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.

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.

Firenze

Happy birthday, Nick. Belated happy, Adam.

It was a good weekend. Saturday night, we went out for Nick’s birthday. Nick is one of “The Triplets” that live across in the river in Jack and Juan’s former apartment. He, Adam, and Alex (my old roommate Giuseppe’s younger brother) are “The Triplets” because “they’re all kind of the same person.” But not in a bad way. They love to go out, party, and pick up girls. That sounds like every guy our age, but they have more in common than just that. Cool guys though.
Anyway, so the three of them and all of us roommates (except Adrian who along with his visitors Neely and Aly were tired from a day of sightseeing) went out to celebrate. I guess this is a good time to say that we have a thirteenth roommate named Marlene, a little bit of Latina fire from New York. She was practically living here already because her other roommates weren’t as much fun I guess? But she officially moved in, paperwork and all, the other day.

Jesse, who enjoys baking more than cooking, made dark chocolate birthday cakes for Nick and for Adam (whose birthday was like the second night we got here). They were delicious, and Adam’s was slightly mangled but then took on a mountain theme because he’s a climber anyway. Afterwards we all went out to my (now our) favorite bar and got shots and bought Nick drinks and got pretty messy. Sergio was there, and he and Kyle finally met after hearing so much about each other and were surprised at how actually cool the other was and not just the product of exaggeration. Eventually, as the drink numbers increased, the party numbers waned, and we all split off. Sergio, his friend Rose, Sal, and I went to another club for a bit. But I stayed only for one round, courtesy of Serg. I went off to find Sal and he called me and told me he got lost and wound up at The Duomo, so we just met up at home. People here were in various states of... functionality, the more functional ones babysitting a little bit.

Me and my Daydream

Sunday I thought the sin of the day would be sloth, but mine turned out to be gluttony. We all got up late to really late. Some of us went to the bar to get some free internet. The same mass-goers as last week (Marlene, Lisa, Gerard, Sal, Nick, Adrian, and myself) all planned to go but ended up losing track of time and missing the one English mass across town. We’ll fix that next week probably. And just when I thought I’d do nothing all day, I started eating a lot. On the way home from the bar, Tom and I stopped for kebabs. And then some time later I had a bowl of cereal and donated the remains of a bottle of red wine to Gerard’s stew. And then I went with Jesse to her favorite falafel place. And then I came home and had some of Gerard’s stew. And then I showed Adrian the falafel place, and he tried a kebab from there and an egg sandwich, and I bit off some of each. And then I came home and had more of Gerard’s stew and pieces of Deidre’s orange and apple.

And Deidre, Sal, Gerard, Lisa/I (forming a team who’d trade off), played two games of Rummy500. I was winning most of the first game, probably due to the fact I was the only innocent one not affected by the these-are-stolen-cards karma. But Sal won both games. We sat at the dining table originally just singing whatever and changing words around to make the songs aout our roommates, and when that got old Sal brought out his laptop and playlists.
Around 11:30 at night, the entire apartment came to life and everyone either woke up or came home and people were milling around. Everyone went to bed late.

Gerard also made use of the random scroll paper all over our dining table by marking it as “Scripture” and beginning to inscribe all the quotable stupid things people have been saying. It won’t take long to fill up between the twelve of us.

The rest of Monday was pretty much just my chocolates and confections class. We made cremino-filled chocolates. (Cremino is a hazelnut cream made of hazelnut paste and white, milk, or dark chocolate. I love dark chocolate, but it overwhelms the nuttiness in filling. White is a good contrast to the dark chocolate shell. Milk is the best taste on its own... like Nutella.) After that, I stopped by the Chinese take-out place in my old neighborhood on the way home. I spent the rest of the evening reading (and finishing) Rosemary’s Baby, which is in our rather sizable library of books-left-by-previous-tenants, the majority of which being Florence or travel books.
We played Rummy500 again, Jesse playing instead of Sal. Team Lisandrew won, despite the jeers from Team Diedrian (Adrian was on Die’s team in spirit). We left the TV on to watch shows in Italian, which got pretty amusing. Some time after midnight, Tom and Alex came home, so Vanessa, Kyle, Adrian and I hung out with them in the kitchen. We all got hungry, so Tom donated his ingredients to my care. Red bell peppers, tomatoes, ground beef, Parmesan cheese, and pasta became… a pasta. My olive oil and Vanessa’s fresh basil helped a lot too. After everyone else went to bed, Kyle and I just talked a bit while he drew for art class. I changed his world with our discussion of the magic of aperitivo. He also said he’d help me with lighting and stuff for fashion photography, so that’s a major relief.

Today has been pretty uneventful. I wasn’t feeling well, so I missed Mediterranean Diet’s Pasta with Chick Peas and Cod with oregano and sun-dried tomatoes. Along with Vegetarian Cooking’s market trip, which Sal and Diedre assured me wasn’t that epic anyway. I figured I should take today easy rather than be sick tomorrow and miss Fashion Photography and Pairing Food and Wine, the two classes I’m least experienced in anyway.

I walked to Jesse’s Egyptian falafel place, unaware it was closed for siesta time during the afternoon. I just chilled at home and got some actual studying done and then met up with Adrian for sushi aperitivo at the wine bar near our house. Vanessa and Tom eventually joined me. (Adrian left to go see Tristana et al.) After a few glasses of wine and several shots of Swedish liquor Cristian brought back from Sweden, my head is swimming. I’m writing from The Triplets’ Apartment (aka Jack, Juan, and Anton’s old apartment) where we’re eating Pringles, watching Half-Baked, and eating the eggs and buttered toast Alex cooked. And I’m catching up with Jack and Sarah. And Aneet. And Liane. And Anna. Man, I miss them.

back in U S of A

Saturday my family and Adrian’s new girlfriend Neely picked me up from the airport and took me to The Cheesecake Factory. (I can’t think of a place to get a more generously loaded plate of American food.) After lunch, we went to Whole Foods to get ingredients for dinner. I decided to make two dishes up but went with flavors and ingredients that I love and new the family would too: Seared scallops on top of a porcini and portabello mushroom risotto. Neely, Adrian, and I closed out the night with a viewing of L’Auberge Espagnole.

Sunday I woke up to mom making a delicious American breakfast. We went to church and then to another church for a baptism – my father being the godfather – and then lunch at the parents’ house. Back at home, I started unpacking while everyone else took naps. But all I really got unpacked were my carry-on bags. We made a dinner of randomness from whatever we had. I contributed a chopped salad of avocado, corn, tomato, and red onion with a lemon olive oil dressing.

