A new thing to do at Rome Termini
Oct 5, 2016, 11:31 am
#1
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A new thing to do at Rome Termini
People who've gone to the Mercato Centrale, or Central Market in Florence, might enjoy that the same owner just opened a replica in Rome's train station Termini. It just opened today. I haven't been there since July, so I haven't seen it. I don't know when I'm going back, probably not for at least a few weeks. But I've heard it's great. Hanging out at a train station and eating great food is fun. It doesn't change my opinion that you shouldn't stay at any hotel within half a mile of Termini. However, at least you'll have a nice place to be when there. http://www.mercatocentrale.it/roma/info/
Last edited by Perche; Oct 6, 2016 at 8:08 pm
Oct 5, 2016, 12:33 pm
#2
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Can't wait to visit. I'm a big fan of the one in Florence.
If you're out near the train station one day, you could spend the morning at the aquarium that's about 2 blocks away, have lunch here, and then move on to another area/activity. Total aside here, but the aquarium in Rome is a Sea Life aquarium - it's possible that Merlin annual passholders (Legoland) would be able to get in with that. The website isn't clear, but I'm going to find out since we ended up with annual passes this year - my inlaws live in Carlsbad, so we end up at Legoland a bunch.
Thanks for sharing this. I'll be there in January if nobody else visits before me and reports back.
If you're out near the train station one day, you could spend the morning at the aquarium that's about 2 blocks away, have lunch here, and then move on to another area/activity. Total aside here, but the aquarium in Rome is a Sea Life aquarium - it's possible that Merlin annual passholders (Legoland) would be able to get in with that. The website isn't clear, but I'm going to find out since we ended up with annual passes this year - my inlaws live in Carlsbad, so we end up at Legoland a bunch.
Thanks for sharing this. I'll be there in January if nobody else visits before me and reports back.
Oct 5, 2016, 1:02 pm
#3
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Thank you for the good news.
I spent an extraordinary amount of time in the Florence one when I was there in March.
And next March I'm going by train from Rome to Florence so I can have a snack en route in the new one in RomeTermini - perfect.
I spent an extraordinary amount of time in the Florence one when I was there in March.
And next March I'm going by train from Rome to Florence so I can have a snack en route in the new one in RomeTermini - perfect.
Oct 5, 2016, 3:39 pm
#4
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It looks awesome! If you can't read this, just look at the pictures and salivate.
http://www.puntarellarossa.it/2016/1...e-da-visitare/
http://www.gamberorosso.it/it/food/1...-alle-botteghe
http://www.puntarellarossa.it/2016/1...e-da-visitare/
http://www.gamberorosso.it/it/food/1...-alle-botteghe
Oct 5, 2016, 4:45 pm
#5
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That's going to be great. With the one in Florence, there is seriously no reason to seek out fast food. You can just go upstairs and eat from one (or more!) of the stalls - it's fast, but authentic and mostly local. For tourists that have no idea what they're doing with reservations or where to eat, this is going to be a really safe bet. And even for people that do, it's nice to have this kind of variety in one place. One restaurant couldn't do all of this, but a bunch of individual stalls specializing in one or two items sure can.
Oct 7, 2016, 11:12 am
#8
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They aren't making their own? I thought that was a requirement for this. My impression is that in the Florence version, you need to have some relationship with the local suppliers of your ingredients and the end product is yours. Otherwise you get to McDonalds quality real fast.
Oct 7, 2016, 12:17 pm
#9
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Awesome, we leave for Italy (Venice, Florence, Rome) in less than 2 weeks and Mercato Centrale in Florence is on our list of things-to-do. Will be interested to check out the one in Rome upon arrival!
Oct 8, 2016, 2:12 pm
#10
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This seems like it's turning out to be a real nice thing, like the one in Florence, which gets more visitors than the Uffizi Museum.
http://www.dissapore.com/spesa/merca...nto-si-spende/
It has 18 stalls, more or less occupied by a Who's Who of good Roman food. They are open from 7AM to midnight, 7 days per week.
