I'll just put this out there: I ate a lot in Italy.
There, I said it.
Wile not as lewd and unsavory as being a sexual tourist, being a food tourist might have its own seedy side. Especially when all the drooling and staring is taken into consideration. And the gluttony. And the greed. OK, so Rome might be one of the seven deadly sins, I don't know.
But I did enjoy myself and surprisingly, managed to wear my previously too tight Sevens and Joe's throughout the trip. Even while eating pizza every day and wine with every meal. And then some gelato. And what about digestivi? And do I want to go out for hot chocolate?
It's a minefield of delicious things, people. And I don't handle temptation well. Especially Temptation con Mozzarella di Bufula.
But now I'm home and dealing with that stretched out stomach thing that you get after Thanksgiving. Where you get hungrier than usual because you stuffed yourself on Thanksgiving and now your stomach has, like, 12 extra acres to fill. I'm currently dealing with a pizza sized empty spot that won't shuddup or be tamed by a handful of Triscuits.
Boo.
Anyway, allow me to briefly list some of the beauties you see above, if only for my own S&M pleasure because now I can't have them for a really long time and I just ate some regrettable macaroni and cheese and WOE is me...
From left:
- Housemade egg noodles with locally grown organic mushrooms and truffle sauce. OMG.
- Again, OMG.
- Some wine from Abruzzo. That's where we were at the time.
- This was called chocolate flan but it did not resemble the boogeriness of flan at all.
- Genziana. This digestivi tasted like a horses ass, but was able to cure the feeling that my stomach was splitting in two.
- The crust of my Pizza Imperiale. Yes. That is a stuffed crust. Yes. It was truly awesome. If this pizza were a man, I might have an illicit affair with it.
- Pecorino and salumi. Locally made and vurrrry good.
- Pecorino. It was a staple of our diet for New Year's.
- Smoked salmon on toast. Jews, Italians - we have so much in common.
- Prosciutto. A sea of it.
- Wine.
- Homemade fresh sausage. Really. The best sausage I've ever had. Roasted on an open fire. Um, yes, please.
- Arrostacini: roasted lamb skewers. While not a big lamb fan, I managed to put down half a dozen of these skewers. That means they were out of this world. Plus, there were a hundred of them for 11 people.
- Genziana and Torrone. Booze and chocolate, that is an excellent combo.
- Torrone: Like the inside of a candy bar, but bigger. RAD.
- New Year's lentils with sausage. For you lentil people, adding sausage makes this much better. If you are a vegetarian, I am sorry because your life sucks.
- Misto frito: fried olives, zucchini flowers and suppli.
- Pizza misto funghi. I could have handled more mushrooms, but I'll take it.
- Garden pizza. No idea what was on this. It looked good.
- The gelato course. I think we had a chili chocolate, pistachio, nutella and something else.
my mouth is WATERING.
ReplyDeletewhile in rome, i consumed more prosciutto con Mozzarella di Bufula than one person ever should and i loved every minute of it.
That food looks delicious! My family and I are meeting my son(Peace Corps) for a vacation in Rome this summer. I MUST get some good tips/recommendations from you before I go.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have wallpaper made out of that collage.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I need a digestivi simply from reading the list. Man! What a delicious sounding trip.
ReplyDeleteHoly God, that all looks fantastic! I am so so jealous.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand people that plan vacations around seeing tourist attractions. I plan around food.
Thanks for sharing all the wonderful food memories. I took a break and looked at your latest post, making me hungry and nostalgic for travel.
ReplyDeleteLoved it!
Glad you are home safe and sound!
ReplyDeleteYour food looks so yummy! I can only imagine how delish it was. (I know all about that stomach resevoir!)
Suppli. I love suppli. Rome has the best suppli. It's probably just as well for me fitting in my pants that they're just not as good anywhere else. Your post just makes me that much more excited to head to Rome in the spring.
ReplyDeleteAHHHH! I just finished reading the Italian "Eat" portion of Eat, Pray, Love and now I come over here and see that you lived it! Have mercy I am so green with envy!
ReplyDeleteI was in Rome over ten years ago and the memory of the gelato still brings tears to my eyes!
Wowie -- you did have a great time. And I have to say being a food tourist is WAY less lewd than being a sex tourist. Good for you for enjoying the experience.
ReplyDeleteYou know your running shoes and cottage cheese/almonds will solve the rest now that you are home.
Yes, we did make quite a dent, didn't we? I'm convinced that all the food is what helped you resist getting the "resident flu" that hit all of the rest of us. I'm also convinced there were like 150 arrosticini even though they *said* there were *only* 100. There must have been like 6 or 7 trays left of uncooked ones after we'd been cooking them for what seemed like an hour... all the northern folk took them back home with them to show them what real food tastes like. ;-)
ReplyDeleteCi manchi tanto!!
I am moving to Rome in a couple of weeks and can't wait to eat.
ReplyDeleteYour sentence about vegetarians made me laugh out loud.