Wednesday/Today

A timely update? yep!

Today began with a roommates trip to the trattoria in our neighborhood. It was Giuseppe’s idea. We ran into Aneet and Alison coming back from food shopping on the way there and then were run into by Liz and Anna, who were buying food from the same trattoria. When I came back to our building, I went to the girls’ apartment to sit and chat with all four of them post-lunch. Then Anna and I had our first (and probably not last) Lost viewing. Food Writing ended rather quickly. We spent more time discussing our plans for the summer and future food writing than on actual class discussion. I came home and read some more of High Fidelity (borrowed from Le Donne interNazionale) while finishing off the biscotti and Vin Santo they gave me for my birthday. Italian surprisingly flew by even though it was the last class of the day and the last class before a long weekend. No leather pants or overtly sexual music today, but we did get a brief lesson in Klingon and how its structure is similar to some Native American languages. For real. I couldn’t make this shit up.

Anyway classes are over, so I’m off to Swedish aperitivo with Sergio and some of the girls. And then Jack and Juan are having a party tonight... originally intended as a Sunday brunch and then postponed to a Sunday night gathering, and finally postponed to a Thursday night long-weekend kickoff. Call me for details if you want to go.

If there are no updates for a few days, it’s because I’ll be getting somewhere or will be getting lost in Amsterdam, as Guster sings.

TGI Tuesday?

Yesterday was pretty uneventful until I finally took Julia’s advice on “the best aperitivo” and went to Kitsch with Anna, Alison and Liane tagging along. It was good. We liked the drinks, the bartender, the food, the place, and even the slideshow projection on one wall. After that, we went back to Liane and Alison’s to drink vodka and play Thumper and Buzz. Liane made a comment about how she wishes she’d birthed Mindy, and I made a similar one about wishing I’d fathered her. Then she and I also contemplated what our child would look like if we ever had one. We settled on Mindy. We also realized it would be a very messed-up child, having a pothead mother and an alcoholic father and all. But it would be damn good at foosball, with both her offensive and my defensive skills. After that, we went “barhopping” several times between our favorite cultural association and my favorite bar, beginning with all the girls except Liz and adding Agata, her friends, Sergio, his friends, Domenico, Morten, and Thomas to our party in the process.

the freakin' weekend

Since Friday’s day trip had turned into a 24-hour marathon and I somehow woke up Saturday after only four hours in bed, the rest of the day was devoted to inexplicably sleepless recuperation.

Since Cassie’s roommates were gone for the weekend, she decided to host a potluck dinner party at her apartment, or rather her apartment building. It’s populated entirely with students and is rather like a dorm without an RA. Doors wide open, music blasting, smoke billowing, glass bottles clinking. Pretty awesome. Everyone delivered on the food and wine, so dinner was pretty awesome. It was served in her apartment, but we ate on the upstairs terrace, which is directly across from the church of San Lorenzo and overlooks its piazza. Between those locations, the guys-next-door’s apartment with the hookah, and the abandoned department store on the lower floor, the party was pretty hopping.

Small world syndrome again: I met another of Adrian’s friends. A kid named Nick, who is an alum St. Anselm’s and was Adrian’s conspirator Monsieur D’Arque in Visi’s production of Beauty & The Beast. Craziness.

Juan and I walked Helen and Marissa home close to the end of the party, and they gave me their birthday “pressie.” It’s one of those perfect gifts that the recipient would love to have but never buy for himself: crisp-outer-layer-soft-inside biscotti with almond slivers and a bottle of Vin Santo. It’s from the finest bakery in Florence. You dip the cookies in the sweet wine, a popular local dessert. We ate it accordingly after the girls heated up some pasta, which was amazing: Spaghetti with cream, sun-dried tomatoes, and porcini and button mushrooms. And of course Helen made a few proper cups of tea.

