Lesson Transcript

Hi guys, welcome back to ItalianPod101.com.
My name is Desy.
Mi chiamo Desy.
And in this video, we're going to talk about Italy's street food.
cibo di strada in Italia
So this really depends on the region that you are in,
because we have many typical products that influence the street food, of course.
But there are also things that you can find anyway.
For example, of course, number one is pizza, pizza.
So when you go around, of course, you can find restaurants where you
sit and eat the proper pizza, like you know, the round one.
But we also have panetterie, panetterie.
So shops where you usually buy bread that also sell pizza al trancio, pizza al trancio.
Trancio is basically a slice.
But while the word used for slice is fetta, fetta, trancio is a square fetta.
So it's a squared pizza, meaning that this pizza is usually made inside a rectangular teglia.
And from that, then they take pieces out of it and they sell it.
So you can just take one and eat it in the street or also stay there.
But anyway, it's considered street food.
You either get the margherita, which is the classic one, or farcita, pizza farcita.
Means that it has another condiment, another ingredient with that or even more than one.
But either way, that defines the price range.
Because let's say that margherita is the cheapest one and then farcita
is a bit more expensive depending on what you have on top.
Number two, we have focaccia, focaccia, which is the one similar to pizza.
But it's actually without anything on top.
It's just like bread in between, let's say bread and pizza.
It originated in Liguria, Liguria.
Especially there is a famous one, which is La Focaccia di Recco,
a place in Liguria which has cheese inside.
Not on top, but inside.
It's usually just made with oil and salt.
This is also sold in panetterie or especially focaccerie,
which usually also have pizza, by the way.
Number three, another savory street food which is similar to pizza and focaccia
is farinata, farinata, which is sometimes used as an appetizer
in restaurants before the actual pizza.
Farinata is made of chickpea flour and water and oil.
And that's it, and a bit of salt, of course.
But then it's served usually with pepper on top, pepe, pepe.
It can be translated into flat bread, I'd say.
It's really interesting, the history behind this,
because the legend says that when sailors were coming back to Genoa
and they didn't have that much food on the ship anymore,
but then there was a storm.
So the things that they had actually fell on the floor
and they had the ingredients basically of farinata.
So they didn't want to waste them because that was the only food they had.
So they just let it dry, like in the sun.
And then farinata came out of this flour and water.
Salty water that was, of course, from the storm and oil.
So that's how the legend says that farinata was born.
Number four, we have panino, panino, which is like small bread, so a sandwich.
But the street food is famous for its paninaro,
which is the food truck where you go and get your panino, usually late at night.
Because a panino, you can always get that in a bar during the day and by bar,
as you may have noticed already, I don't mean the one where you find alcohol,
but just, you know, a diner.
And then at night, so when bars are closed, actually,
these food trucks come up here and there.
So you can find a panino even in the middle of the night.
Here, too, it really depends on which city you're in, which region.
Because, for example, in Tuscany, the most famous one is Lampredotto,
Lampredotto, made out of one of the four stomachs of cows.
Yes, I know.
And also in Sicily, you can find it with milza, which is the spleen.
Don't judge, just try.
Number five, arancino, arancino.
Now, before you get mad, I know, and if you don't, I'm telling you,
that there is actually a conflict in what is supposed to be called this rice bowl,
okay, which has ragu inside or other things like ham and cheese.
And then it's fried, like deep fried in oil.
But in some parts of Sicily, which is the region where this street food comes from,
they're called arancino, while arancina in some others.
Actually, arancino in Catania and arancina in Palermo.
And then in the rest of Italy, you can find both of them.
I mean, it's still the same thing.
It's just a different way to call it.
Still, it's really good, in my opinion.
Number six, piadina, piadina.
Also called piada, piada.
Typical of Emilia Romagna region, so center of Italy.
It's again here flatbread or what you find in a wrap.
I mean, the outside of the wrap, because inside here, it's not really wrapped.
It's just like half on top, one part on top of the other,
because it's round in the beginning, but then they just fold it.
And inside, you can find salumi, so everything that is like ham, salame,
or porchetta, roasted pork, and formaggi, so cheese.
For example, really typical of Regione Emilia Romagna is squacquerone.
I know, I really like the name as well.
Which is a creamy cheese that you can put on it, but on other things as well, of course.
And then you can have what you like the most.
For example, even vegetables, if you like.
Like verdure grigliate, verdure grigliate, gelato, gelato.
I know that you may be tempted in calling it ice cream, and that's it,
but nowadays I can see that there's a difference between gelato,
as you would say in English, and ice cream.
So gelato is the creamy one that you're supposed to produce day by day.
So it's not the one that you can find inside plastic at the supermarket, you know.
It's supposed to be the one that you go and buy, actually that you eat on the spot,
or that you can just get as take-out.
When you eat it on the spot, you can choose between cono, so the cone,
which could be made of waffer or biscuits, so biscotto, or la coppetta,
which is a small cup, coppetta, that you eat like with a spoon, cucchiaino.
And there you can choose for both of them, if you want it of two flavors,
so due gusti, tre gusti, and so on.
And if you want whipped cream on top, so panna montata, panna montata.
Similar to gelato, there's also the ghiacciolo, the ice stick, ice cold.
This also comes from Sicily, and it's what you would call shaved ice,
but it's not just that, okay.
So it's made of ice, so water, sugar, zucchero, and then they add the flavor
that it's supposed to be, it could be fruity, but one of the most famous is almonds,
so mandorle, mandorle, or gelso, gelso, mulberry, gelso.
This one in the north, you can just get it like on the street,
like take away and you eat it in the street,
but especially in the south, it's something that you can eat while you're seated as well,
and you get it with a brioche called brioche,
and so you just eat it with the sweet bread, let's say, and panna as well, if you'd like.
So as granita is typical of summer, calda rosta is typical of winter,
actually autumn, I'd say more than winter, and especially in the north of Italy,
because it's roasted chestnuts, calda rosta.
So le castagne, chestnuts, castagne, roasted, that you have to peel, you know.
Inside, you may find a verme, verme, which is a worm, when they're not good to eat,
but not always, of course.
Number 10, least but not last, cuoppo, cuoppo.
This is actually not an Italian standard word, because it's from Naples, so it's in dialect,
and it means paper cup, actually, it's a paper cone, even better,
and it's where you put inside fried fish, not only fish, fried food in general,
but in this case it's with fried fish, and you can find it in other regions as well,
of course, like in Liguria again, or everywhere that there is the sea, if it's with fish.
So a lot of places use the word cuoppo as well, otherwise it's cono di fritto or cono di frittura,
so fried cone, where of course it's not the cone that it's fried, but what's inside,
and yeah, it's really good.
Of course, there's so much more about street food in Italy,
and it really depends on where you go, so my suggestion is just to go everywhere and try
everything, but if you cannot do that, start with the 10 I just suggested you,
and let me know what you think of them.
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Thank you for watching, I'll see you soon, bye bye, ciao ciao!

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