Genoa Street Food Shops – Italian Riviera

Genoa has abundant historical attractions, but it is also a city which thrives on eating out, and eating well! So, what I suggest is to take a break from sightseeing and experience the Ligurian food!
In fact, if you are searching for an easy and nice place to have lunch or a quick snack, in Genoa and in other little towns all along the Italian Riviera, you’ll find varoius places that offer simple, good and authentic genoese/ligurian dishes.
Among Genoa’s streets you can follow your nose and I’m sure you’ll end up with a great food treat. The caruggi (Genoa’s alleys) and the Sottoripa, abound with great smelling focaccerie or bakeries and other little fast food shops serving vegetable pies, pasta, farinata, fried fish, great caffè and much more.
I always say that a visit to Liguria is not complete without a taste of its traditional cuisine and today, I’d like to give you some useful tips to find your favorite genoese “fast food” shop.
Traditional food shops are:
Focacceria or Bakery – In these food shops, you can try the local speciality, focaccia, preferably hot. It can be stuffed with whatever you like, mushrooms, olives, onions, tomatoes, rosemary and many other things or any combination of them. Focaccerie sell also bread, slices of pizza and focaccia al formaggio di Recco (cheese focaccia). Even if Recco inhabitants will say otherwise, you can find a pretty authentic version of cheese focaccia in Genoa as well.
Friggitorie – fried food shops. There you can have a tasty quick lunch of fried fresh seafood, frittelle and farinata to be eaten at the counter or to take away.
Sciamadde – if you fancy being a real genoese, do not miss the sciammadde shops in Sottoripa (the medieval covered lane in front of the Aquarium). These traditional shops offer hot or cold ligurian specialities to take away. I suggest to you to try farinata, one of Liguria’s gastronomic symbols, stuffed vegetables, vegetable pies, the local speciality called “friscieu”, which are tasty fried batter balls filled with herbs and whitebait (bianchetti) when in season.
Torte e Farinate – In these local food shops you can enjoy traditional ligurian dishes, such as every kind of vegetable pies, farinata, pizza, stuffed vegetables and much more.
Further information about food & Wine in Liguria are available on the new useful Beautiful Liguria website, http://www.beautiful-liguria.org