After that, Juan and I grabbed the remaining party guests (Jack, Anna, Joe, and gracious hostess Cassie) for a few quick games of pool at our favorite cultural association.
Sunday I actually slept in… and slept in well. I got online at the bar (café) and watched the Fiorentina game and caught up on e-mails and such. Anna and I then walked over to Cassie’s to join her and a bunch of friends on the terrace for beer, candy, chocolates, hookah, and vodka. Good times. At sunset, which came rather quickly – really past 8:30 but I woke up really late – Anna and I went to The House of Sizzle to break Passover. (We did stop by our building to have a primo piatto of eggplant pasta.) I got a "ranch burger" with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and egg. Anna had asked for bacon on her burger, so the waiter offered some to me too. What a perfect burger. It was like a combination of breakfast and lunch for dinner. Jack and Juan joined us eventually for burgers and fries. And ketchup, which I’ve missed. Then we met up with some of the usual suspects at the cultural association for some really intense foosball (seriously) and, of course, drinks.

Monday our food styling class lesson of the day was “Cooking with Liquid Nitrogen.” My thoughts immediately turned to a famous scene at the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. But then our teacher referenced that same scene if anyone was unfamiliar with LN. Nitrogen has a subzero boiling point and consequently freezes anything it comes in contact with before it evaporates into gas. Since it boils when exposed to regular air, you can “fry” things in it – really freezing them. We made ice cream and, with the help of the LN, froze it in less than five minutes. One of the funnier moments of class was when Andrea (our teacher) was opening the tank of it and said “Andrew, don’t stand there” (meaning in the path of the gas/ice “smoke” like dry ice). So I moved. And like three idiots rushed into the place I was standing until a glare from Andrea sent them back. The other decidedly cool moment was when Andrea “fried” some milk foam in the LN. He took it out and handed it to me. It was so much colder and more delicate than I imagined. He told me to eat it, so I put it in my mouth, where it crunched but disappeared before I could chew it. And then I exhaled ice smoke.


Graphic design was much less eventful. Those of us who’d printed our restaurant menus and promotional cards were excused early. I spent the rest of the evening at aperitivo with Helen, Mindy, Hannah, Alison, Ashley, Giuseppe, and Henk. Then Mindy and I stopped by the cultural association to say hi to Sergio before hittin’ up the pub underneath school with Liz and Jess.

5TERRE

Bright and early on Friday morning, Sarah, Jack, and I had our rendezvous at Santa Maria Novella for our day trip to Cinque Terre. (Southern Anna was the original mastermind behind this but abandoned us for a weekend in Spain.) We met at 7:15, which required (for me) a 6:00 wake-up because I slept late against logic, hadn’t packed anything, and needed a shower to help my eyes stay open.

Cinque Terre is five towns along a nine-kilometer stretch of the Italian coast on the Mediterranean. They are all protected as part of an Italian national park. When we got off the train at the first town, Riomaggiore, there were a ridiculous amount of tourists. Think Florida Disney World, Louisiana Bourbon Street, or Florence Cuomo.

We walked the “trail” (really a large sidewalk) to the second town, Manarosa, darting past tourists. The only novel, good thing about the tourists were they were almost exclusively Italian, with a few Germans mixed in. No obnoxious Americans or shutter-happy Japanese. It was here we noticed the strange and cool fauna of the area. Cinque Terre is like the Jurassic Park of plantlife. Things exist that, in all logic, probably shouldn’t. There are olive trees, lemon trees, rose bushes, needle-less cacti, bamboo, and some strange hybrid that looks between aloe and agave??? To name a few. So awesome.

After we left Manarosa, the trail got significantly less and less commercial and easy until the end of the day. There were still other walkers but definitely room to breathe and easily maneuver.


When we arrived in Cornigilia, the third and middle town, we saw an empty restaurant with an attractive menu. Seafood is both fresh and cheap in Cinque Terre since it’s on the coast, as opposed to frozen and expensive in landlocked Florence. Figuring we had time, we decided to relax in the sun at a small marina nearby.


When we came back up, a bus of tourists had arrived, and the restaurant was packed. We still got a table. Sarah ate a mixed shellfish spaghetti, Jack got stuffed mussels, and I got mussels and spaghetti. We split some grilled vegetables and tiramisu for good measure.


