Back to school. New
classmates. New grammar. New headaches.
In the afternoon we visited one of the better known churches
with a crypt that delved down into archaeological history of the city and a
tower that looked out on good views of Lucca.
Afterwards we walked to a restaurant that had been recommended to make a
booking for the evening.
Culinary customs in Italy was the subject of one of our
lessons last week. We covered the idea
that drinking a cappuccino coffee for anything other than breakfast is seen as
strange behaviour (verging on the illegal from what we can make out). The reason, it seems, is that it is seen as
too rich a drink to have at any time other than breakfast and certainly not after
a main meal. We also discussed the
extensive Italian menu of ‘antipasto’, ‘primo piatto’, and ‘secondo piatto’ (with
of course ‘il dolce’ to finish) and that most people would not sit down to eat
all courses but select only a couple. Of
note is that pasta will never be seen as a choice within the ‘secondo’, which
is reserved for more expensive and substantial options such meat dishes.
Traditional Lucchese cuisine is what the Italians term ‘poor
kitchen’ food. Traditionally menus would
have extensive ‘primo’ and ‘dolces’ with only a small selection of the more
substantial ‘secondo’. In Lucca this
would be largely rabbit and pork based dishes or offal, all cooked with
extensive use of herbs to add to the flavour.
Of course such limitations are historic and within the city there is a
wide variety of foods available (except for kebabs: it seems there was a clamp
down on a growing number of kebab houses, seen as ruining the tastes of the
Lucchese youth!). We are doing our best
to explore this aspect of Lucchese culture……
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