A rant on some Italian restaurants...

[FutureSFFD]

-Too much sauce -Pasta is overcooked -Too much cheese Most Italian places I have eaten are guilty of the top 3 and it's not just the big 2 chains ( Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill).

[phatch]

Those are not particularly Italian cooking restaurants. They are set up and marketed for how mainstream America perceives Italian food and that's how they want it.

I agree it's not authentic and certainly not to every taste. But they're making money hand over fist which is precisely what they set out to do. And they're making a good chunk of people happy while doing it.

Phil

[Goose]

I agree, Phil. There is a huge difference between authentic and "american percieved-ethnic". A perfect example to add to is Mexican food. For most of the country, to get authentic Mexican food is near impossible. What most consider "authentic" is actually Tex-Mex. That, clearly, is not Mexican, but passed off to the masses as Mexican. It is a shame, too, becuase authentic Mexican food is one of the best cuisines in the world, and here in the US (at least most of the country), they try to pass off the cheese-topped, overly sauced, stuffed tortillas topped with sour cream as authentic.