I used the website for Il Sanpietrino restaurant to try to book a reservation in the area called the Ghetto since historically it was a Jewish ghetto. The area has a lot of restaurants serving Roman Jewish dishes, specifically, I wanted to try carcofi alla giudea, a flattened deep fried artichoke. This place was recommended by Mario Batali a few years ago. Despite emailing the restaurant, they never replied. Nevertheless, we set out hoping they’d have my reservation. It was raining and the streets in the area are very narrow; combined with the dark, we had to back track to find the right address. When we got there, the restaurant door was boarded up.

Instead, we went to a nearby open restaurant also serving Roman Jewish dishes and ordered carcofi alla giudea.

It was so good. The leaves are like potato chips and the choke ends up just like we prepare it, all soft and yummy. Both Allie and I thought we could have stopped after that; but we had ordered secondi and contorni. I had beef with green pepper and roasted potato; Allie had breaded Milanese steak, which seemed to be chicken, and roasted vegetables.

Neither of us could finish. No gelato for me on Monday.