We walked on to Vernazza (easily the busiest of the towns), which has brightly colored buildings, layered streets, and a location nestled into seaside mountains. It looks like something out of someone’s imagination. It’s also significantly larger than the first three, which means we had some time to purposefully get lost and explore. We got some artisanal gelato and, while looking for the path to the last town, dead-ended at a church. Its courtyard had a stairwell down into a small, rocky cove where we decided on another R&R break.

Madonna of the Rocks

Eventually when the sun got lower in the sky, we hiked on to Monterosso, the largest town, which is like a small-scale beachfront city. More developed and structured, but still clean and charming. On the completely empty and rather perilous last path – “Shouldn’t there be a guard rail here?” – we were contemplating some rather morbid thoughts. What if someone fell into this forest of thorns rosebushes or, say, off one of these cliffs? The views were amazing though. We were hiking through a lemon tree grove and appreciating the clean, bright fragrance when we suddenly heard music. We thought it was a radio. They play music to their lemon trees? Is it like talking to your plants? We rounded a corner and found a man who had set up a small stand, making both lemonade and lemoncino (imagine a lemon version of grappa). We bought a bottle of lemoncino and enjoyed its refreshing and alcoholic contents the rest of the way.

The last part of the path ending at Monterosso wraps around a rockface and overlooks the beach. It was glorious. The sun had set, and we didn’t have towels. Nor had we changed into our swimsuits. So we didn’t actually get in the water, but we did have dinner at a restaurant overlooking the beach and then missed our planned train to get some more gelato and drinks there.


Cinque Terre was awesome. If you’re ever in Italy and like the outdoors, make sure to stop by.

other people's photos

halfway through the hike - courtesy of Sarah Sievert

don't take a picture - courtesy of Henk Te Winkel

a blast from the past - courtesy of Risa Fiorini

group portrait in Piazza Santa Croce - courtesy of Mindy Gray

St. Paddy's shots - courtesy of Robyn Freeman

spit your game - courtesy of Tikvah Heller

4a.m. on the bridge - courtesy of Jack Wangelin

Ashley's Ray-Bans at Cosimo's studio - courtesy of Anna Nichols

the girls' exhibition - courtesy of Helen Teede

laughing at drunk people - courtesy of Jess Witte

after a kiss - courtesy of Elizabeth Hazan

birthweek part two?

Last Tuesday night my birthday dinner pre-game was at Ganzo, the new restaurant of my school. Massimo, who’s in charge of it, insisted my dinner must be perfect so he had asked me what some of my favorite ingredients were: And they incorporated them into the meal: Cheese, eggplant, duck, mint, chocolate, and raspberry were all part of it. (Check where’d ya eat for more details.)

The chocolate was obviously intended for dessert. We thought there was a typical Italian power outage, but really the lights were turned off for my molten chocolate cake! (Meaning, it’s a shell of a cake, and when you cut a piece with your fork, warm liquid chocolate oozes out of it.) Amazing.

After that, we went to one of my favorite bars, not that it mattered since we were all drunk off our several bottles of wine at dinner. And Sergio had a cake prepared for me too. Another chocolate cake. I LOVE ITALY!

Eventually I felt we were doing more damage to the place than providing business, so I gathered the posse and rolled out. No bar wants smashed glasses or spilled candle wax. We went off to the cultural association to play pool and close it out. Then we decided it was time to crash. But really a few of us ended up going to bed at sunrise.

Last Wednesday on my actual birthday I got up around 10 which means I slept for about three or four hours, but the adrenaline was kicking in. I went to coffee with Marissa and Henk and then went to food writing. Everyone wished me happy birthday and we finally saw our completed project: A Florentine guide and cookbook. It turned out better than I imagined.
After that I went to Italian, but halfway through I just walked out because I was falling asleep and ahead of the class in both reading and vocabulary. I meant just to get coffee, but I kept walking. Oh well.

