Food Tour

On Monday, our last day together in Rome, we took a walking food tour. It was held in the Testaccio area, where the old shipping dock and slaughterhouse were. It is still an area with many small family-run food businesses, and not an area where there are many tourists. Our guide was Sebastiana, an American-Italian who was raised in the US but lived here most of her adult life. It was a wonderful tour -- we all loved it. The 13 participants included some from Australia, Scotland, US, and Brazil. Every single thing we ate was absolutely amazing!

I have many more pictures of food, but here I will just post the ones of the actual items we ate.

We began by meeting up at a coffee shop where we had coffee or tea.

The first stop was breakfast where we had cornetti (like croissants, only with less butter) and tiramisu in tiny little chocolate cups.

Next was a pizzeria, where we sampled margarita with fresh basil and mushroom. We also had a suppli, a ball of rice with tomato sauce and cheese, breaded and fried. That was a big hit with our group.

The baker at the pizzeria posed with all of the tourists.

This sampling is two types of cheese -- black-truffle infused pecorino and parmesan-reggiano -- and two meats -- incredibly thin melt-in-your-mouth prosciutto and wild boar salami.

In a gourmet foods shop we sampled two types of balsamic vinegar.

Next we went to an open-air market with over a hundred stalls (many closed for August holidays). We first got chopped tomatoes mixed with basil at a produce stall, then came to this bakery where we had rustic toasted bread. We each had a piece of garlic to rub on the bread, then served the tomatoes on it. Fresh bruschetta!

Next up a stall which sells fresh buffalo mozzarella and used the rest of the tomatoes for caprese.

Our biggest stop was a restaurant where we sampled three types of pasta plus wine and water. The three pastas are carbonara, cream and black pepper, and a tomato-based one. 

At last, gelato! You must have two or three flavors, never one. I had mint, cherry, and chocolate. And of course they put cream on top.

I will post more about the restaurant and some of the shops next time. I hope you aren't too hungry now!