Rain, Rain, Vattene!

Monday was a generally unpleasant day, with one notable exception...

Prosciutto, pecorino, and arugula. Worth staying awake through my classes for.

That, however, was an exceptionally difficult task considering we got back to Florence via taxi from Pisa at 2:30. More than once I had to physically struggle to keep my eyelids up. 

But enough of my whining. THE END IS NEAR!!! It is our last week of classes, then exams and then home! I'm still in a state of semi-denial about this whole' leaving Florence' situation. Let's not talk about it.

Let's talk about oats!

Mmm, chocolate-pineapple oats to be exact. Maybe it sounds weird, but really it makes sense - every chocolate fountain I've encountered is usually accompanied by strawberries, pound cake chunks, and pineapple! If you haven't tried this combo, you must - whip out that fondue pot collecting dust in your basement and get to it! Heck, just nuke some chocolate chips in a bowl and dip some pineapple in there. I am a chocolate+fruit fiend. Especially in terms of gelato combos...mmmmm....

It has yet to cease raining here since we've returned from our Spanish vacation. We're thinking Florence is sad we're leaving soon. Yup, that's definitely it.

Last night was our LAST Ethnic Tuesday! Che peccato! And what better way to do up our last one than with...pizza?

We actually discussed the interesting nature of pizza recently in my Food & Culture class. It has become an "archetype food," meaning a food with no specific identity and neutral characteristics. Think about it - we have Thai Chicken pizza, Hawaiian pizza, Mexican pizza...it crosses every ethnic boundary line! So really, it's the perfect choice for our final Ethnic Tuesday. It covers every ground!

We've had Gusta Pizza on the list for a while (and yes, I have an actual Excel spreadsheet of restaurants to go to) because it is rumored to be the best pizza in Florence. That certainly sounds like a challenge made for the ladies of The Palace! It was pouring down rain, and the restaurant was across the Arno - but we do not let Mother Nature stand in the way of pizza. We called a cab. Totally worth it.

There are only 7 different pizzas made (and a couple daily specials), which we all agreed was kind of nice - sometimes looong menus are just too overwhelming! After much debate, I went with the Napoli - tomato, mozzarella, capers, and anchovies. It was the anchovies that did it - Italy has made me an addict ;)

Melty mozzarella deliciousness :)

It was saltier than I would have liked - and before you say it, yes I know anchovies are capers are salty, but actually the anchovies I've had here haven't been overwhelmingly so. I still enjoyed it. How can you tell? I ate the entire thing. Crust and all. Yes, it was that good. And I don't regret a single bite.

Today the weather matched our mood...our LAST Wednesday lunch at Sergio's!!! WAAAAAH!!

Alaina's parents are coming next week and Alaina is taking them there on Monday for lunch and I'm tagging along (for blatantly obvious reasons), so it's not our true last lunch there, but it is the end of our Wednesday lunch date tradition, and that is sad. We all sat around with our pasta e fagioli with mournful looks on our faces between bites.

From this...

To this. No better tribute could be paid than that of an empty plate.

Tonight, LdM is hosting a farewell sit-down dinner for us - and where free food beckons, we follow. Until then, I'm getting my study on for the written part of my cooking final tomorrow. Antioxidants, phytochemicals, and homocysteine, oh my!

~Namaste~

Thoughts for Food

If you're wondering where the heck I've been for the past couple of days...well, to be honest, I've been right here. I've been a BUSY bee! Sunday was spent writing my massive research paper on food blogs. But not before breakfast happened! We're all starting to feel more or less ready to come home, and this weekend was the perfect opportunity to go to something we've been planning for a while - Sunday brunch! The notion of pancakes has never made me so excited.

Please notice that 1) this syrup is from the mythical land of VERTmont, not Vermont...hmm, I wonder if the Vertmont maple trees are better? and 2) that little bit of text on the bottom there says "Product of Canada." Well, wherever Vertmont, Canada is - Italy likes your syrup. I however was unimpressed. But I was so happy about pancakes & syrup, it wasn't all about taste.

And neither were the pancakes. Flimsy, flat, uninspired. I think they only made me crave real pancakes more...nevertheless, the brunch experience was fun. Under no other circumstances would paying $15 for 4 subpar pancakes be worth it, except for this particular one. Sometimes food isn't about the flavor, but more for the experience that comes with it. Which is really what I love about it--food is not just about staying alive and thriving. It has symbols and meanings attached to it, it's an event in and of itself. It's just so cool, once you start thinking about it.