I went to the bar, where the lovely Isabel gave me espresso shots to wake me up and red wine to celebrate the birthday. And of course there was aperitivo, which was very welcome since I hadn’t eaten 24 since hours before. Sergio was there too and wanted to make sure I didn’t stop the party prematurely.

So he and I went to the cultural association to meet up with all the hardcore partiers from the night before and The Girls Next Floor. It was Mexican night, so they gave me a sombrero. I guess partly because of my birthday and because I’m partly Mexican. I may have been the only ambassador besides the bartender. (Marissa would count, but she wasn’t there.)

We stopped by 21 to help celebrate Anton’s and Eddie’s birthdays (17 and 13). There were shot girls, who reminded me of NOLA, there and when they found out it was my birthday they poured several drinks down my throat even though I probably didn’t need them. Good times.
Then we went back to the cultural association even though I got lost and ended up at the Duomo and had to meet Jack et al at a nearby bar. From there, he and Juan helped me walk to Loch Ness and eventually home. Thanks, guys.

Last Thursday I finally caught up on sleep a little bit, accidentally sacrificing my first class in the process. But it’s okay because I know how to make both the gnudi and the amaretti that were served that day. I did make it to my second class, food photography. Cosimo, my professor, took us up to his studio in the hills and let us shoot some liquors and glasses. (The art of capturing drinks without flash reflection.) And alabAn(n)a and I had a photo-shoot since I owed her some modeling for her efforts the other day. We had wine and pasta and chocolate/rum liquor. And then I spent the evening hanging out with alabAn(n)a and Sarah at their apartment. I came home to Juan and Henk, who were even drunker than I was. We passed out.

I woke up the next day around noon and lied in bed until Juan asked me if I was awake. He’d spent the night in the bed we’ve designated his, so we did a rather colorful recap of the night before. He left, and I went to the market to get groceries and lunch. I couldn’t help but think of my parents because they would’ve loved the meal I got. Sausage and porcini risotto (Mom) and lampredotto (Dad). For non-Italians, lampredotto is like the rib-eye of tripe. It’s the choicest cut possible.

I went to school to answer birthday e-mails, wall-graffiti, journal posts, etc. When I got home, Anna and Liane invited me for a walk to Piazza Michelangelo. (Which is about a fifteen-twenty minute hike.) When we got to the top of the hill, they were like “oh look, we brought a couple of bottles of wine.” So we downed them and when hunger set in went to Santo Spirito for aperitivo, meeting up with Jack, Hannah, Ashley, Helen, and Marissa in the process. After that, a few of us broke into FUA to console Henk with a kilo of gelato because he was working late on a project.

On the way home, I realized I was still drunk and hungry, so I stopped by Baccarosa again. No tasting menu this time, just two dishes to curb the hunger. When I was there, I encountered another birthday girl. She invited me over and was like “toast with us.” And I said why, and she said it was her birthday on the 16th, but they were celebrating it that night. I showed her my passport photocopy to show her we share a birthday. She and her friends gave me free prosecco, and we toasted. Like me, she speaks (in varying degrees) English, Italian, and Spanish. Not tagalog unfortunately. When the sommelier and chef overheard this, they brought me a pear dessert with a lit candle as a belated celebration. This country rules so hard.

Last Saturday Jack, I, and a few others coming-and-going spent an hour or two in a café trying to plan our Amsterdam. Liz and Anna saw me and rescued me from reservation hell, so we went to Nuti(!) for lunch. (Nuti was the favorite Marin pit-stop here in Italy.) It was just like I remember but they’ve expanded across the street as well. The night was spent just chilling on the steps of Santa Croce with various residents of my apartment.

Sunday my class had a brunch across the river at yet another cultural association. It wasn’t American food, but it was an American-size buffet. Awesome. In the piazza outside, Southern Anna and I ran into Jack at the market they’d set up there. Anna and I picked up Sarah from their apartment and spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around Cascine Park and getting gelato at Grom. Ross called me to go to aperitivo with him and some other people, so we met up for drinks and food.

