New York City is a mecca for those who want to try out restaurants, and authentic Italian restaurants have been rising in popularity for the last decade or so. But how far can one stretch the definition of "authentic"? Food writer David Farley thought it would be an interesting experiment to take Italian tourists to an Olive Garden. You might be horrified by the ethics of this experiment, but through a friend, Farley managed to recruit an Italian couple who are living in New York temporarily and agreed to be taken to dinner at a surprise location. On the way, Marco and Giovanna speculated about which Italian restaurant they would be visiting.
That’s when I said, “ta dah!” and fanned my arm up at the Olive Garden logo, like I were a model standing next to a car on display at an automobile show. (This location has since closed, leaving the Times Square location the sole Olive Garden in Manhattan.)
Marco covered his face in disbelief. Giovanna said, “I’m not sure we’re going to survive this.”
We were seated in a large booth immediately. Nathan, our waiter, doled out the menus, which were big on photos and little on description.
My Italians scanned the menu. “This might as well be a Chinese menu,” Marco said.
“True,” Giovanna said. “There is nothing remotely similar here to anything you would find in Italy.”
Read the adventure that the evening turned out to be, and more about the difficulty of recreating authentic Italian cuisine in America, at Trip Out. -via Kottke
(Image credit: Andreas Praefcke)