One of our assignments this semester was to eat at an ethnic restaurant. Not only would it need to serve ethnic food, but it would need to be part of an immigrant community. I had no idea where to begin searching for a restaurant like this and was worried I would end up at a touristy ethnic restaurant. When we were given a list of recommended Peruvian restaurants I was relieved because I knew I couldn’t go wrong picking one of those, and once I looked up Peruvian dishes I was excited to try it and have a change in my typical Italian diet.

We chose to go to La Cucina de Mama. Admittedly, we chose it because the tram got us fairly close and seemed like an easy one to get to. I’m very happy that we did choose this one though because I had a great experience! Since we had to take the tram to get there it was obvious that the restaurant would be well outside of the city center. This is the furthest I have ventured from the city center in Florence. It was such a change to be walking through these quiet streets and not having to push through crowds of tourist walking down the old cobblestone streets.

The restaurant itself was also very different from typical ones we have seen in Florence. The brown wood walls and ceilings were very different from the typical brick and stone in more Italian-style restaurants. They also had Peruvian decor throughout the place including paintings of Machu Picchu and Peru, and many depictions of llamas (as seen in the photo on the left)! I The combination of the interior and the (presumably) Peruvian music playing transported us out of Italy for a moment. We were immediately greeted by the friendly staff who were more than helpful throughout the night. I noticed a few families and thought it seemed like a more friendly family restaurant compared to some other crowded, noisier restaurants filled with large groups and couples that I’ve been to in Florence. The menu was smaller and had a combination of Italian and Peruvian dishes. I played it safe and settled on a lemon chicken and rice dish which was delicious! I do wish I would have branched out and gotten a Peruvian dish that I was less familiar with because my roommate got the aeroporto – a dish that I avoided because I couldn’t tell how it would turn out but the bite I tried was incredible.

My experience at La Cucina de Mama was fairly different from most of my dining experiences in Florence, but in a good way. It was a nice change in location and cuisine, and gave us a bit of an adventure to find it. The food and atmosphere were great, and I’m very happy we were assigned this as homework because I wouldn’t have had this experience otherwise!