1. The pane e dolci run by Gabriele Bonci should be great because he is known as the best bread maker in Rome. He is called the Michalangelo of pizza for his pizzeria out in the back of the Vatican. It's a long way away from central Rome, you need to take the train to get there, and there are no tables in his pizzeria. So, this should be good, even though he's not making pizza in Termini.
2. Then there is Pizzeria Sud, serving Napolitano pizza. The thing about pizza is how long you let the yeast ferment. The belief is that unless you wait long enough it will expand in your intestine and cause bloating. That's why the pizzaiolo makes the dough in the middle of the night, so it will have fermented long enough to be usable for dinner. That's why you can't get pizza for lunch in Italy (unless it's frozen pizza), because the dough would still be rising. The owner of this place is known for letting the fermentation process go on for a minimum 48 hours, so no bloating.
3. The carciofi e funghi stall, from the main guys with a stall in Campo dei Fiori, specializes in things artichoke, mushroom, and fried stuff. In Rome, before you buy a pizza first you usually order something fried as an appetizer.
4 Then there is Trappezino, a new invention that has taken over the street food scene of Rome that is a mix between a sandwich and a focaccia.
5. Then there is the Fresh Pasta place, straight from Eataly, and you never get bad food in Eataly.
6. Then there is a place that just specializes in mushrooms.
7. There is a vegetarian and vegan place. I hear it's generally empty, the only place not doing tremendous business.
8. There is Fresh Fish, a Rome stalwart since the 1800's known for bringing the food in fresh every day from the port. Their fried fish plate is supposed to be unmissable.
9. Then there is a hamburger place where the hamburgers are made from Tuscan Chianina beef.
10. There is a Sicilian pastry place. In most of Italy desert is not a big thing. They just eat fruit. But not in Sicily, the land of cannoli, etc.
11. There is a place to eat cold cuts from perhaps the most famous cold cut place in Rome.
12. A chocolate place from the restaurant of a Michelin starred chef.
13. There is another place for Roman fried food like arancini. Fried food is a roman specialty.
14. There is cheese shop from one of the most famous cheese stores in Florence.
15. There is wine place, by the glass or to go, run by a very famous sommelier.
16. There is a fancy craft beer bar.
17. A restaurant by Oliver Gludwig, who has a two star Michelin place in Rome.
18. Cremilla gelato. Cremilla is a small chain based in Rimini, known for very high quality gelato. I wonder how expectations play into reviews. Like the pizza and the pasta in Italy, most of the gelato in Italy is horrible.
It's factory made, with a bunch of unpronounceable chemicals and stabilizers, artificial flavors, and all sorts of stabilizers. You know you are getting bad gelato when the pistachio flavor is green. Take a pistachio out of its shell and you see that a pistachio is white, with a barely perceptible green. With true italian gelato the pistachio flavor is white, with barely perceptible green.
Strawberry gelato should not be too red. The flesh of strawberries is white, and only the outer coating is red. Strawberry gelato should only be slightly red or else it is nothing but sugar, artificial coloring, corn starch, and artificial stabilizers.
Ice cream is easy to make. Flavor the cream, put it in a freezer, and you have ice cream. You can buy an ice cream maker at Target or Costco and make ice cream with no training. Not so with gelato, which is made out of milk, not cream.
Milk will freeze if you put it into the freezer. The freezing point of water is 0C, or 32F. The more molecules you put in the water, the lower the freezing point. The ocean has salt molecules, that's why it doesn't freeze at the same temperature as a fresh water lake. The art of gelato is to put just the right amount of fruit or nut particles of whatever the flavor is so that it doesn't freeze, but is also not liquid. No stabilizers allowed.
All places in Italy, by law, must list their gelato ingredients somewhere on the wall, visible to all. Unless it is more than milk and fruit, it isn't gelato made on the premises. It's some factory made stuff made with chemicals and artificial flavors. That describes about 95% of the gelato eaten in Italy. Since a typical purchaser cannot tell the difference between factory made ice cream and gelato, why would the vendor bother? It's much cheaper to get it from the factory.
Don't buy it. Once you've tasted gelato, you can never go back. It's like eating pizza in Venice. Once you've tasted pizza in Naples, you can never eat it again.
