Originally written on Saturday, 30. September 2006.

This is the second instalment in my occasional series of scribbling about food on the hoof. Wherever you go in the world, there is always at least one nice place to eat, one great restaurant that serves excellent food, either local or imported. Great fish dishes, excellent meat courses or wonderful pizza; except of course for Pizza Hut*.

For me, the standard of a country’s, or for that matter a region’s, food is not measured on the best restaurant in town, but the food that you get when you are walking the streets, when you just pop in somewhere for a quick bite, the food you would normally eat from the hand, in the open air. For me, this is the true measure of good food. And it is this concept of good, quick and easy foods that have given us some of the greatest and simplest foods. Think of the French baguette, so shaped because, during the various skirmishes with the English over the years, the French infantry would shove the bread down their boots, for somewhere safe to keep it, hence the length.

The Hamburger, originally written about by Apicius was a Roman creation, known as Isicia omentata, a method of holding a piece of meat without getting it all over your clothes. The pitta bread, useful for holding hot meat [and of course to stop the chilli source running down your shirt front] and of course the Roman pizza, a wonderful square folded pizza, again, excellent for carrying around the busy streets of Rome.

And that little sequitur allows me to segue nicely into my latest culinary ramble. Rome.

Rome itself is a wonderful city, traditionally built on the Seven Hills by the two mythical brothers, Romulus and Remus, who as legend has it, were brought up by wolves. Clearly this would have stood them in good stead when Roma play Fiorentina in Seria A. Rome has a huge range of excellent eateries, catering for all wallets, even for those as thrifty as the offspring between a Glaswegian and a Yorkshireman.

As you would expect, the wine is always very good and very cheap, the al fresco eating making it slide down the gullet just that little bit more easily. Food and wine always tastes better out doors, sitting in a little Van Gogh bistro watching the world go by.

Still, I digress. But what of food on the hoof ? Well, as you may expect, there is simply no shortage of outlets to grab a quick bite. Sadly, there is also McDonalds, which judging by the number of Americans outside the Parthenon clutching little red boxes, clearly has cornered the market with the ‘well at least you know what you are getting’ gaggle of adventurous tourists.

My apologies to our colonial cousins, but there were a staggering amount of three quarter length chino’s with socks and sandals devouring McRoma’s and hot apple pies. But, back to food. It is probably no surprise that the majority of food on the hoof is bread based. Pizza and sandwiches. Followed by a scoop or two of Panacotta ice cream. Wonderful.

Depending on where you go, the amount of pizza you get for ‘carry out’ does vary from an eighth of a pizza, to a whopping half a pizza. You can buy the whole thing, but the expectation for food on the hoof is that half should really be enough for anyone, and I find it hard to disagree.

The keys to good Italian pizza are, for me, three things.

1. the base. The base should be thin. Wafer thin. Thinner in fact that one of Mr Creosotes wafer thin mints. Thin enough to allow the thing to be folded as you devour the last edges of the lightly floured stone baked crust, which is, incidentally, only a crust because there is no topping on it, rather than it being twice as thick or stuffed with re constituted solidified milk product. And it should be slightly crispy. Not so crispy that is breaks when you pick it up, but not so soft that it is soggy and collapses under its own weight when you pick it up.
2. the toppings. Ideally there should be a maximum of only four things on a pizza. The first being a good rich pommodoro sauce. It was the city of Naples that first added tomato to the bread to create what we now know of as pizza. Not to thick, not so thin that it drips or soaks into the base. Also, it should not go to the very edge, but there should be an inch of so of base left outside the pommodoro to allow your fingers to stay fairly clean. The second is the cheese. Mozzarella. Not Cheddar. Not bright yellow, but a soft creamy white. Not too much that it smothers’ the tomato, but not too little that it melts away when it being cooked.
3. Toppings. I know I’ve mentioned this already, but this is important. Other then the tomato and the cheese, there should be only two more toppings on a pizza. Ideally of course, just one, but two is acceptable. Not three, nor four. Five is right out. Two being the number of the toppings.! And mostly vegetable toppings at that. Artichoke hearts. Olives. Champignon, sometimes roasted first in a little olive oil or even a little truffle oil. Asparagus. All fantastic. And all fresh. This is the last secret to a great pizza. Fresh ingredients. Nothing from a tin. Button mushrooms from a tin, soaked in brine. No, you may find this in the back streets of Bermondsey, but not in Rome.

And that is all you need, and 95% of the time, that is all you find in Rome. Certainly as far as the pizza are concerned anyway.! The Roman pizza are of course a little different, being a flat folded pizza served as a square pocket. Still a simple scoff, fresh ingredients and, like most of the eateries, sold direct from the over, simply because they can’t make them fast enough and they are sold sometimes before they have been made.!

Incidentally, the city of Naples is trying to re assert what a Margherita should really be. Base, Pommodoro, Mozzarella and basil. Nothing else. Not a pepperoni sausage in sight. And why ? Red white and green. Colours of the national flag. Oh and named after Queen Margherita.

But what else of Roman food on the hoof ? Well, the sandwiches are wonderful. For £1.50 [or €2.50] you can have a ciabata sandwich stuffed with Mozzarella, tomato and fresh lettuce. Again, plain simple ingredients, freshly made and delicious. Follow that with a scoop or two of ice cream and you have a meal fit for a Roman Emperor, or two million hungry tourist.

And where can you buy this wonderful food ? Well, just about anywhere in Rome. From a portable trolley’s, a window in a wall with a long queue next to it or most café’s through the day. All wrapped up in a paper napkin, apart from the ice cream of course which would leak through the folds. And if you find yourself outside the Coliseum, what better backdrop is there to have some good food on the hoof.

So, after all this eulogising, are there any down sides to Roman food on the hoof. Well, from the vegetarian point of view, no not really, as long as you accept the fact that the mozzarella is unlikely to be free from rennet. The other downside is variety. If you don’t like pizza or don’t fancy a sandwich, there is very little else.

You could of course have a kebab from the growing number of Turkish outlets that are growing all round Europe, if mechanically recovered meat by-product reheated twice daily for two weeks, twizzeled on a metal skewer all in the shape of an elephants foot,in a bun, is what you fancy. Otherwise, you are then pretty much beholden to sitting in a little pavement café or restaurant perusing the often very good menu, which will also have a huge range of pizza, as well as pasta and lots of fish dishes.

Not a bad Hobson’s really when you think about it!

So, over all, great food, a great location, cheap and plentiful. A great city for food on the hoof.

             out of 10 food on the hoof rating.

*Pizza Hut pizza are about as far away from good pizza as Toulouse Lautrec was as likely to move away from Montmartre’s when he was hitting the bars with Monet and Van Gogh. A half inch deep fluffy base with a crust stuffed with runny cheese with more cheese piled on top. Mmmmmmm, delicious.