What's in Italy aside from it's surviving old edifices? Naturally, there's food! Going around makes one hungry. Finding a place to eat is also a challenge. Aside from the great experience I had with all the historic stuff in Rome, I share also my ups and downs when it comes to finding for food and eating in this busy touristic city. An obvious thing fortourists? Nothing is cheap around...not because they are really expensive but because you (tourist) don't know a dam* thing!

Dining around can be really tricky. There are stuff to be considered:

1. Location - restaurants fronting a very famous place is naturally more expensive

2. The quality - you want to trust the quality of food you eat (cleanliness, etc)

3. The ambiance/setup -sometimes you adore outdoors but not when it's raining and with a temperature near zero

4. The food - if you like Pizza or pasta or bread, etc.

Burger King Bad Experience

There are some stuff that tourists need to be careful of. This, not only in normal restaurants but also in fastfood chains. I tried having food at the Burger King and I was really disappointed. I have never seen such a lousy/unpolite service of an American-based fast food. I thought one of the leading virtues of these chains is: "Customer Service". I was only asking if there is an option to enlarge the fries and the drinks of the menu we chose but I was sarcastically replied with "a menu is a menu!". Wouldn't simpler to say "no"? Aside from that, right after my order was assembled, I was told in a commanding voice "Vai"... and the crew was not even satisfied and told in English, "Go!". Sweet huh!

Great Food and Great Service Experience

On the second day, we were a bit settled so we were able to find a great place. It was with steam in the outdoors so we were able to permit a stay-out despite the cold. We had the spaghetti al pomodoro e balsamico and the vegetable salad with roasted chicken breat. It was a deliciouslow-cost dinner (images of food up).

Disappointing Unfinished Lunch

We had this very disappointing lunch in a restaurant not so far away from the Pantheon. We were tricked with the "Tourist Menu". Once you order this, they put a lot of time in between when serving the antipasto, primo, secondo, etc so that customers end up ordering extra. Not in our case though, we left before they could proceed and make damage control. We paid them the whole price and let the rest of the customers/diners know how lousy their service/trick is!

I don't like burgers. This statement is however rebuttable. If the burger is surely good, and I am sure of it, there is no doubt I would be tempted taking in some. Thus, with this strict choice, I have no other option but to prepare my own beef burgers and mix them the way my palate wants. Thus, the other time, I made seven of them out of a one-kilo ground beef. And as I expected, I liked them as I was the one who prepared. My Italian Amore liked them as well. The following images would more or less explain how they're done. Yummy! If you want to try the recipe, I bet you'd be more free to suit your own palate needs and you'll be more happy to add the stuff you want to be in these burgers.

Preparation is important. Above were the ingredients I used: ground beef, salt, chili, black pepper, soy sauce, and onion. I did not use garlic as I don't like the after meal smell but if you want more spice, feel free.

Above is the pre-mix. It's the lil onion slices with salt, pepper, chili, egg and soy sauce. I prepared this mix to have them absorbed by the ground beef the moment the latter is added. One egg is enough, just to make the beef sticky, not to put the egg taste really

Here I added the ground beef already. Mix it with the pre-mix I prepared up. Mix well to have the flavor and taste penetrate the beef. Add seasoning and spices as desired.

I also tried to divide the number of patties (if I may call them since they're just hand made and looks done lousy enough) to be pan-grilled and oven grilled. The result? I could actually not detect but all I know is, I never add any drop of oil. The oily stuff you see is the own grease of the beef.

3 patties were pan-grilled. No oil was used, but before placing them in the pan, the pan should be really heated well.

More oil were squeezed out of the patties the nearer they get cooked.

The same good amount of grease were also squeezed out in the above image.

The outer patties were oven-grilled while the three inside were pan-grilled. The difference? There is as you see the color and the markings but the taste? I could harly identify. The seven of them were all great tasting.

Of course burgers without a mix of vegetable is boring. Mine I mixed with this stir-fried beans. Yummilicious dinner! Why not try doing some as well?