Not all carbohydrates are bad! Five Italian expressions that will amaze your friends
In Italian culture many are the idiomatic expressions related to food. In this blog I will give you some insights about carbohytratic way of saying :) A special thanks to my friend and writer Giorgio Capello who has been challenging me. Hope you enjoy, and please let me know if you find others!
1. Essere magro come un grissino!
For Italian grannies your health is really important, that's why they cook delicious food for you and if they think you are too skinny they will say "sei magro/a come un grissino!"
To be as skinny as a bread-stick means to be almost excessivelly skinny, "pelle e ossa", skin and bones.
2. Chi ha i denti non ha il pane e chi ha il pane non ha i denti.
This is an old adagio which states: who has bread does not have teeth, and who has teeth does not have bread. The meaning it's pretty clear: the world is full of injustices. This proverb, even if it portrays an agrarian society, is still applied in a modern context, for example when you have a brilliant idea but you don't have the money, or the business skills, to realize it.
3. Avere le mani di pasta frolla.
This is one of my favorites! Pasta frolla is a kind of dough (shortcrust pastry) that is made of butter, eggs, sugar, and flower. It is used to bake mainly crostate, like kinds of pies. The butter makes it really crumbly, "sbricioloso", and if you don't handle it carefully it will crumble apart. People who have their hands made of pasta frolla usually don't have strength or always let objects fall from their hands. How many times I've heard my mum telling me "Vanessa, hai le mani di pasta frolla!" when I dropped vases, jars, and glasses.... Other variants of this expressions are "mani di burro" (hands of butter) and "mani di ricotta" (hands of ricotta cheese).
4. Non tutte le ciambelle escono col buco
Italian donuts are a little different than American ones, but with their U.S. relatives share the same quality: they don't always come out with a hole! Things don't always go as planned.
5. Avere le many in pasta
To have your hands in dough means to be involved in some kinds of business or political activity. It indicates a relation to power where, if you have your hands in the dough, you are holding it.