Monday after dropping Neely off at the airport, Adrian and I went to El Chalan to meet our mother for lunch and then stopped by Gonzaga to get some transcript information for him and ran into some familiar faces. Always a pleasure to see the faculty. “Those damn Marins, always hanging around!” – Fr. Robert Rokusek. My family spent the evening doing something only we could believably do. Get ready. We went to Hooters for dinner and then watched Prince Caspian.

Tuesday I spent the entire day in my pajamas, something I can’t remember the last time I did. A good amount of time was also on the phone with all the friends I’ve been out of touch with since moving to Italy.

Wednesday I cleaned my room a bit while watching a marathon of the season of Top Chef. Eh. I’m a little indifferent. Still love the show but don’t love or hate (even Lisa) anyone to really get emotionally involved with the show. But I’ll keep watching.

pack your knives and go.

Tuesday was full of errands. The most important of which was a visit to Valentina to work out my next semester here. So much easier than the first application process! The evening started with aperitivo at Kitsch that was supposed to involve a dozen people but ended up being only Sarah, Thomas, and myself because everyone else was being lame. But we didn’t let a lack of participation curb the fun. After a few drinks and plates of food, we went to meet up with Sergio, drink some more, and play pool.

Wednesday after making lunch in an attempt to finish off my ingredients left in the kitchen, I watched Rosso Come Cielo, which I’d borrowed from Southern Anna. We had our Food Writing final exam at the school’s new cultural association and from there, I went to campus for my Italian final. Then it was back to the cultural association for the book launch aperitivo my food writing class had scheduled. I stopped by Swedish aperitivo to say ciao to Isabel, Antonio, and the regulars at the bar and then went to Hilary and Risa’s last cocktail party. But Hilary left to meet her mother as I was arriving, so Risa and I, gradually joined by others, drank the night away before going barhopping.

Thursday was the final exam of my last cooking class of the semester, Claudio asked us what we wanted to make. Chicken breast florentine and panna cotta (with a season-inappropriate chocolate sauce) won the vote last week, so we made them. He approved. Food photography was just a final review of our portfolio. My professor said he’d let me into his fashion photography class next semester if I wanted in. Hell yeah.

The farewell party was so awesome. We had it at Villa Pandolfini as guests of Count Pandolfini. Yes. We were at a count’s house. And by house I mean palazzo. And by palazzo I mean a palazzo designed by Donatello. DONATELLO. Really awesome. Lots of food, lots of wine, all the students, all the teachers, a few awards, a band. The police. (They came to check out the noise situation, so watching two of my professors talk to them similar to the way Jack and Juan did the other week was quite amusing. Different outcome though. The police just left.) It was nice to get all semiformal with all the other students and drink and relax with all the faculty. Afterwards, Ross, Nick, Sarah, and I went off to a nightclub where the unofficial after-party was. We all got home past four in the morning, so yeah. It was a fun night.

Friday was a day dedicated to the word ciao. When I got up in the morning, I went to the gym and said ciao to the owner. He’d discounted the last few weeks for me and set my day of departure as the day my membership expired. He told me he’d await my return in the fall. Then before going home I stopped by the “eat-all-you-can” sushi restaurant and said ciao to the hostess/waitress lady there. I bet she and the sushi chef threw a party after I left since I’ve been putting them out of business for a few months now. I stopped by the FUA campus to say goodbye to Francesca and Marian at the front desk and library. After a phone call with my mom and a brief nap, I woke up to Henk and Juan in the apartment. Henk had asked me if we could have a party, and I’d agreed. And now he asked me if I could prepare “some aperitivo” for it while they sanded and painted the wall. So that was fun because we actually closed all three of the kitchen’s doors for once. (Between the four burners, stove, steaming pots, and infusing olive oil the place was like a sauna!) But it was a nice challenge to take all the leftover ingredients from our pantry. This is what I came up with:

• Tris of crostini: mixed jams, cannelini bean spread, egg saladPenne with red and green onions, garlic, and herb butter
• “Meat and potato” tortellini with rosemary infused olive oil
• French fries with honey garlic aioli
• Tropical trail mix
• Fresh strawberries and dark chocolate
• Gianduja torte and layered petit fours
• And of course beer, wine, and sweet liquors.

By the time all that was set up, a few people had arrived and Juan and Henk had showered, so I took one. And by the time I was out of it, it was more like an apartment full of people. No joke, never seen more people in our apartment. At least forty people came and went the entire time. At least. It was fun, drinking, reminiscing, mocking, and exchanging contact information.

I had made appointments with some of my other beloved Italians, so I left a little earlier than Henk and the die-hards who stuck around late. I stopped by the trattoria around its closing time of midnight to say goodbye to the owner and waitresses there. They even kissed me goodbye and told me best wishes in Italian. Aw. Then it was to the bar to say ciao to Isabel but Antonio, the other bartender, was nowhere in sight. Isabel and I said we’d visit each other in Florence and Milan next season. And of course, I had to stop by the cultural association to say goodbye to Sergio and Trine. Lucky for me Domenico, Miko, and Antonio all showed up – as I’d expected – so I had a chance to see them. Dom and Mik might leave the city before I get back, but they both plan on coming to the states eventually so I’m not worried. I also got to say goodbye to a girl named Lauren I met a couple of nights ago who’s coming up on her second week in Florence and she already doesn’t want to leave. It’s nice to hand over the burden of everyday partying to someone. A few million shots later courtesy of my generous Italian friends, I went back to the apartment and grabbed my bags and met the girls to take the drunk bus van to the airport.

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.

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.

new best week ever?

I’m really sorry that these weeks are flying by and I’m behind on updates.

Saturday ended in a nice and relaxed way. Giuseppe prepared veal cutlets and pesto pasta for dinner. I convinced him to go out with the girls and me since he was sitting on the couch with a book open on his lap staring into space. Do not confuse that with actual studying for midterms. He said he would “only have one drink.” Famous last words. We played Kings with the girls and Liane’s visiting friend before heading out to a few bars. Fun and chill night.

