Fun restaurant posting

Today, for Luther’s birthday, we decided to try a recommended restaurant called L’Umbricello del Caccio. It is nominally in Magione which is between Lago del Trasimeno and Perugia. This restaurant is south of both of these towns up in some modest hills. Very pretty countryside with lots of olive groves and yellow fields of just-harvested wheat stubble.

We arrived in a small hamlet with an old church with a pretty clock. The bells rang every quarter hour. There is plenty of parking and the restaurant is on one side of the small road through the village while it’s dining terrace is on the other. This terrace sits right on the edge of the hill. Too bad the view is marred by three unsightly power lines. For this reason I didn’t take a photo.

The fun part of this post is that, like almost always when we walk into a restaurant, they spoke English to us and automatically gave us English menus. We have gotten used to this fact of life here. Somehow we are nailed as foreigners before we open our mouths. I’ve figured out they don’t know what sort of foreigner you are generally. German, English, Dutch usually. When we spoke in Italian to him he asked if we understood Italian. We said we did so he brought over Italian menus.

Here’s the fun part. This is a good example why I hate getting the English menu. They don’t really translate it fully or correctly. The first picture below is the English version of the Antipasto menu. The second picture is the Italian one. I count 10 choices on the English one and 16 on the Italian one. This illustrates how much tourists miss out on if they don’t at least understand “menu” Italian. What a difference! The subsequent pages were equally deficient.
antipasto_english

antipasto

They specialize in a dish called Caccio e Pepe. It is made by putting the hot pasta into the hollowed out rind of a parmigiano cheese. The cheese is scraped and stirred so it melts into the pasta. They also specialize in house-made Umbricelli. It is a very fat, dense, chewy spaghetti type of shape. Luther’s pasta was made in house and was what they call integrale or whole grain. Hence the slightly unappetizing color. Worm-colored…don’t think about it. He liked it! His second course was Cinghale or wild boar which they do wonderfully here. Sorry, my picture didn’t come out.

Here is the wheel of parmigiano in which they make the pasta.
caccio_pepe

Luther’s Umbricello.
luthers_pasta

I had caprese salad. The tomatoes should have been better, especially at this time of year. It tasted good. Then I got Umbricello too but mine was Carbonara with truffles. I had not had this is a long time as it is not normally on menus in Umbria. Carbonara was invented for the American soldiers after WWII in Rome because they had eggs!

My pasta.umbricelli_tartuffi
fork_umbricelli

We were sent on our way by a sweet angel. It was a nice outing…if very HOT!
angel

10 thoughts on “Fun restaurant posting

  1. Nancy Hampton Post author

    Ray, I wouldn’t really call what they gave us an English menu. It was in English, yes but so limited and poorly translated! Most restaurants around here don’t have English menus at all unless you’re in Assisi or a tourist area, and I’m happy with that. And you are right, they can’t distinguish accents and they ask if we are English. This time though, they asked if we were Dutch. That has happened before. I think it’s because we speak Italian and they think it’s a Dutch accent.

  2. Raymond Setzer

    In Abruzzo they would say. What is an English menu? Plus, while people certainly peg us as expats, they don’t pick up the difference between an American and British accent, so, because there are a zillion Brits here, they ask. “Inglatere?” and are surprised when we say. Gli Americani.

  3. Nancy Hampton Post author

    Caccio e Pepe can’t be made in a home kitchen. At least unless you have an entire parmeghiana laying around! Which is why it was a treat to get to order it. If you wanted it you’d need to go with us to this restaurant. 🙂

  4. royane mosley

    Nancy I loved this posting and the photos…and cacao de pepe is one of my favorites but now? how can I ever make it without the cheese bowl Never knew that…gawd! Can we do that we we come to see you again in your lovely kitchen? sorry Luther, but your choice looks really unappetizing …seriously. ug! But love your choice Nancy and knowing Luther’s tasted fine ,but visual is important to me ! Protesters on TV now in Germany!!!!!

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