Oct 16, dinner. A piece of large octopus (polipo), served with boiled potatoes and a bit of parsley sprinkled on top. This was also very tender. At Il Campidano in Rome with Ellen and Carlo.
Oct 16, dinner. Mussels. These are smaller than I'm used to in the US, but nice. The broth was pretty simple. I liked them---they had a nice flavor and weren't all bloated like some mussels are.
Oct 16, dinner. Boiled or cooked shrimp in salt (that's the yellow grainy stuff) with something in the salt. Not sweet, but still yellow. Maybe a combination of orange and lemon juice? In my opinion, while these were good, I wasn't sure that all the salt helped. Maybe there's something more to this than I understood (which is often true). Still, tasty little shrimp! And, thus endeth the seafood appetizer. Now onto dinner! At Il Campidano in Rome with Ellen and Carlo.
Oct 16, dinner. Now onto the primo. A spaghetti with lobster. Truly wonderful sauce. The lobster was small in size compared to Maine lobsters, but just as flavorful. I suspect they puree the shells a bit and use them to help make the sauce, because it was rich with flavor. We started out getting 1 order split two ways after Carlo said "no pasta," but then he changed his mind at the last minute and we got 2 orders split 3 ways.
Oct 16, dinner. Dessert one. They brought out some macaroons and other bits. These are very reminiscent of the Turkish and Greek desserts. Wrapped up in the red paper is almond paste with sugar and flavorings. These are typical Sardinian desserts, showing the heavy Mid-East (Turkey, Iran, Iraq) influence on Sardinian culture. At Il Campidano in Rome with Ellen and Carlo.
Oct 16, dinner. Another dessert. This is cheese ("typical Sardinian soft cheese") wrapped in a very light pastry and deep fried, with honey on top. Pretty good. At Il Campidano in Rome with Ellen and Carlo.
Oct 16, dessert. Forest fruits. These were a bit sour with lemon juice. They gave me sugar to put on top, but after all that food, a bit of acid lemon seemed the thing to settle my stomach, which had become as large as a watermelon. At Il Campidano in Rome with Ellen and Carlo.
Oct 16, dinner. Two bottles of after-dinner liquor were put on the table. The "Filu e Ferru" is Sardinian slang firewater, made in the same was as Grappa and tasting about the same. The "profumo" on the right was Myrtle wine, which was fine, but not worth writing home about. The Amari continue to be Italy's "weak spot" for their cuisine. Thank God, otherwise they'd take over the world with a perfect meal. At Il Campidano in Rome with Ellen and Carlo.
Oct 17, breakfast. At the "Anfore" lounge in Rome Airport. Cappuccino and cornetto. Excellent cappuccino, and free. How can you beat that?
Oct 17, late breakfast. Another caffè, this time a machiatto.
Oct 17, lunch. Aboard Delta flight from Rome to Cincinnati. This will later turn out badly, but for now it's just a piece of pretzel bread. As recommended by an official Delta Business Elite Flight Attendant.
October 17, lunch. Goodness, this was bad. The salad was criminal--the walnuts were rancid. The shrimp-on-beans was fine, and I'm not sure what to make of the caponata-esque thing on the right. It wasn't pleasant, that's for sure.
October 17, lunch. Fruit and cheese plate. Good.
Oct 17, snack. In Delta Crown Room in Cincinnati waiting for ill-suited flight to SLC. Some thing called chicken salad which was roughly chicken, celery, and mayo. Salt, too, I guess. On pita chips.
Oct 17, dinner. Tortilla soup, unlike any other tortilla soup I've ever had. At a place called (I think) Max and Erma's in CVG airport. The soup was a cheese soup, and there were tortilla chips on the top. Not sure where the roots of this soup are, but not in Mexico, that's for sure.
Oct 18, breakfast. A small cappuccino and scone from Starbucks for $6.13. SLC airport. Free, courtesy of Delta.
Oct 18, lunch. Home at last! At Rosa's in Tucson with Jan. Chips and salsa. Lots of garlic. Excellent.
Oct 18, lunch. Three carne-seca enchiladas, rice, and beans, from Rosa's in Tucson with Jan. Delicious and nice after two weeks away from Mexican food.
Oct 19, breakfast. An egg, a horse-pill vitamin, fresh-squeezed pink grapefruit juice, and an iced cappuccino. At home! With Jan.
Oct 19, snack. A mentos. What is the singular here? Mento?
Oct 19, lunch. Salad of Jan's arugula (spicy!), Jan's chicken thighs (tasty), Jan's red peppers (great pepper taste, not bitter at all), and some cheese. At home.
Oct 19, lunch. Some cheese on bad rice crackers. Half of these were mine, half were Jan's. There were gorgonzola di capra, caciocavallo in amarone, and some epoisses. All very strong. Good.
Oct 19, dessert. Some chocolate cookies we found in the cupboard. They were open, but not stale. Amazing.
Oct 19, dinner. Split pea soup at Shlomo and Vito's deli in Tucson, with Jan and Dale.
Oct 19, dessert. A bit of Cailler Frigor Noir. Wow.
Oct 20, breakfast. Iced cappuccino.
Oct 20, breakfast. Aboard Delta flight Tucson to Atlanta. Some fruit and a rubber muffin. How do they make the muffins so rubbery? Do they put gum in them?
Oct 20, dinner. Seafood gumbo at the Tap Room in the William Penn hotel, downtown Pittsburgh. By myself. Not a great gumbo, but one of the largest spoons I have ever been given. I don't know how a normal person uses that spoon to eat. It was just uncomfortable. And a beer, not shown.
Oct 21, breakfast. Watery coffee and pineapple. William Penn hotel in the Lawrence Welk room (I kid you not). Just before a TechTarget Security seminar.
Oct 21, lunch. At Techtarget seminar in the William Penn hotel, downtown Pittsburgh. Some meats (pastrami, I think, and roast beef), some cheese (bad provolone, average cheddar), onion relish (not as good as I had hoped), and a roasted tomato and eggplant. The high point was the chocolate mousse in the chocolate cups. Ally plotzed with joy over this.