Which I clearly do all the time, because then I come here and ramble on about to to you :)

I swear paper writing burns calories. It's like a marathon for your BRAIN. And my brain started to get hungry.

All things bright green and beautiful!

I bought some grapes at the grocery store because I needed a new fruit, and my salad was sadly lacking in color, so I figured, what the heck! Let's throw some grapes on there! I love strawberries in salad - with balsamic vinegar, they are to live for - so I figured grapes couldn't be too far off. They weren't but I think my allergies have stuffed me up enough to not be able to really taste things. The sweetness complimented the beans very nicely though. 

After several hours of slooooow-going research, I needed a break. No better excuse for gelato.

Sorbetto al cioccolato (chocolate sorbet - no milk), soia alla vaniglia (soy vanilla), and coffee crunch!

The chocolate sorbet was perfect. I like it better than regular ice cream because it tastes darker and more like rich cocoa powder - I'm a hard core dark chocolate girl. No milk for me - the darker the better! The soy vanilla was wonderful, as expected - such a unique, creamy and sweet flavor! The vanilla is very present but there is a nuttiness to it that just makes it fun to eat. The coffee crunch was phenomenal - good coffee ice cream, not too sweet or strong, with these wonderful little bits of chocolate-coated-crispy-cookie-something or other that was just....mmmmmmm. No words. Just the one letter.

And then, a couple more hours passed, and it was time for dessert #2. Don't judge.

I had one chocolate left from our trip to the Perugina store in Perugia, and it was calling to me...or maybe I just started hearing things after becoming absorbed into paperland. Either way, surrender to chocolate is always a good choice.

Does that say mousse??? Could this be true?

They can't possibly have put actual chocolate mousse into that little thing...

or could they?

...OH YES THEY COULD!!

A little bite of fluffy, cocoa-y heaven in the palm of my hand. A spoon full of sugar may help the medicine go down...but a truffle full of mousse helps the research paper get written!

Alright, so I've been talking about this paper a LOT. It wasn't so much hard to write as it was to organize. I was researching food blogs, their recent popularity and what it says about the role food plays in Western society. (Hence all the food rambling.) It didn't turn out as groundbreaking as I wanted it to, which is usually how most of my papers go, but it was finished. I pulled my first all-nighter on it, actually. I just kept going and then before I knew it was 6 AM, the birds were chirping and the sun was rising. 

I would stay up all night while I'm in Florence writing a paper. What can I say, I'm a geek. Don't hate.

I actually wasn't sleepy at all, until I got to class of course. But it was actually kind of nice. I did some yoga, made some oats:

Banana-cinnamon oats + pineapple yogurt. Wicked good. (Told you I was getting a little homesick!) 

Class was a little rough, but Food & Culture is always a fun class to go to, and I had the prospect of this guy to look forward to:

Finocchiona  (fennel-spiked salami) + pecorino. I think I actually closed my eyes eating this it was so good. 

It was definitely a day for nap in the sun at the park. And so I did.

Alaina and, being the [fabulous] control-freak foodies that we are scheduled out all the restaurants we have left to go to, and because of an event this Tuesday night preventing us from doing Ethnic Tuesday, we went out tonight! Ethnic Tuesday-->Italian Monday. We checked out a cute little trattoria on the street that our school is on that I have been dying to try. And my major advisor--the one who told us about Sergio's--also recommended it. Plus, we got to sit outside, and the weather is finally making that a very appealing option :)

I went with the spaghetti with fresh clams:

It was good, but HUGE - too much pasta! The clams were alright, I think it's just that they don't do much for me. I have no qualms eating them, but I always find them more or less flavorless. Mussels on the other hand rock my seafood-lovin socks:)

Tonight, however, was another instance of food as an experience. Sitting outside, sipping wine and chatting with friends over a meal made it a wonderful dinner, even if the food itself wasn't the best I've had (which is not to say I didn't enjoy it - it's a challenge to eat badly in Italy!). 

Isn't it cute? A very enjoyable meal.

Tuesday is looking to be more or less eventful, and I hope to be saner and write less scattered schizo post...stay tuned ;)

This Just In...

