Sweet Italia Nostalgia
My family lived in Italy for three years and I have lots of stories about living in Napoli. Today, though, I was thinking about some of my favorite sweets from Italy.
When we lived in Italy the military housing was full and at first we had to live for some months in an Italian hotel across the street from the base. There are fun stories about that too but we're sticking to food for right now. I fondly remember having breakfasts at the hotel lobby where you could get enormous sugared donuts. They were so big that we called them Fiat Wheels, a compliment to the donut and at the same time a dig at the little Italian cars. We would get one to eat and sit in the lobby of the hotel and if we were really lucky we could watch cartoons in Italian on an old tv set without anyone hanging around smoking. If we weren't lucky it would be something boring in Italian - so you may as well go back to the hotel room and see if you couldn't get the moushi-moushis in the alley to come over by throwing bits of food from your window.
Eventually we rented a villa "on the economy", i.e. not on base. We lived behind our landlord's butcher shop. Next to his shop was a little market where you could buy mozarella balls, bread rolls that would pull your teeth out, and all kinds of chips, candy and other convienences. Next to that store was a pizzaria where we would always get our pizza. All of the stores were close to our villa and because we knew the owners and their families when we would get a bit of Lire my brother and I would be allowed to go up to the store by ourselves and get a snack. I think the top three things that I chose were:
- A bag of potato chips. They were extra thin and plenty salty. They always came with a little toy inside and that was quite a novelty that I couldn't resist.
- Kinder Eggs. I had a little cedar box filled with the toys from Kinder Eggs when I was a kid. I wonder whatever happened to it?
- Flying Saucers. They are little wafers with candy powder inside. I liked how they stuck to your tongue, melting into sugary goodness.
Finally, our favorite pastry shop was Crazy Horse. I'll save the story about Crazy Horse and the mafia for another time... My favorite thing to get was struffoli, honeyed pastry balls with sprinkles. It would come in a little paper cup with a spoon.
Well, I don't know what brings me to think about these things. Growing up in other countries was a great experience but sometimes I think it would be nice to go back and revisit some of those places from my childhood. Because they are overseas I'll probably not have that chance and so that makes me a little nostalgic for the sights and sounds and tastes that were part of my everyday as a child.
(thank you's for the photos go to in order of appearance - naplesnapoliguide.com, candyaddict.com, Sam Stowell's beautiful photo on AllPosters.com - buy it!, and kitchensaremonkeybusiness.com)
When we lived in Italy the military housing was full and at first we had to live for some months in an Italian hotel across the street from the base. There are fun stories about that too but we're sticking to food for right now. I fondly remember having breakfasts at the hotel lobby where you could get enormous sugared donuts. They were so big that we called them Fiat Wheels, a compliment to the donut and at the same time a dig at the little Italian cars. We would get one to eat and sit in the lobby of the hotel and if we were really lucky we could watch cartoons in Italian on an old tv set without anyone hanging around smoking. If we weren't lucky it would be something boring in Italian - so you may as well go back to the hotel room and see if you couldn't get the moushi-moushis in the alley to come over by throwing bits of food from your window.
Mmm... Yummy donuts.
Eventually we rented a villa "on the economy", i.e. not on base. We lived behind our landlord's butcher shop. Next to his shop was a little market where you could buy mozarella balls, bread rolls that would pull your teeth out, and all kinds of chips, candy and other convienences. Next to that store was a pizzaria where we would always get our pizza. All of the stores were close to our villa and because we knew the owners and their families when we would get a bit of Lire my brother and I would be allowed to go up to the store by ourselves and get a snack. I think the top three things that I chose were:
- A bag of potato chips. They were extra thin and plenty salty. They always came with a little toy inside and that was quite a novelty that I couldn't resist.
- Kinder Eggs. I had a little cedar box filled with the toys from Kinder Eggs when I was a kid. I wonder whatever happened to it?
- Flying Saucers. They are little wafers with candy powder inside. I liked how they stuck to your tongue, melting into sugary goodness.
Finally, our favorite pastry shop was Crazy Horse. I'll save the story about Crazy Horse and the mafia for another time... My favorite thing to get was struffoli, honeyed pastry balls with sprinkles. It would come in a little paper cup with a spoon.
Well, I don't know what brings me to think about these things. Growing up in other countries was a great experience but sometimes I think it would be nice to go back and revisit some of those places from my childhood. Because they are overseas I'll probably not have that chance and so that makes me a little nostalgic for the sights and sounds and tastes that were part of my everyday as a child.
(thank you's for the photos go to in order of appearance - naplesnapoliguide.com, candyaddict.com, Sam Stowell's beautiful photo on AllPosters.com - buy it!, and kitchensaremonkeybusiness.com)
Comments
We visited Italy three years ago and fell in love with it. Really enjoyed prosciutto with melon (what's the name of that dish? can't remember), gelato and coffee+sweets, not other types of food though.
Would be great to hear your other stories. :)