Palm Sunday was fantastic and even more relaxed. I got up early, went to mass, and then went back to bed. When I got up again, Henk and I went to lunch at a self-service restaurant both cheap and delicious. We walked around the city for a while and met up with Juan on the bridge north of Ponte Vecchio to drink some yerba mate. Using Henk’s tripod and Juan’s camera, I self-timed the picture of the three of us in the previous post. After that, we went to the Irish-pub-owned-by-Japanese-people to catch the second half of the Fiorentina/Genoa game and get some pre-St.-Paddy’s-Day beer. Henk and I stopped by Grom on the way home for some gelato. I went upstairs to borrow a book from The Girls Next Floor that ‘Seppe and I had befriended the other night, and they invited me to go to dinner with them and meet some of their friends. Dinner at Rubaconte. Gelateria Dei Neri after. I read half of Next by Michael Crichton, which I borrowed from the aforementioned girls upstairs.

Monday one of my teachers took us to the restaurant in the five star hotel by our house. Sadly it wasn’t an eating visit, just a viewing. He recently resigned as their executive chef. It’s a beautiful hotel. Rooms range from 700 to 3000 Euro a night. And they boast the biggest hotel suite in all of Europe. (I can’t remember the metric measurements.)

After that we took our midterm for food styling, and I handed in my portfolio for graphic design. I went to aperitivo with Sergio, my one Italian friend, Liane, her friend Robyn, and Giuseppe. We went bar hopping for St. Patrick’s Day but never actually made it to an Irish pub. Is it ridiculous that my drunkest Italian night was for an Irish holiday? Well, just goes to show that what an Irish bartender said when my friends and I pub-crawled in Ireland a few years ago: “Once you’re drunk in Ireland, you’re honorary Irish for life. Salinte!”

Tuesday was my day off. I spent it running errands. “You know what would make dinner better? Wine.” So my friends and I went to aperitivo. After that, we watched L’Auberge Espagnole. I had bought a copy since I told so many people about it. It was a fun experiment because the film is mostly in French, but the only subtitles were Italian. “You know what would make the film better? Wine.” So we bought a few bottles on the walk back to my apartment. After the movie, we wanted to go out but nothing too crazy. We decided to go sit on the bridge. “You know what would make the bridge better? Wine.” [I’m really not kidding about people saying these things all night.] Unfortunately we couldn’t find any wine en route to the bridge, so we just brought beer instead.
Marissa, Helen, Henrique, Juan, and I also formed a new clique. We realized while sitting on the bridge that we have quite the international mix. We’re the new Planeteers. Juan is North America/wind, Henrique is South America/fire, Marissa is Europe/heart, Helen is Africa/earth, and yours truly is Asia/water. Yeah, we’re cool.

Wednesday I had my Food Writing and Italian midterms. They were both pretty straightforward and, I thought, easy. That night, Marissa and Helen brought me to an aperitivo across the river at a bar where they hate Americans. “Speak only Spanish or Italian tonight. They will serve us faster.” I don’t mind that they hate Americans because certain college students aren’t good ambassadors. Plus I love being in bar with mostly Italians. It feels more genuine.

We were still hungry when aperitivo ended, so a bunch of us – Yes, a lot of our friends showed up. – got panini and pizze from Pan Pergo a stone’s throw away. Then we decided to go to Jack and Juan’s house to figure out the rest of the night. Marissa, Prima, Ross, and I decided to sing the entire walk, probably to the annoyance of the rest of the group. Here’s a copy of our quartet’s set list:

• In the Jungle
• Hakuna Matata
• Love Today
• New York, New York
• It’s All Coming Back To Me Now
• Total Eclipse of the Heart

Quite eclectic.

We ended up spending most of the night at Jack and Juan’s. Marissa and I reenacted our favorite Disaronno commercial. And then the game of touch cup started. And that was the beginning of the end. We ran out of wine and then probably out of rum. By then, everyone seemed appropriately “pinted” (Helen’s Zimbabwean slang). In the course of all this, we took over fifty photos, which I’ll upload eventually. A few of us left and went to a few bars, but that didn’t last very long.

Thursday AKA yesterday I had my Food & Society midterm. All the essay questions could be answered in one sentence, if not one word. We made arancini (fried rice balls, as in balls made of rice and then deep-fried, not balls made of fried rice). We shot a few more recipes and then turned in our portfolios for Food Photography. Check my facebook “what’d ya eat?” album if you want to see those glossy pictures. I had a chill night: Napping, getting online at a bar, catching up with David, hitting the sack again.

Today is Good Friday, and I've been running the errands I’ve put off all week. Laundry, cleaning, travel arrangements for spring break, etc.

Is it still a Lenten sacrifice if you love what you’re eating? For lunch I made a tuna salad out of yellowtail/yellowfin (AKA hamachi), cannelini bean, red onion, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and freshly ground black and cayenne peppers. An original Andrew creation: “Insalate di tonno all’ Andrea.”

Tonight is a little going-away dinner for Prima, and then who knows what will happen the rest of the weekend. I leave for London and more importantly Chad on (Easter) Sunday, so I can’t promise another update anytime soon. I’ll try though. Buona Pascua!

Florence still rules, thanks.

Tuesday I noticed in pictures that my hair was getting shaggy, so I stopped by the haircutting place on my street. I told them to “leave it as long as possible but clean it up” since I didn’t want it short until spring on the 20th. But they cut it all off.

That’s cool. I can deal. Plus my friends’ reactions are varied but generally positive. And entertaining. “You look good/younger/Asian/Italian.”

When I got home, Giuseppe immediately brought up dinner. His idea, like always, was Chinese food from the place down the street. Works for me.

Later that night, after power naps and some iTuning, we went to our favorite “cultural assocation” to meet up with Juan and Henk to play some pool and be there for Marissa’s debut as Iceland’s Next Top Bartender. Naturally, Helen and Prima were there too. Joe and Liz showed up for a bit. As did Jack. Prima seems keen on adding another “roommates team” to our league, but her apartment doesn’t have enough players. Our apartment’s foosball record against Jack and Juan is now 4:3.


Cesare was playing acoustic guitar that night. What a great artist. His repertoire of covers is eclectic, but everything sounded great. He had most of us singing and/or dancing along.

Wednesday I slept in until grabbing lunch with Henk at Nerbone, a trattoria in the Mercato Centrale. Salsicce e fagiolo. (Sausage and beans, a classic pairing.) Delicious.

Food writing was devoted to the process of laying out pages in a cookbook. We had a guest lecturer, a photography and graphic design professor. The president/founder of the school stopped by for another impromptu visit for an update on our semester project.

Italian was distracting. The soundtrack for the day was ‘70s and ‘80s disco hip-hop. Oh, and the lesson plan was occupations and three and four digit numbers.

Lisa and I invited her friend Caroline and my roommates to join us in our dinner at Pizzaiuolo where she and I finally got something we’d been discussing for the past month: DEEP-FRIED CALZONES.

