One of the first things we do when we get to a new place is to go food-shopping. It’s a way to get the ingredients for first-day minestrone, but it also gives us a sense of our neighbourhood, as well as helping us get a feel for the city in general. In coming to Rome, we were confident that we would find food, and we have not been disappointed: no food desert here! But we didn’t expect to find an excellent market so close, and a food hall as well.
Our host told us that there was a grocery store a few blocks away so we went there first. It’s an excellent store, with attractive fresh fruits and vegetables, a vast variety of meats and cheese, and all the basic things (flour, canned beans, etc.) that one could want. There are (literally) several aisles of pasta, and a good bakery with some very tempting treats. There’s also an extensive selection of wine and liquors, including the largest bottle of limoncello that we have ever seen (stay tuned for more on this important beverage if you are not familiar with it).
So that’s all to the good, and if that were all that we had, we’d be perfectly satisfied. But as it happens, a walk of five minutes in the other direction takes us to the Nuovo Mercato Esqulino. (Esquilino is the name of our neighbourhood; the Esquiline is one of the seven hills of ancient Rome.) And this is a truly amazing market.
There are (again, as you would expect) many stalls of beautiful fruits and vegetables. There are butchers galore, with recognizable and not-so-recognizable pieces of meat. And there are fish-mongers too, with many fish that we don’t even begin to recognize. There is a wine merchant who, besides selling the usual bottles of wine, has six steel vats if you want to bring your own bottles to fill up. We haven’t yet, but only because we don’t have any empty bottles!
We were expecting something like this market, though perhaps not so convenient or so immense. What we were not expecting was the variety: Chinese, Japanese, Indian, African, Turkish, and Middle Eastern are all represented, more than once. This seems to be the only market of its kind in the city, so we feel very fortunate indeed.
When confronted with such an abundance, it’s very difficult to pick where stall to go. For veg, we picked ‘the King of Artichokes’ (‘Il re di carciofi’). He is friendly even with commoners like us, and he sells beautiful greens, fruits, and vegetables. And we went to the wine merchant mentioned above; she’s one of our favourites in the market because, well, wine. Also, she speaks slowly and is always happy to talk about the wine regions of Italy.
Since there are only two of us, even though we think we eat for four, we are always careful not to buy too much. We did treat ourselves to cashews, figs and medjool dates from one of the Middle Eastern stalls at the market. The dates are the most delicious we have ever tasted. It’s a good thing too, since we somehow bought a kilo(!).
Finally, there is a beautiful market right inside Termini train station, a short walk in yet another direction. This has mostly cooked food, though some vendors sell uncooked foods as well. We’ve tried a few of the places here and have enjoyed them all.
So there is no need to worry: it looks as if we will be well provided for while we’re in Rome. But that still leaves our dilemma about how often we should cook at home versus how often we should eat out. Stay tuned to see how we resolve it!
