Barcelona Pleasures

MAJ545 found the lack of food mentioned a little disconcerting since we had some fabulous food. Go figure that this is the guy that used to meet me at crazy early hours to run or do some crazy weight workout at the gym- right?

But he's right. I would be leaving out a huge portion of the culture/local feel if the sangria and tapas we devoured enjoyed weren't mentioned so I offered him to guest write. Below is his account...edited only when needed to meet the requirements of E' un po' come's posting requirements. Enjoy!

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Every city/country/region has its own flair.  That certain something that makes it unique and colorful and when looking back on its memories makes you reflect…ah yes that is it.  While living in Belgium I discovered I wasn’t too particularly fond of the location (cold, dark, flat farmland, failed industrialization), or of the natives (Walloon, French), but what made it unique to the other countries of Western Europe was its beer and chocolate.  Both were fabulous and when I travel abroad I look for those small unique qualities that set it apart from its peers.  In Paris it was the food and bad attitudes.   Rome was the pizza and wine.  The U.K. had plenty of horse racing and “make yourself welcome” appeal.  So what was it about Barcelona that made it unique?  The architecture has been discussed in detail by Katie so I won’t bore you with that but I must caveat that after staying there, Barcelona is straight Gaudi not gaudy.  Where I want to expand upon is the food and drink.  

Since we were in Spain I insisted, with no hesitation or disagreement from Katie, that we have sangria.  I’ve never had it before and was quite excited when we picked up our first fishbowl of it under the signage of Hooty the Owl.  I’m not kidding.  Hooty the Owl lives in Barcelona.  Being this was my first sangria, and I’ve become a wine snob living in California, I was first taken back by the ice cubes floating in my fruit filled wine.  But when I tasted it, it was all good.  It was the perfect refreshment after hiking along the streets all day, and a great compliment to sandwiches and tapas (nothing worth noting, standard pub type grub).  Not too sweet wine filled with ice and fruit slices of lemon and limes.  It was picture worthy as some of you may have already seen.  Originally arriving with a straw, that was discarded immediately if not sooner; I quickly located the bottom of the glass while it ran down the back of my throat.  Ahhhhhhhhhhh tasty!

Our second exposure to sangria came after an hour of hiking along the water.  We were attempting to make our way along the shore and piers to Katie’s yacht which happened to be parked across the bay (it had to be over 100’ long and 5 stories tall), when we were ushered into a small fish house overlooking the water that promised to feed us well and get us along with the night.  First impressions were good.  We didn’t speak the language but hand and arms signals, and the waiter’s broken English seemed to work well.  That’s how Katie was offered a whole raw fish on a plate that looked at her longingly.  But that wasn’t what I wanted, nor did she, but that’s neither here nor there.  Since I was in Barcelona I felt that paella was a must and it must be eaten with sangria.  So both were ordered and I waited eagerly for their arrival.

Unbeknownst to me Katie was eye-locked with something above my head.  When I turned, I found several legs of pig (still clovened) hanging just behind me with small white plastic thingies stuck in them.  I was glad they were in there, because it turns out those catch random juices that leak from the legs while they are curing above your head.  I can only imagine the market for those things and how they had to develop.  

I digress…the sangria arrived.  I was a bit disappointed with the size of it upon arrival, but figured I was in a touristy area and not worry.  But then I tasted it and was not as happy with it as lunch time’s version.  Katie felt the same but then dinner arrived and we focused on our meal.  Now this was my first time eating paella and I was excited by the bounty in front of me.  Shrimp, muscles, prawns, rice … things I couldn’t identify, all of which looked and smelled great.  Well you know what they say about books and covers…yeah it was like that.  The seafood was way overcooked and the rice tasted like pure seawater.  Now anybody that knows me and has eaten out with me knows that I refuse to leave a full plate or even a partial plate of food.  Not the case here.  I couldn’t plow my way through it and the substandard sangria couldn’t wash the taste down enough.  So unfortunately it was an epic fail on my part.  Katie ordered the grilled cuttlefish, which I only had a semblance of its existence from the manipede episode of Southpark,  It looked tasty and Katie enjoyed it thoroughly.  Unfortunately the visit put paella in a bad light for me and every time I saw it on a menu (which was everywhere) I thought badly of it.  Too bad, someone will have to come along one day to fix that for me but for now…no more paella for this guy.

