Thursday, April 8, 2010

"We delivery"

The other day I was feeling immensely lazy and had no desire to cook, nor did I have any desire to eat any of the limited delivery options (pizza, pizza, and more pizza) available in Rome, so I started thinking: Why hasn't delivery become common in Rome? To be honest, even take-out isn't that easy since many restaurants don't have the proper containers for transporting food. I vividly recall a disastrous experience with Chinese take-out: I learned soy sauce stains do not wash out easily.
I can understand if we were in the 1960s, when most people ate home-cooked meals with their families so the idea of take-out or delivery was outrageous, but nowadays Italians (and non-Italians who live here) eat all kinds of things, including pre-prepared foods, frozen meals, etc. So why hasn't delivery caught on? I mean, we even have scooters here so it's not about the actual transportation (those poor NYC delivery guys have to use bicycles). Why is it that they only deliver pizza (and shitty pizza, to boot)? Why haven't restaurants realized the fortune they could make by delivering? I cannot, for the life of me, understand why!

6 comments:

Crystal said...

In a way I think it's good...because delivery often goes hand in hand with the whole idea of fast food and thankfully Italy is fairly resistant to that.

That said, I'm surprised that there isn't Chinese delivery at least? I think 75% of all Chinese food eaten in the US is definitely delivery! It's our go-to when we come home late or it's too hot to cook!

Romerican said...

I don't really think take-out/delivery is synonymous with junk food or fast food. In the US you can take out or get delivery from just about ANY restaurant, healthy or not. It's simply a very convenient option if you don't want to go out to eat, an option which is not easy to find here.

Kataroma said...

Yeah it amazes me too. Maybe we should start a delivery service and make oodles of euros.

I don't think delivery food has to be unhealthy. I used to often get delivery sushi when I lived in NY. You could get pretty much any cuisine delivered.

Now that I'm the mother of a toddler I'd really appreciate delivery for those times when you don't want to drag the toddler out late to a restaurant but you're sick of cooking.

Anonymous said...

It does exist, it's just not as part of the culture. A quick google search turned up these alternatives to delivery pizza:

www.sushiroma.org/Consegna_a_domicilio/Consegna_a_domicilio.html

www.darumasushi.com/

www.chinatime.com

www.madamebaguette.com/

-Alex

Romerican said...

Yeah, I actually knew of a few of the places you listed (thanks BTW) but their food pretty much sucks as is true of most of delivery options available here, so I'd rather write a whiny blog post than order from them :)

Anonymous said...

I ate at Tien Tsin (sp?) restaurant after we burnt out after 10 days of Italian food on vacation, and it was good, if not the best Chinese food, and inexpensive.

Thai style chicken is not curried chicken though I wanted to tell them....

anyway, there was an Italian woman who looked like she picked up take out...