May 18th, 2024.
It’s hard finding local life at 9am in Naples, but maybe It’s too early on a Saturday for Italians. Just as I have that thought, I find a man sweeping the interior plaza of a beautiful old building. And that triggers it, life in the streets. Old nonnas at the doors, “Bongiorno!”
I have an espresso and a ministeriale (dark chocolate medallion with liqueur cream filling) at Scaturchio. Being surrounded by Italian food and Italians, I get so many flashbacks of my time working at an Italian restaurant in Australia.
I had it so good in that restaurant, +39 Pizzeria. After a month of looking for a job when I arrived at Melbourne, I entered +39 and meet Paolo for the first time. Paolo, Italian, was the manager of the restaurant. He took my resume and was kind to me, something that would not always happen while jobs searching.
He saw something in me. Maybe he thought I looked Italian enough to be a waiter at the restaurant. It was clear I did not have any experience after a trial. I believe he saw something in me that reminded him of himself. He took me in his restaurant, with the people that would soon become my Australian family.
Marta, also Italian, was the head waiter in charge of my training. It took me a while to get it, but once I got confidence, I believe I made a pretty good waiter. Organized and enthusiastic, I had patrons asking if I had study waiting professionally.
Most of the staff where Italians, the managers, the head waiters and the chefs. We also had Nepalese and Indian pizza makers, and the waiters could be Italian, Danish, Swedish and now Colombian.
I had it so good at +39, I can now see that, here in Italy. I had contact with great Italian ingredients. Caffè, cheeses, wine, beer. After each shift, we could order anything from the menu, which allowed me to try all the pizzas, pastas, salads and starters. On weekends, sometimes we would have spritz before closing the restaurant. Also, before closing, the chef would make a big pot of food for the staff. We would all sit together, enjoy a great meal, laugh and mock each other. I had it so good at +39.
I ended up working in the restaurant for 1 year, and that job and the people there became one of my favorite work and learning experiences, all because Paolo saw something in me. Thank you for that Paolo.
Waking around the centro storico, I found a little store selling different pasta-making gadgets. I try to say something in Italian, making up some of the words. Doing this, I remember, would aggravate Marta, the head waiter at +39 Pizzeria. Sometimes it would work, but most of the time she would just get angry at me. After a while, when I was not scared of her, I found her getting angry for this amusing.
I ask the man running the gadgets shop “Per cortare la pasta?”. He looked at me with a puzzled face. “Per tagliare la pasta” he finally deciphered what I was trying to say. “Stupido”, I imagined Marta thinking when I tried making up words in Italian.
Walking close to Pizzeria Michelle, I found another pizzeria with beautiful marble interiors. Pizzeria Trianon. I had an espresso at the café next door while the Pizzeria opened. I ordered a margherita, my fourth in Naples, and began comparing it to the others.
Definitely the secret of a great margherita is in the sauce. Here, at Pizzeria Trianon, the sauce has a salty quality to it, without being salty. This is something all the other great margaritas I’ve tried have in common. It’s also not acid at all, something that I find can happen with tomato based sauces. The dough is crispier, and more charred. In terms of texture, compared to Sorbillo’s or Michelle’s, the dough is chewier, with more bite to it. Each bite fells “juicy”, with plenty of sauce in the mouth, but not too much.
It starts raining after I finish my pizza. I don’t have an Umbrella, but as I pass next to Pizzeria Michelle. I see piles of Michelle’s pizza boxes stacked on the sidewalk. Well, don’t mind if I do, I take one of the empty pizza boxes to use as an umbrella. Thank you, Julia Roberts. Only in Naples it’s allowed to use pizza boxes as umbrellas.