The culmination of our time in Barcelona was complete with a great meal and wicked awesome sangria.  As part of our A.D.D. wondering of the streets, I credit Katie for finding the coolest little restaurant in the middle of an ally that we happened to stroll down.  Yes we strolled, since walking is difficult when your face is skyward most of the time.  This little place, which I have no idea what its name was so I’ll call it that little place in the alley, was fantastic.  We arrived close to nine at night and got a cozy (i.e. really close to our neighbors) table and checked out the menu.  I spotted my elixir of choice and ordered up 1.5 liters of sangria (equivalent of two bottles of wine).  My thoughts on ordering so much were simple; with the addition of ice and fruit, wine is pushed out so you have to make that difference up by ordering more.

It arrived in a crock jug, something perfectly suited for a homey little place and it was gloriously sweet and smooth with a nice citrus flavor from the limes and lemons.  We noticed that Barcelonian sangria didn’t get too fancy with its infusions of various fruits like apples, or grapes.  They kept it to the two fruits mentioned before.  Both Katie and I agreed this was by far our favorite version.  I only wished I knew what kind of red wine they had used, guess I’ll just have to ask next time.  But when the sangria was poured all was good in the world.  We had a delightful dinner of tapas choices followed by a main course.  We each had different tapas and since we both have quite different palates, there wasn’t the awkward questioning of sharing our food.  I’m not even sure what we had, but I do remember they were all cooked/prepared perfectly and I would order them again in a heartbeat…something along the lines of sausage, shrimp, roasted red peppers and something dipped in pesto sauce.  It escapes me a bit now, so I know Katie will yell at me for not writing this sooner.  :D  When ordering, I was a little annoyed when I found out the British guy next to me had chosen the last of the rabbit, but I conceded and had a nice steak followed by some tiramisu.  Yes I know it is Italian, but it happens to be my favorite desert of all time and I couldn’t resist.  Especially since Katie didn’t want dessert but was included with dinner so she ordered the flan and handed it over to me.  Score!  

As you may have guessed the sangria was still going down while we ate dinner and this is the only time I will ever say this but I actually wished there was more ice in our crock.  The restaurant had used very little which is good and bad.  Good because we had more of the good stuff but bad because with the just the two of us drinking it took quite a bit of time to get it all down and it was a tad warm by the time we got to the bottom.  Undeterred from our task of completion we overturned the entire crock into our glasses, paid our bill and walked along the street called La Rambla home, at an angle, while dodging street performers and illegal beer sellers.  Then we completed the night with second desert and had some Belgium chocolates, at least I did, that I brought down with me.  I escaped with some Italian coffee thrown at me and knocked out for a couple of hours before making the trip to the airport, an adventure in and amongst itself, and headed back north to the land of chocolate flavored beer.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Katie for allowing me the opportunity to write this portion of her blog.  She was quite hesitant to allow an “outsider” to relive her memories, but since we shared them together I was granted an exception.  I just hope that I have done them justice and haven’t ruined this opportunity for anyone else hoping to be published on this page.  Thank you Katie, also, for such a wonderful weekend.  Hanging out with you is a joy and effortless and since we are both extremely A.D.D. in our wonderings and carefree in our itinerary, traveling the backstreets and finding small cafes just wouldn’t have been the same without you there.  I can’t think of anyone I’d rather of been there with and glad you can put up with my lack of public transportation use.  Hope we can do it again sometime in another city, in another country adding another adventure into our lives.
Ja-Rod (MAJ545)

Cooking Class: Lasagna Bolognese & Chiacchiere

Chiacchiere, is perhaps the word I struggle with the most when reading a passage out loud in class. My teacher quickly realized this and when she's feel extra sassy I somehow always get stuck reading that portion. When reading though it typically means chatter, small-talk, or gossip. Tonight though, it meant tasty fried batter covered with powder sugar and chocolate sauce. These yummy little treats are typically a carnivale treat and vary from those prepared in the past by being  drizzled with chocolate rather than blood. Why the name? Well, I guess someone thought the crunch when you bite into one sounded a little like chatter. Yeah. That has to be it because once these hit the table, there is no chatter to be heard...just the sounds of yum's and fat cells cheering.

