POST-TARA

Friday
I got a chance to catch up with David, Anna, Jack, and Mom. Awesome day for conversation. I grabbed a falafel and moussaka sandwich and then went to the bar for my friend/bartender Mateo’s birthday party. When I got back home, it was the Aussie farewell party. As a thank you, they generously got us a big bag full of alcohol. Bottles of Jaeger, Absolut, spumante, wine, etc. After a few decidedly difficult drunk games of gin rummy, we all settled into the couches and watched American Psycho.

Saturday
I woke up to Sal making vanilla tea and Jesse saying “If I give you cous cous and vegetables, could you make them for me?” Sure. From her pantry I took some cous cous, zucchini, onions, potatoes, carrots, curries, cumin, and cinnamon. From my own, I added some extra virgin olive oil, celery, tomatoes, butter, red and white peppers, parsley, and sultantina raisins. It came out pretty well. The aromas during the cooking gave Jesse a foodgasm and literally brought tears to her eyes. In a good way. That night, since she and Gerard cleaned the kitchen and a lot of people were out of town, they Tom, and I made family dinner with the special theme ingredient of PANCETTA, the Italian version of bacon. It was incorporated into every dish. Jesse made cheeseburgers, Gerard a spicy ginger chicken stirfry with Asian-seasoned rice, Tom a diced vegetable pasta, and I some Parmesan and garlic smashed potatoes. A few bottles of wine and a nice long leisurely meal by shot-glass-candlelight. We all went to get gelato after for dessert and were just too full to go out and drink after.

Sunday
I don’t remember anything except for Mass and a lengthy hibernation as a result of the pancetta-fest. Oh and everyone else came home.

Monday
Chocolate class was about using cocoa as an ingredient for savory dishes, so through the wonders of molecular gastronomy, we made an olive oil ravioli, both regular and cacao pastas, grana padano sauce, and crushed cacao nibs. That night I went to the gym with Lisa and Adrian, and from the treadmill watched The Cardio Queen and Barbell Fanatic.

Tuesday
Mediterranean class was all about cous cous and lemon tart. Diedre and Sal had missed the tart in the vegetarian class the first day, so Adrian and I saved them each one. As well as some cous cous. Sal commented that it was “delicious, but the ones you always make Jesse are better.” That made me feel great. In vegetarian class, the vegetable of the day was bell peppers, so we made rolls of them and stuffed ones.

Wine-Wednesday
Cosimo took us up to his studio for our fashion photography class. We just played around a little with the professional equipment and shot some portraits of each other. He made us a pesto pasta for lunch and opened a few bottles of wine. Then Massimo cancelled our pairing food and wine class so we could go to a wine-tasting with the current boss of the Fiore wine family. Their wine is awesome and they even sell two types exclusively to Florence’s premiere, three-star Michelin restaurant. Then when I got home, my roommates convinced me to crash the aperitivo they were going to at Gabriela’s. Obviously there was lots of wine there. I was relieved when she greeted me with “Ciao caro! Dov’e tu fratello?” rather than “What the hell are you doing here?” It was an awesome, awesome night. Afterwards, a few of us went clubhopping but the numbers dwindled down until Diedre and I closed down the last club. When I got home, Tom, Gerard, and Jesse were still awake due to the aftermath of people being wasted and a certain someone almost setting the kitchen on fire twice. So we watched Requiem For A Dream and then all went to bed.

Thursday
Naturally the morning was slept away. Lampredotto. Coffee. Chilling. We went to the second anniversary aperitivo party for our favorite bar. Alex and I left the apartment a lot earlier since we were starving. We probably ate half of the huge pork roast at the aperitivo before the rest of the gang got there. Eventually, he, Lisa, Adam, and I left early to go get gelato. The house was quiet since almost everyone went to Rome for the weekend, for various reasons. I played Rummy500 with Tom, and we finished just in time for him to leave for his trip to Amsterdam. Aeri was still awake, so we watched American Psycho since she had missed the screening the other night.

Friday
I spent the afternoon at the wine bar getting wine and internet. Since Kyle and Aeri were coming to pick me up, I ordered a café latte to perk up. That miraculously turned into a coffee spiked with Bailey’s and whiskey. (I’m looking at you, Christian.) When we were about to leave, Christian jump-started Kyle’s birthday celebration with shots of limoncino. Aeri, Kyle, and I hit up aperitivo and gelato and a random church organ music fundraiser and went barhopping and celebrated Kyle’s birthday at midnight, as he wanted, by dancing. We met up with Johnson in Piazza della Repulica then killed some time at his place with him and some of his friends.

