5 June 2008

Today I started off late, so there was no time for breakfast. After class though, I decided to go out to eat. We went to a little pizzeria. I split a pizza with artichokes, olive, and sausage with my friend. Splitting food doesn’t seem to be very common in Italy because when we only ordered one pizza, the waiter looked at us with a little confusion. To drink I had aqua frizzante (fizzy water) I’ve learned that I don’t really like the normal water over here, so the fizzy water kind of distracts me from the taste.
I ate dinner with some of my Italian friends. They wanted to take us out and show us to this little spot they like to go. It wasn’t exactly the typical Italian sit down dinner place, it was more of a place where you grab a quick bit to eat. The restaurant sold what looked like little mini calzones. I told them to order for me because I didn’t know what to choose. They ended up buying on of everything…
I had a little calzone like thing with mozz. and red sauce. It was really good, it kind of reminded me of a hot pocket actually haha. They also ordered what looked like chicken cutlets, it was just a piece of flat boneless deep fried chicken. We had what Americans would probably call deep fried meat balls. And there was one more little friend ball with rice and orange sauce. It was a very wide range of different little finger foods, but they were all very good.

Cooking Class Part Uno

            Yesterday we all participated in a food class. We were taught by a professional chef how to make an authentic Italian meal. The chef himself had written a book on his love for food and has been cooking for pretty much his entire life as he was raised in a resturant in Italy. He had a particular liking for salts and collected them from all over the world. He had salts from Austrailia, Italy, and Mt. Washington to name a few. I never knew that one salt could be so different from another, but he let us smell the Mt. Washington salt and it smelled like a burnt wood kind of smell.

            As an appetizer we prepared a tomato skinned and stuffed with eggplant, zuccini,  red peppers, shalats. It was then placed on top of a zuccini pesto. The pesto was amazing, it had kind of a creamy, thick taste to it. I easily could have eaten the appetizer itself as a meal.

            For first dish we had freshly made pasta with a ragu made of onions, carrots, celery, rabbit, turkey, and chicken. Again it was amazing. The pasta was made by flattening out the dough made of primarily eggs and two different types of flour. From there, the sheets of pasta are put through another press and formed into the small spaghetti strand that we all know. The pasta was then boiled and mixed with our ragu. And to top everything, he fried up some basil leaves. I never knew basil leave could be eatin that was but it tasted almost like a very light potato chip.

            Then came the veal. It was small thin pieces of veal cooked and topped with a mushroom and white wine dressing. It was amazing, like the rest of the food. I didn’t indulge as much into this because I was incredibly full at this  point, but it was still awesome.

            Last but not least came the dessert, which was a cream based kind of gelatin with a lemon vanilla flavor to it. We then topped that with fresh raspberries and blackberries and our home made strawberry dressing. The best meal I have ever had…..until next week.

Bologna

This past Saturday, we traveled to Bologna. We started off early, so didn't really have time for breakfast. Around noon, Megan and I stopped at this small cafe, to grab a quick bite to eat. I've noticed that the bars in Italy normally have a variety small finger foods, wether its little slice of bread topped with some speck, or potato chips. At this particular bar they had some green olives, slices of bread with some sort of tangy like topping, potato chips, and these little what looked to be mini hash browns which were kind of spicy. For lunch we both ended up ordering a panini with speck, mozzarella, and artichoke hearts. It was pretty good, although I've officially decided I have a stronger preference towards good old American sandwiches. The outside of the panini was warmed, but the inside was still a little cold (I dont know if this is how its supposed to be or if they just didnt heat it long enough). 

We walked around the market in Bologna, it was filled with the typical fresh fruits and vegetable I've seen all over the markets in Italy. One thing that caught my eye was these what looked to be mini strawberries. They sold them just like they normally would strawberries, but they were just mini.

We then went into this awesome butcher shop/deli, and the smell as soon as you walked in was amazing. They had a wood stove burning and you could smell all the cheeses and meats. They had a sampler, so I tried some salami and provolone cheese....amazing. 

For desert I had a scoop of gelato, it was chocolate with chocolate covered wafer pieces, probably the best one I've had since arriving in Italy. Megan had one called Austrailian (something like that), it was vanilla with white chocolate and macadamia nuts...second best. One more sweet treat I noticed while walking in the market was these candies shaped like fruit, I think originated from Sicily. It pretty much looked like pure sugar, but something I think the kids would enjoy.

 

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.