kentucky

When I came to Los Angeles, being from a family that appreciates Italian fine dining I found a little culture clash, but that is not always a bad thing. I come from a very Italian family so when I finally mustered the strength to ask this particular petite blonde with the most enchanting blue eyes that I have been eyeing on since the start of the term, I did not have any hesitations to take her to this ristorante that served authentic Italian food. She became very excited with the idea of going out on an Italian date. She had told me that she was a huge fan of Italian food, although at that time I did not know exactly what she was talking about. I thought that we were on the same page when it came to loving Italian food. Growing up, I have fond memories of sitting down to a very huge and long meal.

My uncles and aunts, together with my parents, would spend the entire Sunday afternoon in the kitchen just cooking away, and during dinner time we would have such a grand feast. These weekly family gatherings were not as informal as you would believe. Our grandparents wanted us to experience Italian fine dining in a regular basis so the dishes were served in courses and we went through the entire meal from the antipasti to the digestivi when we were finally allowed to shoot alcohol. I wanted to show this girl a good Italian time, while she was just thinking of Spaghetti Bolognese in a spaghetteria two blocks away.

You can just imagine her shock when I brought her to this upscale ristorante that did not only write every dish in the menu in Italian, but made every single decoration and every ornament speak Italian. I had to order all the dishes which meant that she had to trust me on whatever dishes I picked. I decided that we should skip the “aperitivo” or the cocktails so we went straight to the “antipasti” which translates to “before the meal”. We were served very thin, salty slices of Prosciutto di Parma which is Italian cured meat made in the area of Parma.

After the appetizer, we went to the first course or the “primi”. For the first course, I chose a simple risotto of fish and peas. By that time, the wine was starting to work on both of us. She candidly asked me from what region of Italy the risotto originated from, and being well-versed with my Italian culinary history, I automatically said that the region of Veneto is credited for the risotto.

For the second course or the “secondi”, we had a “Bistecca alla Fiorentina”, a large t-bone steak that big enough to be shared between the both of us. As we went deeper into our meal, she finally confided on me about how she did not know that such upscale Italian restaurants existed. She, like everyone else, thought that Italian cuisine is just confined to a paninoteca which serves delicious paninis or Italian sandwiches and pizzerias that sold all kinds of pizzas to your heart’s content.  I explained to her that Italian dining is very diverse, it can be very informal as in eating in a local spaghetteria in Napoli or dining in an upscale ristorante in Venezia.

Finally, we got to our first desert which is called “formaggio e frutta” or cheese and fruits, a typical Italian pairing. After that we had our dessert which is called “dolce”. For that we had a genuine Italian tiramisu. After that we had the caffé or coffee. For that we had a demitasse of perfect Italian espresso which was enough to jolt our systems that were becoming quite slow because of eating that much food. It was a wonderful first date of the many that came after it.