TARADISE

Wednesday
I had just gotten out from the shower when the doorbell rang. Tara had arrived! Lots of joy. Lots of catching up. Then off to the wine bar to celebrate with a few glasses of red. Promptly followed by a nap. When we got up, I made curried carrot cous cous (lots of Cs) for dinner, and we had that with a bottle of wine while accompanying The Wives – aka Diedre and Marlene – at the dining table and watching Italian Wheel of Fortune – aka the best show ever. Barhopping then bed.

Thursday
Tara and I went on the mandatory scenic walk. Ponte Vecchio. Uffizi and all its exhibits. School. Santa Croce. We stopped by the cultural association for the Food & Art Aperitivo before going to Baccarossa for a delicious seafood dinner. We hit up the bar for espresso and then back home for a couple of drinking games with the roomies. Then everyone went to karaoke at the usual Irish pub.

Friday
We somehow miraculously slept ALL DAY, probably because the windows and shutters were both closed, locking the room into perpetual dawn. Imagine the opposite effect of when you’re in a basement with no windows at night and suddenly it’s morning. So we took our “morning” walk to Piazza Michelangelo to see it at sunset. Then we had “brunch” (or aperitivo) before going barhopping with Tom and Alex.

Saturday
We went out to get pizza for lunch and then hit up the Mercato Centrale, The Duomo, the archeological crypt underneath, and of course gelato. Followed by shopping for clothes and shoes. Then the wine bar for aperitivo at yet another bar followed by Italian hot chocolate, Tara’s dark with Aztec spices, mine white with raspberries. After a quick stop at the station for train tickets for the next day, we continued barhopping.

Sunday
We actually got up in the morning to go to The Cinque Terre. We stopped in Monterosso and had a long leisurely seafood lunch at Il Belvedere. On to Vernazza for food and wine shopping. Corniglia for a Schiacchetra (dessert wine) tasting. Then we “hiked” from Manarola to Riomaggiore. While waiting for the train transfer at La Spezia, we got McDonalds(!) for dinner and dark chocolate for dessert while waiting.

Monday
The train strike postponed our trip to Lucca, so we went back to Mercato Centrale for the beginning of Tara’s gift-shopping spree. I showed her the culinary school’s campus and then we hit up Amon for a porto-via lunch. We took chicken kebabs with moussaka and falafels with hummus back home to eat with a bottle of white wine. And who could resist the three kinds of dessert Amon offers – semolina cake, rice pudding, and of course baklava. Then it was more gift-shopping spree, cosmetics, perfumes, clothes. We had our daily coffee on a department store rooftop overlooking Piazza della Republica then spent some time admiring the whimsical European houshold objects and trinkets inside. Aperitivo, a catnap, and then a dance club with Aerie, Diedre, Marlene, and Tanjila.

Tuesday
We took our postponed trip to Lucca and after lunch immediately headed to Palazzo Mansi. (Unfortunately we didn’t see the Hot Naked Mansi Countess Ghost who supposedly rides her chariot around at night.) But the Palazzo was beautiful and made us want one someday. Museums, churches, a famous local café all done in dark woods and perfect for rainy afternoon coffee, and Tara buying Tuscan lotions and soaps for gifts. And definitely the highlight of the trip was an amazing, perfect Tuscan dinner at Buca di Sant’Antonio. One art store was selling journals with appropriate quotes embroidered on the cover and this one caught our eyes:

Il mondo è un libro, e chi non viaggia ne legge solo una pagina.
[“The world's a book, and one who doesn't travel only reads a page.”]

Wednesday
I left Tara to her own devices for her last-minute souvenir and gift-shopping while I went to do a photo shoot (!) with my class for a local organic fashion designer. Real cameras, real studio, real on-location shooting in Florence. It was awesome. Tara and I just spent the afternoon chilling and enjoying each other’s company while we still could. We went to the wine bar and split a bottle of wine and then had a splendid dinner at Alle Murate, which was definitely the most expensive meal we’ve ever paid for ourselves but definitely one of the most delicious ever as well. Lots of food. Lots of wine. When we got home, the apartment was a shitshow, to say the least, as everyone else had decided to do the “lots of wine” part also. Great times.

