Immigrants, Markets and Food

Our group met at around 9:15 at the Portone to go to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. We opted to walk there instead of taking the bus- why pass up another opportunity to navigate through Rome? At Santa Maria Maggiore we were to meet Fortune; a Ghanaian immigrant who had spoken to us the night before. We waited for her for a while and then discovered we were at the wrong entrance. We met her at the front and then actually went into the church to look around while she grabbed some breakfast.
There were two services being conducted when we entered the church which meant that the whole place was filled with beautiful singing while we wandered around. It is a beautiful church but I will dwell on it no further for I have heard rumors that we will be returning there on a later date for an actual site visit.



Once Fortune had grabbed breakfast we followed her to the international market: Mercato Esquiline. This is the place where many immigrants go to shop for food from their home countries. It’s a covered area packed full of little stalls selling fruit, spices, meat, seafood, etc. Upon entering we were cheerfully greeted by the butcher’s stall which had two piglets hanging down in front. We all wandered around and took advantage of the cheaper prices to by some fruit and other goods.

After getting a good feel for the market, Fortune took us to a Nigerian restaurant. It was a tiny little place, sparsely decorated but with amazing food and great portions. We were first brought huge platters of fried rice with pieces of chicken and beef. They also brought around a special pumpkin soup and some sort of starch made from samelina. We were also given platters of plantains, which Jen and I decided smelled like a mixture between potatoes and bananas but actually tasted distinctly like carrots and peas. Some of us also sampled the Nigerian hot sauce and quickly learned that a little goes a long way!
After our satisfying lunch we had a bit of a break and then went to an International Women’s House to hear from the Pilipino Women’s Council. These are a very active group of immigrant women who have worked hard for awareness of immigrant problems and provide great services for the many Pilipino women that come to work as domestic servants in Italy. It was a great opportunity for us to get to speak with them as they had great insight for the research we will be conducting of various immigrant groups.

Later that night our group rejoined at the one of the apartments located by the Pantheon. We had great desserts which included fruit salad (from the immigrant market) and a yummy chocolate mousse. It was a great ending to this day of markets, food and immigrants.

Johanna Madany