To start, an announcement:

Jamie Oliver, a chef with a couple shows on Food Network (who happens to be very attractive and has an adorable British accent), has started a campaign to bring healthy, nutritious foods to schools in the U.S. and to revive cooking within our communities. I think it's hugely important - now is the time to start making changes in the way our country handles food! Read more about it here and sign the petition! Every single person gets it one step closer to reality - and I'm thinking the Obamas would dig it, too!

What have I been up to after this wonderful weekend? School, food, the usual. Although there is not much that is "usual" about taking a Food & Culture class or eating fresh pasta and gelato...oh, how my idea of what is 'normal' has shifted. Won't make going home easy, that's for sure.

Monday means sandwich day! To Casa del Vino I went, and today I took the plunge and tried a new one:

I promise, looks are deceiving - this was t-a-s-t-Y!

It was sausage (salsiccia) mixed with stracchino, a very soft creamy cheese that has the consistency of a kind of cottage cheese or yogurt. It was a really interesting combination - the sausage had a kind of cinnamony, spice-y sweetness that played off the slightly sour (not in a bad way) taste of the cheese. I likened this to the Italian take on a lox & cream cheese on a bagel - salsiccia e stracchino on schiacciata (the bread)! I did enjoy it, but it was by no means my favorite I've had there. What can I say, no cheese can compare to the all-mighty pecorino in my book. 

In my last post I mentioned the Bacio ('kiss' in Italian), a chocolate made by the Italian company Perugina from the city of Perugia I visited on Sunday. Well, here it is, up close and personal:

All wrapped up!

Notice the whole hazelnut lump...

And there you have it. I hope my first kiss is as good as this one!

Although it's not my favorite combo in the world, the Italian obsession with chocolate + hazelnut is pretty amazing. I think mint still wins my heart, but this is nothing to shrug at. Good chocolate never is.

I tried another type of Perugina, called a perla (pearl):

It's basically a Lindt Lindor truffle twin, but this was dark chocolate outside and had a strong hazelnutty hint to it that just led me to truffle heaven!

Chocolate = medicine.

Actually, that it was my presentation on Monday was all about - the ancient medicinal uses of cacao! It was really interesting and a lot of fun to learn about. It was only a beverage until the 1800s and believed to do everything from aiding digestion to curing infections. In fact, for a while it wasn't even considered a "food" - there was a text from 1645 that said it was permissible to drink chocolate during a Christian fast, as long as it wasn't mixed with "foods" like eggs or milk. Cool, right? I'm a chocolate fountain (ha!) of inspiration!

In other food news, tell me this isn't some of the prettiest lettuce you've ever seen:

It's called sorghino. I can't make it to the market on Mondays because of classes and the grocery store was clean out of arugula, so I went for this kind because...well, it's awfully perty. More or less tasteless, but makes  for some photogenic salads:

Mmmmm....veggies = love!

Unfortunately, I ended up going to bed very late on Sunday and the same happened Monday night, and all that plus the mild scratchy throat/cough led to my executive decision to sleep in today and skip class. It was really frustrating because I actually wanted to go to class - we're starting a part of Italian that I learned but still find a little confusing - but somehow I was able to silence the perfectionist who wants perfect attendance and stay where I was. I may or may not regret, but I can't help feeling a teeny bit proud that I listened to my body and put it's health in front of class because when it's all said and done, I won't ever regret taking precautions against sickness. I feel SO much less worn down!

Yoga today was good - I got closer to headstand and was up for about a nanosecond before tumbling straight down. I will get there, slowly and surely. I did do a successful crow for a solid second and a half:

I was pretty excited!

[Just a disclaimer, I am by no means trying to brag or show off "what I can do" - I just thought if you don't know yoga well, you probably want to know what the heck I am talking about!]

I've been working on it for several weeks and isn't it just a fun feeling to accomplish something you've been inching towards?

For Ethnic Tuesday, we went for an old classic - Italian! My roommate found this jazz club-restaurant, Caruso, when another restaurant was too busy and raved about it, so we had to go! 

