Rome: March 2003 Archives

ristorante ‘Cesare’ is rome’s equivalent to SF’s ‘Tadich Grill’ — a restaurant oddly immune to time, monumental certainly, but too slammed with customers to bother acting chic. the waiters here are all older gentlemen, who wear off-white tuxedo jackets, black bow ties, and a fair dash of hair pomade.

no, these guys are not in the business of smiles, chit-chat, or proffering “fresh ground pepper?”, but, that said, they’ll wordlessly de-bone a fish tableside in seconds, or grab a couple of inversed spoons to politely dish out a platter of veggies in an eyeblink.

meat (veal, actually) is really what se mangia bene at da cesare, but the seafood also ranks among the best in town. there’s only one serious veggie item — fettucini with fresh porcini mushrooms — but it sits prominently in the middle of the menu, distanced by a respectful amount of whitespace from the rest, all for good reason: this is very, very good fettucini.

we picked up a big chocolate egg today, from my favorite candy shop in town, cioccolateria Valzani, a slightly-worn mom-and-pop affair (well, grandmom-and-pop, now) tucked away on Via del Moro, in the Trastevere quarter.

chocolate eggs are kinda their specialty: they’re only sold around easter, but Valzani stocks sun-faded Eggs-Of-Yore photos on the walls all year long. plus, they’ve currently got a housemade four-foot-tall chocolate egg squatting stately by the cash register, a fine testament to how serious they are about this egg business, i’d say.

they’ve got competition, of course: every market in town is hawking choco-eggs of various sorts at the moment, the most intriguing being the only-for-easter, deluxe-sized version of Ferrero’s ‘Kinder Egg’ which weighs in at 400% bigger than the sold-all-year-round variety, and with better surprises inside, to boot.

still, i’ll stick with my humbler Valzani egg, if nothing but for the fact that they produce the meanest and baddest ‘Diavoletti al Peperoncini’ this side of the Tiber — them’s dark chocolate and crushed red pepper truffles. double-plus good!

came across a truly strange artifact on tv last night, while taking a breather from the war coverage on RAI: the ‘whacketts’ episode of max headroom, a now-quaint cyberpunk TV series from ‘87 which lasted a whole 12 episodes.

in retrospect, Max Headroom’s dystopian production design is unmistakeable from that of ‘Dark Angel’, and while it may have been a ripoff of Blade Runner (hell, what isn’t, these days?), i think it’s now safe to say the series was way ahead of its time.

yet as for why it’s still in rotation, in a somewhat decent timelsot (11ish), on a non-cable network, some 16 years after its cancellation in the U.S., i can’t say. though the italian dub is remarkably well done — as they always are.

as a matter of habit, and i think a good habit at that, az and i take a stroll after dinner most every night. (in fair disclosure, a lot of this might be related to not understanding anything that’s on italian tv.)

our previous apartment was in trastevere, old Rome, a corner of the city with twisting cobblestone alleys and a hoppin’ bar on every block. at 1am on a weeknight, you’d be walking shoulder-to-shoulder with swarms of upscale revellers, and piazza santa maria would be filled with ragazzi drinking malt beverages (beer, yes, but also that smirnoff ice and campari mixx stuff) outta the bottle.

now, though, we live right outside vatican city, which is a whole different scene at that hour. it’s really quiet here — though a good quiet, a serene quiet — and it’s nice to watch the illuminated fountains in St. Peter’s square, and hear the hushed conversations of the few other folks circling the piazza, hands clasped behind their backs.

anyhow, here’s the thing: you don’t see much homelessness in roma centro. (at least, not compared to oakland and sf.) but come nightfall, i see more wizened bag ladies and sagging-cardboard-box shelters around St. Peter’s than anywhere else, save perhaps the Termini train station.

i guess it’s the same thing as anywhere, really — church steps always being refuge of last resort, a place to catch some winks without getting a boot in the ribs — but still, seeing people sleeping by the stoop of this particular cathedral, so completely dwarfed by its splendor… it’s just tragic to a whole ‘nother degree.

so what’s the haps, this march morning? miniaturized Cornettos, for starters.

apart from being standard breakfast fare for 99% of italians (cornetto morning rolls being the yin to cappucinno’s yang), the word “Cornetto”™ also happens to be the Good Humor EuroBrand for a frozen confection not unlike the american Drumstick™ .

now, we’re probably all in agreement that Drumsticks™ taste good. so it is with Cornettos™ .

anyhow, somebody in a lab coat thought this up: Cornetto ‘Minis’, i.e. Cornettos preternaturally shrunken to roughly 1/5 scale. we’re talking expertly-crafted, fully miniaturized ice-cream cones, replete with wee nut pieces on top and nano-sized chocolate nibbles tucked into the sugar cone’s tiny apex. what other ice cream treat begs to be admired with a 10-power loupe before consumption?

obviously, i hold Cornetto Minis in the highest esteem, and regard them as passable palate-cleanser courses suitably served in the finest of restaurants. but in their essence, these are foodstuffs for the folk, if you catch my drift, and with the miracle of mass manufacture i hereby predict that Cornetto Minis’ bite-size form factor will radically revolutionize ice-cream just like McNuggets done did to poultry.

well.

what i am trying to say is this: i got no business being in a supermarket when i’m hungry, i know that, and by and large i’m still a sharp cookie, savvy shopper, etc., but damned if i didn’t come home yesterday having forgotten red onions but clutching some very-meagerly-portioned ice cream thingies that even an oompah-loompah would sneer at.

maybe they’re metric or something…

ever notice how futon shops, ‘oriental’ rug dealers, and most every chinese restaurant in and around Berkeley are continually having ‘grand opening’ or ‘going out of business!’ sales?

not unlike this blog, as a matter of fact.

well, with a 33.6-ish connection via Telecom Italia’s finest copper, and a dose of donated disk space from downtempo.net, it looks like we’re briefly back in the blog business.

and so imagine, if you will, the festive accents which surround this palpably unhistoric, re-re-inaugural post: Miller Lite penant flags and Smart & Final party streamers deck the walls, while a misappropriated “Birthday Grandma!” balloon bouqet, purchased in palpable haste from a half-shuttered florist the evening prior, would seem to yearn for the heavens but is making do with the stucco ceiling.

and note, just in passing, the half-lit icicle lights hanging in the windows, alongside faded ‘Under Same Mgmt!’ fliers incorporating, and with evident pride, both drop-shadowed gothic and an bold-outlined brush script typefaces, all an admittedly more impressive feat on closer examination, given the apparent use of a dot-matrix AppleWriter and original factory ribbon.

and now back to our regular programming…