In the two weeks total, I found the best food in Rome. There are two restaurants that I like a lot. One is called Ristorante Panzirone at Pizza Navona.
It was my first meal in Rome. I was very hungry. I walked around the plaza after watching that funny clown, intending to find something to eat. I chose Ristorante Panzirone, because the manager talked to me while I passed by. He invited me to eat there. People standing outside the restaurants and wave customers in is commonly seen in Italy, especially at the tourist areas.
View is part of a quality meal....
I started with complimentary champagne, coffee and cookie....everybody knew immediately that I was not Italian :) The best part is yet to come....the pasta! I really wanted to know what they used for the pasta sauce. It was a little tangy, smelt strong lemon. The sauce looked great and it was warm. The pasta was the most memorable food for my entire trip.
The main course is seabass. It tasted fresh, yet it was funny to know that Italian grilled fish with scales! It was so embarrassing when I had the first bite of the fish with the skin, because my month was so full of fish scale, and I had to spit it out!
Good experience happened to the first and the last meal in Rome. My last meal took place in Flann O'Brien Irish Pub, where serves Italian food. I entered the restaurant, again, because the manager waved me in. I did not know what "chitarrina" was, and he explained it to me so well with broken English. I appreciated his effort, and I ordered mushroom chitarrina. It was very delicious, thick and rich!
I ended almost every meal with espresso, and sometimes with gelato. Since this was the last meal, I ordered both. I wanted to put the ice-cream in the espresso as my dessert. The manager was so smart. He knew that I was about to do it, so he asked me if I like him to prepare it for me. Excellent! Certainly! He also added some hazelnut on top too. Yum....it was so great! From the receipt, I learned that this desert is called Tartufo Bianco Affogare.
Not all the meals were perfect. I would say 50% of the meal/food was great. Others were just like what you can find anywhere. For example, in a chain food court/cafeteria, I had this very salty yet flavorless pasta, and super sour salad. It was quite memorable too for its fair quality.
After I returned home, I never had Italian food, except for work. My favorite local Italian restaurant does not seem too good any more. This is called "vacation-side-effect". Perhaps I need some medicine for it....
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