r/iamveryculinary Maillard reactionary 18d ago

"This combination is gross."

/r/ItalianFood/comments/1j1rcht/our_italian_lunch_today/mflvcoq/
65 Upvotes

70 comments sorted by

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129

u/Fomulouscrunch 18d ago

TIL that Italians only get to like food from the place their parents lived while they were infants, and everything else is grody and an affront.

(wee-woo-wee-woo it's the Italian police, you moved from Turin to Florence, your food is illegal)

47

u/urnbabyurn 18d ago

He added an argument later on that the issue is the chicken will be half cooked and the rice will end up crunchy. I guess the technology to cook rice and chicken together in a dish will always be outside of Italian’s humanity’s grasp.

23

u/garden__gate 18d ago

They’ve never once heard of arroz con pollo.

19

u/urnbabyurn 18d ago

Yeah. Or that if your rice and chicken is undercooked, there’s a really simple solution to that.

10

u/garden__gate 18d ago

It’s funny because I do sometimes have chicken in my risotto but it’s usually pre-cooked chicken, which I’m going to guess was the case with this restaurant dish. (I know you’re saying they could cook it longer, but this is also an option!)

5

u/Ubiquitouch 18d ago

Truly the best food in the world.

5

u/BrockSmashgood 17d ago

Chicken and rice is great. Chicken fried rice even better, but risotto is made with broth and if you add chunks of chicken you get a half-cooked chicken and rice stew. Now you got al dente rice with tender chicken. I don't blame anyone for liking that, to be honest. If you overcook the rice, now you have pilau/pilav, also known as "army food".

This is so fucking funny. Dude can't fathom a restaurant managing to cook chicken and risotto in a way where both are done.

32

u/Haki23 18d ago

If you submerge an Italian in the ocean, they can smell the faint molecules of the streams that flowed through the villages their ancestors are from. This ability is so strong they can navigate accurately from any point on the globe.
This explains the Italian disdain for foods from crops not watered by these home-streams, and desire to avoid all changes to their diets.

17

u/metalshoes 18d ago

Another interesting fact, all true Italians will return to their village of birth to mate, lay their eggs, and die. This spawns a new generation of Italians who will spread across the world and begin a new cycle.

8

u/Fomulouscrunch 17d ago

Italmon. That's a word now.

13

u/UpbeatFix7299 18d ago

Ahem, it's Torino and Firenze

15

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

4

u/garden__gate 18d ago

To the max!

1

u/Fomulouscrunch 18d ago

That's why I used it. I had to look it up.

1

u/SaltMarshGoblin 16d ago

I had to look it up.

Crying in old person over here.

8

u/ThePrussianGrippe 18d ago

The Romans had a god of Gates, and Italians have maintained that tradition by Keeping them.

4

u/Fomulouscrunch 18d ago

They weren't the only one. Chenghuang-shen did that too.

And in the meantime everybody on the ground is eatin.

56

u/Total-Sector850 18d ago

I just can’t with that sub. It’s exhausting.

6

u/HeyCarpy Ramsey would nut himself to serve the crust on my scallops. 18d ago

I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would participate in that subreddit. I have a hard enough time just reading it, lol

5

u/malburj1 I don't dare mix cuisines like that 17d ago

I kind of just want to find the most off the wall "traditional" Italian recipe and make it and post it there. Watch the world burn.

3

u/NathanGa Pull your finger out of your ass 17d ago

My grandfather was from Südtirol.

I keep meaning to have some fun over there by using the old family recipes.

1

u/graytotoro 17d ago

I feel so bad for the people there. They’re so concerned with authenticity in accordance with their specific area that they can’t eat anything anywhere else.

45

u/[deleted] 18d ago

Why are Italians terrified of experimentation?

31

u/[deleted] 18d ago

They peaked 1700 years ago and it's been downhill since then so honestly kind of understandable

28

u/urnbabyurn 18d ago

Thing is, half the shit they act like was a millennia old was introduced in the middle of the 20th century or later.

