What is your typical day at the seaside?
In my childhood memories, during our days of vacation at the seaside we usually woke up calmly, we had a big breakfast, and then we went to the beach where we stayed until the late afternoon. That means that we had lunch under the sun umbrella with the food that my mother prepared and put in the fantastic thermal bag (which is still hidden in a dark corner of our cellar I think).
It was nice for us little girls because it was like to have picnic every day! The thermal bag always contained something different and tasty, and when noon approached we began to peek into it trying to to understand what mom prepared.
Here are 5 typical Italian dishes that we could find in the bag and that you can add in your own when you picnic on the beach:
1. Rice salad
The cold rice salad is a very typical Summer dish, you can often find it on our table because it is simple to prepare and suitable for everyone because the ingredients can vary depending on the preference. For example you can prepare a vegetarian rice salad, as well as a seafood rice salad (with shrimps, squids, octopus, clams…).
But the best in my opinion is the classic one with inside … a little bit of everything! Tuna, pickles, small pieces of cheese and ham, olives, and so on and so forth.
2. Caprese
For Italian people mozzarella, tomatoes and basil are a tradition as well as pure taste!
With mozzarella and tomato you can prepare a lot of dishes: pizza, pasta sauce, bruschetta…
But the easiest thing you can prepare is the caprese: just cut the tomatoes into slices, alternate them with slices of mozzarella and a bit of basil, a little olive oil, insert them in an airtight plastic container… Et voila, you have a fast healthy food ready to be tasted on the beach!
3. Stuffed panino
On the beach it is also good to have lunch with a sandwich stuffed with some tasty ingredient, the important thing is that the bread is daily fresh. So, before going to the beach, you can stop at the bakery and buy some freshly baked panini, still warm and with their heady scent.
Then you can stop at the grocery store and buy some thiny slices of prosciutto cotto, prosciutto crudo (Parma or San Daniele), speck, mortadella… There’s something for everyone! And at lunch time you “build” your own favorite panino under the sun umbrella!
4. Fruit salad (and fruits in general)
The fruit with the heat does well because it is fresh and helps to replenish fluids.
The evening before your day on the beach you can chop some different fruits (your favorites) and dress them with sugar and lemon: the next day at the beach it will be a pleasure to eat both after lunch or in the afternoon.
Alternatively, if you have no desire or time to prepare a simple fruit salad also fresh fruits are good: peaches and apricots were the ones that we always had under our sun umbrella!
5. Bread and chocolate
Bread and chocolate is a typical snack during your afternoon at the beach, and a food loved by every child.
If a child knows that in the infamous thermal bag there are also sandwiches with chocolate… Well he might decide that any other food that you want him to eat is not appreciated. For a child it could be 10 am, noon or 2 pm and it is always time for a sandwich with chocolate (and it will also be a source of contention with the brothers, I can assure you!)
What is your favorite beach food? Can you mention others? I am waiting for your comments! 🙂
