (which were almost uniformly excellent), and Wife searching for grilled whole fish. We also ate a lot of salads (which were just 'okay', and a lot of grilled vegetables which were mostly zucchini and eggplant and were uniformly very good.

Seafood Pastas

A note on Mantis Shrimp

Those are the long, shelled things on the pasta. They are really hard to eat. You basically cut them in sections and chew on the shell like you would a shrimp head (if you are into that kind of thing). The flavor is very sweet.

Whole Grilled Fish

Non-Grilled Fish

At one place I ordered something I had no idea of. I thought it was going to be in tomato sauce. Turns out to be a type of eel (I thought it very good) with olives, wine and a bit of tomato.

Sample of a Salad and a Grilled Vegetable

No, we did not stop eating gelato

This was from a place in Francavilla. The one on the bottom was without doubt the best version of pistachio I've ever had with a ton of nuts in it. Sadly it was closed the second time we went there.

Non-Big Meals

There were times when we simply could not find a place open. Mondays were horrible for finding a place to eat. We were in Giulianova on a Monday and could only find this one cafe/bar open. No one was in it and they had some pizza slices and calzone available to be warmed up.

They were actually very good. The tarts we tried were not so great. One was a mixed berry and the other was pastry cream.

If we can find Kebab, that is a go to, non-fancy meal for us. This was from our last day in Ostia when we were still recovering from our Roman meal experience.

Okay, but not as good as the one in Vasto

Roman Eating

We'd not had pizza hardly at all because it is only made in the evenings and most of the time we were too tired to go out in the evening. But on arriving in Ostia, there was a pizza place right on the next block, highly rated, with take out. We went there, ordered our pizza, had it in 10 minutes and brought it to the apartment. It was very good.

 

We definitely wanted something different from the seafood oriented diet. Plus I wanted to try the classic Roman pastas in Rome. We were only there two days. It was after our Ostia Antica mega-outing. It was lunch time and we were exhausted. There was a local place right across the street from our apartment. This was a 'Grandma's Cooking' place...Literally. The entire staff (pretty small) was older women. It had what we were looking for on the menu so we gave it a try.

Wine and Bread

The woman serving us was so sweet working with us on our translation. When we ordered glasses of wine, she had us each taste the wine, then gave us an enormous pour!

 I don't know if the picture does justice to the size of the glasses and the pours. And these were 5 Euros ($5.50) each!

Cacio e Pepe

One of the classic pastas. I cook it a lot. Mine is always more soupy then this

 I think partially because I'm making it for more than one person. It was VERY peppery. Wife was eating this and it took her a long time. I was making fun of her until I tried it and realized how much black pepper was in it. BUT it was very good.

Carbonara

Another classic preparation with egg, cheese, and bacon. I also make this a lot, and also have the too wetness issue for I think the same reason.

 The bacon, when you get this in other parts of Italy is frequently very softly cooked. This was like pieces of lardon - cubic rectangles - and very crispy cooked. You will not also they didn't put this on spaghetti. It was also delicious.

Arostoncinni

I was supposed to try this in Francavilla but we never got around to it. It is basically meat on skewers. This was lamb. It was a bit under seasoned 

 

 Wife had fried chicken wings...which doesn't sound very 'classic' Roman to me, but what do I know?

 

 They were fatty (which I enjoyed but Wife did not) but were way more favorable than the skewers.

And we did the mandatory grilled veg which included carrots this time!