It didn’t take my new-found sister Kathy too long to figure out that I have a passion for food and unquenchable curiosity on all peculiar/interesting/strange food. Thanks to her introduction, I now am a newsletter subscriber of Gastro Obscura.

One day, I was reading about garum, an ancient recipe for fermented fish sauce that became popular with the Romans. As I wondered how we could’ve missed the former Roman garum factory in central Lisbon in Portugal, my mind was already flying to a fishing town of Cetara on the Amalfi Coast of Italy, a town that’s famous for its Colatura di Alici di Cetara, an anchovy fish sauce that’s believed to be the noble descendant of the Roman garum.

The most memorable of the visit came down to the men of the town. Yes, the elderly men that you see frequently lounging in piazzas of Italy, especially around sunset time.

In all fairness, the food there was extremely delizioso. Nothing beats freshly caught seafood that’s unloaded off the port just minutes earlier, even without the umami imparted from the well-known fish sauce.

It’s not that the children frolicking on the beach were not genuinely cute. If you know me, you know I love it when children are like children (see my posts “Children are Shed Special Light” and “Boys will be Boys…”).

A huge roaring commotion broke out when we were enjoying the view of the dog, the kids and the beach. Our first instinct took our eyes away and redirected to a group of above-mentioned men standing up to leave a table piled with cards on the top. It seemed that there was a disagreement and the only way to protest is to leave the game.

We then refocused and remembered why we were there. We strolled around the town, passed by the vibrant fruits and vegetables displayed on the stands of the little mercato, marveled at the architecture perched on the cliff of the mountain, and paused to give credits to the jubilant girls that occasionally ran across my view finder.

When we made our rounds, the same group of men were sitting by the same table, playing cards, as if nothing ever happened earlier. At that point, I learned something from these Italian men. Life is a serious business. And yet, life’s too short to be serious for too long. :D

Italian men belong to a league of their own. I am pretty confident that this will not be the last time I write about them.