Out of Pod Experience

Someone told me something one day and I've never forgotten it:

The best burger in the world is better than the best pizza in the world, but a mediocre pizza is better than a mediocre burger.

Think about it and I think you'll agree (if you're not a vegetarian/vegan). If there's one thing I miss about home, it's all the fantastic burgers. Also the Mexican food is phenomenal. Mexican food is awful here in Italy...maybe it's because Italians are pansies when it comes to spices and don't know how to use them.

Yes indeedy. San Fran had tons of great burritos, but there was absolutely not anything resembling authentic Tex-Mex in that town. At all. Strange, because it has pretty much everything else even imaginable (and not ).

I enjoy Pizza, but for me the best Italian foods are A type of lasagna that Venezuelans call "Pasticho" popularized by Italian emigrants that flooded to our country after WW2 and found themselves in a different country with different ingredients. It is now one of the Italo-Venezuelan "staples" in our cuisine.

I could speak hours of the delicious italian styles that blended into our cuisine after the War, but for me the "Pasticho" not only brings memories but good times of a country long gone.

Cheers!

o/

You're talking about pasticcio; they call it pasticho there because its name is actually pasticcio, just spelled differently but same pronunciation. It's like lasagna but just a teeny bit different. I ate some the other day...it's a staple here. I bet your style of it is awesome, what with the spices and such mixed with the bescamela and cheese and ragu. You have given me a great idea for making it next time, Brujo! Thanks!

Funny you mention it, my wife's (she's Italian, I'm American) great uncle emigrated to Venezuela post-WWII and was one of the chief chemists in the country. He made a fortune there back when Venezuela was a beautiful (it still is beautiful) and wonderful country to live in. He moved back here in Italy to retire in the 70's. Most of the northern Italians emigrated to Venezuela for work and most of the southern Italians emigrated to the US. Pasticcio is a very northern Italian dish and a staple in every household. In fact, I don't think I've eaten actual lasagna at home in the last 10 years that I've been here; it's always something you eat at a restaurant. Pasticcio uses flat sheets of pasta, not the "rippled edge" sheets like you find in lasagna. You can use all kinds of ingredients to make up the pasticcio, whereas lasagna is pretty much ragu with bescamela and cheese.

There's a running joke here that since everyone works hard in the north, they moved to France, Venezuela, and Argentina, and the southerners, being a bit lazy, chased what they thought was a free handout and moved to the US, only to find out it wasn't what they thought. It's not entirely true, but that's the joke.

Taco Bell's Waffle Taco comes in it's own handy casket