My roommates and I went from there to the “cultural association” to meet up with the same crowd from the night before, sans Liz and Joe. The cologne Henk bought in Paris last weekend pretty much elicited the reaction Axe commercials pretend Axe has. The girls flocked to him like moths to a flame. Prima was on him all night. For serious.

Thursday our cooking class got the best recipe so far. It’s famous worldwide but originates from the region known as Emiglia Romana. LASAGNE. I cannot describe how good it was. We made everything from scratch using fresh, authentic ingredients. And it was just a basic lasagne too. Freshly made pasta, Padana Grana cheese, Bechamel sauce, and a beef, pork, and porcini mushroom ragu.

The teacher from next door stopped in. (I thought to yell at us for being loud in our excitement, but that wasn’t the reason.) She proposed a joint session next week. So our “Food & Society” class and her “Wine Exploration” class are pretty much going to merge into the best class EVER next week. Eating, drinking, socializing, and exploring. What’s not to love?

Food photography. Our on-location assignments around the city were cancelled due to inclement weather, so we spent the afternoon cropping and selecting pictures for our portfolios. It was nice to not have to walk around in the cold, but it wasn’t nice to not have the option to eat/drink all afternoon. I snapped this on the way home:

That night, Jack and my friends’ dreams were realized. We, the two culinary students, made dinner together. Dinner for twelve. And it gets better. Our friend Eddie volunteered his expertise, pantry, and knife set to help us out. So the group got three culinary students working for the price of two. Or rather for the price of free since Jack and I bought all the food that Eddie didn’t bring in his goodie bag. When I got to Jack’s apartment (after a month of supposed-to-go-ness), we planned the menu and then went to his neighborhood supermarket to get everything. Oh, and their apartment is amazing. If it had a single bedroom option, I would totally try to live there next semester.

Cooking dinner was quite fun and entertaining. While Jack and I went food shopping, Eddie started whipping egg whites and preparing antipasti and contorni.

By night’s end, Jack came to the conclusion that, had we a professional kitchen and professional equipment, we could open a restaurant. Eddie seriously had to MacGyver a lot of kitchen stuff. He burned a broken tray (like a car radiator) so we could bake in it. Turned a garlic bag into a makeshift cheesecloth. Et cetera. We almost had to find a wire hanger and turn that into a whisk. Luckily by the time the girls got there, we had cleaned the place up.


Although we lacked tools, there was no lack of friendly help. Juan, Giuseppe, and Anton were all ready and willing to beat, chop, and slice-and-dice (respectively) anything we asked them. And we had Daft Punk blasting on the iPod, which I think is excellent cooking music.

We started cooking around 8:00, served dinner around 10, and finished around 1. It was a true Italian style meal: Late, relaxed, and with lots of wine.

Our final menu was:

• Tortilla chips and guacamole
• Minestrone
• Pan-fried garlic crostini
• Artichoke and rosemary risotto
• Pepper/lemon/basil-marinated beef rolled with prosciutto
• Tiramisu

Juan had brought some Yerba Mate from Argentina, which is an excellent tea about as strong as coffee. So that was a nice way to wash everything down.

I thought I was just impressed that we made everything and nothing went wrong. (Especially since we made minestrone and tiramisu in less than half the time you’re supposed to.) But according to all our eaters, everything went really, really well. And now we’re painted into a corner we’ll probably have to do several repeat performances.

And yeah, it was a really fun night. Easily the best night I’ve had in Florence even though we didn’t go out. Good food. Good drinks. Good music. Good company. Good times.

Henk and I stopped into our neighborhood Latin bar for a little dancing and caipirinhas before bedtime. Those were nice night caps.

Friday Yesterday morning at noon Henk and I got up and went to the “eat-all-you-can” Japanese restaurant for lunch. Mmm. After an afternoon of digesting and my mandatory weekly Lost episode, we went to aperitivo at another bar. Which will probably become my favorite aperitivo bar. The place is nice, the food spicy (probably to encourage drinking, but it doesn’t phase me), the liquor quality, the drinks strong and well-mixed, and the bartenders amazing. By amazing, I mean they have the kind of flair you see on The Food Network or Travel Channel.

We went to the cultural association to play foosball and pool. Marissa was working again. Liz and Anna met up with us, and we introduced them to the friends we’d made at pool, Paule and Adam. A few rounds later, the l’auberge Italienne crowd (Liz, Anna, Henk, and I) went off to a Russian bar for gyros and beer both good and cheap.

Saturday This morning I went to the hospital for my appointment with the orthopedic doctor re: my knee. It’s been a month since the injury. There is no damage to the ACL, but there may be minor damage to one edge of the meniscus. We decided the best course of action would be to get an MRI (and any resulting arthroscopic surgery) back in the states. The surgery isn’t urgent and wouldn’t require a recovery period of longer than two weeks. But two weeks of not walking and then a week on crutches would do some serious damage to my semester, academic and extracurricular.

But hey, all that aside, I have a clean bill of health! Party on.

Liz, Liane, Anna, Henk, and I went to a late lunch at I Ghibellini before they went off to the Uffizi. I decided to go to the bar and post all this. And then I’m going to rest up because tonight most of the gang is returning from Rome and we’re all supposed to go out on the town.

And now we’re caught up back to the present. But surely not for long.

week's off to a good start

Saturday was relaxed. As was Sunday. I’m really glad I wrote about that inane Brad Pitt conversation the other day because on our way to the market, Liz found this:

I know. It’s like God sent her a giant postcard. I would never have allowed her to pick up something off the street and put it in our building, let alone on her bed. But knowing how much it meant to her, I did.

That night, Giuseppe and I went to the cultural association and got a couple of drinks. After that I stopped by The Pucker Party at Twentyone, where I didn’t see any familiar faces this time. But I made a new friend or two. It’s called “Pucker Party” because you were supposed to “get pucked up” and make out with someone in front of the bartender for free shots.

Sunday was chill. Liz and I spent the afternoon wandering around. We crossed the Ponte Vecchio and walked in hilly neighborhoods across the river. That night I went out to dinner and spent as much time walking to dinner as I did dining. I guess it’s about time to introduce Lisa? She’s in most of my classes and my partner in the writing and photography projects. She’s cool, and she’s a little older than me, which is nice because sometimes I feel like the voice of reason among I’m coming from a different perspective than all the junior-year-abroaders here. Our assignment for the week was a restaurant review (of a specific place, Sabatino). Of course, because it was Sunday, it was closed. And we kept wanting certain other restaurants, so we went to like four more. And they were all closed. We wound up at a place by my house, . After dinner, Liz, Liane, Jess, Anna, Aneet, and I went out to Moyo for drinks. The blondes and I stopped into the cultural association for some quick shots. It was a fun night.

