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Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Learning and Confirming Italian From Porta Grande Restaurant Menu

Problem
What does the menu mean? What are the waiters saying?

Regardless, whilst you are waiting for friends to arrive, or for service if others are busy, you can check up on the menu.

I like to read the menu on line in advance. I can plan my meal in advance and give my full attention to my garrulous family.

Then I only have to look on the board for the specials. I know the regular menu.

Let me look at the new Porta Grande Italian restaurant menu.

Italian - English
calamari - (shellfish)
fritti - fried
grande - big
lasagne - wide, flat pasta, usually several layers with filling in between (see Wikipedia)
mascarpone - cheese
melanzane - (aubergine?)
pancetta - Wikipedia says:
Pancetta (Italian pronunciation: [panˈt͡ʃetːta]) is an Italian bacon made of pork belly meat, that is salt cured and spiced with black pepper, and sometimes other spices. Pancetta in Italy is often consumed raw.
Parma ham - from Parma in Italy, very thin, very tasty (I've been to the factory on a press trip)
porta - door
ravioli - pasta pockets, usually square, sometimes triangular or semicircular with sealed edges, stuffed with minced meat or cheese or something else, often in soup but can be a starter or part of a main dish or the main dish, sometimes with a white and/or cheese sauce
risotto - rice dish
zuppa - soup

English - Italian
door - porta
grande - big
medallion of beef
rice and additions - risotto
rocket - (looks like dark green lettuce with frilly edge)
saddle of lamb
scallops - (fish - I need to know this because I am allergic to shellfish and I muddle up scallops with shallots which are mushrooms)
soup - zuppa

French - English
terrine  - pâté but not so much a paste, more bitty, with small shreds of meat, at fist I thought this was like pate but not ground up properly, later I preferred it to pate on the grounds that the closer your food is to fresh food and the further it is away from chopped up and ground up the fresher and healthier.

For details of Porta Grande restaurant in Hatch End, see my previous posts on this blog.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages.
Please see my other blog on travel
luxurytravelforless.co.uk


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