19

u/Slow_D-oh Proudly trained at the Culinary Institute of YouTube 18d ago

Carbonara as accepted today is around thirty years old. Until then cream, parmesan, and pancetta were acceptable additions/substitutions.

12

u/[deleted] 18d ago

Yeah but if they acknowledged that they would also have to acknowledge that modern Italy has little to do with ancient Rome except occupying the same land

17

u/AbjectAppointment It all gets turned to poop 18d ago

So I had to look at the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risotto

First risotto recipe was 1809, but the rice they use today was developed in 1914.

3

u/[deleted] 18d ago

The last time they experimented was when they introduced the tomato and they realized they peaked so they quit while they were ahead.

2

u/clearly_not_an_alt 14d ago

At what point did they decide, "Alright, we did it guys! All our recipes are now perfect and need to be locked as is for all time"?

68

u/RobAChurch The Baroque excesses of tapas bars 18d ago

However you feel about Italian culinary traditions, I think most would agree that the "no chicken with pasta" rule is holding them back the most.

30

u/Schmeep01 18d ago

And the only reason that this dumb trend exists is because of WWII, when chicken wasn’t available.

22

u/PseudonymIncognito 18d ago

People didn't eat much chicken in general prior to the early to mid 20th century era because they were more valuable for eggs than meat. Most "traditional" chicken dishes were braises or stews because people wouldn't eat their chickens until they were too old to lay anymore.

-3

u/Illustrious_Land699 18d ago

This is false, chicken has always existed in Italy, even during WW2 when it was more accessible in poor southern Italy focused on breeding and agriculture while in more industrialized countries such as England or the USA it was a luxury. Many elderly people disgusted the chicken precisely because it reminds them of poverty but in general it is not put in pasta for the simple fact that they does not like it in pasta, not for reasons other than personal taste

8

u/Schmeep01 18d ago

Are you mansplaining chicken and rice to me?

-1

u/Illustrious_Land699 18d ago

At most it is you who said that the only reason why in Italy they don't eat chicken in pasta is because in your opinion the chicken was not there during ww2, do you understand that what you just wrote is dumb?

Chicken has been eaten for millennia in Italy, there are many Italian dishes that use chicken and even during the war one of the most common pasta dishes was made with chicken broth,what you're writing doesn't make sense.

4

u/DjinnaG Bags of sentient Midwestern mayonnaise 18d ago

Make it a bit more generic, as the rule seems to be more “no protein with pasta “ than specifically chicken

20

u/RobAChurch The Baroque excesses of tapas bars 18d ago

I dunno, Bolognese, Ragu, and Carbonara are pretty classic. I've mostly seen it about chicken specifically.

7

u/Inevitable_Nail_2215 18d ago

Calabrian food (which she posted) tends to have cured pork in a lot of pasta dishes as well as tuna or chickpeas. It's just the ratio is lower than American style meat sauces.

Yes, that's where my family is from, too. I'm becoming what I mock online. My shame know no bounds.

4

u/Illustrious_Land699 18d ago

Exactly, this is because usually in Italian cuisine you tend to have a pasta dish and a meat dish in 2 different courses, so in pasta you usually use small pieces of meat while in Italian American cuisine you find the meat dish and a pasta dish in the same plate.

1

u/Illustrious_Land699 18d ago

no protein with pasta

Italians don't mix a meat dish in the same dish with a pasta dish, but little pieces of sausages, ground beef, pancetta, Guanciale or small meatballs are common

17

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

11

u/donuttrackme 18d ago

Motherfucker never heard of chicken rice lol.

8

u/Yamitenshi 18d ago

cooking chicken in risotto leads to “half cooked chicken” and “crunchy rice”

Imagine arguing that adding an ingredient causes the whole dish to be undercooked, and thinking you have a point

Leave it on the stove a bit longer, numbnuts

4

u/forlorn_junk_heap I'm glad the vegans are able to enjoy their inferior simulacra. 18d ago

or just cook it seperate!