It's like paghetti bolognese in Bologna, fettuccine alfredo in Rome, garlic bread, spaghetti and meatballs, "a light creamy sauce, italian dressing, veal parmigian, chicken parmigian, macaroni and cheese, butter on your bread, tap water, and marinara sauce. They don't exist in Italy, with the one exception being marinara sauce, which only exists in Genoa.
Cremilla is a chain, and I haven't eaten in the one in Termini (yet), but I've eaten in their other places. They do make real gelato. They are guilty of using one stabilizer that you can see on the list they have to put on the wall. They put some carob bean extract.
I don't go back for another month (unless I can change my ticket to go earlier). I would be very surprised if a place as highly respected as Cremilla, at Termini where they seemed to have vetted the vendors very carefully, is selling bad gelato. Maybe it's a matter of expectations, because gelato doesn't taste like ice cream?
http://www.dissapore.com/spesa/merca...nto-si-spende/
It has 18 stalls, more or less occupied by a Who's Who of good Roman food. They are open from 7AM to midnight, 7 days per week.
1. The pane e dolci run by Gabriele Bonci should be great because he is known as the best bread maker in Rome. He is called the Michalangelo of pizza for his pizzeria out in the back of the Vatican. It's a long way away from central Rome, you need to take the train to get there, and there are no tables in his pizzeria. So, this should be good, even though he's not making pizza in Termini.
2. Then there is Pizzeria Sud, serving Napolitano pizza. The thing about pizza is how long you let the yeast ferment. The belief is that unless you wait long enough it will expand in your intestine and cause bloating. That's why the pizzaiolo makes the dough in the middle of the night, so it will have fermented long enough to be usable for dinner. That's why you can't get pizza for lunch in Italy (unless it's frozen pizza), because the dough would still be rising. The owner of this place is known for letting the fermentation process go on for a minimum 48 hours, so no bloating.
3. The carciofi e funghi stall, from the main guys with a stall in Campo dei Fiori, specializes in things artichoke, mushroom, and fried stuff. In Rome, before you buy a pizza first you usually order something fried as an appetizer.
4 Then there is Trappezino, a new invention that has taken over the street food scene of Rome that is a mix between a sandwich and a focaccia.
5. Then there is the Fresh Pasta place, straight from Eataly, and you never get bad food in Eataly.
6. Then there is a place that just specializes in mushrooms.
7. There is a vegetarian and vegan place. I hear it's generally empty, the only place not doing tremendous business.
8. There is Fresh Fish, a Rome stalwart since the 1800's known for bringing the food in fresh every day from the port. Their fried fish plate is supposed to be unmissable.
9. Then there is a hamburger place where the hamburgers are made from Tuscan Chianina beef.
10. There is a Sicilian pastry place. In most of Italy desert is not a big thing. They just eat fruit. But not in Sicily, the land of cannoli, etc.
11. There is a place to eat cold cuts from perhaps the most famous cold cut place in Rome.
12. A chocolate place from the restaurant of a Michelin starred chef.
13. There is another place for Roman fried food like arancini. Fried food is a roman specialty.
14. There is cheese shop from one of the most famous cheese stores in Florence.
15. There is wine place, by the glass or to go, run by a very famous sommelier.
16. There is a fancy craft beer bar.
17. A restaurant by Oliver Gludwig, who has a two star Michelin place in Rome.
18. Cremilla gelato. Cremilla is a small chain based in Rimini, known for very high quality gelato. I wonder how expectations play into reviews. Like the pizza and the pasta in Italy, most of the gelato in Italy is horrible.
It's factory made, with a bunch of unpronounceable chemicals and stabilizers, artificial flavors, and all sorts of stabilizers. You know you are getting bad gelato when the pistachio flavor is green. Take a pistachio out of its shell and you see that a pistachio is white, with a barely perceptible green. With true italian gelato the pistachio flavor is white, with barely perceptible green.
Strawberry gelato should not be too red. The flesh of strawberries is white, and only the outer coating is red. Strawberry gelato should only be slightly red or else it is nothing but sugar, artificial coloring, corn starch, and artificial stabilizers.
Ice cream is easy to make. Flavor the cream, put it in a freezer, and you have ice cream. You can buy an ice cream maker at Target or Costco and make ice cream with no training. Not so with gelato, which is made out of milk, not cream.
