In the year 2020, a few days before the official beginning of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, I published a page about food idioms utilized in the political field, now in my private archive. The page was about generic expressions coming from Anglo-Saxon countries, adapted to political topics, although not specific in politics. I observed that a similar reference to foods is not frequent in those countries, while in Italy there are dozens of food idioms expressly born for criticizing politicians. Here I can add that in the USA foods can become derogatory expressions, especially about racial question, and some examples are watermelon, fried chicken, collard greens, fatback, and chitlins. Some other foods are associated with lower social classes, and can allude to poverty, such as black-eyed peas, grits, and molasses. Well, I’ve decided to update the cited page, for two reasons: adding something more about food idioms, born in Italy for politics and politicians; to post a volume 2 of the short mix of the year 2020, titled “Italian food mix, a table for 12”, with a similar, amusing content.
More than new idioms, Italian political left has recently invented some neologisms, to describe conservative governments with foods metaphors, because of political choices that are accused of worsening the nutrition of poor people, and of seriously damaging the so-called “south of the world”, with other words underdeveloped countries. Honestly, those neologisms have clear meanings, although not truly funny. There is a word to define nationalism in the field of gastronomy, a derogatory word for a diplomacy that denies the necessary help to poor countries, and a word that keeps together nutrition and deserts for alluding to bad politics. To the other side, Italian political center-right is utilizing a rather offensive expression, coming from the investigations about the crimes of the monster of Florence. Three men, who used to consume together snacks in bars and restaurants, were accused of being responsible of those crimes. The men are popularly known with a funny nickname, that into Italian is “compagni di merende”. The expression is ambiguous, because contains some irony destined to activists of political left, who use to call themselves “companions” (compagni). For that, the translation into English of “compagni di merende” as “snack buddies” is not very good, given that the irony against political left is not maintained. Thus, I propose another translation, that sounds like “snack companions”. Well, leftist politicians in Italy are often offended with the words “snack companions” (compagni di merende), meaning that political left promises to help poor people, while leftist executives are exclusively doing their personal interests, even not always perfectly legal.
The short mix of the page can be a good test about your level of knowledge of the Italian language. Only those who are excellent at Italian can understand the double senses and the comicality, massively present into the lyrics of the 14 songs.
File name is “Italian food mix, another table for 14, by Max Look DJ (end of Oct 2025)”, 43’ and 43”, contains 14 classics of Italian pop music, dedicated to national foods.
The playlist, especially funny for those who know very well the Italian language:
Ivan Graziani – la nutella di tua sorella (1995)
Trio Lescano e Maria Jottini – maramao perché sei morto (1939)
Nino Manfredi – la frittata (1982)
Edoardo De Angelis – torrone (1980)
Andrea Mingardi – dal tajadel (1974)
L’Orchestra Italiana – insalata ‘e mare (1998)
Johnny Dorelli – aggiungi un posto a tavola (1978)
Tananai – pasta (2022)
Leone di Lernia – lasciame stè (How Gee, 1991)
Pino Daniele – fatte ‘na pizza (1993)
Lorenzo Tozzi – pandoro o panettone (2016)
Lino Toffolo – pasta e fagioli (1985)
Wilma De Angelis – patatina (1994)
Elia Turra – tiramisù (2023)