Monday’s classes flew by and were pretty good. It was molecular gastronomy day in Food Styling. We “fried eggs” without pans, oil, or actual eggs.

The "yolk" was made of orange, lemon, and carrot juices and the white of banana yogurt. We also made “caviars” out of those juices and green apple juice. Through the magic of molecular gastronomy, the yolk and the caviar both had a thin membrane that when broken released the thickened liquid inside. Very cool.

Our other work for the day was an amuse-bouche: Bruschetta in a teaspoon. We changed the textures of all the typical ingredients (tomato, olive oil, garlic-rubbed bread) except basil. The taste when you finish eating is exactly the same although the chewing experience is quite different.

Graphic design was another “series” project. In this case, ten slides of the numbers 0-9. I finished them all, but some could use refining. I’d post a few, but they’re saved on the lab computer at school.

That night, it was “Lisa and Andrew go to dinner, take two.” We met at the Ponte Vecchio again and then recruited Jack, who lives in the neighborhood of our restaurant. Sabatino was good. It was nice to go out to eat with two foodies/classmates because we discussed the entire meal (regarding tastes, textures, techniques, etc) way more in-depth than average people ever would. Alongside all that critique was approval though. Good dishes. Good times.

party on

On Tuesday night, since Henk didn’t want to walk because he was sick and I didn’t want to cook again, we went to dinner at the trattoria next door, which was awesome, again. We got a platter of grilled meats and vegetables. The waitress, same one from the last two times, gave us complimentary aperitifs and digestifs this time. God, I love that place.

Wednesday was the usual: Food writing and Beginning Italian. My food writing class went out to dinner (since the day’s lesson was “restaurant reviewing”) at Buca Dell’ Orafo, which is right next to the famous Ponte Vecchio. I don't know if I've mentioned but I'm the only guy in that class. It's like swimming lessons in a pool of estrogen. The rose seller outside the restaurant glared at me because I didn't buy a single flower for "my fourteen dates." We had a seven-course family-style dinner. Chef Giordano, a character in his own right, kept plate after plate coming as well as bottle after bottle of red wine. Clearly I was sitting at the right end of the table since we cleaned all those plates. This was especially true of Sara, Samantha, and me.

"Pass that down here. We'll finish it."

Then I met up with some friends for the grand opening of Twenty One, a new venue owned by a promoter we’re acquainted with. It’s supposedly “the twilight zone between a bar and a club.” It was pretty fun. Every class I have here was well-represented by drinking, dancing people having a great time. The party was by invitation only, and I hadn't gotten mine from a friend because I was late due to aforementioned dinner. There were tons of people outside on phones calling others panicking or frantically searching pockets and purses for cards. I felt pretty lucky as I was walking to the front door and Fabio (the promoter, now club owner) shook my hand and waved me in. Of the people who regularly appear in my writing, only Jack, Giuseppe, Henk, and Anton (who part-times as a promoter) were there. The music was great. I didn't need any drinks since I was extremely drunk full from dinner.

A few hours later, I went to a Russian bar to meet up with Henk, Joe, and Juan and then we went to Twice to meet up with Anthony and his friends. Some drunk American girls followed us around and kept trying - inexplicably - to dance or to talk about sports stats.

The next morning I got great news. Guess who's not getting deported from Italy! I got a letter back from the government legalizing my stay in this country. Tight.

My food/culture/society class made two nearly-vegetarian dishes today. They were both filling and delicious. I thought of my parents because they would have loved them.

peperoni alla venezia (yellow bells sauteed with eggplant, tomato, garlic, wine, and of course, olive oil) and "risi e pisi" (pea risotto with parmesan and pancetta)

For my photography class, we were split up into groups and assigned different culinary aspects of the city to photograph ON-LOCATION. So we had to walk around the city and take pictures of various things. My group was assigned specific pastry, bakery, and chocolate stores. (The group that had first pick took gelato. Bitches.) But we had lots of fun and still stopped at Dei Neri for gelato anyway.

Henk and I grabbed dinner at the oil shoppe before he left for the train station to go to Paris. Then I took a long nap and got up when Jack and our friend Eddie came over. Somehow we were all hungry again - they'd gotten food on the way over - and went to "The House of Sizzle" to get one of their dozen burger selections. Mine was a BLT Burger. I'm pretty sure the bacon was actually pancetta but no complaints. That and the fries helped satisfy the American craving.

After that, we went to Salamanca and met up with a bunch of girls who I now know live on the same street as me. Eventually Juan, a bunch of other girls we know, Ross, Nick, Giuseppe, John, and more girls (in that order) showed up.

I love Salamanca because it's a Spanish tapas restaurant by day / Latin bar at night. And half the bar is a regular bar and other half is like a nightclub complete with green laser lights. After several pitchers of sangria, some of the girls, Juan, Ross, and I went to the dance floor to cut it loose and for a while even get up on the tables. Great times.

Okay, with all these new names, it's getting confusing again. Here's the second edition of the Andrew's-regular-friends-in-Italy cheat sheet, broken down by apartment:

l'auberge Italienne - gents: Giuseppe, Henk, myself
l'auberge Italienne - ladies: Liz, Aneet, Anna
the Girls Next Block: Mindy, Liane, Alison, Jess, Primavera
Donne interNazionale: Primavera, Marissa, Helen
across the Arno: Jack, Juan, Anton
designer district: Ross, John, Joe, Nick

long but eventful!

Saturday night started off great and didn’t end as well. After the delivery guy dropped off the booze (yeah, seriously) that Jack had ordered from the liquor store owner we’ve buddied up with, Giuseppe and I decided to go to aperitivo (happy hour with snacks) at the bar rather than sit around while waiting for the others to gather. A few rounds of rum and some tasty snacks later, I went over to the apartment of The Girls Next Block to have dinner. Mindy, who is queen of all things vegetable although not a vegetarian, cooked some and tortellini.

We came back to my apartment for cocktails, shots, and cake. And somehow the pre-game became the big game. And we lost. Badly. Some of us were team players but a few rookies handicapped us.

Happy birthday, Jessi shot!

