da due ciccioni

During my last week in Rome, I went to this restaurant called Da | Due Ciccioni (Two Fat Men), which is not really a real restaurant but a sort of hole in the wall on some little street in Trastevere. Apparently there is a stove right in the middle of the restaurant, but I ate outside so I never got to see it. Plus there is a dog. There's no menus and you pay 25 euros then the fat man (the other one died...) brings you whatever he's cookin that day. You can choose the type of pasta and the type of meat, I think. It's a lot of food, wine, limoncello and grappa (if you're into grappa and limoncello, I guess). I wore wet laundry because my damp laundry was the one clean thing I had that wouldn't squish my stomach

I still don't really know what this was. It was like carroty potatoes? I have no idea. It was wonderful though.

Bruschetta con pomodori

Beans

Caccio e pepe (pecorino romano and pepper)

Pancetta and cheese, I think

You can figure this one out

Chicken in some balsamic-y sauce, if I remember it correctly. I just know that it was good.

Now that I've been home for a while and had my cheddar cheese, tacos, hamburgers, sushi, and breakfast, I miss Rome so so much. EVERYTHING!!! Spicy Panella cheese, the sweaty, squishy #64 bus to Termini, dumb cobblestones, gelato and pizza for breakfast and lunch. It makes me want to throw up when I think about it. You know what I mean?

el puerco lloron

carnitas, beans, rice, tortillas, chips, variations on salsa

I forgot how nice it is to have a variety of food to choose from. So far my "Welcome Back to America: A Food Journey" is going well. Next on my list is hombow, Indian food, salmon skin rools, and banh mi.

jetlagged and hungry

Got back from Rome last night. Longest 24 hours of traveling ever. It was weird and sleepy and I was so disoriented the whole time. When I got to JFK from Rome, it was so strange how immediately familiar everything was but I was also really confused at the same time and zapped myself trying to plug in my computer and cut myself on the bathroom door. Then I paid way too much money for a hamburger because I was soooo excited and I tried to pay in Euros. Then when I got my change back in quarters, I thought I had a lot more money that I really did because 3 quarters is not the same as 3 1 euro coins and $1 bills are not the same as 5 euro bills. And when I got to Seattle, it was 50 degrees and gray, welcome home! Now its early in the morning and I am awake so here is the food from the final show.

salumi platter

prosciutto

tomato and basil bruschetta

bean bruschetta with arugula

porchetta!!!!

melon, chocolate dipped lavender cookies, plain lavender cookies

prosciutto wrapped melon

caprese salad on a toothpick

toasted almonds

I know, I'm impressed too. The food at our shows has always been so much better than those round fennel crackers that they have everywhere else. Or even the little sandwiches or mini-pizzas that some places have catered. Maybe that's why Steven Westfall shows up so early. I wish my fridge was full right now. It's nice though because it doesn't smell like rotting food, my kitchen is clean, my floor is not dusty, the bathroom isn't wet and gross, there aren't nesting seagulls crying all day...but it's not the Cenci. But also it's not so weird because it already all feels like a very far away dream where I was floating above my body the whole time. I really don't believe it all happened so fast!

florence

I forgot that I went to Florence. It was such a weird trip. We stayed in Siena and took the bus to Florence for two days. STUPID idea. Sienese painting show was worth it though. Not that much eating, but these things were good:

Salmon and arugula on a poppyseed croissant

BISTECCA ALLA FIORENTINA
just olive oil, salt and pepper. I would have eaten it with my hands if I had been in an empty room by myself.

Now I'm sitting in a sweaty hotel room on my second to last night in Rome even though it already feels like I left forever ago. I'm maybe 10 pounds heavier, haven't worn pants in months, popping lactaid pills 3 times a day, and so happy that it all happened because of too much pasta and cheese. It's super surreal that it's all over. I'll put up pictures from the final show food soon. The Cenci knows how to do it right, even in a smelly, dirty kitchen. Miss that shit.

Barcelona: good & gross

These photos are in reverse order and I'm too lazy to fix them. I went to Barcelona for 4 days last week. Lots of good food, and also some bad food. I learned to mostly only trust Rick Steves. And to always bring a list of restaurants so that you don't get roped into a gross one. And to warn other customers if they try to come into the gross restaurant you unfortunately got stuck in.

Paella!
The waiter tricked us into ordering 2 orders of it, which was awful because we had enormous appetizers. But it was still excellent. I pushed past the wall of pain as much as I could.

This is like a whole package of Despar lox. Nobody gets what that is probably, but it's like one of those things you can pretend everybody gets while secretly knowing nobody does so they maybe think it's something great and special but it's not.
ANYWAY, that came with bread. Eryn's came with avocados.

Melissa's mushroom crepes with duck bacon

Not totally sure what this is

There is this great great market called La Boqueria. It's super crowded and has lots of tourists, but who cares because it's greaet and has lots of food stands and raw meat and seafood and lots of food bars. The best one, apparently, is Pinxoto (I think that's how it's spelled), which is right when you get into the marekt.

This is fried lamb

Eryn and Melissa cut the empanada before I could take a picture

Chickpeas

Sausage

When I see people in Rome in those touristy trap restaurants by the Pantheon or where ever, I never understood why they would go there when they could just look in a guide book or look something good up online. BUT now I get it. Because sometimes the restaurant you picked only lets 140 people in a day and you can't get in and it's like 10 PM and you're really hungry and you don't know where else to go except for the busiest places with the touristy restaurants so you just pick one so you can finally EAT. And that's how this gross dinner happened.

Anchovies with grilled peppers and eggplant. It tasted like salty crap with slimy crap.

I probably ordered the least gross food though. It doesn't even look so bad.

Bocadillo with anchovies, peppers, and olives

Tapas, bad picture, but they were good

And sometimes, you just get confused and get bad food without knowing any better. Like these stale churros and hot chocolate.

Bocadillo with bacon and tomato jam

open studios

Open studios crept up on us so quickly. And somehow, the end of May came even faster and more sneakily like Elmer Fudd wishes he could be. Here's some food that the caterers made for the Open Studios (by the way, way better than those crackers they have at every other other opening). Got way too full on cheese. And other things. There was a lot of food. A LOT

caprese salad on a toothpick

MY ARCH NEMESIS: CHEESE
But it was so good. Plus toasted garlicky bread.

Cookies

There was also this yogurt dip type thing. But it's not here.

Back from Croatia

I went to Croatia for spring break, and it was super surreal.

We went to Plitvice Lakes National Park, and I still don't really believe that it exists. It was like Ferngully in real life. I took way more pictures of waterfalls and trees and whatever than my food, but here's what I got. It was just a lot of seafood all week. And a lot of bread. Croatian bread is like if Wonderbread actually tasted good and was an acceptable bread to eat in public.

Squid

Seafood risotto from the first night

Now there are only 6 weeks left before I leave Rome and I don't know what to do! I think I just have to be more proactive about eating and keep carbo-loading as much as possible. I'll miss always having 4 different kinds of cheese and salami and proscuitto. But I also can't wait to eat a hamburger and have a taco and a corn dog. All at the same time.