Monday my food styling class was guest-lectured by a former associate of our professors. The session was on table/cover setting and service. The lecturer is head waiter of a three-star Michelin restaurant here in Florence. I learned a lot, and it was weird to learn the logic behind little nuances you’d probably notice at restaurants if you look closely. Graphic design was devoted the final draft of the menu we worked on last week for a restaurant.

Tuesday was pretty laidback. Anna, Liane, Cassie, Giuseppe, and I went to dinner at Buca Dell’Orafo, which everyone approved of. After that we stopped by a gelateria across the bridge and played Scrabble.

Yesterday/Wednesday was pretty chill. I accidentally got drunk at dinner (drinking wine with Giuseppe and then going downstairs and getting free wine and prosecco from the generous trattoria) so I ended up going out even though I didn’t plan on it. It’s like being back in New Orleans. So we did a bit of a pub crawl.

Today/Thursday has been chill. We made panna cotta in Food Culture and Society and then went on a field trip to a new restaurant our professor designed. Food photography was spent choosing pictures for an exhibit. Afterwards I had a meeting with the director of admissions to arrange my return here(!) next semester and then spent the rest of daylight tanning on the banks of the Arno with Liane, Liz, and Jess. I’m updating this from aperitivo at a bar with Helen and Marissa, but I’m taking it easy tonight. Have a weekend getaway planned for tomorrow! When I get back, I’ll upload a million pictures from it and the past week.

still alive...

My birthday was amazing, so was the rest of the week and weekend following it. I promise a lengthy, detailed update soon... as well as pictures. Just bear with me.

blue Monday

Probably more like gray Monday given the rainy weather. Pretty chill day. Food styling we made a veal liver pate on fig crostini that could be served in a variety of ways. Either blended with cream and gelatin like a terrine or blended with butter to a more foie-gras-ish consistency. My mom would have probably loved the former and my dad the latter. Lisa, Jack, and I made it as an appetizer-size serving and also as an amuse-bouche. We ultimately decided that since it was so tasty and rich, it was better as a single bite amuse-bouche.

Graphic design was centered around making promotional material for the restaurant we dined at last week. I drafted a modernized (in looks, not in dishes) menu, the pdf of which is at school. I'll upload it later if I remember.

After that, it was rainy and I was tired and didn't want to be sick. So rather than go to aperitivo with Marissa and Helen (tempting as that was), I went home and crashed. I woke up to my roommates, Jack, and Juan hanging out in the apartment. We just drank some wine and chilled. Around midnight, they went home and I was wide awake. So I borrowed one of Henk's Italian films, I Cento Passi, which was quite good.

And now it's Monday, April 15th.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! I LOVE YOU.

Otherwise, today has been a continuation of chill. But tonight, it's on like Donkey Kong. At midnight, I will be 23 years old. And I want to have had just enough wine maybe not to remember.

gettin' somewhere or gettin' lost in...

AMSTERDAM

May 2, 2008 - May 5, 2008

Helen, myself, and anyone else who wants to go.

It's gonna be quite a trip.

a day of rest

Yesterday was very chill. Giuseppe and I went to Mesopotamia Kebap. It’s not my favorite, but I do love that they make their kebaps extra spicy. We spent the afternoon chilling out in Piazza Santa Croce. Early in the evening, he made a crema di asparagi soup that was awesome although he thought it was cream of scallions. I was still hungry after that, so I went to La Mucca sul Tetto for dinner. Delicious. After that, I went to the cultural association to meet up with Jack for some gin and tonics. On the walk home, Kadir of Istanbul Doner Kebap invited me to have a ciggy with him. I was drunk enough from the wine, limoncetta, grappa, (all at dinner) and gin and tonics to agree. I chilled there for a while talking to some other American students: Jordan, Amy, and Gar.

the freakin' weekend

Friday was a lazy day, mostly due to the rain. Eventually I found my umbrella and went to an aperitivo with Southern Anna and Payton, her friend visiting from Spain. The aperitivo had a huge buffet, so it was more meal-with-drinks than drinks-with-snacks. Good times. After that, we went back to SA’s apartment and played rook with her roommate Sarah At midnight it was Payton’s birthday, so Anna brought out one of the many surprises she’s planned for her visit: A “Charlie Cake.” It’s a box-mix chocolate cake drenched in a sauce made of butter, evaporated milk, and sugar. It’s the kind of dish where you look at the ingredients and wonder how it can possibly go wrong. Decadent.