Milk will freeze if you put it into the freezer. The freezing point of water is 0C, or 32F. The more molecules you put in the water, the lower the freezing point. The ocean has salt molecules, that's why it doesn't freeze at the same temperature as a fresh water lake. The art of gelato is to put just the right amount of fruit or nut particles of whatever the flavor is so that it doesn't freeze, but is also not liquid. No stabilizers allowed.
All places in Italy, by law, must list their gelato ingredients somewhere on the wall, visible to all. Unless it is more than milk and fruit, it isn't gelato made on the premises. It's some factory made stuff made with chemicals and artificial flavors. That describes about 95% of the gelato eaten in Italy. Since a typical purchaser cannot tell the difference between factory made ice cream and gelato, why would the vendor bother? It's much cheaper to get it from the factory.
Don't buy it. Once you've tasted gelato, you can never go back. It's like eating pizza in Venice. Once you've tasted pizza in Naples, you can never eat it again.
It's like paghetti bolognese in Bologna, fettuccine alfredo in Rome, garlic bread, spaghetti and meatballs, "a light creamy sauce, italian dressing, veal parmigian, chicken parmigian, macaroni and cheese, butter on your bread, tap water, and marinara sauce. They don't exist in Italy, with the one exception being marinara sauce, which only exists in Genoa.
Cremilla is a chain, and I haven't eaten in the one in Termini (yet), but I've eaten in their other places. They do make real gelato. They are guilty of using one stabilizer that you can see on the list they have to put on the wall. They put some carob bean extract.
I don't go back for another month (unless I can change my ticket to go earlier). I would be very surprised if a place as highly respected as Cremilla, at Termini where they seemed to have vetted the vendors very carefully, is selling bad gelato. Maybe it's a matter of expectations, because gelato doesn't taste like ice cream?
Oct 8, 2016, 5:54 pm
#11
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: SEA
Posts: 3,955
We're going well beyond the topic, but carob bean extract is more commonly seen on labels as carob gum or locust gum. There's nothing wrong with it per se - in that it assists with good texture and doesn't impart flavor. What it specifically does for ice cream and gelato is promote smaller ice crystal formation (it binds to water), as well as helping provide a little bit of structure. Practically speaking, you'd add it to maintain a smooth texture, but what it also does is help you a little when temperature control is an issue. The gelato will lose less air if it melts and refreezes a bit, and when it refreezes, will remain smoother. So the only reason I'd balk at seeing it on the ingredients is because to me it makes the product more tolerant in shipping and holding. It suggests to me that their gelato may not be made nearby. It's not proof of that - it could legitimately be used to improve texture at any point - but it could also be used to help a product maintain its quality in non-ideal holding situations, such as shipping.
More than you wanted to know. I make ice cream and gelato at home and have experimented with certain stabilizers to help keep the air in the finished product since we tend to take the container out of the freezer, let it get soft, grab only a scoop or two, and put it back in. After a few of those cycles, the texture is very different than something store bought (some of that crap can sit at room temperature and still be foamy).
More than you wanted to know. I make ice cream and gelato at home and have experimented with certain stabilizers to help keep the air in the finished product since we tend to take the container out of the freezer, let it get soft, grab only a scoop or two, and put it back in. After a few of those cycles, the texture is very different than something store bought (some of that crap can sit at room temperature and still be foamy).
Oct 9, 2016, 9:33 pm
#13
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From a recent gourmet review in Rome:
Il mastro gelatiere Luca Veralli (che viene da un’esperienza a La Romana, cosa che farà storcere il naso ai puristi), propone un nuovo format, con vari gusti di gelato naturale (l’unico addensante è la farina di carrube) come ad esempio il limone, preparato solo con succo di limone, acqua e zucchero.
"The master gelato maker Luca Veralli (who comes with experience at La Romana, which will turn up their noses of purists), offers a new format, with various natural gelato flavors (the only thickening agent is carob flour) for example only lemon, which is prepared with only lemon juice, water and sugar.