Sunday, regardless of what they did for the weekend, pretty much everyone was recuperating. Spent the afternoon at my bar unsurprisingly. Grabbed dinner from the Cinese place down the block with Giuseppe, Henk, and Juan. Then we had a high-stakes game of poker and met up with Jack at Loch Ness. Pool. Mojitos. Foosball games. (Ghibellina 4 / San Freddiano 2.) Bloody Marys. Jack has been added to the ranks of Stephanie, Laura, and Ben as an official Andrew smoking buddy.

Our apartment is open 24 hours/never sleeps, loves hot moms, and has Brazilian soul.

Monday I thought would be busy, but it was surprisingly relaxed. My friend Jeremy, who also went to Tulane and lived in Butler freshman year (6th floor) had told me he would be in Florence for a few hours. I thought he meant the afternoon, but he called in the morning, so I got to see him before class. We just got coffee, pondered if it was too early for beer, and caught up on each other’s life. He teaches English in Tunisia now and is at the end of a month of vacation traveling. It was surreal to meet up at The Duomo with someone I associate with New Orleans, but it was amazing to talk with someone else who understands and misses that lifestyle. I walked with him to Santa Maria Novella since he wanted to check it out before catching a train to Bologna at the station next door.

the weary traveler

I was photo-finish just-barely in time for my Food Styling class. We had another chef as a substitute teacher today but used our actual teacher’s recipe.

Filet of sole wrapped around steamed mussels and topped with caviar, chives, and shrimp foam; served with a mussel shell stuffed with sole roe and diced zucchini flowers.

Delicious, which is not at all surprising. Our sub came up with the stuffed shell idea on-the-spot. Very cool.

After class Jack and I did a lot of walking. We went to get our new textbooks, made a stop at the chef apparel store, hung out at my apartment for a while, went to the bar, went to a sportswear store, and then went to dinner at the apartment of The Girls Next Block. After I hung out with them for a little while, including a gelato walk with Mindy and a balcony chat with Liane. When I got home, I just sat on the couch and watched Henk paint. It looked like he was starting a mural on our wall in his own blood, but it was cool. After I took the following picture, I noticed how much of our apartment is accented in red. From random papers and books scattered to our beer and wine bottles to the floor and pretty much the entire kitchen.

It looks like he's painting the wall with blood, but that's okay.

Tuesday morning I got up and went straight to our neighborhood market. It’s overwhelming at first, but after a stroll through you can figure out easily what and where you want to buy. Grocery shopping was never this fun. I came back here, cleaned the kitchen and did the basic prep work. Cutting the spinach off the roots, seasoning the meat, checking my frozen veal stock (from the osso bucco a million years ago), folding garlic and butter together, and making rosemary olive oil.

fresh produce at the market

I showed Liz where the gym was, so she could get her membership. We both opted for a quick workout even though it would mean an extra shower each. After said shower back here, I started cooking. Liz couldn’t come to lunch because she had class, but I happily fed my roommates, Jack, Mindy, and Aneet. I sautéed the spinach with olive oil, garlic, onion, veal stock, and lemon zest. And I pan-seared the steak (marinated in sea salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic, and green onion) in the rosemary oil and garlic butter. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

bistecca all'Andrea (as in, "Italian for Andrew") over sauteed spinach

After lunch, people dispersed. The girls went back to their apartments. Giuseppe went to the computer lab, Henk took a nap, and Jack hung out for a while then went home. Now I’m at the bar, drinking a macchiato and trying to decide whether to stay for aperitivo.

By the way, I drink coffee now, but only one small shot a day unless it’s morning cappuccino. It’s so much better here than America... excluding of course any gifts from Tara or Alison when they worked at Café Luna.

week closed out nicely

Food writing was lecture and discussion about various forms of food media as well as some new assignments for us to cover. We also got to meet the president and founder of the school because she was the original teacher of our course and our semester project is of particular interest to her. More on that in the future. She was nice and laidback though.

So Italian class was all about the Pink Floyd and as far as Italian, demonstrative adjectives and articles of both the definite and indefinite nature. When I got home, Henk suggested we give the Chinese carryout place down the block a a try. (Giuseppe had approved, noting it was "just a little salty.") So he and I went and got some dinner. I got roast duck and a chicken curry fried rice. Both were surprisingly good... unlike the last time I had Chinese food in Italy circa 2000.

Then I got a call from Aneet, so we went to go meet up with her and the other girls at Moyo. She and Alison left for a Yung Joc concert and due to a misunderstanding, some people wound up at another bar or calling it a night. Liane, Henk, and I went into Loch Ness to do a few quick shots. By the way, Liane forgot her membership card and any other form of ID. But the bouncer from the other night remembered her and accordingly us. "You guys were here last night, with the other girl, THE RUSSIAN." (Anna, if it's not obvious.) Eventually we wound up back at Moyo with Mindy, Jess, The "Russian," and Jack. I got a 7&7 and found Mindy a "bitch drink"(her phrase not mine) that tasted like the blended fruit ingredients rather than vodka. Lots of drinking. Lots of dancing.

semi-candid? "'cause I'm Mr. Brightside..."

Thursday was good too. In my cooking class, we had a substitute teacher. She prefers having one half the class work on the entrees and the other half work on the desserts. Our usual teacher just has everyone prepare one of each course. I was in the half of the room assigned desserts, so I lucked out. (I saw the pasta recipe, and I could've done it in my sleep.) We made zuccotto, a semi-frozen dessert, and decided to melt some leftover chocolate to cover it with. We did have lots of fun with all the chocolate and brandy at our disposal.

zuccotto, a Florentine dessert. it's brandy-dipped sponge cake wrapped around a rich filling made of whipped cream, chocolate, confectioner's sugar, and ricotta.

My photography class was less eventful. Since I missed last week's class, I didn't have as many photos to load, but I did get a few good ones in to contribute. We had another brief meeting with the president/founder. Deja vu.

When I was walking home, I got a call from Liz about having dinner at Prima's. I had completely forgotten I was supposed to hang out with her this week since she moved, but lucky for me my school is like two blocks from her new place. So I spent the afternoon with her drinking beer on her rooftop terrace, which has a great view of Florence. She also finally realized I went to college in New Orleans, and apparently its her family's favorite vacation spot in the states. In fact they call it their "home" in the states. That was awesome.

She and her new roommate Marissa, who is half-Mexican half-Icelandic, had made chilequiles for dinner, complete with the homemade tortilla, cheese, cream, and of course peppers. I personally loved the heat. Some thought it was too spicy. Their other roommate Helen sliced and fried some potato wedges with rosemary and sundried tomatoes. And Liz contributed a dessert I can't remember the name of it but they're Italian and little dough balls rolled in honey. Oh, and of course we all had nice helpings of authentic guacamole, chips, and beer right before dinner.

