Here is a tip for those who are studying Italian and want to sound more Italian. We do have the word ‘cibo’, which means ‘food’, in our Italian dictionary, but we hardly use it. In fact, we use other words or expressions, depending on the situation. On an ordinary day we use the words ‘da mangiare’ (to eat) for example: ‘è pronto da mangiare’ or ‘da mangiare è pronto!’ which literally means ‘it’s ready to eat’. Here are more examples: ‘do da mangiare al bambino’ (I give to eat to the child) or ‘preparo da mangiare per il cane’ (I prepare to eat for the dog). When we want to ask some friends about a new restaurant or about the food they had on holidays we can say: “come avete mangiato?” or “com’era il ristorante”. The answers will depend on the food, of course, but, surprisingly…there are no adjectives for the food. Look at the answers: “Abbiamo mangiato benissimo” (we ate very well) or “Il ristorante era buonissimo” (the restaurant was very good) or “era tutto buonissimo” (everything was very good) and this is the closest we can go to the word ‘cibo’, but we still don’t mention it. To ask what someone’s favorite food is: “qual’è il tuo piatto preferito?” “E’ la pizza” (it is pizza). Sometimes, we might also use ‘da mangiare’ referring to restaurants or holidays as in ‘com’era la roba da mangiare?’ (how was the stuff to eat), it is rather colloquial, though…
CI SONO DOMANDE? 
It’s great to have answers to our doubts when we are learning a language, I know it very well. Our studying is far more constructive when we have an explanation to our questions and we learn more and faster. I might not have all the answers, but Italian is my first language, I am a teacher and I love grammar… yes I do! Please send me your questions and I will be happy to answer them in my posts. If you prefer to stay anonymous you can write to carolina@italiancork.com and your name won’t appear anywhere, I promise. Allora, andiamo con le domande….