Thursday
Tara left in the early morning, so after seeing her ride away in her taxi, I went back to bed and woke up late. Adrian had left for Prague but left me an impromptu gift, a Florence Moleskine. Meaning its tailored to the city with maps and a great layout for notes, addresses, memories, etc. So awesome. I’ve been using it since. I spent the rest of the “day” (afternoon) online at the wine bar and beginning a post-Tara detox. I stayed there into Swedish aperitivo for the “Mamma Mia” party. Hampus as the DJ. Christian at the bar. (I asked for a Swedish drink and he made me a mandarin daiquiri.) Swedish meatballs on the table. Abba blaring in the bar.

homecoming

Adrian came back at some point before Halloween (the days blend together.) Jesse Jesse was the first to arrive on Saturday morning, fresh from a UK shopping spree likely inspired by Aeri. Herbs and dried fruits and a whole new wardrobe. Diedre and Marlene came back in the evening with pictures of Greece, so the girls, Kyle and I went to aperitivo and got back just in time for Sal’s and Gerard’s returns. This was followed by a massive effort to get everyone to go out, even those who had gone to bed. This proved successful, so we went barhopping and stopped by a few clubs. Back at home, we played, up-the-river-down-the-river and kings with Ognissantinis and Frescobaldi wine and 95. Sal, Diedre (who forgot about this), and I had breakfast really really early in the morning. Cheesy scrambled eggs with diced onions, pancetta substituting in as bacon, and hash browns. Sal and I tried to play Rummy, but after one round he just had to crash.

So besides all that late-night adventuring and the day of sleeping and grocery shopping, we had a HUGE “family dinner,” and Tanjila arrived back just in time. We spent the entire afternoon and early evening cooking and snacking on chicken nuggets, fried potato skins, and broiled zucchini slices with balsamic and parm.

• Veal stew with porcini mushrooms and cipollini onions
• Rosemary bread
• Curried chicken
• Curried grown beef
• Vegetable cous cous
• Beef and porcini pasta
• Mashed potatoes
• Lots of sparkling, red, and white wines
• Chocolate pudding upside down cake
• Pear pie
• Banana pudding with sugar cookies

We also went around the table and said what we were grateful for:

• Sal – Stonybrook having a study abroad program
• Gerard – food more delicious and complicated than cereal, yogurt, and buttered pasta
• Jesse – that the best part of break was coming home
• Marlene – that we let her move in
• Kyle – a lack of drama
• Diedre – a clean kitchen
• Tanjila – the laughter we all provide
• Adrian – that someone was odd enough to put two random brothers here
• Myself – us finally having a family-style dinner together

But yeah, after that foodgasm, major food comas began. People sort of drifted off to sleep Thanksgiving style, which was made easier by the candlelight we'd dined by. We stopped combating the cave-like qualities of our living room with lights and decided to embrace its dimly lit atmosphere.
Beginning with our going out at midnight and ending with our relaxed sleepy time at midnight, yesterday was definitely the best 24 hours the apartment has ever seen.

break week

Monday
Had conveyor belt sushi for lunch. Spent the afternoon or forever at FUA, where Kyle was. We stopped for takeout at the Chinese place in my old neighborhood, fried chicken and rice for Kyle, roast duck and Cantonese rice for me. We had just finished our dinner conversation about how we’re Mamas’ boys when Gerard came back. Later in the evening I got hungry again, so I roasted a chicken and made some curried cous cous before going over to Nick and Alex’s to play a game of Rummy. Nick and I weren’t sleepy, so we went to the late-night club for a few drinks and then stopped by the secret bakery after.

Tuesday
Woke up really late, heated up leftovers, read a bit. Mom called, which always makes my day. Kyle and I went to a Brazilian aperitivo, where the chef was Brazilian and one of her Brazilian friends danced in traditional Brazilian “costume.” The food was really good. Sergio was there too, of course, so the three of us went out and drank a bit, naturally.

Wednesday
Gerard left. The Asylum was empty. The morning was lost to sleep. I don’t remember what we did Wednesday afternoon, so it probably was spent asleep. The evening was spent watching Lost and Friends and drinking wine. Kyle and I officially became vampires because we just stayed up all night talking while drawing and writing. When we realized the sun was up, it was about 8 am.

Thursday
I’m pretty sure we got up in the evening. Back to the bar and club hopping. One of my favorite bartenders resumed working at one of my favorite bars, so that was a nice surprise. Saw a lot of familiar faces out. Met some girls from Barcelona. I was flying solo that night since Kyle was doing work but when I got back we made cheesy eggs, barely done for me and well done for him.

Friday
Friday was Halloween, so Kyle and I scrambled all over town to find last-minute costumes. We ended up being Jesus and a creepy surgeon, respectively. (I was going to be The Devil for contrast, but that costume idea didn’t pan out.)

Being a creepy surgeon sure invites attention. Everyone wants pictures with you, diagnoses, prognoses, or gynecological exams. I was walking by one bar when I thought I heard people asking for “a shot” but then I realized they were offering one. One ambulance that drove by waved at me. Warlocks, witches, slutty girls with animal ears, on... everyone wanted medical advice.

The kind of attention Kyle drew was even more amazing. Nuns, priests, regular people, all sinners. Everyone wanted a picture with “Il Salvatore,” a blessing, or forgiveness and a a guarantee into heaven.