Variety And Flavor At A Fine Italian Restaurant

By Allan Hatchell


Italian restaurant RI is a rush of delights for the willing palette. Ices, homemade pizza, fine ingredients, candy, cakes, veal, whole fish grilled to taste, fresh herbs and breads make the local cuisine in Providence especially nice. The East Coast has fresh produce in summer, imported goods year round and a variety of fresh fish to choose from.

A finely served meal begins in Italy by offering a soup. This warms the palette and opens the stomach making digestion smoother. Fresh cheeses often come with the antipasto and they should be cream, tart, smoked. The cuisine celebrates seasonal vegetables. Antipasto comes after soup. A first plate follows the antipasto and is served alone. Meat or fish dishes are followed by vegetables and salad. Desserts can be simple fruit or fresh cakes and tarts. Coffee is strong and a necessity. Wines should accompany each course.

Fish is a main stay of good food in Italy. Surrounded by water the country delights in its ocean bounty. The East Coast is similar and from Boston to Philadelphia you can find the best fish in the United States. Fish is often baked or grilled with herbs. It is sometimes roasted with a sauce but generally the rule in this cuisine is let the flavors win out. This is true of each ingredient's preparation and the overall sensibility towards spices. A good meal starts with a clear broth soup followed by antipasto, meat or fish, vegetable, salad and dessert. Pastas are served with meat.

There are varied dishes. Many Americans only know the dishes of pasta, pizza and scalloped veal, but there are hearty lamb stews, elegantly prepared veal with lemon, kidney pies, and sausage dishes. Baked pasta tubes can be filled with chicken or fish. Clams and squid are favorite sea foods over pasta.

Salad is served after the main dish, along with fruit floating in bowls of water in the warm evenings in Rome. Be sure to have Italian salad which is usually a crisp refreshment after meat. It's salty and you want the table bottled water to go with it. Flavors complement each other in this cuisine. Meats, followed by vegetables are roasted and stand on their own. Fish is a favorite, without sauce, grilled with herbs.

Bread is crusty and light and served with meats at the main meal. Soups to start are clear broth with small pasta. A good clear soup should be golden. Wine is served all during the meal with soda water on the side. Coffee for dessert instead of or with a rich ricotta-based cheese cake is essential.

Fine dining in Italian restaurant RI should be an experience of music, culture, and yummy interesting dishes. The culture of Italy is known for great sense of design, color and atmosphere. A night out for this meal will be memorable especially in a city with so many immigrants as Providence, RI.




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