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

[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.