Angie's pub with Marissa, relatively early in the night

There were a good number of people at dinner, but that night only Prima, Marissa, Joe, his sister's boyfriend Anthony, and I ended up going out. And what a going out it was. We went to Angie's Pub and closed that down. So we went to Loch Ness and closed that down. And when we closed Twice down after four in the morning, we decided to go home. Great times. Probably the best night in Florence so far.

back to action

Sunday afternoon I spent at the café/bar, as usual. I went over to Liz’s for one of our tea sessions and ended up staying for Anna’s dinner. Fusilli with marinara sauce doctored with garlic, onions, and mushrooms and a nice salad. Liz, Alison, Henk, and I eventually went on a gelato run to Dei Neri for dessert. When we got back, Liane, Anna, Henk, and I were joined by Jack and Juan to go out. We’re now officially members of a cultural association. I was surprised by the foosball and pool tables, but it’s otherwise pretty sophisticated. A laidback but nice atmosphere. And it was comfortably crowded. You could move easily and wouldn’t have to wait for the bartender more than a minute. Liane and I nursed our bruises with some doses from the “pharmacy.” Henk and I faced off against Jack and Juan in foosball for the honor of our apartments. Then Henk and Liane played pool against the Italians who had previously been playing the neverending pool game. (Needless to say, Henk and Liane won.)

After all that, we wanted an early morning snack, so we got kebabs from a place nearby. It’s cheaper than the place downstairs from my apartment, which is good. But it’s definitely not next door, which is not so good. Then we all parted ways and crashed.

By the way, this was all after midnight, so my Monday-I-start-real-life-again rule still applied.

As far as actual Monday, I got up and made breakfast (standing!) for the first time in a while. Then I went to the Apicius offices and Mailboxes, Etc to pick up assorted paperwork that had accumulated over the past week. Then it was back to class. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to go to class... even including the first week.

Today’s theme in food styling class was salad. Just like everything else so far, it was taken to a whole new level than the simple chop-it-and-mix-it. Jack and I worked together and, using our chef's recipes, remade two classics, Caesar and Nicoise.

caesar salad with a bibb/butter, watercress, and arugula lettuces, croutons, anchovies, tomato concasse, balsamic reduction, and grated parmesan and grated egg yolk

salade nicoise with seared tuna, mozarella, a trio of lettuces, two kinds of olives, two kinds of caviar, smoked salt and orange zest

I actually got to try the chef's salad (no pun intended). I wanted to see if his plating technique - he had a certain order he wanted the flavors to proceed - worked its magic. And it did. Of course it tasted delicious. That part I'd never doubt.

After that it was on to Graphic Design. We had to play with textures and make a series of six. I just used a bunch of images from my camera. It's funny how so many parts of a picture can be ignored, but if you look at the texture of a background object and crop to it, it can becomes something new and independent.

During the break from class, I made my mandatory stop at the bar and threw back a shot of espresso to keep me going. Got online for a little bit and chatted with Ben. (Get well soon.) Now just this update and off to dinner and a club with some of the girls.

second week closin' out

So my Valentine’s Day was pretty uneventful. I was thinking about asking one of the single girls (no one in particular) out to dinner just for convention’s sake, but when Anna offered us all a dinner at her apartment, that plan went away. Dinner was good. Layers of potatoes, onions, chicken, cheese, and a little mayonnaise. What’s not to like? Pretty much everyone was there. A few guys left early to go to an extracurricular meeting. Then after dinner, some went home because of an early morning or to get gelato just because. At one point, Anna and I were talking about the recipe, Liz was on the phone with her boyfriend, and Prima was on the phone with hers. Jack just looked up and said “I feel like I’m watching three TV channels: The Food Network (Anna and me), AMC (Liz), and Telemundo (Primavera).” Eventually, I just went upstairs to crash and rest my knee.

Friday was likewise unmemorable until the afternoon when Henk, John, and two of his friends joined me at the café I currently haunt. Eventually Liz called to ask if I wanted to help Prima move out of her apartment(!). She’s not going back to Mexico. She just moving closer to The Duomo. So much drama. Sadly I could only lift and not carry, but I did recruit the other guys here and lead them to the apartment of The Girls Next Block. Prima gave me a gift bag of delicious groceries which for some reason she didn’t want to take with her. After she and her packing entourage left, I just hung out with Jess while she waited for the other three to get home. The reactions ranged from disbelief to indifference. And someone was worried they’d get a “psycho crazy transvestite” as a new roommate.

Eventually since we were all hungry and hadn’t gone to the market, we went out to dinner at Trattoria Tirovino. I’m glad everyone likes it as much as I do. I’m not sure if it was the owner’s or Liane’s idea that she eventually meet his son, but as long as she doesn’t break his heart and get us banned from that place, it’s fine with me.

We went back Next Block and Jack came over, bringing with him Travel Scrabble. (Apparently Twister was also an option, but I certainly can’t play and would just spin. “Left hand, Liane’s ass.”) I always have the worst luck with hard letters at this game! I got stuck making words like squall, wax, and something I can’t recall that involved z.

Now it’s Saturday. Half of my friends are exploring the city of Siena. The other half are hiking through a Chianti vineyard and then wine-tasting. (‘Seppe declined both, so I’m expecting him to be fun when he wakes.)

So, I decided this morning that I will continue to rest my knee the rest of this weekend. But once Monday starts, I am obliterating the no-further-than-five-minutes-from-home rule and resuming life to the best of my dis/ability. This includes: Classes, marketplace, pedestrianism, photography, nightlife, weightlifting, drinking, and general shenanigans.

I live in a postcard.

I will celebrate that with or without my knee’s consent.

sat Tuesday

I spent the morning at the café, uploading photos and journal entries and downloading the first two episodes of Lost season four. Liz stopped by to hang out a little on her way to class. For lunch, I found a Japanese restaurant a stone’s throw from my apartment. They have an offer for unlimited sushi for 10 Euro. Let’s see how many visits it takes before they ban me. Then I spent a few hours catching up with Lost.

Henk came home in the afternoon with market bags and announced he had invited the girls to dinner. His plan: Pasta and osso bucco. He graciously let me take over the osso bucco half of dinner, so I scoured our pantry for ingredients and did my first spontaneous cooking in a long time. It came with black pepper, fresh rosemary and fresh thyme. So all I had to do was salt it and dredge it with flour. Into the pot to brown. Then garlic, onions, and eventually mushrooms. Red wine to deglaze since our household doesn’t really stock white. Then just some water because we didn’t have broth. Osso bucco back in and simmer for a few hours. When the girls got here – some missing for late classes and a community service meeting – it was just a matter of plating and topping with chopped parsley, green cipollini, and lemon zest.

