29 May 2008

Yesterday we went to grab a quick lunch at a small café. I asked for a small sandwich, although, I really had no idea what it was made of. It was what looked to be white bread with the crusts cut off. Inside there was shredded carrots, mayo, and shrimp, this was the second mayo based sandwich I’ve accidentally bought since I’ve been here. The first time, I thought I was getting a ham and cheese with the crusts cut off, but it turned out to be predominately mayo with olives and a thin slice of ham…..I think I need to stop randomly picking sandwiches. I’m not really a fan of the warm mayo sandwich trend around here.

As a snack during the day I had Nutella with strawberry jelly ok cracks….excellent. I have a bit of a sweet tooth, so this was definitely something that was right up my alley.

For dinner we were already out so we decided to stop by a little snack shop.  I ordered what looked similar to a calzone. It was spinach, mozzarella, and ham. The bread has kind of a pita consistency and texture, it was flavored like spinach. The ham and cheese inside was very thin. It was served warm.

            After dinner, we decided to go out for drinks. European alcohol seems to be a lot less strong, and a lot easier to enjoy. When we arrived at the bar we decided to order shots, one of them had Jack Daniels whiskey, Southern Comfort, and some other clear alcohol that I didn’t quite catch (it may have been Grappa). The bar tender then went on to give us a round of free shots with lime, gin, and seltzer. The atmosphere of the European bars is a lot different from the ones back in America. The drinking seems to be a lot more casual, mostly because for them, it is. 

Venice

Today we ventured to Venice, the city on the water. Within the first part of the tour, we visited the open air market. There was a very large variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, and sea foods. The first thing that caught my attention was the strawberries, I was able to smell them as soon as I walked near the stand. We ended up buying a small container of which ended up being some of the best strawberries, I've ever had. they were very fresh, juicy and sweet. Another fruit that I noticed (which my landlord Mateo told me was in season right now) was the red cherries. Which I am sure were probably equally as delectable. 

The Italians don't seem to kid around when they say they have fresh seafood. The small crabs for sale were literally still moving along with the snails. I saw what looked to be small octopus for sale, something we don't have very often in America, squid, shrimp, crawfish, and shell fish. 

The stands along the tourist areas sold fresh pieces of coconut which were kept cold by water dripping down over it. For lunch I ate at a small bar, I ordered a sandwich called the "Walter" which would have had pork, mozzarella, and tomato, but something must have gone wrong in the ordering process because I ended up with penne topped with mozzarella and tomato sauce. As a drink I ordered an orange spritz. They were both very good, the spritz was a little strong for me, but good. I had a scoop of gellato on a cone, it was Kinder (a common chocolate brand around here) flavor.

Before we left Venice towards the end of the day I had some small pizza with mozzarella, the pizza was served cold, the sauce was flavorful and it served as a good snack. The food of Venice seemed to be primarily sea food, which only makes sense, seeing as its on the water.

All and all very good, nothing bad so far.