Lulu: Hello again and welcome back to happy hour. We have in our studio a new guest speaker and he's actually from Italy, and welcome Andrea.

Andrea: Ciao a tutti, benvenuti in questa trasmissione, io sono Andrea.

Lulu: Ciao~ Andrea is here to talk to us about Italian culture, especially focusing on food and drink, fun topic. First of all, would you like to give us a little bit of your background, for example, where in Italy are you originally from?

Andrea: Okay! My region is called Lombardy, it's the...let's say the most famous city of Lombardy is Milan, and it situated in the North, the Center North of Italy.

Lulu: And which part of Lombardy are you from? And what is that region like?

Andrea: Okay, I come from a small town called Bergamo, that is in the centre of Lombardy. It's beside the mountains, not a mountain region, but really close to the mountains. So it's a very natural area, very rich. It's actually the one of the richest cities in Europe, and so very hardworking people and very simple as well.

Lulu: And you have been in China for?

Andrea: Six years now, six years in beijing. The first time I came here was 9 years ago. And I like the experience quite a lot. And so I decided to come back. I came back after two years. So I'm here since 2014 now.

Lulu: Wow, I think one thing that when I think of Italy, I go to Italy quite often and I really love the country. And partially the reason is that I love the food and wine culture. I think this is one thing that we do share, we do have in common that Italy and China are both big on food.

Andrea: Exactly.

Lulu: So this food and drink play a big part in Italian lives.

Andrea: Sure, one of the best social moments for Italy. So usually when you invite friends or relatives for lunch or for dinner, this is very important. And eating good food and eating a lot is, and of course coupling good wine as well, is very central in our culture.

Lulu: If you invite people to your home for a home cooked meal, who's usually doing the cooking in a family?

Andrea: In the family, it's the mother, Italian mother of course, preparing the food and she's like the queen of the house. So she manages everything.

Lulu: It's a large feast, plates after plates.

Andrea: Exactly. Italian kitchen has an order, and it's quite strict as an order. So you go from the appetizer and the first dish, second dish. So you don't mix usually some flavors like fish and meat together, or better you can also have it in the same meal, but you need maybe between the two dishes, meat and fish, maybe you need to eat some kind of ice cream that is called Sorbetto, Sorbet. This is made with lemon and. . .

Lulu: to clean the taste.

Andrea: Exactly. So then you can enjoy another flavor that can be actually wasted or covered by the flavor of the dish before.

Lulu: Cleanse the palate. By the way, when you're talking about wine pairings, this is very interesting. Because in China, when we go out to eat or stay at home to eat, we usually just drink all the types of drinks at the same time. Or we stick with one particular drink, either we drink beer or we drink Baijiu, but in Italy it sounds like you have different stages and you drink different types of wine. So could you maybe give us a detailed combing through starting with a aperitivo?

Andrea: A aperitivo, yes, aperitivo or appetizer is just some small food just to stimulate your appetite.

Lulu: So what do you drink then as a aperitif?

Andrea: The general rule is you go from the lower grade of alcohol to the higher grade of alcohol along the meal. So usually you start with a lower grade of alcohol and aperitivo is a usually coupled with a Prosecco.

Lulu: Ah, Prosecco is like a aperitif. And this is with your appetizer, and then you go into like say, a meat dish, main course? You don't call it main course.

Andrea: Usually after a appetizer, there is a primo that is called. . .

Lulu: First course.

Andrea: Exactly. A first course is usually pasta.

Lulu: You start with pasta?

Andrea: Exactly. We start. . . after appetizer usually there is pasta.

Lulu: This is so different because in Chinese, we would think pasta is staple food. We usually put that towards the end after you eat all the meat and dish.

Andrea: Yes, let's say that our is bread actually, let's say usually is not nutritionally correct to couple pasta and bread because both are carbohydrates. So you don't couple it. But usually you don't eat pasta with bread, but maybe we use to do Scarpetta. That means that when we finish the pasta we dip the bread in the pasta sauce because we think that's the good part. And so you don't want to miss any of the essence.

Lulu: But that is only the first course?

Andrea: Exactly.

Lulu: And what do you drink with this first course?

Andrea: It depends, in this case about the source. So if it's a meat sauce, you drink red wine usually, and if it's a fish sauce, you couple with a white wine, but then also depends on other rules that are too technical.

Lulu: But this is the basic.

Andrea: Yes.

Lulu: Second course?

Andrea: The general rule remains the same, so usually can be the same wine, or you can couple something a bit stronger. The second dish is what usually called main course in other kind of cuisines.

Lulu: So second dish and then you have more wine. Second dish I'm assuming is kind of fish or meat.

Andrea: This depends on the region and a bit more heavy in the North. And it's more based on red meat. And then the center of South it's called the mediterranean cuisine. So it's more lighter. So vegetables and fish.

Lulu: After second course are we getting to things like dessert?

Andrea: Exactly. And so desert usually is coupled with a sweet wine and with a . . .

Lulu: high alcohol content.

Andrea: Exactly.

Lulu: That is called. . . what is that called, dessert wine?

Andrea: Yes, dessert wine.

Lulu: And there's a concept that I've heard it's called digestif. If it's like the strong alcohol that you drink towards the end of the meal to help you digest. When do you drink that? That's not dessert wine, is it?

Andrea: No, because after the desert there is a coffee.

Lulu: Wow!

Andrea: Coffee means the end of the meal. So usually you drink coffee just after lunch, but it depends on the region. Usually coffee is lighter in the North of Italy, and a little bit longer. And it's very short and very strong in the South of Italy. You couple it with some digestif, can be made of herbs usually, very alcoholic, or a grappa that is not made by herbs, but still made with grapes, like wine.

Lulu: Grappa is kind of like the Italian brandy.

Andrea: Exactly, something like this.

Lulu: Because it's bit sweet and very strong. I'm quite curious as to how can people handle so much alcohol throughout one meal and so many different types of alcohol.

Andrea: Usually if it's a big event, in Italy can last hours.

Lulu: So you space it out.

Andrea: Yeah. And then let's say you drink maybe one glass for each kind of a wine, maybe not even an entire glass, let's say, just some kind of a smaller quantity just to taste the wine and couple it with food.

Lulu: I've noticed one part of Italian food and wine culture that I found very interesting. Years ago when I was in Italy, I went to an event a friend who's hosting. It's kind of just called aperitivo. It's just people gathering around the fountain. They all hold drinks and they just chatting away. Is that very Italian? Or is it just something they made for us tourists?

Andrea: No, it's very Italian. Usually after work, you can just meet with friends before dinner. So that's why apperitivo appetizer or now it's very trendy also to eat during aperitivo. So you just eat something lighter maybe. And then you go home and you don't eat any more because anyway, you are already full. But this is a very important social event in Italy, you gather just in some open air place, or also during the winter you just go in some bar to meet friends and drink aperitivo that usually the prosecco or spritz.

Lulu: Something sparkling.

Andrea: Exactly, and you couple it with some appetizer, some small food, let's say.

Lulu: So in today's episode, we have talked to Andrea about Italian food and wine. In next episode, we are going to continue this topic and explore more about this fascinating culture.

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