Gelato!

January 24, 2006

While I was in Italy I had many good foods including great pizza, delicious pasta, and gelato. I had gelato in many places in Rome and Sorrento, on a bridge over the Tiber River, Trastevere (across the Tiber River) on the ledge down by the river, and by the sea in Sorrento. All of these places had good gelato but the mood of the little market on the banks of the Tiber River was the best.

Some so-called “gelaterias” make ice cream with Italian names and call it gelato, but if you have tried real Italian gelato you will be able to tell if it is actually gelato or not. The differences between Italian Gelato and American ice cream are:

a)   Ice cream has a lot of air whipped into it whereas gelato has very little air, making gelato have a dense, more concentrated flavor.

b)   Gelato is made with water and milk, instead of the cream in ice cream allowing for a much lower fat content.

c)   Most gelato has a gelatin base added for a denser taste.

One of the cool things about eating gelato in Rome is that the spoons have a flat bottom, like a shovel so you can actually get all of the gelato out of the little plastic bowl. To me that is a really good design for a spoon especially for a food as good as gelato so you can enjoy every last little drop.

My favorite gelato flavors of gelato are stratiacella (chocolate chip), lemon and chocolate. But I like many others, but I like the classics best.

Gelato is good in America but you can’t beat gelato in Italy because it is the experience that is really the best!!

Isis is fourteen years old and is really interested in food because her dad is a good cook. She was practically raised in a Vietnamese restaurant, and as a baby ate her first solid foods there, which were rice noodles. She tries most foods that are offered to her and her parents urge her to also. For example, when she was 7 years old, she was at a French restaurant and her parents were having snails and they easily talked her into trying them. They ended up being pretty good! Isis takes ballet, plays soccer, sings in a choir, and loves to travel. Isis went to Italy for two weeks and when she came back she went on and on about the food, especially the gelato. Isis thinks that if you are going to eat, why not eat well if you can? There seems to be no reason not to.

Email questions or comments for these two young women to webmaster@drgourmet.com.