I got:

Tagliatelle (fresh pasta) with zucchini and tiny shrimp

It was delicious!!! A little too salty, but otherwise wonderful. The pasta was well-cooked - I can't stand overcooked pasta - and the shrimp added a fishy taste that was not at all overwhelming but was juuuust the right touch. Plus, they were fun to eat - they're so cute and little! They definitely pack a flavor punch, though. My roommate Alaina got a pizza and I may or may not have helped her out with the last large slice...it was thin crust and gooooood tomato sauce...just how I like my pizzas. I will be honest, pizza here is not a big thing, and I haven't had any that I would say are better than what I can get at home. Bertucci's has some of the best ever [New Englanders, take note!]! The jazz music playing on the stereo added a really nice atmosphere, and paired with a little wine, it was a very successful dinner.

But let's be real, no dinner can be truly successful without...

The ubiquitous gelato.

I passed a place near our school that we've been to before, and this week I noticed they were offering GREEN TEA!!! I adore green tea ice cream (and the tea itself - I usually drink a cup a day!). The best I have ever had is at a place in Greenville, South Carolina (next city over from my college) called The Blueberry Frog. My cousin is good friends with the owner, who created the recipes all by himself! It is one of those "tart" frozen yogurt places a la pinkberry or Red Mango that are popping up right and left, but his place definitely takes a place above the rest. It is a non-negotiable stop when I am in Greenville. ANYway, clearly I had to try the gelato version of it! So I talked my roommates into going for dessert. [And by talked into, I mean I talked them into going to this particular place for gelato - gelato after dinner is pretty much a given with us!]

I got the green tea and a kind that was flavored with a brand of juice that is really popular here [my roommate drinks it all the time] called YOGA juice!!! I know, too perfect, right? The flavor is a mix of blueberry, apple, pomegranate, and a variety of other fruits. I loved it - it was very sherbet-y and mixed SO well with the green tea! The green tea itself was a little underwhelming - a little too creamy and didn't have a strong enough tea flavor. I am not a tea-with-milk type of girl - I drink it straight up, pure and unadulterated! But the combo of the two was perfect!

So, I have a massive research paper due next Monday for my Food & Culture class, and we got to choose the topic. What could I possibly have picked? Food blogs, of course! That said, I am hoping to use Gillianasana as one of my research tools, so I hope you as a reader don't mind if I ask some questions in the next few days? I don't have the paper as well outlined as I'd like, so I have to get that down first. I'm excited to write it though, because I think it's such a fascinating and novel entity in the gastronomic world!

Alrighty, bed time for this yogini. I may or may not be doing something incredibly exciting tomorrow and I may or may not be able to discuss it on here for a while...vague? Who, me?

Ciao ciao!

~Namaste~

Yogalicious

As well as I am doing, I cannot say the same about our Internet. It's flakier than pastry. And I am not much for pastry.

On the other hand, there is not a whole lot to update about. April is not only a crazy month travel-wise, but school-wise as well - I have 2 presentations and a paper due next Monday and a massive research paper due the next Monday, and with my parents' arrival next week and an impending trip to Siena this weekend, I'm a bit overwhelmed. Please forgive me if my posts are rather less prolific this week!

It occurred to, in thinking about all my to-dos, that during the school year all I say to myself is "just get through this week, month, assignment, etc" and I started thinking that here - but I had to stop myself. I want every minute here to last as looong as possible and I will not let looming schoolwork take away any of the fun and happiness this trip has left in store for me. Yes, I do want to do well because a lot of these assignments are actually very interesting (a presentation on chocolate? yes please!), but I don't want their enormity to stress me out to a point where I forget where I am. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I plan on continuing to treat it as such. So there, perfectionist-me!

Ok, back to FOOD. Remember the yummy fennel-spiked salami I had at the olive oil tasting in Lucca? Well, I found it at none other than Casa del Vino, my Monday sandwich spot! I almost tried a new sandwich, but I saw 'finocchiona' on the list and had to have it. With pecorino, of course. 

Yup, just as amazing as I thought it would be. 

I promise, I will get it again and describe it as I eat it to try to nail the flavor a little more. Gosh, ordering this again--now that's a challenge. NOT.

After classes, most of my day was spent battling with the Internet to try and get some of the mountain of research I have to do done [it didn't end well for the research]. Dinner was a salad and soft-boiled egg on toast, unpictured because, well, they're not exactly the most thrilling things to photograph.

