Brain Food

Whoever said "absence makes the heart grow fonder" must have known what it's like to be without internet for 3 days. I never realized how much I love writing this blog until it was taken away! Which I suppose would be the cloud's silver lining. [I swear, I'm not trying to jam as many adages into one post as I can.]

Sunday was spent sleeping and studying. Yup, finals week in Italy ain't so different from finals week at home! Except for at Converse I don't walk by the Duomo on my way to take it or go to Sergio's for lunch afterwards...alright, so it's a little different.

All that studying required some serious brain food:

 Chocolate-orange yogoats

Arugula + cannellini beans + pecorino + balsamic.

My brain felt better.

My roommate Alaina's parents got here (on Mother's Day - che carina!) and generously invited all of us out to dinner with them! We went to Ristorante Aqua al 2, recommended by API and my roommate Sam who went here early on in the semester. They are known for their "samplers" - of salads, pastas, meats, and dessert. If you order a sampler, they bring you 3 different dishes, chosen at random. I split a salad sampler and a pasta sampler with my roommate. I snapped a picture of the salads, but even my beloved LuLu couldn't quite get a clear shot (stupid restaurant lighting...):

From left to right: corn with cherry tomatoes, mixed greens with tuna and capers, and fennel with chicken and radicchio. I think the fennel one was my favorite - I liked how it was hard to tell the chicken apart from the fennel, it made for an interesting presentation.

The pasta samplers were not in any way photogenic or pretty, and they were passed so quickly it wasn't worth the picture. The first pasta was fusilli (the spiral pasta) in a creamy green sauce (probably pesto) with what we think was tuna. It was good, probably my favorite of the 3. The second was farfalline (little bow ties) in a tomato sauce with mushrooms - good, but kind of blah and unimaginative. The third was a little hard to tell - it was rigatoni in a sauce that I thought was sun-dried tomatoes and eggplant but we couldn't tell if there was meat in it. I checked the menu again online and I'm pretty sure it was just veggies, but it's Italy - chi sa? (who knows?) Either way, it was very tasty - definitely had red wine in the sauce. You know that rich, deep flavor that you get when you cook with wine? Mmmm. Not just for drinking! There was a cannelloni (big tube pasta) stuffed with ricotta and spinach which was good, but again, nothing special. Not bad - but nothing I couldn't find at home pretty easily.

The meal itself was not fantabulous perse, but this was one of those instances where the atmosphere and company was so nice, it was a truly pleasant dining experience. Thank you Alaina's parents!!!

Afterwards, we went to Grom. No explanation necessary.

Melone + fiordilatte di menta (basically, creamy mint)

New May flavors!!!

I LOVED this combo!!! I've had melon with mint leaves sprinkled on top, and this was the perfect recreation of that in gelato form. I have no idea why they work so well - they are both really sweet, but I think it's something about the cool mint and the fruity melon that just...works.

Study, study, study...

~Namaste~

This, That, and Gelato

Having class on Friday completely threw me off. I had no idea what day it was. But regardless of the day's name, it was a pretty good one.

My Food & Culture class was taken outside of the classroom and into Mercato Centrale for a little taste of some on-field research! We all were sent off to walk around the market and surrounding streets and take note of what the market is selling, who is shopping, who is selling, how they are marketed, what ethnicity products are of, etc. We had to interview a vendor, which made me sooo nervous. I'm such an introvert. BUT, I interviewed a fresh produce guy who did NOT speak English and I conducted the whole thing (um, all 2 minutes of it...I couldn't think of many interesting questions) in Italian. Woohoo! It was a really interesting experience, and I really enjoyed the time to just walk around the market expressly to study it closely. Such a fascinating place. SO touristy. It's really a shame, it gets treated essentially like a museum - just another site to see for tourists. Because of Florence's traffic situation, getting to the market for non-locals is a huge pain and often just too inconvenient. It's so sad, because supporting local businesses & farms is SO important, but convenience prevails. It's definitely an issue in the U.S., but awareness seems to be growing bit by bit. It's quite the money-saver too; the amount of produce I can get at the market for about $5 is enough for most of the week for me. And I think it's so much cooler to be able to buy an apple from the person who grew it--just takes the experience of eating to a different, more personal level.