Tonight it was our turn to try to make this seasonal treat. Come to think of it, the lasagna we made was also a seasonal thing. After spending the time rolling out the two different doughs with the pasta press I can now understand why they aren't made year round. Plus, who really wants their oven going for over an hour after various pots are boiling previous in the middle of the hot summer? But right now? It's a completely different story!

It was a very busy night but definitely hands on. We started off with the bolognese sauce (no veggie chopping this week!) and then worked on the second sauce for the lasagna that consisted primarily of flour, milk, and butter. As those simmered away it was time to start the pasta dough. Making the dough was easy, but the rolling out with the hand cranked roller took some time- especially since we had to get them to a small enough size before sending them through again to be the correct thickness. It was an arm workout. The product before being sent into the pot of boiling water wasn't very pretty. Nothing like our store bought frilly edged dry pasta. These were a much thicker and variously shaped wedges.

Once the table was cleared we started again with mounds of flour with a perfect volcano top to fill with things like sugar, eggs, rum, and orange concentrate. This dough was much sticker and smelled so fabulously sweet it was hard to resist especially as the next step took f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Mini wedges being sent through the roller until they were thinner than pie crust. Then they had to be sliced. Chef R, another regular and I took on this process trying to be a good productive line. I think I was the bottleneck but by my 4th attempt to chop the dough rapidly like Chef R, I was sort of catching on. Here's what it should look like:



And no, even if the pictures indicate my level of  concentration,  there is no way my technique looked anything like that. And mine didn't look like nice tortilla strips either, but it didn't matter because when they are fried they don't stay like that anyway. But seriously. Check out that table full of those suckers and we didn't use all the dough. We also noticed while checking out that they had 3 large plates full of them under glass. Yep. Our food productions are works of art! Or you know, we just made enough to get them through the weekend.

Arms tired, apron covered in flour, and hands scaly with dried dough it was time to assemble the lasagna. Sauce, noodles folding outward, sauce x2, cheese x2, noodles. Repeated until to top of pan and fold noodles back over. Bake for an hour and then let it sit for another to let the liquids/juice from the cheese and sauce to get absorbed by the noodles. Luckily he had already made one and we didn't have to wait for the one we really made.

The other perk of this week (other than learning an Italian classic) is I learned where to buy some of the kitchen gadgets that I drool over each week...like the meat pounder, strainer-bowl for items just out of the frier, and even some of the huge pots. I think it's time to start rearranging my kitchen to make room for some of these soon to be mine items. Just getting the kitchen ready for my visitors!

Cooking Class: Tiramisu & Other Stuff

Another Friday night means another cooking class over at La Vigna. Tonight's menu was another that was not to be missed with tiramisu on the menu. Seriously, it was the only one I really saw when the announcement went out and even now after spending 3+ hours cooking and eating I still had to look up the other things we made....tagliatelle alla bolognese and involtini alla messicana. 

With so many things going on in the kitchen tonight and probably more socializing than what is conducive to truly learning new recipes, I'm going to just show you what we made. Sorry. I'll try to at least track down the tiramisu recipe by the week's end. I really was trying to keep track of what we were doing tonight but once I was selected to dice 2 carrots piccoli I sort of lost track of what else was going on. I mean, don't they have food processors for things like this? (Please, take a moment to appriciate just how tiny I had to chop these suckers.)

That was just one part of the bolognese sauce and once it was done I didn't even see our beautifully diced veggies. Crazy! But it did make me feel better about eating every last noodle off my plate knowing that there were veggies. (Just ignore that slab of butter and the fact that olive oil was also added.)

Next up was the involtini alla messicana,  or what we were calling, sausage stuffed veal. In a method very similar to the last involtini  we made, the meat was rolled up before being cooked up and served with a sauce. This week's though was spicy (that's why it's messicana) and with the funghi, also chopped by me, almost took on an Asia flavor. It had my taste buds very happy because I was eating something that did not taste Italian at an Italian restaurant- go figure. 

Finally, we got to the main attraction, tiramisu. With the cream and "pudding" already prepared, assembly was the only thing required. Using store bought ladyfingers, each was dipped into "weak coffee." Weak because it was double the water used typically for one espresso shot. Yeah. It wasn't that weak...but what's the point of weak coffee anyway? A layer of the cream mixture was added, and then another layer of ladyfingers, this time soaked in the coffee was layered on top. Then the topping was piped on before being dusted with "just a little" cocoa powder.

 

Yeah. "Just a little."  

