Pecorino, pepper and fried things, done without shortcuts
How this city's signature food scores on the six taste axes the quiz uses. A match means the food here will feel familiar to you.
Rome eats on pasta, cured pork and sheep's cheese, with frying treated as a fine art. A taste test here is two or three pasta shapes, a warm rice ball, a slice of tray pizza and a gelato on the walk home. The cooking is plain, so every detail shows.
Pasta is tossed with sheep's cheese and a great deal of cracked black pepper until starch and cheese turn glossy. There is no cream involved, so the sauce depends entirely on technique and heat.
What to judge: Sauce creaminess, pepper punch, cheese salt, pasta bite
Where to find it: a trattoria table
Cured pork cheek renders until the fat turns glassy, then egg, cheese and pepper are folded through hot pasta off the flame. Done well it is silky rather than scrambled, with a deep savoury edge.
What to judge: Creaminess, pork crispness, pepper, serving temperature
Where to find it: a packed lunch trattoria
A ball of rice is filled with meat sauce and mozzarella, crumbed and fried until the coating shatters. Pull it open and the cheese stretches in a long molten thread.
What to judge: Crust, rice texture, filling richness, cheese pull
Where to find it: a fried-food counter
Rectangular slabs bake in long trays, are cut with scissors and sold by weight. The base is airy and crisp underneath, so the toppings stay light: potato, courgette flowers, or tomato and mozzarella.
What to judge: Base crunch, airiness, topping balance, temperature
Where to find it: a takeaway pizza counter
Whole artichokes are pressed open, fried in olive oil and finished with salt. The outer leaves turn brittle and nutty while the heart stays tender and sweet.
What to judge: Leaf crispness, heart tenderness, oiliness, salt
Where to find it: a small osteria
Dense scoops are churned slowly and kept slightly warmer than ice cream, so the flavour arrives at once. Take two kinds in one cup and judge texture before sweetness.
What to judge: Density, melt, flavour intensity, sweetness
Where to find it: a gelato counter on a back street
About $35–60 for six tastes
Lunch for pasta and frying, evening for a slow walk with gelato
Order two pasta courses instead of one, and eat the fried bites standing at the counter while they are hot.
Start with the lighter dishes and move towards the rich ones, which is roughly the order these 6 foods are listed in. Serving sizes are the real constraint: ask for one portion between two people at the heavier stops, and you will still want the last one.
Budget for the day with the range below, and keep a little back for the stop you will inevitably add. Most of the money goes on the savory stops; the sweet finish costs the least.
Timing matters more than most people expect. The best window is listed below: kitchens run at their best before the crowd arrives, and the dishes that need a queue are worth it mainly when the queue is short.
Score each dish out of ten on flavor, texture, value and whether you would order it again. Write the note before the next plate lands, because after two more stops every dish starts to sound the same.
Rate every dish out of ten on four criteria and watch the ranking build itself.
Half a day for all 6 stops at a walking pace, or a full day if you sit down at each one and let the food settle.
No. Two or three stops a day for two days is easier on the appetite and gives you better notes.
The planner rebuilds the route around a vegetarian, vegan, halal or gluten-free diet, and the scorecard works for whatever you taste.
With the first dish on the list at the time of day given further up the page. From there the route runs light to heavy so the last stop still tastes like something.
Yes, and the dish list doubles as a shot order. A custom plan adds hooks, a shot list, a caption and hashtags for the city you name.
No. They are the widely documented signatures, which is what makes them comparable. The planner will build a route around street food or sweets instead if that is what you want.