Mangia! by anne_h
My boyfriend and I love to try all the unusual (for Americans) items. After reading about pasta pagliata--the intestines of a calf with the mother's milk congealed inside--I knew I had to try it. It's delicious. I think I had this at a restaurant in the Jewish ghetto section. Another time my boyfriend got an unusual meal, but it wasn't on purpose. We stopped at a small restaurant in the country somewhere. The menu listed meats like 'lamb,' 'chicken,' etc. but without much description. My boyfriend (Mike) wanted lamb, so I ordered it for him. Then the waitress launched into a long description that my Italian was not up to at that time. She said the words 'fritto' and 'carciofi,' so I thought it was lamb somehow fried with artichokes. 'Si, si,' I said. Then she spoke more slowly, apparently describing it again. Confused, I again said, 'Si, si.' She gave me a weird look and said 'va bene,' and walked away. Of course, Mike ended up with some sort of organ meat--we think it might have been a heart. Actually, it wasn't too bad--it just wasn't what we wanted.