As for me, the full belly I left with is totally winning over the super soaked coffee dessert so it's time for me to head downstairs with my espresso charged kitty and get to sleep. 

Buonanotte!

Cooking Class: Pizza

Friday still seems to be my pizza day (well, one of my pizza days) be it either for lunch with the coworkers or for an easy dinner pick up before I climb my stairs. Here in Italy though, pizza is much more the Saturday night meal of choice. I'm not sure why that is...maybe because it's easy meal before the Sunday feast?

Tonight's cooking class was one that I'd be waiting for- PIZZA!

Well, it was take one for learning how to make pizza. Granted it was more like an episode of Martha Stewart where we mixed everything together and then magically the chef pulled out a huge tray of pizza dough ready for pizza-ing but that's how you have to do it when it takes about 2 hours for the dough to rise in the dead of winter and hail is falling from the sky.

Pizza dough is super easy to make so I recommend giving it a try if you haven't before. Need a recipe? Try this authentic one that I learned tonight.

Pizza Dough (*Winter Recipe)
1kg flour
50g yeast
1cup (or so) warm water
1/2 a huge ladle of olive oil (best guess 2/3 cup)

Mix it all together (with your hands of course) until it all pulls together. Set aside for approximately 2 hours until it's increased in size.

One trick with real pizza is the crust is really thin. It's fabulously crispy with (all) the olive oil once baked so give it a try. You'll need to roll it out (with a rolling pin) and add flour as necessary so it doesn't get all over. Once in the oil (olive) coated pan, prick the dough with a fork all over to ensure no bubbles take over.

*In the summer (or warmer weather) you only use 25g of yeast and you can use cold water. People in Monterey, I think you should stick with the winter version!

We made several types of pizza:

• Marinara: sliced garlic gloves, marinara sauce, drizzle of olive oil
• Margherita: marinara sauce, light coating of shredded Parmesan, a tad of basil (add mozzarella di bufala after pulled from oven)
• Biancaneve: "cooking cream" from a box, corn kernels, cheese and drizzle of olive oil (translates to "Snow White")
• Siciliana: marinara sauce, fried eggplant (sauteed), cubed provolone cheese, and yep, olive oil
• And then that one that seems to be on every menu, except for my pizza place downstairs...the Siciliana with potato wedges 1/2 cooked

Once loaded (well, not really by American pizza standards) bake at 180C for about 20 minutes. Yeah, sorry for all the metric measurements, it's only going to get worse! 

There you have it! Of course if you really want to just make it pepperoni or throw even more veggies on it go for it. I think my favorite pizza still is the Sicilian but once the weather warms back up a tad I'll be switching back to the baby tomatoes, rocket, yummy cheese, and prosciutto crudo because it's like a salad on bread, and it doesn't get much better than that.

Cooking Gnocchi: Round II

Since one of my goals for 2012 is to learn to make 3 authentic Italian meals, worthy of recreating and serving, I figured that it was time to attend another cooking class at La Vigna.

Tonight's menu consisted of the usual yummies prepared by the professionals paired with spinach gnocchi and involtini (meat rolls) prepared with the help of us Americans.

We followed the same basic gnocchi recipe as last time, but with the addition of spinach- lots of it:

Boil 3 large potatoes until soft.
Remove peels and using a potato ricer, rice them.

Boil spinach. (Not sure how much but once boiled, excess water removed, and also processed with the potato ricer there was approx 2 cups.)

In a bowl mix the riced potatoes and spinach with hands and add two eggs.

Once mixed (super sticky!) turn out onto counter or cutting board. Mix in flour (approx 2 cups) or until when poked the dough springs back.

Remove a small section and start rolling "snakies". More flour is probably needed at this point, but try to keep it to a minimum. Once rolled, slice into 1/2 inch sections and lightly dust with flour.

Boil in salted water until they float. Once floating, cool in a cold water bath.

The sauce we created was so simple...little too creamy for my tastes but a great contrast to the spinach delight-fulness. In a pan we combined a scoop (probably 1c) olive oil, 1/2ish cup of sliced proscuiutto crudo, and a container of "cooking milk." I'm sure he added salt too...it's always in there. Near the end shredded Parmesan cheese was tossed in, because we are in Italy after all!

