Caffe Lattes , Books and Reflections on Food
Saturday, January 28th, 2006 -- J. DoeLast night at about 8:15 Buzzurro said to me “I’d like to look at some new books about computers.”
And I replied “Well I want a coffee at Starbucks”, so being a happily married couple that thrives on compromises, we went to Barnes and Noble, which is a bookstore with a Starbucks Coffee shop inside.
While drinking my vanilla latte I thought about a conversation I had several years ago with a friend who lived in California. I lived in Italy at that time. I said to her on the phone:
“I really miss the caffe lattes at Starbucks.’
Silence. Then she responded “But you live in Italy. Surely they serve caffe lattes there. Starbucks was modeled after an Italian coffee shop.’
‘It’s not the same.’ I replied.
And it’s not. The Starbucks coffee roast is different, the cup sizes are different, and the only Vanilla powder I’ve ever seen in Italy is the kind of vanilla flavored yeast used for baking, and I never wanted to experiment and try that.
Italy has a well-deserved reputation for wonderful, fresh food, and of course of the very tasty Italian cuisine, but sometimes a person misses the American versions. Maybe now, in a few months, I’ll miss the Italian versions.
You’re right. When I was home in the states my mom ordered Papa Johns pizza of all things, and so we had it for dinner. Not bad, but not like the Italian pizza, of course. However, the next morning, as I had put a piece aside in the fridge for breakfast, I had a piece of COLD PIZZA, something you just wouldn’t think of doing in Italy! It was great.
While you’re home, enjoying the American version of things just makes sense.
-Jackie
I will always miss the good “stuff” from my childhood, you win some you loose some but it has been fun to experience all the differences.