Pasta Trio

It would be a crime not to eat so much pasta when in Italy... right? Here are pictures of pasta that I have made "recently" to feed myself. Each has been accompanied by oven roasted artichokes (yummy yummy!) as my "greens."

Which one seems like a winner?!

Contestant I:

Yellow peppers, carrots, cherry tomatoes tossed around in olive oil, salt and pepper with the addition of parmigiano reggiano! 

In reality, the pasta above was nothing "special" but the color was just beautiful so I had to take a picture before digging in.

Contestant 2: 

Linguini with eggplant parm (Mario Batali recipe) over it.

* The eggplant parmesan itself was delicious, but the simple tomato sauce that is used to make this recipe was just simply divine. I just want to make more of that sauce and eat it everyday!

Contestant 3:

Improvised Shrimp scampi with a lot of white wine, lemon juice and shrimp. And of course, parmigiano reggiano and lots of black pepper!

Valentine's Day

Some people spend Valentine's day in the arms of their lovers'. Although I would not mind that, I got the next best thing--spending the evening of Valentine's day in the arms of Sorbetteria di Castiglione.

I was advised by others to order flavors on a certain board so I ordered Emma and Guglielmo.

- Emma: Ricotta, egg with fig caramel and honey (the yellow part below)

- Guglielmo: espresso, fresh mascarpone, chocolate chip (the one of the left)

Not that my first experience at Sorbetteria was bad but this one was outstanding. Extraordinary. Emma was great as others have told me. Guglielmo was to DIE FOR. It just had so much complexity and the mascarpone flavor came through so well.

When I go back, I'm definitely going to get Guglielmo again!!

Happy belated Valentine's day!

Post-Barcelona Cleanse

After eating an unhealthy amount of... everything in Barcelona, all I wanted to eat was a salad. So Terra and I decided to have a get together where we make two different types of salads and eat our hearts out... but only of healthy things!

We did a beautiful job arranging the salads as well!

First up: fruit salad--

As you can see, strawberries in the middle, pear in the middle and Sicilian oranges and pieces of granny smith apples on the outside.


Second salad:

I finally poached an egg! It was not an easy process but it was done somewhat well! So, underneath the poached egg is a slightly sauteed red pepper, heavily sauteed cauliflower, pieces of carrots, black olives, spinach with salad dressing. I believe that was it...

Look at the oozy yolk! It was simply scrumptious!

Osteria dell'orsa

My language partner took me to Osteria dell'orsa in Bologna for lunch last Monday to catch up on my adventures in Barcelona. 

I have heard good things about this place so I was even more excited about trying it out.

I ordered tagliatelle with ragu' (typically known as bolognese sauce). Picture is below.

Need I say more??


It was delicious. Perfect. This was the first ragu' that I had in Bologna and it was well worth the wait.

Few hours in Milan

When I landed in Milan after a flight from Barcelona, I went straight to the information desk and asked if there are restaurants that serve Milanese food that day. The only problem was that it was Sunday and Italy tends to be completely dead on Sundays. I thought that since Milan is an international city, it would be different but I actually felt like it was more quiet than Bologna is on a typical Sunday.

So I was even more desperate for a proper recommendation. The person at the information desk told me to take the metro and go to a certain area (I forget the name now... oops). I ended up in "Luca e Andrea" a small trattoria that apparently served Milanese food. It was a bit touristy, but it was one of the few restaurants that were open and also had some Italian people in it and not entirely just tourists so I thought it was a good choice.

Here are the things I attempted to eat: 

 Prosciutto cotto with little zucchini pie?! in the middle

Osso buco with milanese risotto

Granted, it wasn't the finest meal I had in Italy but it was good enough. And don't worry mom, I didn't eat ALL that food. I just ate what I could. I did not expect the serving sizes to be so big. 

With all this food in front of me, I had to laugh at myself a little bit. Other people in Milan for a few hours would try to go see the Duomo or go shopping, etc. But for me, I asked right away for a Milanese restaurant and made sure to get myself a decent meal. Oh, and I didn't forget to order a glass of wine for myself. Even though I was eating this by myself, I definitely feasted like I was at a giant party.

Sorry for the little break..

Hello All,


Sorry for the little hiatus I had. I have been feeling under the weather after my Barcelona trip and I haven't been able to pay attention to this blog as much as I would have mainly because I was sipping on lemon-honey tea hoping that my health returns to me... soon. Granted, I didn't treat my body very nicely because I celebrated my birthday, went to Venice on Fat Tuesday for the carnival, etc. BUT I am indeed back! 


I have lots of posts I have meant to share with you beforehand so I will keep them coming!


xox
Cathy

Barcelona Day 3

Day 3 in Barcelona started... well, even later than day 2. I am not going to share with you the hour at which we all woke up because it is shameful. The good thing is it doesn't happen very often. I promise.

So we went to Vegan Deli. I usually shy away from Vegan food because I had this conception of it being flavor-less. BUT this deli proved me wrong. I had a vegan burger which was quite delicious. 

