Your country's candy!

[Itikar]

I was a little surprised at how bad the candy selection was in Italy. Do Italian adults eat candy? It all seemed to be targeted for children, cheap and colourful stuff like Haribo and not much else.

My Mum likes candies, but she likes them to be packed like children candies.
However I do not know many adult people who like to eat candies.
I think that if you were in a shop you probably ended in the wrong department, where there are only candies addressed to children.

For cookies and chocolate it is all another story:













Oh, and grattachecca/granita:


And icecream:


And this is my favourite with anise flavour:

Usually people seem to think Finns are weird for liking their sweet with a bit of salty, but maybe it's not so strange after all.

I think it is a little bit heretic, in a certain fashion at least. But not more than taking a cappuccino after dinner or lunch.

[OldBoring]

Itikar... you make me miss Italy.
I'll come back in July and August. But then I'm on a diet and won't eat so many sweets.

My favourite Italian candy is Rossana.

[Itikar]

And I did not even put on Nutella, because it was in the first pages.

[OldBoring]

I'll try the brigidini (your last pic) when I go to Tuscany. I think they are not found in the rest of Italy.

[Itikar]

Some weeks ago I found them in a supermarket around here, although generally they are (very) rare.
In Tuscany, or at least in Versilia, they are usually sold at market stalls.

By the way this is Mantua's cake: sbrisolona


And I could not forget the torrone:

(there are several versions across the peninsula)

Anyway do not despair there is only just a month before July.

[Lur]

I love turrón, we have versions of that too

[mōdgethanc]

I think that turrón/torrone stuff is called nougat in English. Whatever it is, it's damn tasty. It's also very much like halva/halwa.

I think it is a little bit heretic, in a certain fashion at least. But not more than taking a cappuccino after dinner or lunch.

Why? I thought Italians drank espresso in the morning and coffee drinks with milk were for lunch and afterward.

Here it's not uncommon to drink coffee after dinner when eating in a restaurant or entertaining guests at home. It wouldn't be cappuccino though but just drip coffee with milk and/or sugar, or maybe a shot of some kind of liqueur. It goes well with desserts.

[Itikar]

We drink espresso anytime be it morning, afternoon, lunch, dinner or after-dinner.
With sugar, cream, milk, chocolate, etc. Many also add liqueur in it as well, it is called "caffè corretto".

On the other hand, usually, cappuccino is taken in the morning, maybe because it has milk and we usually drink milk in the morning and rarely later.
Look: http://it.answers.yahoo.com/question/in ... 342AALvLs4
Some still perceive taking cappuccino in the afternoon as something only a foreigner/tourist could do, but luckily this taboo is disappearing as you can read on that page.
Personally I do not mind about it at all.

Concerning the torrone/turrón, yeah, in English it is nougat, but just because English vocabulary is so frenchy.
And I like it quite a lot too. Here we usually eat it around Christmas, but you can find it during any time of the year. However I tend to favour the Sicilian variant in comparison to the Lombard one, because the latter is very hard for teeth, while the former is softer.

[OldBoring]

For me, having cappuccino any time of the day is fine, also with a croissant or a sandwich.
But after lunch or dinner... nope.
Well, I don't count as I rarely drink coffee and cappuccino and am not a real Italian.

[Itikar]

For me, having cappuccino any time of the day is fine, also with a croissant or a sandwich.

Especially with a croissant!

Well, I don't count as I rarely drink coffee and cappuccino and am not a real Italian.

I almost never drink coffee and when I do I take barley coffee. So what am I then?

[OldBoring]

Well, I have an excuse if I don't conform to the Italian stereotype.
You don't.

Am I heretic if I prefer chocolate torrone, instead of the traditional one?

[Varislintu]

In Finland we love candy, and have lots of types of candy aimed at all ages, not just kids. A candy section in a supermarket often looks something like this:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bKQ1RZKrCkk/T ... MG7916.JPG

I.e. it's rather well stocked.

But try and find some marzipan (my favourite). Very hard.

[Lur]

Ah, mazapán, I absolutely love that. I didn't know the name in English.

[Halfdan]

Ah, mazapán, I absolutely love that. I didn't know the name in English.

Marzipan.

[Johanna]

In Finland we love candy, and have lots of types of candy aimed at all ages, not just kids. A candy section in a supermarket often looks something like this:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bKQ1RZKrCkk/T ... MG7916.JPG

I.e. it's rather well stocked.

But try and find some marzipan (my favourite). Very hard.

That could just as well have been a supermarket in Sweden... Except that ours usually do have marzipan

[Varislintu]

That could just as well have been a supermarket in Sweden... Except that ours usually do have marzipan

Yeah, you Swedes seem to like candy in a very similar way as well. Please export the marzipan culture here too, though.

[Johanna]

That could just as well have been a supermarket in Sweden... Except that ours usually do have marzipan

Yeah, you Swedes seem to like candy in a very similar way as well. Please export the marzipan culture here too, though.

Didn't you talk about moving here for a short time?

Then bring marzipan with you when you move back!

[mōdgethanc]

We drink espresso anytime be it morning, afternoon, lunch, dinner or after-dinner.
With sugar, cream, milk, chocolate, etc. Many also add liqueur in it as well, it is called "caffè corretto".

Liqueur? In the morning?

I think here there is a belief that because espresso is so strong it must also be high in caffeine and so people see it as a morning drink and avoid it after dinner. That's untrue, though; it has about as much caffeine as any other coffee drink.

On the other hand, usually, cappuccino is taken in the morning, maybe because it has milk and we usually drink milk in the morning and rarely later.

Some still perceive taking cappuccino in the afternoon as something only a foreigner/tourist could do, but luckily this taboo is disappearing as you can read on that page.
Personally I do not mind about it at all.

It seems a bit like having scrambled eggs and bacon for dinner here. It's a breakfast dish, but it's not unheard of for people to eat it that late.

[Itikar]

Liqueur? In the morning?

Ok, I concede, in the morning there are not so many.

It seems a bit like having scrambled eggs and bacon for dinner here. It's a breakfast dish, but it's not unheard of for people to eat it that late.

I think I would not be able to survive if I ate bacon and scrambled eggs for dinner.
I had a very bad experience with bacon-like food in the evening... *shudder*

I just remembered about an Italian milk candy which is popular here:

[OldBoring]

Galatine

Love them.