the freakin' weekend

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

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

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.

too much randomness

Yesterday was laidback until about dinnertime. I forgot to mention this phone call I made to Prima on Thursday night.

“Hello.”
“Mi princesa, it’s Andrew!
“Hey!!! What’s up?”
“Not much, Jack and I are just hanging out and figured we’d call to see how you were doing since we haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Who?”
“Jack and I.”
“Who you with???”
“Jack.”
“Who’s Jack?!”
"Jack!"
"Jack???"
“Um, Mr. Blondie?”
“MR. BLONDIE!!! TELL HIM I SAY HI!”

So this led to a plan for last night night which evolved from dinner-out to drinks-at-a-bar to aperitivo to ultimately pizza-and-poker-at-Prima’s. Jack, whose real name Prima apparently doesn’t know and whose hair isn’t even blonde, and I went over there with Liz and one of her friends. Prima, Helen, and Juan were there waiting for us and Marissa eventually got home from her job interview with the owner of Loch Ness.

The pizza wasn’t amazing but the sriracha Jack carries in his backpack(?) helped it along. It was the only delivery number we had available. Good thing we had booze.

Apparently Liz and I cannot be friends in terms of pop culture. She hated Brokeback Mountain but loved Troy? AND she hates Billy Joel but loves Hilary Duff??? Since my mind was warped by this and I wasn't interested in the discussion of Troy (i.e. Brad Pitt's ass and pits), I went upstairs to the terrace to watch the others play poker and eventually subbed in for Prima. I had brought cards but not chips, so we used beans for currency. [Insert offensive Mexican joke here.]

Eventually Marissa, Helen, Jack, Juan, and I went to Angie’s Pub to get more drinks. Aneet and Jess met up with us there. Prima stayed home, and Liz went home to do crunches while listening to the Lizzie McGuire soundtrack because she’s lame. (I love Liz. Really. I tease because I love.)

You know in Peter Pan how you need a happy thought to fly? Apparently Marissa was badly in need of one last night, so after striking out twice I was able to offer a successful one: Brazilian booty. As in, the kind we’ll see tonight when we go to Maracana. Apparently Marissa is also a fan of those firm, healthy cheeks and “just wants to bite them.” I’m not making any of this up, by the way. I’m not that creative.

Eventually I walked Aneet and Jess to get gelato so Aneet could satisfy that third of her gelato-diet coke-Nutella food pyramid. (“Oh my God, you guys. I went up a whole size from a double zero to a ZERO!”) And then I went with them to Twice to do a little dancing. Aneet batted her eyes at the bouncers who let us in through the smoking lounge door rather than make us wait thirty minutes in line to get through the front door.

I left a little earlier than them and on my way home ran into the others at Salamanca, but we didn’t stay long at all and went home. Helen called me “smug boy” since I live six seconds away and was smirking as they planned their routes home.

the freakin' weekend, baby

Friday was laidback. I don't even remember what I did, just that I woke up after only five hours of sleep and couldn't fall asleep again. That was unacceptable. The afternoon flew by. I went to dinner with my roommates. Bread, olive oil and vinegar for dipping, pizzas, a bottle of Chianti. Good times. Henk and I went to get gelato at Grom, which might be my favorite gelateria in the world now. Then we went over to the apartment of The Girls Next Block to pre-game, and then to the apartment of the girls downstairs to pre-game, and then out with a bunch of people to Moyo. I didn't stay out too late because I got sleepy. I did manage to wait until midnight to buy Jess the requisite birthday drink.

Today I went to the hospital. They said the knee is healing well and to come back in two more weeks. After that, 'Seppe and I went to lunch. I love me some pasta arrabiata (the "angry" one... fresh tomato sauce spiced with red pepper and other things).

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.

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.