The rest of Saturday I slept until going to the apartment of The Girls Next Block to hang out. On the way home, I realized I was hungry so grabbed dinner at Baccarossa. (If you ever click any “where’d ya eat?” link, make it this one. Best meal I’ve had in Italy, easily in the top four meals I’ve had ever.) Even though dinner involved a number of ingredients that aren’t among my favorites, it was one of my favorite meals ever. After that, and the numerous glasses of wine with the courses, I stumbled off to The Cultural Association to meet up with ‘Seppe, Alison, and Jess. When they went home, I hit up Tijuana with the Girls Next Floor and their friends. In the street outside, we had a reunion of sorts with all their friends from Thursday night and from dinner the other week. A bus almost hit the twelve of us. That was cool, I guess. I closed out the night having a tea party at Rex with John, Tia, and Aneesha, friends of his visiting from Rome. John makes a proper cup of tea.

more of the week

Wednesday in food writing all we did was proof reading and brainstorming for marketing and publicity. It was a short session. In Italian, our professor asked us what we did on spring break. Be careful with the pronunciation of “casino” because casinò means you played in a gambling establishment, a casino means you played in a brothel establishment. I went directly from class to Swedish aperitivo with Agata and Sergio at the bar and the football/soccer game.

Thursday we made a baked cod dish in Food & Society. My professor tasted our dish and noted that the onions should melt in one’s mouth a bit more. That would require more cooking time than we had available in class, he said. “But the taste is perfect.” Awesome. Food photography was devoted to shooting wine, bottles, glasses, and how to deal with both transparency and reflection. From then it was straight to Ganzo for a portrait workshop with David, one of the photography professors. Portraits, candid or otherwise, are probably my favorite thing to shoot. So that was really fun. And David, who guest-lectured my food writing class for the graphic-layout sessions and said our work was something akin to retard-monkeys, said this shot had “excellent” composure:
So that was a nice redemption/vindication.

That night I hung out with The Girls Next Floor. We drank screwdrivers at their apartment and at Salamanca. And a little sangria of course. Then Jessica (from upstairs) and I went on a hunt for kebabs and dropped by the cultural association for vodka shots. We ran into some other friends outside so went to 2wenty 1ne and Twice to do some dancing. Great night.

a timely update?

a day of rest

Sunday was pretty laidback. I went to the grocery to buy non-market items. I spent the afternoon finishing the novel Atonement since I loved the movie. The book is just as good although the film is far more straightforward. Anna and I spent aperitivo at a bar near Piazza Signoria. A bit pricey but I’m willing to dish out an extra euro or two for premium liquor, strong well-garnished well-mixed drinks, nice environment, and bartenders who actually have flair. After that, we went to Loch Ness to meet up with the others and to play foosball. A relaxing and entertaining night indeed.

a sweet and small world after all

Monday was a non-molecular food styling class but still pretty intricate. We did sugarwork. Melting, coloring, pulling, and blowing sugar for garnishes. Apparently it’s somewhere between sculpting and glass-blowing. You know how hard it looks on The Food Network? It’s even harder. Jack and I made a pretty awesome, surprisingly large red… thing. And we adorned it with contributions from our classmates and a large organ-shaped bubble that our teacher had drawn.

I stuck around the kitchens because my friend Southern Anna – another food photography student – and I had agreed to help our professor do a photo shoot. (From now on, I suppose I'll use "Southern Anna" and "Soviet Anna" to distinguish between the two.) He’d arranged for Desi, one of the chefs, to prepare the dishes. Anna and I also got a chance to prep a few dishes for him and learn from another chef, which to me is always fun especially if it’s outside of an academic setting. He also let us have all the leftover zuccotto ingredients (ricotta and chocolate shaving whipped cream, cocoa ricotta, pan de spagna, sweet liquor, etc). I had to leave for graphic design before the actual photography, but it was still a sweet afternoon.