Quinoa burger with olives. I think my favorite part is the creamy white sauce that had the tartness of sour cream but consistency that is much denser.

Even after just grabbing lunch, Sagrada Familia was already closed but I got to take a closer look at it from the outside, which was quite beautiful. I had grabbed a glimpse of it on my bus ride from the airport to the center of Barcelona, but it was great to see it up close.

Then, came time for "afternoon" tea. Or, sweets and coffee. We dropped by Xocoa to grab a few bites. Here are some pictures of the inside.

The three of us ordered "cafe con leche" or milk coffee (I have to say, it was quite a change from the intense coffee I have had in Italy. I wonder what the Italians have to say about this). We also ordered Chocolate orange liquor truffle, White chocolate almond nest, ginger and milk chocolate cookie along with lemon and white chocolate cookie to share. 

We walked outside to find a light show at Placa de Sant Jaume for Festival Eulaulia. It was a pleasant surprise and it was fascinating and entertaining! I loved all the colors and the different scenes on the building!

We were hoping to go to a seafood restaurant for dinner, but funny enough, the restaurant was closed on Saturday evenings. So, we dropped by a little juice shop (we forget the name of it..) to grab juices. I ordered a juice that contained avocado, lemon, spinach, apple, and other greens and Fiona got the orange one pictured below with carrots and apples. Hannah also got a smoothie of almond milk, papaya and mango. They all turned out to be delicious! I know my juice sounds kind of funky, but it was actually quite fruity. I think the lemon made a huge difference.

After calling various restaurants, we finally ended up at Ginger, a bar we were planning on going to anyways to grab dinner. We didn't have high expectations but it ended up serving much better food than expected. 


I ordered a salmon tartar over avocado. The best part about this tartar was the chive infused oil on top. The crispy pieces of toast on the side didn't hurt either.

Hannah and Fiona each ordered a scrumptious salad as well!

That ended our food-ventures in Barcelona together. Afterwards, we went home and talked for hours on end and the morning after, I flew out to Milan and then took the train home to Bologna. 

I am hoping that I can go back to Barcelona sometime in the near future since I absolutely loved the city!

Barcelona Day 2

Day 2 started a little bit later than we had anticipated because we slept in quite a bit. So, we headed straight to Xampanyet for tapas. This was a bit of a different experience since the dishes were a bit more straightforward. Needless to say, that was not a bad thing when every bite was simple but delicious.

All that we ordered

Focaccia

Bread with olive oil and tomatoes

Delicious potatoes!

Different arrangement of chorizo and salami. Needless to say it was delicious, but it was also SO rich and heavy that Fi and I had a hard time finishing it. Then, the waiter came around and told us that we need to eat one more each. So, we did. And then he amicably told us to eat the other last two slices too. So, we obeyed.

Stuffed goodness

Tortilla served over a piece of bread!

Of course it was after a full stomach that I began to show interest in the cute decor of the place...

We were feeling pretty stuffed after eating all of that, but when the waiter asked us if we wanted coffee, we answered yes. Then of course, the waiter told us that the sweets would taste awfully good with the coffee... so we went for it.


And I am glad we did, because the dessert was quite delicious! We had hazelnut biscotti, pine nut cookie-like thing and cream stuffed pastry. I think I liked the pine nut one the best just because I didn't expect it to be that savory. (Pictured below)

It was also reassuring to drink illy coffee even in Barcelona. We got caffe con leche, basically milk coffee. After drinking espressos and cappuccinos all the time in Bologna, it was quite a change but I thought it was still yummy.

Xampanyet decor on the outside!

This tapas place was quite close to the Picasso museum, so that's where we went next. The museum was interesting in that it showed the artistic development of Picasso from an early age and it also showed his relationship with Barcelona on multiple levels, which was quite interesting. Then, we went exploring a bit in the neighborhood and dropped by this cute little organic bakery place. 

After more exploring on foot, we went to a wine store below to participate in a wine tasting put together by Brown in Barcelona program. It was a lot of fun to taste different wines (3 whites, one cava and 3 reds). I have to say even though I like having wine, I have never been to a wine tasting before. It was cool to learn the "proper" way to taste wine, but at the same time I am not sure how many more times in my life I will be gurgling wine in my mouth... 

Then, we went by an outdoor market but I didn't take any pictures since I was scared that I would be pick-pocketed while taking pictures but it was quite fun to just walk around in a market filled with fresh produce and quite fresh meats. 


For dinner, we went to a Japanese restaurant because all of us wanted a different flavor profile than Italian and Spanish cuisine. Even though it was okay, we didn't take any pictures because a. it wasn't mind-blowing like the rest of the meals and b. the presentation was not their forte.


Then came the time for dessert. We went to the Churreria right in front of where my lovely friends live. Here is what it looks like from the outside of this outdoors joint.

Churreria's selection of good eats

We bought a serving of churros with a cup of melted chocolate to dip it in. It was quite greasy, but also quite delicious. I was quite happy after eating this and once again catching up with my good friends and meeting their new friends at the program too.