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.

second day of school

So I wasn't as excited for my "food writing" course as I was for "food styling," but it was awesome. I can't believe I actually get to study this sort of thing. It's pretty much an English (e.g. that subject which should have been my major) class focused on food. The professor is young - She could pass for a student - and very laidback. We were doing the around-the-room introductions and got sidetracked several times on food, whether it be obviously common interests or local restaurant recommendations. It is a lecture course, and there's no lab fee but apparently we are expected to do "field research." So we HAVE to go out and eat things, so we can write about it. Awesome. And I was happy to find out not all the students here are from Stonybrook like the clan that's set up in my neighborhood. The room was almost all-American but diverse in state geography. Small world time, one of the girls (I'm the only guy) is from Bethesda and went to Holy Child, so obviously we had a few mutual friends.

My Italian professor walked in wearing leather pants, sat on his desk, and turned on a little boombox that played “September” by Earth Wind & Fire. Already a cool class. Also, he never actually turned it off during the class. He just lowered the volume and put it on loop, so he could talk over it. He also picks up the whiteboard if the people in the back can’t read the bottom. He’s already yelled at me twice for using Spanish words when I don’t know the Italian ones, but he does seem nice. He also takes requests for our classroom soundtrack because of an extensive CD library.

When I got home, Henk was making dinner. (I might break this streak by noting it, but I haven't cooked a single meal at home since arriving here.) He made a red pasta with ground beef, peppers, olives, and of course tomatoes. Even Aneet - who has yet to take to the food here - was impressed. Chocolate and Nutella toast for dessert. And of course trusty house red to wash it all down.

The three of us and most of the group wound up at The Girls Next Block apartment, where the game of the night was Kings/Waterfall/Circle of Death. Of course, it took a few minutes of round table to settle on the rules. By far the best moments were when Liane made the rule that everyone had to assign the person to their right a character to stay in during the game. Going clockwise around the table.

• Jack: Snoop Dogg
• Primavera: George W. Bush
• Henrique: Speedy Gonzalez
• Giuseppe: A baby
• Me: A german
• Liane: Drunk Primavera

Good times. After all that, only Jess, Mindy, Henrique, and I stayed out at an Argentinian bar on our street. Henk and I continued our booze journey around the world while the two girls split French fries and a banana split. (They looked good. Thick, non-uniform fries and a split made with gelato.)

yup yup

Yesterday was busy and expensive. I filled out and mailed my Permesso Siggiorno (an application to live in Italy that involved lots of photocopying, application, tax, stampage, and resulting fees). Luckily I was able to see Jess’ filled out form and watch Liane’s step by-step process before me at the post office. I’m glad to be finished with all that. Much more fun was trying on chef pants and chef clogs at the store, but then those had to be purchased too. I bought groceries and random household supplies for the first time here at a combination of the central market, the neighborhood grocery store, the Euro store (like a dollar store), and the pharmacy. But when all those errands were finished and all that money was spent, the clouds parted and the afternoon was beautiful.

Lunch was a pleasant break and a taste of America because Liane had made pizza bagels and chicken tenders. She keeps making jokes about not knowing how to cook and not being able to feed her future children, but she took care of lunch just fine. And she was pretty much Jack’s sous-chef when he made dinner for us (breaded chicken cutlets and pasta). Anna made a salad and provided the food. It’s funny how these meal dynamics are working. Different people provide the extra ingredients, cooking utensils, kitchen, tableware, silverware, wine, and dining space. Between the dozen or so of us, we have a pretty respectable dinner party. Yes, teamwork.

After dinner, we went to Gelateria dei Neri to get dessert. We’ve actually gone there before, but I didn’t recall the name or the location. Some of us hung out at Anna’s and played Truth or Dare at Liane’s suggestion because we’re preteens at heart apparently. When that got old, everyone else called it a night but Henk and I went out. (We’re the two with afternoon classes today.) Nothing crazy, just splitting a pitcher at a Scottish pub with more Italians than most of the bars we’ve been to.

introducing... everyone

So I was supposed to show Aneet, one of the girls downstairs, the café I go to this morning. I woke up well past noon and was worried she’d been waiting for me. I called and accidentally woke her up. Anyway, I let her sleep in some more and just went to the café to get breakfast and cappuccino and post the last update. I also joined the neighborhood gym which may be closer to my apartment than Reily was to Aron.