Oct 10, 2016, 6:58 am
#14
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,565
Certainly right about this, thus no comments at all on what you wrote other than:
This is a (partial) factual mistake: not all fried food is Roman (see olive ascolane) and Arancini are very, very typical Sicilian. See, for example, "The arancini di Montalbano". Nothing non-sicilian gets into Camilleri's books! n.b.: Read it in Italian.
...13. There is another place for Roman fried food like arancini. Fried food is a roman specialty...
Oct 10, 2016, 8:19 am
#15
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Arancini may have started in Sicily, but are everywhere in Italy.
Fried food is a roman specialty, like Carciofi alla giudia, or roman fried artichoke. Animelle fritti, or lamb dipped in flour and egg, then fried. Castagnole, or fried dough covered with sugar. Crochette, or fried potato are on the menu at every pizzeria, as are arancini. Filetti di bacala. Fiori di zucca, or fried zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella. Fritto misto alla romana, or sweetbreads, brains, testicles, artichokes, ricotta, zucchini, and apples.
Frittura di paranoia, or gutted fish (heads on), squid rings, moscardini, and whole shrimp that have been dipped in flour or batter and deep fried. Frittura mista, or fried tiny fish, mollusks and crustaceans. Mozzarella in carozza, or breaded and deep fried mozzarella. Olive ascolane, green olives stuffed with veal, pork, and breadcrumbs, then rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried are from Ascoli Piceno but have been fully adopted by Roman pizzerias. Pesce fritto, red mullet, smelts, baby sole, and other scaled fish (heads on) rolled in flour and deep fried. Ricotta fritta, or ricotta fritta mixed with flour and egg, packed into small balls, and deep fried.
Suppli, rice and meat sauce croquettes studded with mozzarella, rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried. Verdure in pastella, battered seasonal vegetables fried in olive oil usually cauliflour, broccolo romanesco, onions, carrot slices, or apple slices. Panelle, fried chick pea fritters. Rizzuole, balls of risen dough stuffed with ragu’. These may not have all started in Rome, but they are fried specialties firmly adopted and modified into Roman food culture. Fried food is a roman specialty.
Arancini are found as far north as Venice, where the typical version is filled with mozzarella and anchovy. Regional variations exist everywhere. Rome has its versions. I've never seen it where there are stores selling nothing but various types of arancini, except in Rome. It is also almost expected that you have an arancini or two before you eat your pizza in Rome.
Fried food is a roman specialty, like Carciofi alla giudia, or roman fried artichoke. Animelle fritti, or lamb dipped in flour and egg, then fried. Castagnole, or fried dough covered with sugar. Crochette, or fried potato are on the menu at every pizzeria, as are arancini. Filetti di bacala. Fiori di zucca, or fried zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella. Fritto misto alla romana, or sweetbreads, brains, testicles, artichokes, ricotta, zucchini, and apples.
Frittura di paranoia, or gutted fish (heads on), squid rings, moscardini, and whole shrimp that have been dipped in flour or batter and deep fried. Frittura mista, or fried tiny fish, mollusks and crustaceans. Mozzarella in carozza, or breaded and deep fried mozzarella. Olive ascolane, green olives stuffed with veal, pork, and breadcrumbs, then rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried are from Ascoli Piceno but have been fully adopted by Roman pizzerias. Pesce fritto, red mullet, smelts, baby sole, and other scaled fish (heads on) rolled in flour and deep fried. Ricotta fritta, or ricotta fritta mixed with flour and egg, packed into small balls, and deep fried.
Suppli, rice and meat sauce croquettes studded with mozzarella, rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried. Verdure in pastella, battered seasonal vegetables fried in olive oil usually cauliflour, broccolo romanesco, onions, carrot slices, or apple slices. Panelle, fried chick pea fritters. Rizzuole, balls of risen dough stuffed with ragu’. These may not have all started in Rome, but they are fried specialties firmly adopted and modified into Roman food culture. Fried food is a roman specialty.
Arancini are found as far north as Venice, where the typical version is filled with mozzarella and anchovy. Regional variations exist everywhere. Rome has its versions. I've never seen it where there are stores selling nothing but various types of arancini, except in Rome. It is also almost expected that you have an arancini or two before you eat your pizza in Rome.