L'Uovo Sbattuto

When I was in Italy, the kids frequently ate this dish called "l'uovo sbattuto," which literally means "beaten egg." Basically, you take an egg yolk, add a bunch of sugar, and beat it until it becomes super-duper fluffy. The Armani-Dallabetta family had a little hand-cranked egg beater particularly for this purpose: the beaters were in the red top of this little plastic jar… you'd turn the handle vigorously for about ten minutes, until the consistency changed from grainy to creamy. Eccolo: l'uovo sbattuto. The kids would just eat it with a spoon--evidently, some Italian kids put it on toast, but the family I lived with didn't.

It's weird, though, culturally, because I can't imagine my parents ever condoning this--let alone considering it "healthy" for kids. I mean, it's a raw egg yolk (with all the fat, cholesterol, and only a little bit of the protein...not to mention our cultural phobia of salmonella poisoning) and a shit ton of sugar (seriously! so much sugar!). But the kids loved it.

And honestly I didn't see very many fat people in Italy at all; how is weight determined, culturally? You'd think that a country full of people that grew up eating this stuff would be enormous.