If I see “Mediterranean Restaurant” I assume it will be Greek or Lebanese. If they don’t have falafel I would be surprised.
In fact I just punched Mediterranean Restaurant into Google maps and every single result is a Greek or Lebanese restaurant, except for one which is (self described as) Palestinian Halal.
No Italian, no Spanish, no Moroccan. Though we have all of those in the area, tons of Italian of course but we have a tapas place and a popular Moroccan place within five miles.
Odd. For me, if someone mentions a “mediterranean diet” I think of Grecian food, not Italian, and if I were to go to a mediterranean restaurant I would expect it to be decorated with a meander pattern (also known as Greek key design).
As for me, Greece with all of that fresh seafood, cheeses and wine. Everywhere you have a view of the Med and all of the islands to visit.
Just from googling term “Mediterranean” seems to be used differently in “Mediterranean Restaurant”, “Mediterranean Diet”, “Mediterranean Culture” and “Mediterranean Climate” with each successive one being broader in scope, with of course the climate one applying to areas around the world (Parts of Australia, South Africa and South America)
Count me as another person who thinks of the Levant (in the original “The Med East of Venice” sense) when they hear “Mediterranean cuisine”
If thinking of a Mediterranean place, I will think of a Greek island, because My Family and Other Animals was a formative book for me.
Italy. If it were Greece, I’d expect all the houses to be white.
When I think of Mediterranean I think of underground digging, caves, and catacombs. This is most definitely due to the word sounding similarly enough to subterranean and my odd-brain never having any goddamn sense. sigh.
Mediterranean is from the Latin mediterraneus , ‘inland’ (medius, ‘middle’ + terra, ‘land, earth’). In Greek it’s “mesogeios”. On holiday it’s “fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun”.
Like others here, I skew the question due to ethnocultural baggage – the notion “Mediterranean” was not imprinted in my mind through an anglo-american filter. So as others mentioned I don’t default to “Italian” necessarily, except perhaps in a very regional sense.
Now sure, in free association there will be some stereotypical things that pop to my mind: Bright sun on a rugged coast; olives, wine, cheese, lamb, octopus; passionate living (“never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line”, anyone?); leisure and high rolling in the Riviera and Monaco and the various Costas; Serrat’s “tears of a hundred peoples from Algeciras to Istambul”. I can think of a Greek Salad and kebabs and gyros but also of a paella valenciana.
(BTW, I don’t know visions of Vespas would even come in my top 20 associations with “Mediterranean”.)
However,yes, for those of the Anglo-American sphere, the trope “Meditterranean” has been strongly associated with the Tyrrhenian coast and islands of Italy, and with Greece and coastal Turkey, because of these locations having been highly accessible to their travelers for a long time and referenced a lot by English-language writers.
Ignoring the stuff in the foreground which looks American, the houses dotted in the hills look like places I’ve been to in Greece (Ionian islands such as Kefalonia in particular, which are heavily influenced arcitecturally by Venice), The Amalfi coast in Italy, and the turquoise coast in Turkey.
In the Cyclades group of islands, for sure - they manage to do a great job of claiming the universal image of Greece. But parts of Greece look very Italian (and in Puglia, Southern Italy, visa versa).
Exactly - when comparing, as Senegoid asked, it’s stereotypes you’re dealing with. This Greece
vs this Italy
And this is Ibiza
and this is Casares, close to Málaga
and this is Ronda
and now, having just come back from a 6 week journey around Spain I want to go again. And I am hungry.
At least @JRDelirious knows Serrat, I was fearing I was the only one.
We’re headed to Barcelona and the Costa Brava in July. I’ll report back. We’ve spent time in Italy so I’ll have something to compare to.
This thread is making me feel desperate for a holiday. Luckily will be in the South of France in 3 weeks!
Looking more Italian than Greek.
When I hear the word ‘Mediterranean’, I tend to think:
Rocky coasts with blue sea
Seafood, olive oil, tomatoes, peppers, rosemary - not really pizza or pasta
Sunshine
Stone-built architecture (OK, I suppose you get that one, but I’m thinking of the backstreets of Seville or Granada, not Italy - they’re similar I suppose)
Dark-haired people who seem, to me, to have a strong sense of home and family
I think you’re just expressing your own biases, which is fine - everyone has them. I don’t think yours are universal.
and for France and somewhat Italian one thinks of the “Riveria”