Ugly (and Delicious) Food from Rome

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There's a saying that "we eat with our eyes first," which is often used to justify the elaborate platings in Michelin-star restaurants and the excuse I gave my parents when I used to play around and arrange my food. It's true that presentation matters a lot with food. Bruises on fruit and uneven cuts of meat just don't look as appealing or appetizing to an audience used to perfect-looking (read, over-chemicalized) produce and food from our local mega-supermarkets. But I can safely say that none of the best food I've had in my life came pristine and well-presented on a dinner platter. In fact, it's the imperfect, homey-looking but intensely flavorful food that I remember most.

Gourmet magazine recently ran an interesting article on ugly food and it strongly reminded me of a similar meal, slash, amazing culinary experience I had in Rome as well.

I had been in Italy for about six days, leaving Florence for my last stop in Rome. By that time, I had to admit that aside from my side-trip to Bologna, I had not been wowed by my meals in Italy. I guess I had set high hopes, or maybe I was just not a pasta lover. After a three-hour train ride and long bus ride, all I wanted to do was collapse into my bed at the hostel.

That was, until I met the manager.

The first thing he did was have an espresso sent out for me. Now, I know the two other bloggers here are not coffee-fans, but there is nothing more I appreciate than a strong cup of dark, REAL coffee. Not the watered-down kind you get in cafeterias and New York street stands. And this stuff he had was the best coffee I had in a long time. So he won me over, literally, within the first five minutes.

We talked about what I wanted to do in Rome and he made suggestions how I should spend my days. But when he mentioned he could make suggestions for restaurants....YES! I pounced on that offer immediately. The slight glitch was that he didn't really KNOW the exact addresses of these restaurants, just the general neighborhood they were in so I ended up wandering around central Rome for a good three hours before I finally found del Pallaro at the edge of the Jewish Ghetto.


Before I go into the meal, let me explain eating out in Italy. It's expensive. And usually a rip-off if you visit the touristy cities, which happens to span most of Italy because it's acquired such a reputation for its food. I mean, nothing is ever BAD but if you want amazing food, you have to pay.

I've never been to a restaurant like del Pallaro. It's the closest you could get to having a home-cooked meal in a restaurant. The kitchen is solely run by a 60-something-year-old Roman/Jewish woman while the rest of her family fronts the restaurant, waits the tables, and cleans. She literally runs the show. And for 25 euros, you get whatever she sends out to you. This includes 3 small plates of antipesto, primo (pasta), secondo (meat) with side dishes, dolce (dessert), sparkling water, and a half liter of the house wine. It's probably the best thing for a person like me, who always has trouble deciding.


The antipesto really set my hopes up for the meal. The beans, simply-cooked, were earthy and had just the right texture. I savored the pancetta, almost as good as the parma in Bologna. and the fried mozzeralla bites... I could have eaten a whole basket of them.


The pasta probably looks sloppily put together, but that's also because it was homemade. Once you've had homemade pasta, you can't really go back. This dish had a simple tomato-based sauced but the basil really cut through and balanced well with the bit of parmesan cooked in. I normally add lots of cheese into my pasta but this didn't need it.


I was skeptical when this came out because of the what looked like grease that the beef (which I couldn't really discern) that it was swimming in.


It turned out to be some kind of olive oil-based sauce that oddly reminded me of a mix of soy sauce and vinegar. That probably doesn't sound very good but it had this umami, savory quality I couldn't get enough of. Yes, I did clean the plate with bread. The meat, not at all greasy as it looked, was super tender, but not break-apart-upon-touch tender. I like to chew my meat a bit.

Dessert was an orange-yogurt tart of some kind along with a shot of berry liquor. The only reason why I didn't enjoy it as much as the other courses was probably because I was so stuffed at this point.

So yes, the pictures are not great quality and the food won't ever get into a food magazine. But DAMN that was an amazing meal.

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Ristorante del Pallaro
Somewhere near Campo De' Fiori & the Jewish Ghetto (I can show it on a map but I don't know the address...)
Rome, Italy