In between classes, I stopped at my favorite cafe for the best cappuccino EVER. The perfect between-class activity!

My music class also took a field trip! We went to the Accademia (home to the David) to see their special exhibit of musical instruments collected by the Medici (Ferdinando specifically, I think). It was pretty cool; there was an elderly gentleman playing one of the harpsichords! It was nice to go with my professor to, who is so knowledgeable about everything music! But, about 3/4s of the way through my body started whining at me for having 2 classes mostly on-foot and no food. Being the clever gal that I am, I went to my sandwich place between classes and snagged a sandwich, which I scarfed down the minute I got home from the museum (which is literally 2 blocks away from the apartment). No picture - it disappeared before Frida could get a word snap in edgewise, but it was the same thing as last week (with some added arugula...mmm!)

It was another BEAUTiful spring day!! 'Bout time, too. Alaina and I did a bit of shopping around town - I needed some batteries before our weekend travels! When she gets hungry, Frida shuts down. Literally. And a shut-down camera is just no good in Tuscany.

Dinner was pretty basic, mostly because it was what I had on hand:

Lentils + some kind of leafy green I bought at the market + garlic + pecorino. Simple and delish. The bread was wonderful as well - a kind of whole wheat sourdough we found at the market. Perfect paired with the lentils+cheese!

Later, after a long struggle with flakey internet, I got restless and talked my roommates into a gelato field trip! (It usually doesn't take much talking ;) I was dying to try Grom's new grapefruit sorbetto, and I was definitely in the mood. To Grom we went!

Pompelmo rosso (red grapefruit) + Limone

The grapefruit was...well, grapefruit! Grom's fruit flavors are incredible because it tastes like the exact fruit and nothing else. I looooved the lemon - like a tastier version of those Minute Maid push-up pops (which I also quite like ;)! Hit the spot.

Bit of an uneventful and low-photo post - but I promise, it is just in preparation for the weekend to come! Lucca for an olive oil tasting on Saturday followed by a soccer game back here in Florence (VAI FIORENTINA!!!!), and then a hiking tour of Cinque Terre on Sunday. Good thing I happen to be in love with Tuscany, no?

~Namaste~

Of Music and Air

April? Is that you already?? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN???

Today was SO much better than yesterday! I ended up going to bed late because of the concert, so sleep was again seriously lacking in my life. I pretty much made a beeline from the classroom back to my bed and was gone until almost 1 PM! I swear, this is the effect pre-bedtime yoga has on me. It's incredible. I'm still pretty tired even now though, so I don't think the nap was a bad thing.

We got up and went to lunch at Mario's, a Florentine institution right near the market. It was a bit of a wait, but we distracted ourselves with the pet store next door that had BUNNIES!! Aaaah, so freaking cute!! There was one on particular that I would totally get - he/she was lying on its back in the corner of the cage, paws in the air, just chillin'. 

I'm a little in love.

(photo credits to Alaina)

When we were finally called in, we quickly decided it was worth the wait. The restaurant is one little room crammed with tables where everyone sits with everyone else. The three of us were seated at a table for four, and the empty seat was quickly filled by one of their many regulars, a real estate guy named Stefano. He was really cool and chatted with us - and me in Italian a little, which always brightens my day! The atmosphere in this place was just so fun, so busy, so...Italian. Best word to describe it. And I haven't even gotten to the food!

There were hand-written signs posted above the windows that let you see into the cooking area that stated

1) They never use frozen foods.

2) They never use cream or bouillon cubes.

3) Asking for ketchup is strictly forbidden.

Love it!

I ordered the ribollita, the traditional Tuscan bread-based soup (more like a thick stew). It was awesome; I really need to try to make this again with more success! I didn't get a picture because a) I was hungry and b) I didn't want to freak out the poor stranger sitting with us, but it looked pretty similar to my first bowl of ribollita, perhaps this time a little smoother. Either way it was perfect and delicious and we are SO going back. Hasn't quite stolen my heart from Sergio's, but we're already regulars there! Mario's, however, was staffed by some reaaally cute boys...hmm....what a dilemma!

