a love letter to Rome's legendary pizza man, Gianni

and his fake crab 'sandwich'

Those fake crab sticks ain’t just for sushi folks. And Rome ain’t just for carbonara either.

‘Perchè? Perchè semplice… le migliore cose sono semplici!’

Why? Because it’s simple - The best things are simple!

- Gianni, the legend behind Pizza al Mattone, in Rome

Hungry around lunchtime in Rome? Your first thoughts are probably pasta! fried rice balls! Or maybe some warm fresh bread filled with pretty pink mortadella or juicy mozzarella.

Instead, you find an imitation crab salad sandwich.

This is why we love Rome. For millennia it’s been here to just leave us in awe and that goes beyond the Colisseum or the Pantheon’s inexplicably massive dome still standing for over 2000 years with no reinforced concrete, leaving architects worldwide shook.

Well, this fake crab sandwich is my Pantheon, people.

I am sure you are trying to digest the idea of an imitation crab sandwich in Rome. Yet, it is actually quite Italian - here’s why.