Speaking of photography, I'm getting a new camera!!!!! My dad is bringing Frida's replacement when they come next week. I'm so excited! Expect lots of "I have a new camera omg" pictures.

I think the all that intense hiking on Sunday followed by a mostly-sedentary Monday really took a toll on my body, and I was really feeling it last night. Though it was late, I decided to do a little yoga before hitting the sack. I need to do this more often! Though I didn't get much sleep at all, I have a ton more energy today than usual and waking up was a lot easier! It felt sooo good, too. I know I have had a lot of good food, but yoga may be the yummiest thing ever.

After Italian and a quick trip to the market, I headed home for some much-needed oats:

Hide-and-seek eat!

And here's lunch:

Fresh arugula + cukes + pecorino and good balsamic vin + olive oil. Sooooo yummy :)

The weather has gone a bit downhill since last week's perfect spring warmth, but honestly I'm not too upset because I need every excuse to stay in and get work done before the weekend whisks me away! I would very much appreciate warmer weather though. Sitting in the kitchen with the windows wide open is such a wonderful feeling. *insert sigh of contentment here*

Yoga was actually a bit intense tonight, but that's generally a good thing. We tried head stand for the first time. I have tried it before but have yet to get all the way up. The end result looks something like this:

Was certainly not going to happen on my first shot, but I got farther than expected. It takes a lot of balance. I am slowly improving my crow, though:

It's actually really fun to try! I can stay up for at most one second, but one of my favorite things about yoga is that it doesn't matter how well you able to physically execute a pose so much as that you are trying and slowly working up to it. And this is surprisingly easier than it looks! One of the best things about this yoga class here is that it has taught me new poses I probably would have been too hesitant to try on my own--yoga is all about the individual journey, but I do think it's important to start out with a teacher because injuries can happen if the pose isn't done correctly. 

After yoga, it was Ethnic Tuesday time! Tonight the roomies and I set our culinary sights on Ruth's Kosher Vegetarian Food, a Jewish restaurant near the synagogue. The main reason for our going here was 1 thing: hummus. All 4 of us love it and miss it terribly (we can't find it sold anywhere!), and we were pretty excited about getting reacquainted with this chickpea-tahini delight.

This place was so cute! Quite small inside, with a cute little old man as the owner/waiter. We got hummus to share:

[Excuse the blur!]

Eaten with Tuscan bread. Fusion food at its finest!

I ordered tabbouleh, which is a kind of grain salad made with bulgar, parsley, onion, bell pepper, and olive oil.

It was delicious - especially mixed with hummus! I happily devoured it.

Alright, back to work - I'm giving a presentation on chocolate in my Food & Culture class next Monday! The research is actually pretty interesting. There have been a lot of cool studies done on chocolate! I wanted to take my presentation in a sociological direction & talk about chocolate as a comfort food, but I'm having surprising difficulty finding good solid stuff about it, and it is starting to feel a bit overambitious with everything else going on, so we shall see...I'll report with some fun facts that I find!

~Namaste~

Back in Action

So, Spring break broke. But it was a good one! Lots of sleep, yoga, gelato, and gorgeous Tuscan landscapes. Perfetto!

Yesterday was mostly spent cleaning - swept the whole apartment! Eventually I got a little stircrazy and had to get OUT and enjoy the lovely spring weather! Had to complete the picture with some gelato:

Straciatella al caffe (coffe chocolate chip) + tiramisu. GREAT combo.

I went to Piazza Santa Croce and sat on a bench while I read the homework that I may or may not have forgotten about...It was so nice! The weather, the musicians playing, the CUTE dogs...wonderful way to get homework done. I took the long way home and walked by a church on my street and there must have been a wedding!

RAINBOW RICE!!! Sweet!

When I got back, my roommate wasn't far behind! We decided to end Spring Break on a high note and go out to one of the many recommended restaurants nearby. We split a baby bottle of wine to go with our respective meals. I went with an appetizer + side dish, which I really like to do because the portion ends up being just right!

Crostini (toasted or grilled bread) with 3 different toppings

The one closest to the camera was a pate of sorts, not sure what animal, but sometimes I think it's best to not ask questions. Above that was a tomato-onion something or other that included raisins - I wasn't a big fan of that one, too sweet! At the top was an amazing smoked eggplant-garlic-oil thing that my roommate and I had NO problem polishing off. Mmmm, eggplant. I also ordered a side of cooked spinach - needed something to balance out the bread! I just love spinach. Especially in smoothies...it sounds weird, but you really can't taste the spinach. It just turns the smoothie green and boosts the nutritional value. I miss those Green Monsters!