My graphic design class had its session at a trattoria, Borracio. The owner/chef/one-man-show gave us a good group rate. An antipasto plate, vegetable soup for those who wanted it, a trio of pastas, panna cotta, tiramisu, bread, water, and, of course, wine.

When I got back to my apartment, Cassie and Liane were borrowing clothes for a “gentleman’s party.” When Cas told me the name of the girl throwing it, I almost lost it. I asked where she was from and if she had an older brother named Taylor. Aforementioned girl is Hilary, one of Adrian’s old grade school classmates. Her brother Taylor was one of my friends in junior high and in high school before their family moved to California the summer after freshman year. Small world. Of course Hilary and I didn’t recognize each other but for names. Besides age, she’s taller and I’m thinner. But we had a grand time. Kind of like Paul and I did in London, we just ignored everyone else for about an hour reminiscing on the old days and catching up on our lives, families, and mutual friends. Eventually the party moved out to a nearby bar we all loved and closed out there.

2009... year of the wedding?

Seriously. I feel like every couple I know is getting hitched. The engagements keep on pouring in. Congratulations, Rachel and Chris. For those of you keeping track - although I'm sure I'm the only one who is - the following of my good friends are now betrothed. The list is in reverse order of proposals.

1. Rachel and Chris
2. Eliza and Aaron
   
3. Jenna and Jerry
4. Kara and The Army Boy
   
5. Gisela and Adam
   
6. Jacque and Jason MARRIED

Congratulations, everyone. Looks like four, maybe five, weddings within the next year.

full-force Florence

The weekend, and spring break, ended in a very chill way. Anna, Liane, and I played a particularly entertaining game of Scrabble – Jack’s travel set – drank wine, and ate bread and cheese. I’m not sure if we went out afterwards or not.

Monday my food styling class was cancelled due to the opening of Ganzo, the school’s new “cultural association.” This cold open would involve aperitivo and dinner at the actual location and smaller, separate, but related aperitivo and dinner at school. The video guy who was supposed to film class that day was busy at Ganzo, and our teacher needed to cook all day for the school event.

There was also the empty classroom. Jack had called me four minutes before class asking if it was cancelled because no one was there. He, I, and only one or two other people had shown up.

“You can stick around if you still want to be in the kitchen today,” our professor told us after dismissing us.
“Well, do you want any help or would we just get in the way?”
He somehow looked all of us in the eye and smiled. “I need you.”

And there it was. A few hours of kitchen prep. No crazy compounds. No flash-freezing. Just the pure cooking that I love to do.

Since I had to leave for my next class, I can’t tell you all what my ingredients turned into eventually. I just remember cleaning, slicing, and then sautéing or blanching artichokes. The sautéed ones were sautéed in olive oil with onions I had diced. The blanched ones were to be topped with slices of pecorino cheese, but I wasn’t around for that. There was also a immense pot of vegetable stock and an only slightly smaller pot of ragu that both needed from-scratch prep.

My computer design class was likewise canceled due to a lack of attendance. Really the teacher told us we could leave early, as early as we wanted. I hung around until the opening of Ganzo, which comedically is next door to The Girls’ Next Door apartment. It was the construction they’ve been complaining about for months.

The opening was very fun. There was a free aperitivo. I had I-don’t-know-how-many glasses of spumante and then wine. Hor d’ouvres of various crostini, spinach fritatta, artichoke quiche, calamari, and finger sandwiches made of either smoked salmon or mortadella.

Probably half the people I know from school were there including Cassie, a girl I’d met at the baggage claim in the airport and hadn’t seen again until then.

After aperitivo, a few of us went with Ross on his quest to find a place ot watch the Mets game. That sadly was to no avail. We walked around another hour or so waiting for the Nazionale girls to arrive at the train station from spring break. Really we were waiting to say our umpteenth (and actually final) goodbye to Prima. Due to a combination of tiredness, drunkenness, and medication, it was surprisingly and pleasantly low-key.