After calming our food baby down, we decided to go to Bar Marsella which was apparently frequented by artists such as Picasso and Dali. It also happens to be very famous for Absinthe. Here are some photos of the decor inside. The age of the bar definitely shows through with the ceiling peeling off and dust on bottles on the top shelf, etc. It was quite an experience to be there especially with tons and tons of people in one place.

Apparently you can't sing.. but we sung a little bit anyways

The bartenders

As a group, we each got a double-malt beer that was solid. Then, Fi and I got absinthe to try since this bar is famous for that. No, it wasn't hallucinogenic don't worry. I didn't realize until having taken a sip that it is anise liquor. Not being a fan of such flavor, I decided to just let everyone else try a sip until it ran out. I think it is safe to say that I will not voluntarily buy absinthe for myself in the future.

Even with the lasting anise flavor in my mouth, I had a great time hanging out in the bar!

ps, Barcelona Day 3 is on its way as well!

Barcelona Day 1

Hello hello!

I have been so excited to share my trip out to Barcelona with you, and I am sorry that I couldn't do it yesterday right upon my return. I fell absolutely in love with Barcelona. The city was beautiful, fun, alive and of course, with good company of my two great friends, I was living the dream. Basically. Oh yes, and good food definitely helps too!

My food journey begins even before I left Bologna. In the morning, I knew that I would be cranky if I didn't have a full stomach so I ate two bananas with a bit of nutella. For some, this might be enough of a breakfast. For me, I knew better. I went to Pasticceria D'Azeglio to get my usual--cappuccino and integrali con miele (a multigrain pastry with honey inside). In order to get this breakfast on my way to the train station, I walked instead of taking the bus. A bit hard core? Maybe. But it was worth the trip.

As soon as I got to the bus stop, Fiona was waiting for me and I could not have been happier. The weather was beautiful (and so much warmer than Bologna) and I was greeted with Fi! After catching up with Fiona for a bit, we headed off to grab food at Caelum. It was beautifully decorated and I have to say, the food was great too.

Here are a few shots of the decor of Caelum:

All the different liquors available

And of course all the baked goods...

And packaged things to take on the road!

Even though we were confronted with a plethora of choices, we decided to go the somewhat savory route. I ordered toast with goat cheese on top and red pepper jam. It ended up being quite sweet, but just what I needed around 5pm. I also ordered Rose elixir from Santa Maria Novella. At first sip, I thought it was overly sweet. And then as I was about to take a second sip, I realized how strong it was. No wonder why it was served in such a small glass! (Picture of both below)

Fiona had the lovely cheesy toast with fig jam on top. (picture above) She also ordered a blackberry liquor which had similar characteristics to my rose elixir--sweet and potent. Both drinks definitely cut into the fat of the cheese quite effectively... And also might have cut a hole in our stomachs.

After some walking around, shopping and being reunited with Hannah, we headed over to a tapas place called "Quimet y Quimet." 

Picture of the ingredients for tapas

All the drinks that are available

After looking confusedly at the menu, which was quite overwhelming, we just asked if they can prepare for the three of us a wide variety of montaditos with cava (sparkling white wine). We didn't really know what to expect, but the experience was heavenly. Each montadito had so much to offer. There were so many layers of flavor--sweetness, tartness from the cheese, salty, etc. Not only that there were so many different textures in one bite as well. I knew this trip would be a good one. 

Pic of all of the montaditos and cava.

Montadito with smoked salmon and honey. Not sure about the identity of the cheese..

Anchovies, tomato jam, some kind of cheese... 

I think those two above (the salmon and the anchovies) were my two favorite from the night. I never thought about pairing smoked salmon with honey but it was quite a delicious surprise!

The next two were quite good as well!

We also got two vegetarian options:

All three of us left quite giddy after having such an amazing meal. We were also so proud to have been there until the owner told us that the place was closing. We adapted quite well into "spanish time."


Afterwards, we went to Els Quatre Gat, a bar that Picasso frequented and did an illustration of. Fi and I decided to order Gin and Tonic, and we were taken by quite a surprise when the bartender came with a wide variety of gin to choose from. I chose Tanqueray just because that's what I have had before, and the bartender seemed to think it was a good choice.


The surprise didn't end there. In those huge glasses you see below, he added some ice and rotated it to chill the glass down to the desired temperature. Then he cut out a piece of peel from GRAPEFRUIT. Could my night have gotten any better? Probably not. A lot of you know that I am obsessed with grapefruit, so I was happy when he reached out for it. He angled the peel so that it releases the juices from the peel. Then, it was the combo of gin, tonic water and a teaspoon-full of peppercorns and the drink was ready!

The elaborate process for the birth of a gin and tonic for me

Voila! 

The outside of Els Quatre Gats

Hannah ordered limoncello and us three girls had a great time just chatting, marveling over the artwork around the bar and enjoying our drinks. It was  a night of good eats and lots of fun. 


Barcelona Day 2 is on its way!