The next task was to slice turkey, pork (shoulder) and veal. (Again, Italian veal...not American.) Once in 2inch rectangles, each piece was pounded flat and lined up in the counter in rows. We weren't sure why, but there was a reason...the next step was to season each with pepper, salt, and then place shredded Parmesan cheese down the middle. Then each little piece was rolled "like a cigarette" and several like meats were skewered together before being lightly coated in flour.

They were thrown into a pan with more melted butter than can possibly be healthy and you guessed it, salt. As they were almost cooked white wine was thrown into the mix (about 1/2 a bottle) before continuing to cook. I think a little water was also added just to keep the gravy/sauce at a very thin consistency. 

And that was it- we were done cooking and it was time to eat! And seriously, it was almost 8pm by this time so eating is probably a much more civilized term for what we did as our faces were stuffed with bruschetta, zeppoline, and wine while our creations were being plated. So yummy and believe me, by the secondo (the meat course) we were all full but somehow we all found room for potatoes (yes we realize the redundancy from our primo) and even the salad. Thinking our meal was done (well, our bellies were) dessert was served: a ricotta and cherry like cake. Sort of like a cheese cake but with a real crust. Sorry for the lack of description, but this time of the evening I was fighting off a food coma.

I think I've got the gnocchi covered...in fact I'm even thinking that I'll start doing a misti gnocchi that will be green, white, and orange...if I can find a squash that won't be too stringy to mix in. I was thinking roasted pepper too? Okay, so maybe not the traditional Italian meal but aren't we Californians always putting our own spin on things?

Cooking Class- Round II

I've said it again and I'll say it again- I'm not a huge fan of Italian food. It's not that I hate it (I rarely meet anything I won't eat) but it's down my list of picks. Pizza is the only Italian food not part of this list- I can eat that every day of the week. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stick to my typically very American diet while I'm here- if I were to not try real Italian food I'd be missing out on a huge part of the culture.

Even before departing Monterey I had made the decision that I wanted to learn how to cook authentic Italian food (and find a pasta I like) so once again I signed up for a cooking class at La Vigna. Yes, the place I took the last one and probably more familiar sounding from the stomping of grapes adventure. So after work Joe and I headed over to La Vigna to learn how to make gnocchi di patate alla sorrentina and pastiera napoletana. Some faces were the same and others were new. I once again met some really fun people that are civilian, close in age AND only got here a few months prior to when I did. Sweet! New travel buddies.

Chef Raffaele lead us through the first steps of making Pastiera Napolentana, a very eggy cake typically eaten for Easter in Naples. Just like the chocolate cake from last time, we started with a ton of butter. I think it was 2kilos? Granted we ended up making 5 of these things but still, nothing says health food like a slab of butter on the metal counter...unless you toss just under a kilo of sugar on top of it and are told to start mashing it up. Hey, it really was a hands on cooking class! While two people mashed the butter, sugar, and a touch of flour together another person "melted" a huge bowl full of ricotta with more sugar until it was a batter like substance. Once the batter/filling was smooth candied fruit, a ton of eggs (28) and perfume were added. With both portions ready, it was time to roll out the crust. After he demonstrated once, someone did one and I had to laugh at the lack of rolling out dough skills. Granted he was a high school student, but seriously? Once he was done I volunteered to roll out the 3rd crust. I'm a pro- chalk one up to all of those sugar cookies I've made in the last few years. My crust was rolled out within a few minutes and pressed into the round pan. Filled added and then more dough rolled out to cut the lattice for the top. Our group pounded it out pretty fast. While the cakes were taken into the kitchen to bake for 100 minutes we turned our attention to our first plate- gnocchi!

By this time little mounds (okay, 2kilo mounds) of riced potato had been placed around on the work spaces. We worked the potatoes with flour until the flakes turned to a dough. Once that happened eggs (yeah, we must have used about 100 all night) were added to the already sticky dough before just a touch more of flour to make it the proper consistency. Dough done, it was then cut into tablespoon-ish sized clumps and rolled out to equal length "snakies." It was pretty fun, I mean who doesn't like play-dough? Once we had all our snakes lined up, we got to chop them into the little pillows that looked like after dinner mints and toss them in boiling water. When they floated to the top, they were scooped up and tossed into cool water to finish cooking. I'm not sure how many pounds we made, but it was about 3 huge trays full. After the last gnocchi was cooked, they were mixed with a tomato sauce and cheese- lots of cheese.

