Imagery
New York, 2014
The next day we headed south to Morandi’s for lunch, which we had at a table outside the restaurant. I’ve also been self-conscious about taking photos of food (not that it stops me from doing it, of course; I just feel self-conscious as I do it). But I wanted—no, I think I needed—to take a photo of this carbonara. I’ve ordered carbonara numerous times in Korea, and not once have I been satisfied. Whenever I hear about a “really nice Italian place,” I go and order the carbonara (it’s sort of my canary in the coal mine). What I invariably get is some cream-based monstrosity.
I’m kind of tired of harping on about this, so I will say this only once: carbonara is not a cream-based sauce. The key ingredients in a carbonara are some pork product (pancetta, ideally, but I’m not a stickler on this and will gladly take “ordinary” bacon instead), eggs, black pepper, and a hard cheese (like Parmigiano-Reggiano). At no point should cream enter the picture. I realize that I’m being pedantic here, and I may not get too much sympathy from an American audience (for crying out loud, I’ve seen peas in American carbonara), but when it comes to carbonara I’m a purist.
Anyway, what you see here is what I would consider a “pure” carbonara. I will admit that I probably would have used less fat had I made it myself, but it was otherwise very good.