Yellow croaker al ragù

[muckefuck]

Two things I didn't know yesterday:

1. Roughly 20% of the population of the city of Prato in Tuscany is of Chinese origin. Overall, they are the fourth largest foreign resident population in Italy according to official figures.
2. The Chinese population of Italy is almost entirely drawn from the area of Wenzhou--one of the historic treaty ports--in southern Zhejiang.

Now I'm really really curious to see what happens when the cuisine of Tuscany meets that of Zhejiang. How much longer to I have to wait for someone to open an Italian Chinese restaurant in Chicago?

Comments

[that-dang-otter.livejournal.com]

I've often described my cooking as Chinese-Italian fusion - sort of in jest, but I do make very heavy use of the wok, and more than a few distinctively Asian ingredients.

There are also numerous cookbooks on the Asian market that cover French and Italian cooking, but the pictures come out looking very Chinese or Japanese. Kind of cool, actually, because it's hard to identify just why they look Asian, but they do.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

I dunno...I looked at the menu outside a Chinese restaurant in Bremen and was quite frightened. I suppose the Chinese and the Italians share an affinity for noodles, but beyond that, I'm not sure that any other prospective pairings should be allowed to see the light of day.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

German Chinese food is abomindable, no doubt. (I'm still trying to forget the gray peas in that stir-fry.) But I've got higher hopes for the marriage of two Southerners.

[mistress-elaine.livejournal.com]

Judging from the meals the thousands of Wenzhou immigrants in Holland cook, I'll wager Tuscan-Chinese food is in fact completely Chinese. Of course, Italian food may lend itself more readily to fusion cuisine than Dutch food, but if I know my Wenzhou Chinese (or my Chinese in general), they'll stick to good old Wenzhou food, with nary an influence from their surroundings.

Pity, really. For all I know, Wenzhou-Italian food might be very tasty.

Hang on, though...

[mistress-elaine.livejournal.com]

The above refers to the kind of food the Wenzhou immigrants would cook at home. No doubt the food in so-called Chinese restaurants catering to the non-Chinese locals will be heavily influenced by local cuisine; this seems to happen in Chinese restaurants all over the world. Sadly, the marriage of two good cuisines doesn't always result in gourmet food: I like Belgian food and I love Chinese food, but Belgian Chinese food is quite simply horrible. I have a disturbing feeling the same might be true for Wenzhou-Italian food.

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

A Chinese friend from Indonesia found herself working for the UN for a year in Bari and couldn't stand the city because there was no Asian food available. She and a co-worker would make a provisioning run to Rome once a month to stock up on rice.

[foodpoisoningsf.livejournal.com]

A link might have helped. It's a sad story.