Today it was back to the grind. I got a solid A on my Food & Culture mid-term, yayayayay!! I love that class. And I better keep lovin it - I have a presentation and a 10-page research paper due for it this month! Eeek.

A good breakfast was definitely necessary to start back:

Banana yogoat float!
Sliced banana + raw oats + vanilla yogurt. Hard to go wrong when using good ingredients!

I went to the market after my Food & Culture class (my music class was canceled because we are going to 2 concerts this week) and picked up some necessities. 3 apples & 3 pears for 96 cents!!! So exciting. Also, yummy fresh bread:

Pane alla soia - soy bread? I like it a lot! It has an almost sweet(?) flavor...hard to describe. Other than...yum.

I picked up lunch (at Casa del Vino, of course):

Prosciutto and pecorino. Simple. Amazing.

Seriously, this took "ham and cheese" to a whole new level. It might even be my favorite, just because it was so simple yet soooo tasty.
I ate it on the steps of the Brancacci Chapel, on the other side of the Arno.

A lunch with a view!

I actually went in the Brancacci Chapel today! (I tried to go over Spring Break but it was closed.) It was lovely. So peaceful.

Frescoes surrounded the courtyard (you can see in the picture below this one).

A little sunny courtyard inside. I sat there forever, sunbathing and listening to the birds chirping. Made for a lovely afternoon.
Though the courtyard was my favorite part, the Chapel wasn't bad either:

A pieta of sorts in the chapel entrance.

The chapel is currently being restored, so there wasn't much space to walk around. That, and Frida was PMSing and losing battery power. Hence, the subpar pics. But it was pretty!

Yes, lots of camera frustration. What really bugs me is that I get so annoyed over the fact that ever single picture I get is blurry and unrecignizable, that I forget where I am -- as in, I have to remind myself to step back and say "whoa. I'm in a centuries-old, beautifully painted chapel in Florence and I'm not even appreciating it. Put. The camera. DOWN." And I did. Damned if I'll let technology take away a what should be an enjoyable experience!

I walked home after that, enjoying the great spring weather - finally too warm for my coat!

I got hungry pretty early and whipped this baby up:

Lentils, a small onion, a couple cherry tomatoes, and a TON of spinach. I needed to use it up! Seasoned it with a little rosemary, sage, S&P and pecorino romano. A little boring I suppose, but I liked it! Especially after I added some dijon mustard for a little kick.
It's harder for me to experiment a lot with cooking here because I don't have many spices to work with - I adore trying different spice combos. It is so interesting to me how something so small can completely manipulate the flavor(s) of a dish!

I was very good last night about getting to bed. I am trying so hard to get in bed before midnight the nights before I have Italian because it makes getting up and getting through my day SO much easier. Unfortunately, very little actual sleep happened, so I'm pretty exhausted today. I came right back and took a quick nap before meeting the girl I practice Italian with, and then came home for breakfast/lunch. It's grey and chilly today (I would love to know where that spring weather went!), but I felt quite accomplished yesterday, and so I'm okay with today being a little less active. I have yoga tonight and then it's time for Ethnic Tuesday dinner with the roomies! I believe we are planning on Indian tonight - woohoo!!!

On my walk home yesterday, I had a moment where all of a sudden I thought "Whoa. I'm in Italy right now. Living here. How did this happen!!" It's odd, I adapted to life here so quickly, I suppose it didn't fully sink in. And maybe it won't totally sink in until I am able to look at it in retrospect. I don't know how exactly I got so lucky, but I do know that I am in total awe and gratitude that I did.
I've been asking myself a lot, "How do I leave this place?" I don't just mean hopping on a plane; I'm talking about leaving the lifestyle here that I've become so happily accustomed to, the sights and sounds, the food. I'm so attached, I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to walk away. But, I know I will figure it out. And I suspect I will end up with a deeper respect for the cultures of both here and my home. It's going to be interesting, to say the least.

I have a presentation (on CHOCOLATE!) due soon, so I think I will put my sleepy brain to work before yoga. A domani!

~Namaste~