Tuesday I was so tired that I slept in until lunch, which I grabbed at doner kebap. I only stopped by school to check e-mail in the library and then went home to eat the pasta Giuseppe had made. I met up with Agata and Sergio at the bar to catch the end of aperitivo. It was sushi night, so I couldn’t resist. We went to the cultural association – our regular one, not the new one – to play foosball and pool. Cesare played his set and even opened with my request of “Sweat (a la la la long).” And I guess Agata and I are legitimate friends now because it was a really fun night.

Wednesday in food writing our professor asked why we didn't go to the opening. I replied that I had attended in full force. She answered, verbatim: "I know you were there. I saw you and your thousand glasses of champagne." Great. Italian went as usual. I was starving after, so I went straight to Swedish aperitivo at the bar. Apparently there are lots of Swedes here in Florence, and Swedish girls draw Italian guys. So that’s why. I don’t know what I ate, but everything was good. I did recognize the famous meatballs with lingonbery sauce. Then it was off to the cultural association with a bunch of people for a bit. Then... an episode way too awesome to publish online. You’ll have to ask me for details.

Thursday was a great Italian Food & Society class. It was the “cooking with wine” session. Try this wine, we’re making veal saltimbocca with it. Now pair the saltimbocca with this wine while you eat it. Try this wine, we’re making cenci for dessert with it. Now pair the cenci with this wine. The professor also said “bravissimo” and “perfect” to both of my dishes, which hasn’t happened in either of my cooking classes yet!

Food photography was decidedly less fun. We didn’t really do any work, just learned more life lessons from our teacher and planned the rest of the semester.

I went over to Liane’s, where she, Cassie, and Anna were well into a few bottles of white wine. We went out to a really cool bar that I plan on going back to, where we all get separated but I made new friends: Sarah, Laura, and Emily. They all go to FUA and live in an apartment surprisingly near mine. And we realized while talking we have a few mutual friends and have crossed paths a few times but had never been introduced.

Friday Henk and I went to the sushi place for lunch, and then I went with a group from school on the gelato lab walking tour. We went to Grom, where the owner showed us exactly how to make a batch of stracciatella (cream with chocolate shavings). Fresh out of the machine, it was like soft-serve ice cream. Then it had to go into the freezer to be prepared for actual service. The fresh stuff was so incredible though. We also got free cups of two flavors of our choice. I asked him for his two recommendations, and he gave me toroncino, a nougat one, and café, an unsweetened but creamy coffee one that pairs well with it.

Wasted away the afternoon then Henk and I hit Trattoria Tirovino for dinner and decidedly too much wine. We ordered a bottle for our meal, but since they’re so kind to their regular customers (like me) they gave us prosecco aperitifs and grappa digestifs. I usually say grappa is Italian for “rubbing alcohol,” but theirs was surprisingly good.
After that we met up with one of Henk’s friends at Piazza Signoria then chilled out the night at Eby’s Bar, “the sangria place.”

Saturday I don’t know what I did all day. Sitting. Reading. Napping. Around eight o’clock I went downstairs to Anna’s for a dinner party with her, Liane, and Cassie. Anna made that cheese, chicken, mayo, onion, and potato casserole of hers. It was even better this time. Cassie had brought bread, bell peppers, and asparagus. We sliced the bread and bell peppers and put out some balsamic vinegar and olive oil for dipping. I sautéed the asparagus in butter, olive oil, salt and pepper and then sliced some cheese over them. The wine got drank along with Anna’s Absolut (Soviet, Russian, obviously). We took a walk to Cassie’s dorm of an apartment, and she gave us a tour of it. After a quick stop to the train station pharmacy and the nearby McDonalds, we split up. I’m not really sure why we went to McDonalds because we ate so much at dinner. But hey, it happens. The three girls went home, and I went to go meet up with John, Helen, et al at a bar near my house.