Nowadays every traveler wants to "live as a local". In my opinion, at the very end, because of their choices that are strongly influenced by the hype that is created by strong marketing campaigns, they end up knowing very little of the place they visit, especially in a city like Rome.
Staying in some specific areas of the historical center means not seeing some of those things that made Rome what it is and not really knowing a key element of the local culture, that is the cuisine.
In every city of the world, eating in the center means having "touristic food" or spending a lot of money.
As we wrote here, Rome has a long tradition for the street food. Even if pizza is the most common stree food, in Rome there is only one king
SUPPLI' - THE KING OF THE ROMAN STREET FOOD
What is supplì? They are balls of rice cooked in tomato sauce, filled with a small piece of mozzarella chees and then deep fried in olive oil. Here it is possible to find a possible recipe.I would recommend a small variation, as taken by an Italian recipe. After cooking the rice and before it cools down, add some butter and beaten eggs; the rice will stick together even better.
The nice thing of home made supplì is that one can prepare 20, 30, 40 of them in the same time, more or less, that is required to prepare few ot them. Then, they can be frozen and cooked according to the needs in few minutes. So they can be a great resource for those having young kids coming back home very hungry.
And now, where to eat the best supplì in Rome. Next map shows one the latest recommendations found on the web. As it happens for all those recommendations, it is not the Truth and the ranking might change every day.
Anyhow most of the best places are out of the center. And that is the same for any type of food you are looking for in Rome
By the way, supplì is my favourite street food and my son, that is a professional cook, prepares some of the best home made ones. But he is going to take a long vacation starting next week.
Vincenzo
