Where's the sophistication? It's mostly vegetables.

It´s like saying that the Japanse diet is mostly about rice and ramen.

I find a lot of sophistication in Italian cooking, especially accompanied by a good wine. The problem is that in the US Italian food is mostly some fastfood abomination that is not really what is eaten in Italy.

▲

epolanski 3 days ago | parent [-]

> I find a lot of sophistication in Italian cooking, especially accompanied by a good wine.

You can find sophistication in ramen too. But Italian cuisine revolves mostly around very simple dishes with little preparations (including the most famous pasta or pizza) and in our every day life we eat lots of vegetables, often raw.

Other cuisines in Europe are generally require way more steps/preparations/ingredients.

▲

alkyon 3 days ago | parent [-]

It's easier to prepare ramen than pizza IMO. Even if ingredients are simple, you need a lot of skill to make a good Neapolitan pizza.

Risotto is even harder for various reasons. And what about Sartù di riso?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sart%C3%B9_di_riso

▲

epolanski 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Anything requiring skills may require a lifetime to be perfected, that includes making a burger.

But that doesn't make dishes or a cuisine sophisticated per se.

To me sophistication requires knowledge and mastery even if you need to make a very basic and the result is not good, think of a beef Welligton or roast beef or a soup d'onion.

Those are all much more complex dishes than making a pizza, they require more work, more ingredients, more time, more preparations.

▲

Ekaros 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I would go and say that good ramen have lot more elements than Neapolitan pizza. And those elements are more complex.

	▲	alkyon 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Let us not conflate sophistication with number of ingredientes. One of the most refined food I know is classic French omlette with just two ingredients, eggs and butter. I don't say the Japanese lack refinement (sushi is one example of this), still there are a lot of complex Italian dishes as well.

▲

bee_rider 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I just mean the general vibe, it is a very popular region.