/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.11441934]

What's the secret behind Italian cuisine?
No seriously why is it so good and succesfull? I think I never met a single person in my life who said "I don't like Italian food", it seems the only type of cuisine unanimously loved.
When I went to visit Italy I would have gained a lot of weight if I stayed more, I would have just spent my time eating and eating.

[Anonymous No.11442168]

>>11441934
>What's the secret behind Italian cuisine?
>Short answer
Location and (thus) history.
>Long answer
Italy is immensely diverse both environmentally and more importantly culturally: the italian peninsula has always been a global crossroad, meaning that all the imaginable populations either crossed or invaded it at least once somewhere in History, and each population added a bit of their habits, eating ones especially; being a crossroad also meant that most if not all the resources went through it, especially precious spices, or new species of vegetables which complemented the huge variety of different foods that was already available. On top of that you have to add that politically Italy is a fairly recent "invention", and not even two centuries ago it was still a fragmented nation divided in small states that always played the dick measuring contest, and that reflected on the cuisine; however most people were poor, and their food was mainly "poor" food, which was tightly tied to the availabilities of each region, and as I said, it was extremely diverse throughout the whole peninsula. Historically meals were always been an important piece of social interaction in the populations that formed in the italian peninsula, just think at the romans in their triclinia, although I think this is true for every population on Earth, but for some reason this thing stuck to the point of becoming of utmost importance and central in the italian culture. All this contributed to form a gargantuan and immensely varied culture around food that still lives today.

As for the fact that nobody dislikes Italian food, I'm quite sure it's partly due to the "Made in Italy" branding, which is something that historically started at the beginning of the 20th century, between the World Wars IIRC, and that allowed Italy to survive globalization (and oddly enough also prospered thanks to globalization): after all eating habits are mostly a social construct.

[Anonymous No.11442228]

>>11441934
The Italians have a very well developed culinary culture, but they never developed the snooty image that the French did in the 19th and 20th centuries. Italian food is perceived as more humble and accessible. If you wanted a FANCY dinner you went to a French restaurant, but if you just wanted a nice family meal you went Italian. French food is definitely starting to shift back to its rustic roots, though.

[Anonymous No.11442270]

>>11442168
Thank you, nice explanation.
Are you Italian?

[Anonymous No.11442282]

>>11441934
>implying Italian is better than French cuisine
fucking plebs having the palate of a squirrel

[Anonymous No.11442298]

>>11441934
>When I went to visit Italy I would have gained a lot of weight if I stayed more
I did a bit of research, and funny enough Italy, while like 45% of the population is "overweight", it has the lowest obesity rate of Europe, which is lower than the lowest of the American states. Can't really double check on those info because I'm in bed phoneposting right now.

>>11442270
>Are you Italian?
Yes. Keep in mind that it's how I personally see it, and I'm sure I have left something out.

[Anonymous No.11442331]

>>11442298
There is very little junk food culture there I think.
>45% overweight
Interesting when I went there I've seen pretty much everyone with a long limbed body and dressed fancy, especially women. Could it be more frequent in the south?

[Anonymous No.11442392]

>>11442331
>junk food culture
It always surprises me how such a thing actually exists. The junkiest I can think of is an occasional McDonald/Burger King/KFC (the only three available fast foods in the country, and the last two aren't even that easy to find), but I wouldn't base my diet on those because simply put it's enjoyable to eat there once in a while, but it's just not good, and I mean that it doesn't taste that great after all, but also you don't feel that well after eating there. Personally I would happily lose my health eating club sandwich, but calling it "junk food" is a bit of a stretch, everything considered.
>Could it be more frequent in the south
It is by a wide margin, but keep in mind that "overweight" literally means anything above the right fat body mass index or whatever it's called. It could be not immediately noticeable: I'm totally unfit and I have some good amount of fat on my belly, but depending on how I dress I could pass for someone that is just fine.

[Anonymous No.11442430]

>>11442331
"Overweight" covers a broad category from skinny fat to morbidly obese. Most people as they age start to drift into "overweight" territory because their metabolism slows down and they become gradually less active. It forsnt necessarily mean they're a bunch of scooter-bound lardasses.
>>11442392
Junk food culture unfortunately exists in the US because junk food companies spend piles of money convincing us that daily life is a chore and that cooking is too hard so we should just buy food and never get out of our cars. It's starting to shift, though. Partly because Americans are becoming more health conscious but also because younger Americans have less disposable income than the baby boomers that created the junk food culture, so they have no choice but to live more frugally.

[Anonymous No.11442437]

Pasta and pizza and literally the perfect foods that's why. They're also the worst for you but so fucking good.

based italy

[Anonymous No.11442463]

>>11442437
>Pasta and pizza and literally the perfect foods that's why

[Anonymous No.11442481]

>>11442430
>but to live more frugally
Isn't junk food supposed to be dirt cheap? I mean, here fast foods are almost by definition cheap. Not cheaper than let's say cooking your own meals, but still cheaper than pubs and restaurants. Now that I think about it, kebabs are even cheaper, and can be considered junk fast food as well, but I don't really like it, so I forgot about it in my previous post.

>>11442437
>They're also the worst for you
Here there is the common knowledge that eating well is beneficial to your sanity, and if you're sane you're also more likely to be healthy. Americans clearly are insane.

[Anonymous No.11442492]

>>11441934
carbs

[Anonymous No.11442536]

Italian is so 1990s, can't stand it anymore

[Anonymous No.11442547]

>>11442481
At a glance junk food appears cheaper, but cost per serving it's usually cheaper to cook things yourself. It's basically taking advantage of people's lack of financial literacy.
> $5 for a pound of ground beef!? I can get a combo meal at Hardee's for that!
But of course that pound of ground beef is going to yield 4-6 burgers, add a few more dollars for potatoes and condiments and you can make the equivalent of 6 combo meals for less than $10. Whereas 6 combo meals will cost you $30.
Some junk, like soda and candy, will always be fit cheap though because it's just flavored sugar and sugar can be industrially produced in retardedly huge quantities.

[Anonymous No.11442555]

>pasta
>pasta
>pasta

Italian food is fucking boring.

[Anonymous No.11442562]

>>11442463
suck my ass college boy

[Anonymous No.11442611]

>>11442555

[Anonymous No.11443047]

>>11442331
Italians like food as much as Americans do. However they don't eat greasy fatty garbage all the time.

[Anonymous No.11443116]

>>11443047
let's not forget portion size

[Anonymous No.11443124]

>>11443116
This. Pasta is a course in Italy, not the whole meal.
They don't eat a giant mound of spaghetti.
Like I just did.
I hate myself

[Anonymous No.11443153]

success is inversely correlated with quality

[Anonymous No.11443644]

>>11443124
This. Italian restaurants abroad managed by native Italians already have a wide range if choices. You go to Italy and you see that each region has got his local cuisine and they tend to be very different from each other, if you dig deeper you'll see that even each city has its own variation of the regional standard . Now I see why Italians like to brag so much about their food. Pasta is probably just 10% or even less of what they have.