Italian American Food

Windigo

Windigo

Kitchen Witch
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[Mod.edit: This and a number of following posts moved to form a ne topic (MG)]

I make bolognese my own way, which got me compliments from MypinchofItaly . That is good enough for me 😍

Does anyone here know by the way, that rágu bolognese is actually a meat stew eaten with tagliattelle? And that spaghetti bolognese with mince based sauce is an American invention from Italian immigrants? Nothing wrong with invention by the way, but they are two different things.

Bolognese sauce - Wikipedia
 
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Windigo said:
Does anyone here know by the way, that rágu bolognese is actually a meat stew eaten with tagliattelle? And that spaghetti bolognese with mince based sauce is an American invention from Italian immigrants? Nothing wrong with invention by the way, but they are two different things.

Bolognese sauce - Wikipedia
Click to expand...

Yes, I knew that. Most people in the US will call it spaghetti with meat sauce, or in NYC, the meat sauce is sometimes called "Sunday gravy."

CD
 
Windigo said:
I make bolognese my own way, which got me compliments from MypinchofItaly . That is good enough for me 😍

Does anyone here know by the way, that rágu bolognese is actually a meat stew eaten with tagliattelle? And that spaghetti bolognese with mince based sauce is an American invention from Italian immigrants? Nothing wrong with invention by the way, but they are two different things.

Bolognese sauce - Wikipedia
Click to expand...

Yep! Although by now in Italy spaghetti with bolognese ragout is widespread, the Italian traditional dish calls for Tagliatelle.
Same thing about spaghetti with meatballs... not an Italian dish. You won’t find restaurant (unless it’s a touristic one) or family that will make them.
What we have with meatballs is short pasta (rigatoni, usually) and lasagne, and they are little meatballs.
Sometimes I see people who make spaghetti with meatballs but they look like hamburger.
Fettuccine Alfredo. We are still wondering “Who?”
😂
 
MypinchofItaly said:
OMG, ahhaha. Yet, despite everything, I would do a tour on OG for fun, really!
I'm an adventurous eater and very curious.
Click to expand...
You know, it's not that their food is horribly bad, it's just standard, average Italian-American fare from a mid-priced casual family restaurant, but I think what earns them so much ridicule is their marketing - they really push that this is the finest of fine Italian cuisine.

Their ads from a few years ago bragged about how they send all their chefs to Italy to train with authentic Italian chefs of the highest quality...then showed them standing in a rustic Italian kitchen, in their OG uniforms, all taking direction from this Hollywood version of a little Italian grandma...learning how to make what is obviously very, very American dishes.

Plus, their commercials show their restaurants in low lighting, handsome/beautiful families, efficient staff at the ready, all gleefully having piles of pasta, and the reality is - lots of harsh fluorescent lighting, paper straw wrappers and napkins all over the dirty, stained floors, and enough screaming kids to rival a mega-daycare, with the adults all wearing expressions that seem to say, "Please, God, I'd like a fatal aneurysm with my Endless Salad And Breadsticks(tm), please."
 
TastyReuben said:
You know, it's not that their food is horribly bad, it's just standard, average Italian-American fare from a mid-priced casual family restaurant, but I think what earns them so much ridicule is their marketing - they really push that this is the finest of fine Italian cuisine.

Their ads from a few years ago bragged about how they send all their chefs to Italy to train with authentic Italian chefs of the highest quality...then showed them standing in a rustic Italian kitchen, in their OG uniforms, all taking direction from this Hollywood version of a little Italian grandma...learning how to make what is obviously very, very American dishes.

Plus, their commercials show their restaurants in low lighting, handsome/beautiful families, efficient staff at the ready, all gleefully having piles of pasta, and the reality is - lots of harsh fluorescent lighting, paper straw wrappers and napkins all over the dirty, stained floors, and enough screaming kids to rival a mega-daycare, with the adults all wearing expressions that seem to say, "Please, God, I'd like a fatal aneurysm with my Endless Salad And Breadsticks(tm), please."
Click to expand...

I would pay for a lunch in that place with you and caseydog . You have made a perfect picture of what I perceive when I see that marketing so folkloristic about Italian (or rather Italo-American) food that I really still wonder 'but does it work'?

I understand that they don't always find the Italian ingredients that we have here in Italy, and that's a fact, but passing off Italian food in such a grotesque way that it has very little Italian in it, whether you like it or not, would blow your grandmothers' teeth out of their teeth or even make them grow long, powerful fangs to bite into those hands that cook what should only be mentioned as a joke.
I was wondering: but pictures of Fellini on the walls? Vespa? The inevitable song 'That's Amore?'... mandolin players? have any of these things? :laugh:
 
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MypinchofItaly said:
I was wondering: but pictures of Fellini on the walls? Vespa? The inevitable song 'That's Amore?'... mandolin players? have any of these things? :laugh:
Click to expand...
Lots of artsy black-and-white photos of Italian alleys and streets, laundry up, Vespa here, FIAT there, and piped in low-key Italian-ish music, IIRC.
 
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