A Taste of Naples
Neapolitan Culture, Cuisine, and Cooking
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $44.99
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- $44.99
Publisher Description
In other places, it might seem trite or cliché to say that love is an essential component of cooking, food, and dining. But in the shadow of a still-fuming Vesuvio, the love of everyday life is palpable in Naples: that passion for life is the spirit that guides Neapolitan cuisine. You can taste it in everything.
To truly know Napoli and Neapolitan food, you must not stay within its city limits. The entire region may be called Campania, but it is also: Napoli. The entire region shares similar characteristics, especially in its cuisine, and its surrounding areas also grow so much of what feeds the city, bringing pleasure and sustenance to the table and to life.
In this tantalizing tour of the culture and cuisine of Napoli, Marlena Spieler reveals the tastes, sights, and sounds of the city and surrounding area (including its islands) in gorgeous detail. Using her own experiences and conversations with others, both tourists and residents alike, she offers us the rich history of this unique culture and cuisine, telling the story through recipes, history, and traditions, especially the special dishes and celebrations that follow every Neapolitan throughout the year. Open its pages and step into a sensory tour of this unique city.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Food writer Spieler (Feeding Friends) passionately extols the food and culinary traditions of Naples. With its looming volcano of Vesuvius, overcrowding, and history of organized crime, the gritty city of Naples is often ignored in favor of touristy Tuscany and Rome. Yet Naples gave the world pizza, marinara sauce, and zeppole, Spieler writes, and she begins with an early history of the city, from the Greeks in the seventh century BCE (who named the city Neapolis, or new city) to Italy's unification in 1860 under Giuseppe Garibaldi (many of his soldiers from the north had never tasted pasta). Spieler includes chapters on pasta and pizza, festivals and celebrations, the fruit and vegetables that flourish in volcanic soil, and "how to eat like a Neapolitan." The heart of the book, though, is the city's deeply embedded food culture, which Spieler explains is deeply intertwined with the penny-frugal but taste-rich habits of the poor: there are pages on the abundant San Marzano plum tomato ("fragrant, fleshy... and bright skin that peels off easily") and also plenty about pasta, such as linguine alle vongole, "one of the most iconic dishes." Her enthusiasm and knowledge will likely inspire travelers to Italy to add a stop on their trip.
Customer Reviews
Where were the editors?
Nice descriptions of Neapolitan food and culture but sloppy and slapdash. The mistakes in Italian grammar and spelling are excruciating and increase in number as the book progresses. Where were the editors!? The history section is long and confusing. Dates are contradictory. After reading as an homage the whole time, the book ends abruptly with a warning that indeed you can have a bad meal in Naples, and make sure to be on your guard against that.