Best of Rome Eats: bread
Aah, the memories of the bread in Rome. So simple, and economical too.
I went to the "famous" Forno Campo de Fiori (forno means bakery). Here, I went for the prosciutto and fig sandwich. I normally don't like combining salty and sweet, but I was tempted to try this one because I had just had a revelatory experience with white fig gelato (will post about that later). The bread was a bit chewy, but I did like the prosciutto-fig combination.
The fig here reminded me of one of my best eating memories every - eating a fresh fig in Xinjiang, China. Juicy, pulpy, luscious. Here's a picture of that fig in China. Okay, the sandwich fig wasn't THIS luscious, but it was in that direction.
Close by, I hopped into another bakery - Forno Roscioli. Here, like most bakeries apparently, the pizza is cut from huge slabs with huge knives, and then sold by weight. It was so hot in Rome, and I was so stuffed by eating so much gelato earlier, that I could only go for the pizza with tomato sauce. Now that I look at this picture, I wish I had the stomach to try all of the varieties.
The pizza with red sauce was excellent. Crisp bread, and juicy, freshly-prepared tomato flavor. And one big slab folded in half was only €1.75.
Of course, there was the excellent pizza at Dino and Toni's (post here). But then there was also a not so impressive pizza. The first night in Rome, I went with a group to a place called Recafe Pizzeria. Situated right next to Mausoleum of Augustus, it was a sort of chi-chi stylish place, quite popular among the locals it seemed. But the pizza dough was really thick, and the cheese was laid on thick. So heavy. I was interested to try the pumpkin flower and sardine pizza. But even those flavors turned out to be a bit boring - the pumpkin flower was bland and the sardines were, well, salty and fishy as you would expect.
