Oct 14, snack. Caffè from the vending machine. As good as you'd get at a typical cafe in the US, but only a quarter.
Oct 14, one hour later. Another caffè.
Oct 14, dinner. At Stuart and Enrica's house, some appetizers. With Stuart, Enrica, someone who works for Enrica that I can't remember the name of, Tim Haight, and Ricardo Uribe. These were olives.
Oct 14, dinner. At Stuart and Enrica's house, more appetizers. Nuts.
Oct 14, dinner. At Stuart and Enrica's. A pasta dish, delicious, with cheese, tomato sauce, fusilli pasta, and melanzana.
Oct 14, dinner. Turkey (roasted), plus a vegetable of onions, carrots, and potatoes.
Oct 14, dinner. At Stuart and Enrica's in Rome. Salad, with this balsamic goop. I reserve judgement on the balsamic goop, although the salad was fine.
Oct 14, dinner. Cheese board. Wow. The "Pecanzola" was amazing. A Pecorino cheese which is injected with gorgonzola. Ours was a bit aged; Stuart says that its even better fresher, but I thought it was tremendous. All these were great cheeses, but that Pecanzola was wow. Volpetti's said that they don't have it; never heard of it. Comes from Tivoli.
Oct 14, dessert. In Rome, tozetti.
Oct 15, breakfast. Cornetto filled with marmalade. Tasty!
Oct 15, breakfast. At the bar in Viale Aventino, a cappuccino and a cornetto filled with marmalade. Berry of some sort. Very nice. And 1.60 for the two of them.
Oct 15, lunch. At the Chinese restaurant on Viale Aventino with Jim Garber and Stuart Tippins. I was suffering from a cold, so I just ordered the Tom Yum soup (seafood spicy soup). It was spicy, but only by Italian standards. And the seafood was good. The soup had mushrooms in it, which I was told somehow is not right, but I thought they were fine. And, of course, the Chinese restaurant is really Malaysian/Thai.
Oct 15, lunch, restaurant on Viale Aventino in Rome. A fried dumpling, yum.
Oct 15, lunch. Some vegetables sliced up and mixed with wild mushrooms on rice. At the Chinese (not really) restaurant on Viale Aventino, with Jim Garber and Stuart Tippins.
Oct 15, lunch. Deep-fried tofu. These were really good; they had the taste and texture of french fries, really crispy on the outside and firm on the inside. The sauce was quite nice.
Oct 15, lunch dessert. An espresso machiato at the bar next to the asian restaurant on Viale Aventino where I've been eating breakfast that has such great coffee.
Oct 15, snack. Caffè from the machine. 0.25. Good.
Oct 15, dinner. An artichoke pizza from Calarello in Rome up in Piazza San Saba. Carlo Ferrari bought these (everyone got one) and brought them back to the apartment in Rome. Very good, although a tiny bit goopy.
Oct 15, dessert. Three kinds of ice cream from Il Gelato on Viale Aventino in Rome: Chocolate with pepper, Toasted Almond, and Cinammon Ginger.
Oct 16, breakfast. At the bar on Viale Aventino in Rome. Pain chocolat and cappuccino. 1.60. Wow.
Oct 16, lunch. At Rino's on Viale Aventino. With Andrea Vietri, who eats there every single day and has managed to lose about 10 kilos, so he must be doing something right. Bread.
Oct 16, lunch. Pesto genovese on spaghetti at Rino's. This was an interesting pesto because it was creamy; there were no green flecks at all. It's like the basil was completely liquified. Taste-wise, I think I like the Genovese that I think of as more traditional, but this was also very nice. Lots of parmesan cheese, of course. This was a half order.
Oct 16, lunch. Arugula and Parmesan salad, at Rino's. Good.
Oct 16, lunch. Caffè machiatto.
Oct 16, dinner. At Il Campidano, a Sardinian restaurant in Rome, with Ellen and Carlo. The default "appetizer" at this restaurant is an amazing 30 E/person pile of 10 kinds of seafood. For most people, that would be enough (and for us, it should have been, but we kept eating and eating...) Anyway, here's the first dish: carpaccio of spigola (often translated 'sea bass' but it isn't) with truffles.
Oct 16, dinner. Oysters. At Il Campidano in Rome with Ellen and Carlo.
Oct 16, dinner. Fresh salmon, cured, with olive oil. This was really amazing, as the oil and whatever else they put on it really brought out the flavor of the fish. You'd think with salmon that oil would be too much (because "salmon is an oily fish" according to common thinking) but here you go. At Il Campidano in Rome with Ellen and Carlo.
Oct 16, dinner. Little fish (sardines), flattened out, and fried in egg. Wonderful. At Il Campidano in Rome with Ellen and Carlo.
Oct 16, dinner. Cold, split shrimp, with lemon. In the shell. At Il Campidano in Rome with Ellen and Carlo.
Oct 16, dinner. Hot dish of little octopus (polipetti) with a really fantastic sauce. Tender and flavorful. The sauce was not fishy, but had some other base that really complemented the octopus. Maybe even a meat or veal base? At Il Campidano in Rome with Ellen and Carlo.