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.

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

Ciao~ Andrea is here to talk to us about Italian culture, especially focusing on food and drink. In the previous episode, Andrea was telling us about different courses of an Italian meal and the wine pairings, and let's continue with that topic. Another thing that I've noticed is that Italians generally tend to eat later, or you have dinner much later. For us, dinner is six o'clock. But when I was in Italy, I try to eat at six o'clock, they were telling me only pizza. If you want any decent food, come back after eight.

Exactly. Let's say, usually this depends from North to South. There is still a difference. The North of Italy is more similar to German countries. So anyway, it's not six because six is very early. For us, it's 7. So it's usually in Lombardy, in my region, we eat at 7, 7:30. In the south of Italy, it can be 8, it can be 9, it can be even 10. So it’s very late.

When do people get up to go to work?

Right, it's also something depending on the region. Let's say that, anyway, usually the Italian job starts from to 10am depending on the type of job and the elasticity of the company. But let's say the average starting time is from 8 to 10.

Now, even though that Andrea, you were saying it was all these drinking rules, drinking culture, but it just seems that if you compared to some countries with real drinking culture, it seems like even though that Italians do drink a lot, but you don't have like I have to drink to get drunk sort of culture, it's more like enjoy it step by step.

No, there is not this culture, no.

Not competitive drinking.

No. First of all we are really catholic country. So, let's say the baseline of our culture is drinking and get drunk is a bad. So there is a kind of rule. We are a country that like to enjoy life. So the strict rule doesn't exist, actually. So you can drink, but it's not moral to get drunk and to get drunk every day let's say. But also in these are differences between the very North part of Italy, so near the mountains, where we actually drink like the Northern Europe, and the rest of the country where is more moderate. And anyway, say Italy drink more wine, the North of Europe drink more beer. It's all so different for taste and or how you drink it. Because when you drink during your meal, this means also the food adsorbs the alcohol. So the effect on your body is different, it’s not that heavy.

Exactly. Actually, you brought up beer, I was gonna ask you be because when you're walking up through the Italian meal, there is no beer involved. So is that a thing that in Italy people don't drink a lot of beer, especially like you said in the south, perhaps people don't have the tradition of drinking beer?

We actually have also our beers, it's less traditional of course than wine. It's a very common to drink beer while you eat pizza.

Ah, this is like fast food with fast drink.

Exactly, so you have a pizza, and beer is, let's say, the perfect Italian fast food.

You've been in China for all these years. You've noticed that sometimes Chinese diners would eat pizza with knife and fork. Is that common in Italy to eat pizza with knife and fork? Or is it more like eating with hands in terms of pizza?

Let's say also depends with whom you are eating. If you are maybe with your boss, say, business lunch or business dinner, you usually use the polite way. So you use a knife and fork.

I guess I would just watch to see if my boss is using knife and folk. If he is using hands, I probably will just...

But also, it's not really a rigid rule, let's say, and also depends on what relation you have with the other person. But usually it’s quite well tolerated if you just cut slices and eat these slices with hands.

If you have to really recommend an Italian food, what would be your recommendation? Let’s say what you’ve missed the most when you're in Beijing?

It's hard to say. You can, I don't know, Lasagna is very good, or a Parmigiana, that is a kind of a salty cake made with eggplants, or the roast seafood from the south of Italy is fantastic. Or if you go to Naples, and eat just Pizza Margarita in some old place in the, let's say, historical part of Napoli. Really, there are many typical foods that, let's say, you can have Italian food almost everywhere, but the flavors of the place, they say in Italy, we are very attached to our land. And also the tomatoes of our land taste differently. The mozzarella, for example, already loses its original test when it gets into a fridge. And so it must be very fresh to be very tasty.

This is one thing I do miss, like the fresh mozzarella. If you have been in Italy, it's just this beautiful especially in summer.

In summer and in the South of Italy, it's beautiful, it's really beautiful.

Yeah. In the end, let's just dig a little bit deeper into we were talking about wine, like sparkling wine Prosecco, this aperitif. Prosecco is a sparkling wine. And then I think a lot of our listeners probably don't really know that much about wine. But that's not true because only Champagne produced in Champagne Region in France can be called Champagne, and Prosecco is the Italian sparkling wine. And do you know any difference between these two? Or is it just because it's not produced in Champagne in France?

Let's say, about Prosecco, it is different. The quality is lower, let's say, it's more common wine, not so pretentious.

It's more like everyday drinking.

Everyday, exactly! You can just enjoy it, it’s cheaper. It's still good quality of course. It doesn't mean that doesn't have quality. When I'm talking about quality, in this case, I mean it's not that structured. So we have what is called Champenoise wine in Italy. That is, let's say, same method of Champagne and it's called Bollicine.

That's higher end.

Higher end and it's made in a region that actually is close to the region of Prosecco, just a bit western in Lombardy, actually in my region, in the Eastern part of Lombardy. When we talk about sparkling wines, I think, let's say in Italy you can find good wine everywhere. But the region of Veneto where Prosecco comes, you can find good sparkling wines and also all the Northeast area you can find good sweet and sparkling wines.

I think especially if you don't really know that much about wine, it's better to start with more sort of down to earth everyday drinking. This is what I've found. Sometimes people don't know anything about wine and they spend thousands on a good bottle. But they probably cannot really appreciate to that extent because like you said, it's the whole structured taste or sophisticated taste. And it's better to build up your palate, so to speak.

Let’s say in Italy, we also used to buy the wine from smaller companies that they produce their own wines, they have their own yards. And this very good wine of course not structured, is not the very high-end wine, but it's very good to drink anyway.

I think any big wine culture people who have this whole tradition of drinking wine probably would just more go for the taste. So wine is for drinking, not for showing off.

Exactly. It's let's say wine is something that makes you more relaxed. In our culture, drinking alone is quite bad, it's sad, because you can also enjoy your glass of wine while you're eating just to enjoy your food. But usually it's very social, you drink with friends. And this makes you feel more relaxed. Or maybe since young people maybe are looking to the beautiful girl or the girl looking to the beautiful guy. So maybe it makes you a little bit more comfortable to. . .

Give you a little bit of confidence, a little more confidence to sort of talk to the person that you're attracted to. Thank you so much Andrea, it's fascinating to know all these things about Italian food and wine, and hopefully in the future we will invite you back, and then we get more into this. Thank you so much.

Thank you, I’m honored.

Thank you. To end today's recording, just a very quick question.

Sure. We say chin chin.

Chin chin? So what does it mean?

It's just the noise of the two glasses.

Ah~ like the clinking sound.

Exactly.

Alright, So chin chin.

Chin chin.

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