On the way back into the apartment, I ran into Liz, one of her roommates, and decided to go with her to look for an outlet converter. We recruited Aneet, ‘Seppe, and Henrique –all of us had different things to look for – and had a successful and speedy hunt. Even with the brief window-shopping stops the girls made. On the way back, we ran into two of Aneet’s friends from Stonybrook/FUA, John and Ross. So we took them, the girls’ other roommate Anna, and the other girls, who live a few blocks away, to the café. (I know all these people suddenly are confusing, but bear with me.) The lady there seemed amused that I brought so many friends who wanted hot drinks and internet. Sadly not everyone was able to connect, but everyone got a chance to check on someone’s computer.

When we got home, Iron Chef Italian made vermicellini with marinara sauce for everyone. Iron Chef Brazilian made a lettuce, red cabbage, and tomato salad from scratch – not bagged – and I just played sous chef to ‘Seppe. We also had sliced bread, olive oil and vinegar for the salad, and of course salt, pepper, and grated Parmesan. And of course a selection of wine: House red and juice-box white (that the girls had left last night). We finally got to make use of our dining table and all those extra chairs. Worked out ridiculously well for a first meal. The three girls from downstairs, Jack, and Juan all came to dinner. We had a great time. I hope to repeat many more meals like this although other people are welcome to host/cook if they’d like. Everyone helped clean up though. I’m amazed at how genuinely nice everyone is my new friends are.

first meal in our apartment

After dinner we went to the other girls’ apartment: Liane, Jess, Mindy, and Alison. Giuseppe “no offense, guys” wanted to move into their spare room, but their final roommate, Primavera, showed up. She’s from Mexico and now replaces Jack as the baby of the group. (They’re only babies in age, not in maturity.)

We hung out at their apartment for half an hour, which is easily the homiest of all the ones I’ve seen so far. Clearly someone sublets. No student apartment is that nice. I still prefer ours, but I am jealous of their kitchen how well-equipped it is. We bummed around awhile and finally left when Alison began proving herself the mom of the group. Think I’ll-make-the-decision-if-no-one-else-will of Meredith minus the we’re-going-soon-but-not-really of Lizzie. Don’t get me wrong, she’s chill.

Almost all of us went to get gelato and then half of us went to meet Anton at the “American” bar. Jess, Mindy, myself, and the three Latins (Primavera/Mexico, Juan/Argentina, Henk/Brazil) went. Chad would be so proud. Having people there to practice my Spanish and Portuguese with somehow made the place more acceptable to me. And those welcome-to-Florenza Cuervo shots Prima and I did certainly helped.

Eventually the girls and I left to go back to first-floor L’Auberge Italienne (ours is third-floor) to hang out with those residents – Liz, Aneet, and Anna for those of you keeping track. Jack and ‘Seppe were both there. John had shown up too. He and Liz were in the kitchen eating rather fragrant and envy-inspiring “kebaps.” We just spent the rest of the night hanging out. I don’t know when we passed getting-to-know but not we’re all hanging out like we’ve always lived here.

So, a mini-guide to help for future entries:

L’Auberge Italienne 3rd floor: ‘Seppe (SUNY Stonybrook), Henk (Brazil), & myself
L’Auberge Italienne 1st floor: Liz, Aneet, & Anna (all SUNY)
Girls Next Block: Liane, Alison, Mindy (all SUNY), Jess (Chicago), & Prima (Mexico)
Guys Across River: Jack (Chicago), Juan (Argentina), & Anton (SUNY)
Guys In Designer Store Area: John & Ross (both SUNY)

In conclusion, there’s a lot of SUNY (10), although they didn’t all know each other before here, a smattering of Latino (3), a little Chicago (2), and I.