Although I wasn't in the United States to partake in the traditional Thanksgiving feast, I had 3 amazing meals those Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.
Meal #1: Thanksgiving. For Thursday, November 24th, the wonderful directors Maiju and Peggy for our UC Education Abroad Program organized a Thanksgiving dinner for all of us UC students. Since we were all missing our families and traditional cuisine, we were so grateful to be together and eat amazing food. We had a restaurant all to ourselves, and the Italian chef "reinterpreted" American Thanksgiving. Here were our courses:
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| 1. Mushroom soup with croutons (Italian version of stuffing). |
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| 2. Sea urchin and pumpkin risotto (quite good, quite fishy--not quite enough pumpkin). |
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| 3. Turkey filled with a mascarpone sauce, topped with a blueberry sauce, and paired with mashed potatoes (BEST course!) |
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| 4. Dessert: Carrot/lemon pound cake type thing with mascarpone sauce and cranberries. |
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| 5. Dessert #2: Pear pie another student made and pumpkin pie that I made (there was no way I wasn't going to have some pumpkin pie this year) |
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Our directors even managed to get cranberry sauce!! Maia and I were excited to put it on our turkey.
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Meal #2: Sushi! The following night, Allison, Maia, and I went out to a Japanese restaurant with cousin Matteo and some of his friends. For 22 euros, we could order as many plates as we wanted. Unfortunately, I forgot to document this eating experience. But in short, we had some very good sushi, sashimi, tempura, tuna and chicken teriyaki, and edamame! For that price and the fact that Bologna isn't exactly known for its marine-animal cuisine, it was all very good and we were in our 2nd food-coma within the last 24 hours.
Meal #3: Mexican! On Saturday, it was cousin Claudio's birthday, and so he kindly took the family out to Mexican food because Allison and I had mentioned that we missed it here and he knew of a place. So after a 30-minute drive (in which Allison and I were a little nervous at the speed we were taking on the narrow, dark, curvy roads), we arrived at a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere and were greeted by a very nice Italian man and the sweetest Mexican woman. In her home (I think it doubles as a bed and breakfast), she cooked the most amazing meal for us: homemade corn and flour tortillas, avocado and tomato salad, rice with carrots and peas, ground beef, refried bean dip, tortilla chips with mildly spicy salsa, and this incredible meat that she cooked in tin foil, and when I tried to fork the meat to put it on my plate, it fell apart it was so tender. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I still daydream about the avocado and tomato salad. Then for dessert, she had made flan and a coconut cake (I would have eaten the whole thing if I hadn't been so full from dinner). To top it off, they brought out the alcohol: tequila, grappa, more tequila, and some other homemade liquor. As a college student, the tequila I usually drink (cough, I mean have tried maybe a couple times in safe settings, cough) burns going down your throat--even after licking the salt, taking the shot, and biting the lime. But no, THIS tequila was in a fancy glass bottle and it went down sooo smoothly. Of course the last course of the dinner was an espresso (which the Italian cousins weren't impressed with, along with not enjoying all of the flavors of the rest of the meal, while Allison and I gobbled up everything put in front of us). This was one of the best Mexican meals I've ever had...and I had it in Italy. Imagine that! I wish the place was closer to me so I could go back every 2 weeks, and I wish that the woman was my best friend--she was so sweet and she appreciated that Allison and I loved everything and thanked her after every course.
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| The feast and the feast-ers (Matteo, Claudio, Luciana). |
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| Of course a sombrero was put on the head of the birthday-boy... |
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| ...and then we all wanted a turn. (Matteo) |
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| My turn! |
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| Allison with our tequila and a mini sombrero. |
I hope everyone reading this didn't start off hungry...maybe I should have put a disclaimer at the beginning. Now I'm trying to avoid keeping my food-baby by going for runs and eating smaller meals.
And now my blog has officially caught up with my life. I'm currently writing this in procrastination from studying Dante (my exam is on December 5th--gahh!), but now that I have no more food stories, I better get back to studying. Arrivederci tutti!
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