It was so pretty and smelled amazing! But then again, I think anything would have after working a full day at the office and then cooking for 2 hours? We finally were told to go sit down and were served antipasti and the wine appeared. The first wine we were given was sort of a cider? We were calling it a wine beer since the aftertaste was beer-ish. All was forgiven though when the bottles of red hit the table. The gnocchi was simply fabulous. I'm already trying to figure out when I can make it again because this was the second time I've had it and I still liked it. I think I want a little more cheese on it next time around, but the chewiness factor of it is fabulous and it doesn't seem like a pasta.

The second plate was veal (veal is still not my favorite but it's not raised the same as we do in the states so I'm not so opposed to it here). It was served with a pretty tasty gravy but I almost would have preferred more gnocchi instead. Shoot, I made those by hand so I wanted to enjoy them!

Finally, it was dessert time. The cakes turned out beautifully so of course I still had to taste it. My verdict? The crust was fabulous- it's amazing how butter makes everything taste so fabulous. The filling was rather eggy and the candied fruit pieces (tiny ones) caused texture issues for me. Someone at the table suggested removing the candy and perfume and just adding rum...he may be on to something.

Now I just need to track down the recipes so I can try these again, unsupervised.

Bruschetta in a Jar

Stay-cation: Day 1

I guess I've been fortunately enough to always live in a place that others consider a vacation spot. Granted, that was one of the things that drove me nuts in Monterey with the influx of traffic (mainly due to confused drivers), impossible weekend parking, and ridiculous "peak season" prices. Of course as a local you knew how to avoid most of the crazy weekends but still, I can't help but think of one of my favorite Savage Chicken cartoons.

Well this weekend I had a stay-cation in Monte Di Procida. Again, the generosity of the community here is amazing! On Friday I met up with someone copied on emails started back in April. No- I'm not hanging out with strangers, well, strangers to me but the degree of separation is no more than 3. Someone I worked with put me in touch with someone who had recently left Italy. Laurie then started to email me with info and put me in touch with others- including the fabulous Cynthia who I met for lunch on Friday. By the end of the lunch she had offered to show me around MdP, let me crash at her place, and then go hiking this morning out at Carney Park. Um yes please! 

Monte Di Procida is for sure where I'm going to live- but I still need to figure out which place to claim. On my tour we entered the town a new way because it's going to be crucial to know all the routes should traffic be ridiculous. (Think Del Monte Ave. on a gorgeous holiday weekend, with all that construction they were doing, and it only being two lanes...with no traffic lights.) No, I'm not crazy because once you make it through one of the various towns and make your way up the hill this is one of the views awaiting you.

As we drove around the town during risposare, the afternoon break, most of the stores were closed up, but few people still walking around the main piazza. As we drove down towards the water, that's where we found more people. The parking lots were full, scooters lined up along the pier, and many boats were out for the day. For those of you who make it out in the summer months we'll be taking a ferry out to Procida or Ischia for the day. Still not 100% sure what's out there other than beaches, food, and stores but I think it would be fun to see the different view and I've never been one to turn down being on the water. Okay, I'll do more recon prior to your visit! The town is super cute, lots of little shops selling one type of item- produce, bread, meat, etc. No Safeway for one stop shopping may take a little while to get used to, but maybe this way I'll learn to enjoy grocery shopping a little more?

After the tour we went back to her place and I think I fell in love with the idea of having a veranda which unfortunately apt #1 from the last search doesn't have. The view from her apartment was fabulous although it was more over the hill side than of the water, but you still saw plenty of sparking blue. (The night view was amazing too!) We chatted about Italy and other destinations while sipping on bubbly and taking in the view on the perfect late June day.

Once we realized it was turning to dinner hours (American dinner hours, not Italian), we walked a block away to her favorite restaurant. I'd been told about this place and Meriella before even stepping foot out of Monterey and let me tell you, it lived up to everything I'd been told. Both Meriella and her husband, Pepe were so friendly and since we were the only table in the place until 8pm they kept stopping by and talking. The food? Fabulous!

There is no menu at this restaurant because what's she serving is whatever was at the market. Translation? She won't commit to a menu because if it's not fresh it won't be served here. After picking our table, Meriella came over and asked what would we like. She gave us options of "sea food" or "land food." Land food, I found interesting also included veggies. So I'm a seafood, plant land food person. Chickens are also land food since they are found on land...even on rare occasion that they fly.

