My uncle Johnny-boy. Whose father ( my grandfather) was born in Naples was drafted around 1948 and sent to Italy, part of the post war occupation. We are, as a family harsh critics of restaurant Italian food, he said not only was the food worse than we could make, it was worse than local NYC Italian restaurants.
So your problem with Italian food was the fact that you needed to either find a family to take you in over there and feed you. Or find a little specialty restaurant set up by and for the local mafioso.
Hey, I grew up with goombahs in America.
And understand that American Italian and Italian are not the same and Tuscany aint on the Med, even if Parma is a suburb of Cleveland LOL
What we call Italian food here and what you get from Lugano to Messina are two different things
We inherited Italian family dinner food that has evolved in the land of plenty
I like both
Seafood in Portofino or fried whole sardines in Palermo with dunking bread or Roma thin bubbly pizza or Tuscan meats and veggies
Best Italian food here is probably mamas kitchen as y’all said
I’ve had good Italian in Brooklyn and I used to like Luna when I lived in the city
But I telll ya I’ve had great Italian in The Hill St Louis. Serious Italian enclave
Of course the north end Boston
And New Orleans which once was the largest Sicilian community in America does ok
Creole stuffed eggplant at Mandinas and lots of little Italian joints plus Domenica at the Roosevelt
High end Italian is another topic and is good too but not cheap
Factory Kitchen which serves that Italian in the bums warehouse section of Los Angeles is incredible
I’m eating there next week