Cuoppo Napoletano; Naples’ street food king

Ciao! I'm Cuopo, Cuopo Napolitano, and I'm the king of the streets of Naples. I'm a paper cone filled with a delicious mix of breaded fish, seafood, vegetables or potatoes. Soft on the inside and crispy on the outside, no doubt. I'm better than fish and chips. What kind of question is that? Of course, I taste better, I get more out of it. We chose it on your advice. It's delicious. You can find stalls like mine in almost every corner in Naples. I am the street food of this southern Italian city. People even line up for me. I come in different varieties, but more about that later. First, let this master of the deep fryer show you why I'm special. I am brought into the world in this plain room. I need shrimp. Gabriela peels them first. Then he grates lemons, only the best ones for me, of course. They come from nearby, from the Campania region. I love rice. Gabriela cooks it with saffron, pepper and lemon zest in a vegetable broth, similar to a risotto. The shrimps are added to be cooked briefly. Then Gabriela adds a mixture of pecorino, grana padano and scamorza cheese. The rice should be cooled in the refrigerator before it gets shaped into balls. See you in a minute. Finally, my rice balls see the light of day again. Now they go into a hot oil bath. They prefer sunflower oil. But when can they come out again? Certainly, I'm more than just the balls known as limonciotto. I can also include fried calamari, anchovies, zucchini and eggplant. I'm typically served in these cone-shaped paper bags. That's how I got my name. Would you like to know where I came from? According to legend, I have been around since the 19th century. My birthplace, Naples, is situated along the Mediterranean Sea. Fishing used to be a significant industry there. Fresh catches were sold at the fish market, but some of it could not be sold. Yes, I was initially a makeshift solution, and so what? This meant I was affordable for purr Neapolitans as well. They could even buy me on credit. I used to be just a simple fish bag, but now I love variety. You can find me served with chicken croquettes as a cuopo della terra, or loaded with seafood as a cuopo di mare. It's gourmet, so it's a lot of vegetables. Would you like to try me, cuopo Napoletano, king of the streets in Naples? Let us know in the comments.