It turned out better than my expectations, which honestly were pretty low. Henk’s pasta was a slight variation on the one he made the other night, which translates into it being fantastic. Everyone seemed to enjoy both. Some of us hung out for a while, and when everyone else went to some bar to see a Beatles cover band (sounds awesome, but not walk-able), I went downstairs and just hung out with Liz for a while.

just another mangled knee Monday

So I went to my food styling class yesterday and upon getting there realized that the walk had not been the best idea for my knee and decided that I was definitely not walking all the way to my computer graphics class. Food styling rewarded me nicely for the walk though. Today was molecular gastronomy day. We made an amuse bouche (one those bite-size gifts that chefs send restaurant patrons with the menu) that was basically a spoonful of re-imagined shrimp scampi. The other dish was a not-quite Caprese Salad (buffalo mozzarella, San Marzano tomato, basil, and olive oil). Our fake-aprese, my term not the chef’s, was pureed-then-steamed cuttlefish (like a squid with a shell) shaped like a sphere of mozzarella, tomato confit, and of course basil and olive oil. We prepared all the ingredients together and watched the chef plate a serving, and he gave a few of us a chance to construct our own plates. This was mine:

After that, I walked back home with Jack, who was en route to his Italian class. Of course we stopped to grab slices of pizza at Sabrina. When I got home, I immediately took one of those prescribed painkillers and then ended up napping an hour or so.

Later on in the evening, I received a frantic phone call from Aneet and Jess.

Let me put a prologue to this story: The men here love Jess. We don’t know exactly why. Perhaps her warm complexion? Her dark hair? Her Cleopatra eyes? In the past week, I’ve personally seen no less than four complete strangers hit on her, only her, even with the other girls around. One even bought her chocolate (Twix) out of a vending machine.

Anyway, lately the attention has been getting less fun. Tonight Aneet and Jess were apparently being followed around by two shady strangers... who would even wait for them outside whatever store they would enter. Ah, the curse of beauty. (Aneet is Indian, the culture whose women I believe generally have the finest facial features of all. And I already explained Jess’s situation.) They called me from a store a few blocks away and asked me to walk them home. Which I gladly did of course. I limped over there as fast as I could, ready to take on any bad guys. At least this way, my damaged knee would be due than more to a drunk chick. Thankfully no such encounter happened.

I walked them to class after and then had a most pleasant surprise. A phone call from Chad! He’s in London and doing well, and naturally we’re planning visits and possibly spring breaks. This pretty much made up for any rottenness of the day so far.

So when I got home, I decided to give Trattoria Tirovino, the restaurant literally next door, a try. Although I do love standing, particularly while cooking in a kitchen, I decided the flights of stairs and any further kitchen work would make my knee hate me even more. Dinner was excellent, by the way. It’s dangerous having it so near my home.

I spent the rest of the night icing my knee in the living room and watching Giuseppe's Top Gun dvd. He was doing homework and on his computer. And Henk was being European and artistic enough for all of us by painting while drinking red wine.

¡Noche Mexicano!

To curb a craving for Japanese, Jess, Mindy, Primavera, and I went to Kome for lunch. Aftter a few errands, Prima and I started cooking dinner because she's Mexican and I'm very slightly Mexican. (By the way, the rumors going around that she is the heiress to the Corona fortune are completely false.) Our ethnic dish was red bell peppers stuffed with relleno (ground beef, ground pork, peaches, apples, onions, and garlic) and topped with a sauce made of cream, goat cheese, nuts, and raisins. Pretty much everyone came over. And I think we all enjoyed el sabor de mexico. After dinner, some of us went to Gelateria Dei Neri again for more gelato.

We spent the rest of the night doing tequila shots and then eventually wandered out to go barhopping. So much fun. But didn't end too well. See the next post for details. Let's focus on the good times. Here's a picture of me, Liz, and Ross.

Sunday, a great day

After being great Catholics, Liz, Prima, Giuseppe, and I planned our day over cappuccino. ‘Seppe went off to Arezzo with Henk and others. (Had I two functioning knees, I would’ve gone.) Liz hit up the train station to look at travel rates for spring break and other trips. Prima and I decided to grab lunch at our neighborhood theater’s restaurant. While walking, she got distracted by a leather jacket in a store’s window. So she bought it. But it is quite a beautiful jacket, it looks fantastic on her, and it even matched what she was wearing at the time.

Liz eventually joined us for lunch and after lasagna and gnocchi, we spent the afternoon studying in her apartment. Then the day got really good. A representative from the landlord’s office – Let’s just call her Mrs. Claus. – rang our doorbells and dropped off two giant sacks of apartment supplies for us: Bathroom rugs, new towels, two eight-piece sets of stainless steel pots.

Fusilli with marinara sauce doctored with tomatoes, garlic, onions, mushrooms, and Parmesan cheese. Breaded, fried, and baked chicken breasts covered in marinara and the freshest buffalo mozzarella.

The girls got so excited they made dinner for me. Prima accidentally made her nicknames. (Apparently “Primavera” as a first name confuses some of her roommates and sometimes she is referred to as “Primapasta” or “Parmigiana.”) So primapasta parmigiana was half our dinner. And Liz made chicken parm. Both were amazing. It was easily the nicest homemade meal I’ve had here so far. John came over eventually to hang out. He’d been invited to dinner but was fashionably trendsetting-ly late.

My roommates and I closed out the night by watching Half Baked, which Giuseppe found inexplicably on his flash drive. We were not baked at all.

ouch

So no trip is complete without a bump in the road, and my bump happened to be a drunk American girl. Her heel broke, and she fell quite unfortunately into my knee. It was dislocated, so I went to the hospital and got an X-ray. “No frattura.” Pressure bandage. The dottore advised me to stay off it for a week and a half.

I spent most of Saturday either at the hospital or sleeping and then got up just in time to go to The Girls Next Block’s apartment for dinner that Mindy had kindly made. Pasta with vegetables. Good stuff.


Liz had a headache, so I walked her home and then we had tea. Eventually I went to meet up with John, Ross, and their roommate Joe at a pub called Angie’s, less than a five minute walk from my apartment. Loud music but good DJ, so pretty awesome. Euro crowd too. Much more my scene than that American bar.