As you can see, we had quite the antipasti collection: bruschetta (broos-ke-ta), grilled veggies, stuffed cuttlefish, sardines, belt fish, stuffed zucchini blossoms (YUM), octopus, calamari on a stick, shrimp. We did the sea food route and it was fabulous. I think when I ate the calamari the words "it tastes like home" escaped my mouth.  Fish that I normally wouldn't try (sardines) were yummy soaked in vinegar and then drizzled with olive oil then dusted with dried chili pepper. Cuttlefish are surprisingly sweet and just may become part of my diet now that I'm over the fact that they are one of my favorite displays at the aquarium...please don't tell me they are on the watch list!

After all those amazing tastes of fish paired perfectly with basil, tomato, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mint, garlic, mint, pine nuts, or chili pepper we decided we had room for primi piatti, although the idea of skipping to secondi piatti which is typically a protein like sea bass was rather tempting. Again, after Meriella listed our options the fresh seafood sounded amazing so we ordered pasta alle vongole (pasta with claims) and a fabulous fat, chewy noodle that name escapes me today but the translation in English mean "splat" because of the sound it makes when you put it in water to cook it. Maybe it wasn't "splat" but pick one of those onomatopoeias, translate it into Italian and then you'll have the name of the pasta. I believe it's one of the local shapes of this region. At any rate it was fabulous topped with tomato sauce, eggplant, and cheese.

That's where we ended this meal. After Meriella learned I was moving to the area she told me to stop by for un caffe or another meal. I have a feeling this will be a regular place for me, at least when people are in town. She also offers cooking lessons! Yep. I should just ask for a part time job of sous chef on the weekends.

A quick walk around the corner and we were back at Cynthia's place. Granted, if I live in the kitchen apartment my walk would be about 5 minutes more...okay, maybe 10 after all that food and up hill, but that just means I could have had another stuffed baby cuttlefish!

End of this stay-cation's first day. How great is it to live within an hour of amazing locations?

I woke up and found myself in Italy...

When my alarm went off at 0500 I was going to scream, but when I realized I had less than an hour to be out the door to wait for the shuttle I didn't have that choice. After another rough night (thanks for all the facebook comments by the way) a quick chug of coffee propelled me out the door.

In the cool yet semi muggy morning, as the sun was just making its daily appearance I realized that I was actually awake. On the bus ride to base we passed strawberry fields which instantly transported me back to Davis Road and if that wasn't a happy enough moment for me we then passed the sign that made my entire day. On the side of a building I kid you not, it said "O.G Follow Me" with a picture of a horse next to it. {Side note time just so I can catch everyone up to speed. I'm called SB for Sea Biscuit by 2 of my friends- OG and GWB. There is more of a story behind it but basically at one point of my life when we were running together I'd go sprinting off like I was at the Kentucky Derby...some how post ACL surgery this name still stuck. Anyway, you're now caught up.} So the significance of seeing OG with a horse was probably just something that OG, GWB and I can relate to but trust me...it made my day.

Work was anything but....however I'm happy to report that my badge worked all but one time when trying to get to my office. And I was the first one there! It's always fabulous to be the first one there when you rely on everyone else to tell you what to do and you have no computer access, but you know, there are always DTS manuals to skim and coffee to consume. After a command picture & meeting with HR the sky basically opened and dumped all the possible water it could and even threw some lightning and thunder in for theatrics. I of course reported this back to my dungeon...er office since they were clueless about the weather change.

The highlight of "work" today was meeting with the big boss...who really isn't a boss but as a Navy Captain we're there to support him and he's a nice guy so it won't be that tough to do. At any rate, as we swapped stories and the inevitable "are you married?" question was asked I told him no. What was cool about this guy though was he actually told me about 2 other single girls around my age in the same group that I should link up with and one slightly older Italian speaking lady also in our group. I may be getting some friends before too long...assuming they aren't always TDY. And the best part??? I don't have to use 3948320947320 codes to go see them since we're in the same office space!

