appellation wheelbase: Monday morning spice: Food in Naples

Monday, May 21, 2012

Monday morning spice: Food in Naples | I Drink My Tea Sweet

by Abhijit on May 21, 2012

And that's how a REAL pizza is made! At Da Michele restaurant.

Reviving an old section today ? Monday morning spice ? some photos to cheer you up on a dreary Monday morning. And thought, what better way to bring back a section which has ?spice? in it?s name than to talk about food! And that too food in Italy!

With absolutely no doubt about it, the top rank goes to? Pizza!!

You thought Italy was famous for it?s pizza? You?re right, but within Italy, Napoli is especially famous for it. And it?s not the typical pizza you?d fine which is baked in electric oven and has a hundred different type of toppings. The ?real? Italian pizza is cooked in smouldering embers of a clay oven. There are two main types ? Margherita and Marinara (or, to be precise,?pizza napoletana margherita and pizza napoletana marinara). These are very basic, very tasty and quite inexpensive (just 3-5 Euros for a full-size pizza). You can get ones with different type of toppings added to them, but they don?t really need any toppings. If you really want to mix it up a bit, get the margherita with double mozzarella ? it?s yummy!

Travel tip: Only go for a pizzerie which has a sign outside which says ?Vera? pizza ? this indicates it will present to you authentic clay-oven baked pizzas.

And that?s how a REAL pizza is made! At Da Michele restaurant.

p.s. The pizzas in Napoli were so tasty, I don?t have a single photograph of them ? I gobbled them up so fast!

Continuing with the pizza theme, Neapolitans love cheese. Here?s a dish called ?Braciola al ra gu? which is essentially meat with cheese stuffed inside it. Luxury.

Okay. even meat has cheese stuffed inside it. Yum.

And to cap it all off, I also tried Risotto. This was at the unfortunately pricey restaurant called Locanda del Grifo (although pizzas were quiet cheap at just ?4). This is?Risotto fiori di Zucca, which was nice and tasty. Not mindblowing though.