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.