5 ms·

On a tangential note, Italian food on the Italian highways at the “Autogrill” chain (gas stations and food joints along the route) is better than 90% of “Italia

by fosk 2y ago

On a tangential note, Italian food on the Italian highways at the “Autogrill” chain (gas stations and food joints along the route) is better than 90% of “Italian” restaurants in the USA.

systemtest 2y ago
Is there a variant of Godwin's law where an internet discussion always lead to people criticising the USA, regardless of subject?
- sph 2y ago
  No, it's not about criticising, but turning every post into a discussion about the US. There's a lot of Americans in this place, and they don't know much about the rest of the world, so they filter everything through their experience. "La culture, c'est comme la confiture. Moins on on a, plus on l'étale" — Knowledge is like jam, the least you have, the more you spread it.
  - returningfory2 2y ago
    {Latin Americans, Europeans, Africans, etc...} don't know much about the rest of the world, either. But it seems that only people from the United States are criticized on this website for not knowing a whole lot about how things go in different continents.
- worstspotgain 2y ago
  The cliché at hand is more about the quality of Italian food in Italy than about any cuisine in the USA. Food-wise, the US is actually doing pretty well among Western countries. I'm not going to name the countries at the bottom of the list to be respectful, but they mostly don't dispute it.
- AndrewOMartin 2y ago
  If you want, coin the name. The fact is that the probability of any topic being mentioned in a discussion approaches one as the length of the discussion approaches infinity. It should have been called Godwin's Tautology. :)
Gigachad 2y ago
Weirdly I found that most of the restaurants I ate at in Italy were level with or worse than the Italian restaurants in Melbourne, Australia. I think part of it was just that it's hard to find the good ones vs the average/bad ones in Italy while Italian restaurants in Australia tend to all be targeting higher end food. The Autogrill ones were not terrible but not particularly good. Mostly just stale sandwiches with good quality ingredients.
- fcccccbjjv 2y ago
  Italy has become a den of tourist traps. I ate terribly there despite my Italian is still good enough that the locals thought I was a native Roman (I lived there as a teen)
  - vladoski 2y ago
    I mean depends where you are. If you know how to use Maps and spot tourist traps you'll be fine.
- jmspring 2y ago
  Spent a couple weeks in Italy last month. Autogrills are ok, but there are actually some quite good restaurants in and outside tourist areas. We found an amazing Masseria in the Gargano that was great. Outside Venice there was a beer/pizza pub that was exceptional as well. Random is often better than relying on tourist guides. That said, yelp and google are often unreliable for restaurants. I found the app TheFork was quite useful.
  - airstrike 2y ago
    Speaking of Venice, one amazing restaurant we found by chance was Trattoria Alla Madonna. I have a feeling there's a bit of a Curb Your Enthusiasm-type setup there where if you speak any Italian and try to pass as even slightly more local than the average tourist, you get seated at a "locals only" part of the restaurant. I have nothing to base that on other than the fact that the waiter-cum-host sized us up a few times before deciding where to sit us, and when he did, the table next to us was a family of locals that has been eating there after Sunday mass every week for the last few decades. I remember the young gentleman on that table kept asking them to remake the homemade mayo because it wasn't quite right. On the third try, he approved it, and then the waiter confessed the chef also agreed that only that iteration was "just right". Equal parts weird and hilarious. The food was absolutely amazing and it felt great to be away from the tourists for a bit.
fcccccbjjv 2y ago
Thats unsurprising. "Italian" food in America isn't and the Autogrill is excellent.

by fosk 2y ago

On a tangential note, Italian food on the Italian highways at the “Autogrill” chain (gas stations and food joints along the route) is better than 90% of “Italian” restaurants in the USA.

systemtest 2y ago

Is there a variant of Godwin's law where an internet discussion always lead to people criticising the USA, regardless of subject?

sph 2y ago
No, it's not about criticising, but turning every post into a discussion about the US. There's a lot of Americans in this place, and they don't know much about the rest of the world, so they filter everything through their experience. "La culture, c'est comme la confiture. Moins on on a, plus on l'étale" — Knowledge is like jam, the least you have, the more you spread it.
- returningfory2 2y ago
  {Latin Americans, Europeans, Africans, etc...} don't know much about the rest of the world, either. But it seems that only people from the United States are criticized on this website for not knowing a whole lot about how things go in different continents.
worstspotgain 2y ago
The cliché at hand is more about the quality of Italian food in Italy than about any cuisine in the USA. Food-wise, the US is actually doing pretty well among Western countries. I'm not going to name the countries at the bottom of the list to be respectful, but they mostly don't dispute it.
AndrewOMartin 2y ago
If you want, coin the name. The fact is that the probability of any topic being mentioned in a discussion approaches one as the length of the discussion approaches infinity. It should have been called Godwin's Tautology. :)

Gigachad 2y ago

Weirdly I found that most of the restaurants I ate at in Italy were level with or worse than the Italian restaurants in Melbourne, Australia. I think part of it was just that it's hard to find the good ones vs the average/bad ones in Italy while Italian restaurants in Australia tend to all be targeting higher end food. The Autogrill ones were not terrible but not particularly good. Mostly just stale sandwiches with good quality ingredients.

fcccccbjjv 2y ago
Italy has become a den of tourist traps. I ate terribly there despite my Italian is still good enough that the locals thought I was a native Roman (I lived there as a teen)
- vladoski 2y ago
  I mean depends where you are. If you know how to use Maps and spot tourist traps you'll be fine.
jmspring 2y ago
Spent a couple weeks in Italy last month. Autogrills are ok, but there are actually some quite good restaurants in and outside tourist areas. We found an amazing Masseria in the Gargano that was great. Outside Venice there was a beer/pizza pub that was exceptional as well. Random is often better than relying on tourist guides. That said, yelp and google are often unreliable for restaurants. I found the app TheFork was quite useful.
- airstrike 2y ago
  Speaking of Venice, one amazing restaurant we found by chance was Trattoria Alla Madonna. I have a feeling there's a bit of a Curb Your Enthusiasm-type setup there where if you speak any Italian and try to pass as even slightly more local than the average tourist, you get seated at a "locals only" part of the restaurant. I have nothing to base that on other than the fact that the waiter-cum-host sized us up a few times before deciding where to sit us, and when he did, the table next to us was a family of locals that has been eating there after Sunday mass every week for the last few decades. I remember the young gentleman on that table kept asking them to remake the homemade mayo because it wasn't quite right. On the third try, he approved it, and then the waiter confessed the chef also agreed that only that iteration was "just right". Equal parts weird and hilarious. The food was absolutely amazing and it felt great to be away from the tourists for a bit.

fcccccbjjv 2y ago

Thats unsurprising. "Italian" food in America isn't and the Autogrill is excellent.