AUDREY BURKE!!!!!
Audrey Burke was the first to answer all the quiz questions so she wins the prize of a free food tour in Rome. See her answers in the comment section on the quiz Dishing up Food Secrets in Rome.
Below are my slightly more elaborated answers with some photos for those who asked.
Part I – Food Questions
1. What did women in the poor Testaccio section of Rome do when their husbands who worked in the massive local slaughterhouse brought back home the quinto quarto (the fifth/fourth) including the brains, intestines and tails of animals?
Answer: The women of Testaccio invented what have now become famous dishes, considered delicacies using these parts. A few of these dishes are:
Pajata – made from intestines, Trippa—made from the stomach, Coda – made from the tail.
2. What is the difference between ice cream and gelato?
Answer:
According to Kenny, the difference is in the percentage of cream and milk. Ice cream uses close to three times the quantity of cream as gelato. The percent of butter fat in ice cream is higher due to the increased amount of cream. Ice cream has more air in it than gelato, the percentage of air is due to the way it is mixed- gelato is slowly churned and ice cream is whipped. And the temperature in which it is sold at- ice cream is sold at a colder temperature and cream freezes at a warmer temperature than milk does.
3. What is the difference between a French Croissant and an Italian Cornetto? (Hint: the answer is one word)
Answer: Butter. French Croissants have a lot more butter than Italian Cornetti.
4. What is Mozzarella di Bufala and how is it different from regular Mozzarella?
Answer:
The difference is the milk which come from Water buffaloes. Bufala milk is richer due to its higher fat and protein content. Water Buffaloes spend most of their time lolling around in the mud.
Part II – General Questions
5. What is the Italian nickname for the ubiquitous running water fountains in Rome?
Answer:
Nasone, which means “big nose” in Italian.
6. What clever technique did the AS Roma Soccer (football) team use to maintain its winning streak of 103 victories and only 26 losses in 161 games?
Answer:
With careful mowing, La Roma would change the dimensions of their grass field according to the style of play used by their opponents. For example against a fast team they would have made the field shorter and left the grass longer to neutralize the other team’s speed advantage.
- Sign outside the Testaccio AS Roma Club. Photo by Kenny Dunn
7. What did the ancient Romans do with their amphora that held Olive Oil once they were done with them?
Answer:
The “dump site” known as Monte dei Cocci or Monte Testaccio was used to throw away the amphora that carried the olive oil because the residue of the olive oil would slowly eat away at the natural terra cotta rendering the containers useless. Those that did not contain olive oil and instead carried wine or grains were in fact recycled, but the olive oil containers could not be.
8. Which British Romantic poet had such low self-esteem that he didn’t even want his name on his tombstone at the cemetery where he is buried in Rome?
Answer:
John Keats
Wow! Grazie mille! I haven’t been to Rome since I was in college, and I really just hit the big sites the first time around. I recently moved to Bologna and have been eating lots of good tagliatelle and tortellini. As I’m hearing, travelling to a different region in Italy brings with it a whole new list of regional specialities. I’m stoked to return to Rome and get the inside scoop on what and where to eat.
You are right about that Audrey, one really needs to go down to Sicily and eat pasta alla norma and canoli, and go to Naples for pizza and Mozzarella di Bufala, and go to Tuscany for a Florentine steak and some Brunello di Montepulciano, and I could go on and on and on. I guess I will have to visit you in Bologna and try the tagliatelle and tortellini. Yum, Yum, yum.
Now all I need is a dinner party to shine my new “knowledge” about! Very interesting!
Glad you enjoyed it and you must come back to Rome and try out all the foods.
fascinating… congratulations to the winner.
Trisha : I know you like white wine but the Brunello comes from Montalcino and not
Montepulciano (that anyhow has a great red wine too) !
You have to go back to Tuscany and do your homework again .
In any case congratulations for your tour,
Dario
Ah, Dario — this makes me laugh. You caught me. Yes, you are right, I am not much of an expert on red wine an I must go back to Tuscany and do my homework properly! Thank you for correcting me. I was actually hoping that you might take the food quiz because I imagine you must have known the answers. I am now taking a break from food and using some of my vacation time to study up on some Roman women that I want to write about for my blog, Beatrice Cenci and Artemisia Gentileschi. Both have fascinating life stories tied to the city of Rome.
Congratulations, Audrey on a game well played and Trisha on a very cool idea! This one had me pea green with envy as I am here in Los Angeles, and could thus could not avail myself (should I have been fortunate enough to win) of Tour Guide Kenny’s services. Well, not without equipping him with a Mobile Kenny Cam for a virtual tour… although the idea did cross my mind. This one was fun!
Thanks Adri — I would have liked to have offered a free flight as well for the winner, but being a poor, humble blogger I just could not do that. Glad that you enjoyed it though.