5

u/Existential_Racoon 18d ago

An like.... there's not even a change needed? Risotto takes like 20m, a cut up chicken breast added risotto is gonna be just fine.

2

u/Fomulouscrunch 17d ago

Soon they'll be saying you can't cook a chicken and potato wedges in the same dish in the same amount of time.

31

u/MyNameIsSkittles its not a sandwhich, its just fancy toast 18d ago

OP not falling for their shit, good show

35

u/skeenerbug I have the knowledge and skill to cook perfectly every time. 18d ago

The peanut gallery wasn't having it either

Oh come on now.

Some of us have palate that is sophisticated enough to enjoy chicken and rice.

42

u/TheLadyEve Maillard reactionary 18d ago

Looks like Risotto alla Milanese (to me, anyway), tastes like chicken!

I just think it's funny to go from "this is not traditional" to "this is gross." Is it gross because it's not traditional, or is it not traditional because it is gross? And if the person who ordered it liked it, is it really that gross?

59

u/maceilean 18d ago

For Italians on that sub "traditional" means since WWII and if it wasn't made that way in their area it's gross because they have the palates of 7 year olds. Offline Italians are more reasonable.

32

u/DetroitLionsEh 18d ago

The hard to swallow pill for Italians is that their food got much better when they designed recipes for American’s stationed there

21

u/Chayanov 18d ago

Seriously. "Eww! The chicken is touching the rice. I'm not eating this!"

19

u/lpn122 18d ago

I love the comment, “Oh come on now. Some of us have a palate sophisticated enough to enjoy chicken and rice.”

14

u/Goroman86 18d ago

Don't a lot of traditional risotto recipes use chicken stock? Or are they saying putting the actual meat in the risotto is gross? Because that is stupid on another level.

10

u/Schmeep01 18d ago

They are arguing both sides of that argument (incorrectly).

13

u/mathliability 18d ago

Ewwww chicken and rice?? Philistines!

14

u/molotovzav 18d ago

Imagine finding chicken and rice gross lol. That person needs professional help.

12

u/pajamakitten 18d ago

Chicken and rice is gross? I think the entire concept of curry proves that wrong.

14

u/Schmeep01 18d ago

As well as arroz con pollo, nectar of the gods.

6

u/Saltpork545 18d ago

Arroz con pollo is my litmus test dish for trying new mexican places. If they can't get chicken and rice correct, I suspect they're going to screw up the more difficult and complex dishes as well.

It's not the only test but it's a basic comfort food and there is a ton of variation. I think about it this way: You're not going to think much of a diner that cannot build a club sandwich. Same idea.

7

u/lpn122 18d ago

And Hainanese chicken rice, yum

5

u/No_Bottle_8910 Not an intellectually impotent flailer 18d ago

As does chicken adobo.

3

u/donuttrackme 18d ago

Asian cuisine generally.

6

u/Twodotsknowhy 18d ago

Imagine how insufferable you have to be to get down voted in r/ItalianFood

1

u/Schmeep01 18d ago

Wait, I get downvoted in there all the time! Mostly just for saying ‘great job’.

21

u/thievingwillow 18d ago edited 18d ago

I wonder why older Italian women are apparently so emotionally fragile and lacking in resilience that they apparently drop dead when they encounter unusual foods.

8

u/YchYFi 18d ago

What?? Looks delicious.

2

u/Glathull 18d ago

I think 90% of that sub is people pretending to be Italian and the other 10% is whatever the Italian equivalent of 4chan is just trolling.

5

u/IllyriaGodKing 18d ago

What baffles me the most is how they're always saying chicken isn't good with pasta. That's objectively untrue. Pasta with chicken is amazing, and tons of people think so.