Okay, that's the boring stuff of the day, so if you made it this far- congrats! Now let me tell you about the Italy I actually saw today:

Today kicked off my housing search. I met up with Roberto, your stereotypical Italian male probably in his late 30s that works for the housing office. He's lived in the Naples area his entire life (with his parents for most of it until he was married) and he is looking to buy a house eventually in one of the communities before too long. We drove off to Pozzuoli to look at 2 places- one apartment and one single unit. First off, the views at both places were amazing from the hill, well volcano they were on. Seriously, check out that link and that view of the ocean and islands could be from my living room/front yard. The city has a Roman amphitheater used for concerts in the summer that was pretty amazing looking even now. The trash in the streets (freshly moved by all the rain rushing down the hills) didn't really sell the location...but I was assured that with the newly elected mayor of Naples change should happen soon.

It's not until you're actually here and looking at these places do you believe what you've been told about places: no closets, lots of doors, heaters in every room, more bathrooms than bedrooms. So some of these things are strange, but I'm telling you the tiles and colors are so beautiful! The first apartment I looked at was all blue and white in the living room and kitchen. The rooms (3) we a tad on the small side, even for the little furniture I have, but I was almost willing to over look that with the view! The second place, was also a 3 bedroom place on a vineyard property with 3 other houses and the landlords. Super safe...like 3 if not 4 gates to get to it, protected in the back corner on this hill and far enough away from the sulfur smell...but it had been built at an angle so the hall way almost made me sick when walking through it. Also, the master bedroom was more of a triangle than a square....just odd if you ask me!

After only feeling like I was going to die 3 times on the road....we made it back. After a fabulous workout in the gym (sporting my hot pink top in a sea of black) I was an ATP burning machine and ready for my first legit meal out with my coworkers and some of their kids at 7pm. When we got there we were the only ones there! Dinner really does start late and that's crazy since our meal seriously lasted 3 hours.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of dinning in Italy, let me share with you just how it worked:

We showed up, were seated and bottles of wine and water were delivered to us with basket of bread. Yum-o...No carb left behind right? While we were still working through introductions the table was filled with plates and trays signaling the kick off of our epic meal with glazed carrots, sliced zuchinni with garlic, proscuitto, eggplant parmesan, something fried with tomatoes and potatoes in it, something starch and fried, beans, mushrooms...and that's just what I remember! Apparently since we were Americans they brought all these dishes out at once, but typically they only bring one out at a time. That could easily add 2 hours to the meal. My plate looked like it either came from a potluck or belonged to a judge from a tasting competition. I think I liked just about everything...but the eggplant parmesan was the clear winner of this course. What can I say, I love my veggies!

Once we did a fair amount of damage to those plates, in over an hours time span I was pretty full. It's amazing how eating slow really does fill you up & when you have to taste everything that's a lot of food- did you not just read the list? ...but we were just getting started!

Plates were cleared and I think that's when the pasta showed up. The first one was a shell filled with yummy goodness (I think it was a cheesy/meaty mixture) smothered in red sauce...squisito! The other pasta was linguine al funghi  (mushrooms and cream) but yeah, not so much a fan....next course please!

Um, I think at this point a green salad was brought out.
Yep. Salad.
Next! Er, I mean prossimo...well I think that still works in this case but maybe something is lost in translation....

Dishes cleared and more wine delivered.

My coworkers' sons got excited for this next round- it was time for steak, pork, sausage, and cubed/fried potatoes. By this time I was crying out for my bed, but my coworker's little girl (age 6) was so entertaining. She goes to an Italian school and I asked her if she'd be my language coach. In between giggles and bites of pasta she was my entertainment so I stayed awake. Also, since it was well after 9 at this time, a few other tables were filling up around us. I totally understand why everything shuts down in the afternoon for naps now!

After another clearing of the table a tray of chocolate cones and a bottle of limoncello to finish the meal...or so we thought. After our toast good bye to the interim director and the welcome to both me and the new director another plate was placed in front of us. It looked like gelato, but turned out to be a cream puff like pastry with filling and covered in a berry frosting (that was the prettiest blu ever).

Seriously at this point, around 10pm after a long day and not so much sleep the night before, I was contemplating what my reaction would be if another course appeared. Seriously. What would you do!?!? I mean we had 10339843 items prior so why not have more than one dessert? Actually that would sum up just about all the recent dinner parties I attended before leaving California :)

My prayers were answer though and the meal was over. Talk about an experience! I'm still not completely sold on Italian food, however I think I'll be able to find some dishes I like for the time being and then branch out.

Woohoo, you made it to the end of the post. Thanks for waiting the extra day... I tried to get through it yesterday but the food coma was too severe!