This is why I'm Italian

[Jim in NYC]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/di...ef=dining&_r=0

About a year after (Stanley Tucci's grandmother suffered a) stroke, a devastating infection forced the amputation of her left leg. Relatives gathered to comfort her as she emerged from surgery.

“To cheer her up, we asked her to tell us, again, how to make stuffed artichokes,” recalled Joan Tucci, her daughter and Stanley’s mother. “She went through the whole thing.”

“I thought the nurse was going to die,” Mrs. Tucci added. “Only an Italian would talk about food at a time like this.”

[Superbelt]

I thought you were Italian because your parents had a successful mating. No?

[RayClay]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/di...ef=dining&_r=0

I hope you saw that movie with him (the name escapes me) about the restaurant. Very funny and good.

[Jim in NYC]

I thought you were Italian because your parents had a successful mating. No?

I'm talking culturally, not biologically. If I hadn't felt completely at home with a mindset like that, I wouldn't have taken my mother's (and, by extension, my maternal grandfather's--he's the first one who taught me how to cook) last name.

[Jim in NYC]

I hope you saw that movie with him (the name escapes me) about the restaurant. Very funny and good.

Big Night, and I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't seen it yet. :hangs head in shame:

[Superbelt]

I'm talking culturally, not biologically. If I hadn't felt completely at home with a mindset like that, I wouldn't have taken my mother's (and, by extension, my maternal grandfather's--he's the first one who taught me how to cook) last name.

Just razzing you. My wife gripes a bit at how much I immerse our son in my Italian heritage. I told her I'm perfectly happy to immerse him in German Octoberfest-ery as soon as possible.

[flyerhawk]

I was just in Venice last week. While I'm not normally a huge Italian food person, the food was pretty spectacular.

[RayClay]

Big Night, and I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't seen it yet. :hangs head in shame:

Look at it this way, it's like a great meal you're anticipating.

Really good, you should see it.

[Jim in NYC]

Just razzing you. My wife gripes a bit at how much I immerse our son in my Italian heritage. I told her I'm perfectly happy to immerse him in German Octoberfest-ery as soon as possible.

Remind me you said that when he becomes a teenager...

[Jim in NYC]

I was just in Venice last week. While I'm not normally a huge Italian food person, the food was pretty spectacular.

Italian food is like Chinese...what we get in this country is related to the authentic stuff only by implication.

[Superbelt]

Italian food is like Chinese...what we get in this country is related to the authentic stuff only by implication.

Unless you have an imported grandmother. :)

[Jim in NYC]

Unless you have an imported grandmother. :)

Hee hee hee...that's the case with ANY cuisine. Thierry Rautureau competed on this past season's Top Chef Masters, and for the second elimination challenge, he made his grandmother's blood soup. He said he was driven by visions of her coming after him, waving her cane and screaming (in an old French lady voice), "You didn't do it right!!!!!"

[LGM]

The best tortillas I've ever had was from my best friends immigrant southern Mexican grandmother. Best sauce? Ex-girlfriend's immigrant mom from Sicilly.

Those immersed in a culture usually have a better perception of authentic than those who just name their restaurant something and add garlic/chipotle (etc, etc.)...