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Italian Food Idioms

The Italian phrase Non si frigge mica con l’acqua literally translates as “We don’t fry with water around here,” and means that the speaker doesn’t do things halfway. Quite a few other Italian idioms involve food. One translates as “to be like cabbage as an afternoon snack” — in other words, to be out of place. An Italian idiom that means “to be like parsley” suggests that something is ubiquitous. Another translates as “eat soup or jump out the window,” and is the equivalent of urging someone to take it or leave it, and yet another translates as “don’t eat the egg in the hen’s body” and is similar to the advice in English about not counting your chickens before they hatch. This is part of a complete episode.

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