How to Aperitivo from anywhere, with anything

A CONVERSATION BETWEEN KIMBERLY CHOU TSUN AN AND ORA WISE

KCTA: I first learned about the art of aperitivo — the Italian, leisurely, time-is-nothing, time-is-a-circle practice of late afternoon drinks and snacks — through my friendship with Ora and our mutual pal Munira.

We met through food justice organizing, and all had worked or were working in the restaurant industry in some way. So it makes sense that the courtship portion of getting to know both of them would involve toasting and hosting over plump green olives, good bread, and good drinks. Through them, I’ve learned to love the smuttiest of natural wines and all kinds of cured meats (lord, the cured meats), though I entered this comradeship as both an indifferent drinker and a vegetarian.

As our friendship has deepened, our aperitivo practice has also leveled up. I can say I’ve enjoyed aperitivi not only in the late afternoon or early evening but as a substitute for lunch, as an endless lighthearted but filling meal that extends and replaces dinner; or rather a lunch that goes on for several more hours into the day; as a wake-up snack found in the morning from the party the night before; and fixed and fed across the rental car console. 

It turns out this way of joyful eating comes naturally to me. I’ve always loved a snack tray, even if I previously called it by different names, including Lunchables (what are Lunchables if not a kids’ supermarket charcuterie board?) 

But part of the beauty of finding your people out in the world is that sometimes they show you how to call things by their true names — they give you language that fits your mouth and soon rolls easily off your own tongue, even if it wasn’t one you knew you spoke.

OW:

Aperitivo is like the culinary equivalent of flirtation: playful, pleasure-oriented, casual, improvisational. It can be quick or lingering, it can be all you’re interested in or it is just whetting the appetite before a full feast. 

And just as you are meant to share aperitivo with friends and family to unwind from the day, I believe flirtation is for EVERYONE — friends and family included — to lift spirits, infuse otherwise mundane interactions with some affirmation, and generally increase our quality of life. Flirtation or coquetry (yes!) is a social behavior suggesting interest in a deeper relationship with the other person, or if done playfully, for amusement (Wiki definition). I love that the tradition of aperitivo in Italy is a collective commitment to a sweet moment shared in public. I love that it is as valued and embedded in the culture as showing up for work. However, during the lockdown that this global pandemic has necessitated, aperitivo has still served as an anchor, a through line for our practice of sensuality and hospitality for ourselves, by ourselves. 

For me the value is also in the celebration of liminality. What is aperitivo if not a ritual of transition, a softening of the edges or boundaries of time? It is a celebration of the inbetween — that holy time between the work day and the night (often twilight but welcome at 4pm, an antidote to capitalist notions of long work days as requisite for productivity). Sometimes our aperitivi end up extending throughout the evening and we find ourselves snacking and sipping for hours to the point where there’s no room for a formal dinner. Although I strongly believe in the social, physical, and spiritual benefits of sit-down meals, these nights of mellow, unbounded nibbling feel liberated too — these nonhierarchical meals reminding us that we can also just be present and use whatever we’ve got, that we can choose a balance between spontaneity and drawing upon tradition.

OW + KCTA:

We love and celebrate both the very traditional Italian aperitivo — which just refers to having a drink with a snack to “open” your stomach (and spirit) before the evening meal —  as well as the most interpretive, hybridized snack experience. We are about the spirit, not the letter, of the law. Aperitivo can be an improvisational form of offering, its essence captured in the notion of sprezzatura: the art of effortlessness, the effort put into artfulness. It is a mandate to prioritize always keeping a delicious bite handy.

Traditional aperitivo fundamentals

• A drink (extra points for effervescence) — bitter liqueurs and aromatized wines

• Salty finger foods — olives, potato chips, corn nuts, taralli 

• Cheese and/or salume (really just more salty finger foods with a bit more protein)

• A friend (which in these times could be in a book or the neighbor on the next stoop over who might not even be aware that they are having an aperitivo with you)

Favorite aperitivo beverages

• Negroni (best of the best: made with Cynar or Montenegro)

• Spritz (best of the best: made with Select, it’s like if Fernet and Aperol had a baby) 

• Pet nat 

• Seltzer with (lots of) bitters

Our top aperitivo/snack tray/cheese board assembled bites, in no particular order

• Potato chip, something creamy, something green 

• Anchovy on half a medium cooked egg, chopped preserved lemon 

• Pickled veg, soft cheese, a whisper of salami

• Soft dried date with a marcona almond stuffed inside

• Broken piece of chocolate with some salt on it from the chips

• Fresh bread, pesto made out of anything, an aged cheese, a fresh cheese, an earthy jam (onion, plum, fig, apricot)

• Caprese with garden tomatoes and basil 

• Any kind of chip or bread with any kind of dip or spread

Ora Wise is the Food Experience Producer for the Allied Media Conference. Her work includes founding The Dream Cafe, an experimental pop-up restaurant in collaboration with cultural workers, chefs and farmers of color in Detroit. She is a co-founder and coordinator of Food Issues Group, a grassroots collective of people in New York in food and hospitality working towards sustainability and equity. She is the Culinary Curator for Queer Anga, a queer & trans wellness collective based in Brooklyn.

Kimberly Chou Tsun An lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her cultural work involves writing, food, ritual, and sexting, among other media.

ABOUT FIG:  FIG (Food Issues Group) is a collective of food and hospitality workers in New York and beyond. FIG focuses on concrete strategies for making the hospitality industry and the food system at large more democratic, humane, and sustainable. We address the interlocking issues of environmental sustainability, food sovereignty, racial equity and economic justice through mutual aid work at the micro and macro levels.