After lunch we came back and chilled. The weather is still quit indecisive - it downpoured with lightning and some earth-shaking thunder for about 30 minutes, and a couple hours later the rain came back despite the sun shining...come on, Florence. We've talked about this.

After some lazing, lounging, and looking up things to do on our adventure planned for Saturday (to be revealed, all in good time), I threw - quite literally - a salad together:

Messy picture, but it tasted good! I just loooove veggies :)

And look at my pretty tomato color spectrum!

Alaina also made pasta all'amatriciana and I felt obligated to sample, you know, to build up my food critic skills *winkwink*. She did a maaahvelous job! It's basically pasta tossed in tomato+olive oil+garlic+parsley +pancetta with parmesan cheese. She also added some sage, which [we think] added a nice hint of sweetness. Yes, it is as good as it sounds. [Click her name for pictures!]

Tonight was concert #2: Vivaldi's 4 Seasons and his Gloria. The solo violinist for the Four Seasons was absolutely incredible. As in, I kept expecting to look up and see smoke coming off her bow. I also learned that in Italy they do not give standing ovations, they just clap. And clap. And clap. I think she gave 5 bows! But she very much deserved them! Plus, the Four Seasons is just a fun piece to hear. And it was easy to see that the musicians were enjoying performing it! The Gloria was good, but nothing jaw-dropping. The choir was a little sloppy with their entrances and diction, which gets to me a little because all the choirs I have been in have been intense about everyone singing perfectly together. But the alto soloist's voice was amazing. It was so thick, rich and a little dark, like really good fudge (yes, I can and do compare everything to food.). I do love a good concert!

On my way back tonight, I decided it was gelato time. To Grom it was!

Caffe + "Crema di Grom"

Their caffe is suuuper strong and espresso-y, which I adore. Crema di Grom is basically a creamy, kind of vanilla base studded with dark chocolate slivers and some of kind amazing cornmeal shortcake biscuit. Gelato is always worth it.

Hearing concerts with singing always makes me yearn to sing myself! In case I haven't mentioned it, I am a music minor and when I got to college I changed my instrument from flute to voice and never looked back. Singing is such a liberating activity for me, and always has been. In fact, when I get really worked up, the best way to let off some steam is belting out some Broadway tunes or some of my favorite Italian arias. I have noticed in the last half year or so that I have had trouble breathing; sometimes I feel like I have to remind myself to inhale. It's quite odd. I do attribute a good bit of it to yoga, which I started practicing almost daily this fall. Yoga increases self-awareness like WHOA, especially where breath is concerned as it is such a major aspect of practice, so I know that my increased work in yoga has increased my own awareness of my body in general, which is definitely a good thing. What is not so good is that it has lead me to suspect that one of the big reasons I seem to have this breathing issue is my almost unconscious need to suck in my stomach, one of the many lingering side-effects of my brush with ED (eating disorder). It pisses me off that I am still so anxious about my physical appearance that I would subconsciously deprive myself of air to "look thinner." Um, thinner may be considered more attractive, but turning blue from lack of oxygen? Not so hot. But to go back to singing (I swear, my ramble has a point), I was thinking tonight that I did not have this breath problem when I was practicing singing more often; it was more automatic to me to breath "correctly" because that is about 85% of what singing is. So, all this to say, I am going to start practicing again when I come home to see if my hypothesis that singing=better breathing in general is right. I hope my household likes my voice!

I'm very excited because tomorrow I am going to a farm in San Gimignano for my cooking class (hence the lack of class today)!!! We will be there for lunch, and you can bet that Frida will be coming along for the ride. Not entirely sure what to expect - but that makes it all the more exciting, no?!

~Namaste~

P.S. If you love peeps [like me!], you MUST see this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/03/29/GA2010032903934.html?sid=ST2010032904380

 Too. Effing. Cute.