Surprise with the traditional way of eating pasta

You are accustomed to eating pasta with a fork, but the people of Naples - a place with a long tradition of pasta production have a unique style that is far from what you can imagine.

Spaghetti has long been a familiar dish not only for indigenous people but also for many people around the world.

However, surely many people still do not know the heroic history of this dish as well as how to eat Italian noodles in accordance with traditional standards.

The style of enjoying traditional pasta is like a very stimulating entertainment

If you have a chance to go back to the history of the 19th century, whenever you leave the street in Naples, you will feel the richness of the food here, especially the pasta.

On the street, the stalls sent people to draw attention to the guests, while the chef would dip the bundles of long Italian noodles into the boiling pot of water.

Two men hold a plate of pasta next to a street stall.

Italian pasta will be served for customers in need. After being served, these people - nicknamed "Pasta eaters" in Naples - will use their hands to pick up large pieces of noodles and put them in their mouths.

Few people know, since the 17th and 18th centuries - "Pasta" - a street food - has been used as a word for all types of noodles. And like any street food, Pasta cannot be eaten with a fork like it does now, but with bare hands.

A Pasta restaurant on the street in Naples, Italy.

This custom is one of the things that attracts tourists to Naples. Images of pasta eaters are stored in travel guides, painted on pictures and then taken and recorded in movies or postcards.

Some pasta sellers even guide travelers to try this style.

Holding a handful of pasta into your mouth with just one bite like a sport, or a culinary challenge.

In the book published in 1832, Andrea de Jorio - an anthropological research clergyman presented a "Napoli-style" way of eating pasta - that is "to be swallowed down perfectly once in a single time." .

De Jorio later explained that: "If you want to complete this challenge, the noodles from your hand must be connected to your throat without being bitten off anywhere" . And obviously, diners feel this is a very stimulating entertainment.

Spaghetti eaters, pictured by Giorgio Sommer in 1873.

Many tourists consider this type of food as an interesting performance. Some even threw a few coins for lazzaroni - the poor man on the road to admire a screen of devouring artful Italian noodles.

During a drive through the market in Naples, John Lawson Stoddard - an American tourist bought 20 plates full of pasta just to see others eat.

"That moment is when a man holds a plate of pasta in his hand, a dozen others jump in to pick up the smoke and smoke and swallow the mixture to his throat. The eagerness for this popular dish is demonstrate the hunger of the poor here. "

As Stoddard has realized, pasta is not only a custom of the Naples people, but also a thing that nourishes the poor.

History of pasta

The pasta was first brought to Sicily by Arab merchants around the 12th century. It was not until 300 years later that this dish came to the people of Naples.

In the middle of the 14th century, Italians knew how to use a fork to eat pasta. For centuries, only rich people have been able to eat pasta on special occasions. As for poor farmers, this dish is a rare privilege that can only be tasted once in a lifetime. All changed when in the 17th century, pasta became a street food.

Two children devouring pasta dishes were taken in 1900.

In the 17th century, prices of meat and vegetables suddenly increased while bread and pasta dropped constantly. At that time, people had new technologies in kneading and pressing wheat that made pasta production easier than ever.

Napoli with excellent ingredients and a suitable marine climate for drying noodles has become the center of processing and enjoying pasta.

Poor Napoli before the diet with only cabbage and meat is now completely enchanted with pasta, which can fill an empty stomach and is high in calories. The Napoli are then nicknamed "pasta eaters" , nicknamed only for Sicily people ever.

When the great poet Goethe visited Napoli in 1787, he found that instant pasta could be bought anywhere at a very cheap price. These shops have quadrupled in the 18th century, appearing everywhere on the street and in the market.

Fresh pasta, made from hard wheat, is usually dried in the sun and cool air in the coast, sprawled on drying shelves near the stalls.

Spaghetti is boiled in a large pot made of charcoal. Noodles are often added with salt and lard. Also hard cheeses are the only spice before people add tomato sauce to pasta in the 19th century.

Pasta makers, photographed by Giorgio Sommer.

While most pastas in Naples are famous for being the best in Italy, but things sold to the poor are not so.

A majority of people who eat pasta can only buy a low quality, full of dirt and a sour taste. Stoddard describes "dirty men hanging strips of flour on the drying rack between the dirt, rubbish and the ruin of the Naples street".

Stoddard mentioned in his book that one of his friends "was so sick that he almost vomited out the pasta he ate the night before, and since then never touched that dish anymore".

In the 20th century, the dominance of Napoli's pasta manufacturing industry has gradually weakened. In an effort to turn Italy into a self-sufficient country, Mussolini has shifted its hard wheat industry from the south to the center and north of the country.

Later, northern factories made pasta and dried pasta with electric ovens instead of sunlight. Spaghetti then also changes from street food to a dish for families, where people eat with plates instead of hand-loading.