Darya In Italy

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Pranzo di Polenta!

A few Saturday's ago, Fabio's family had a polenta lunch. There were 22 guests, 2 types of sauce (mushroom & deer) and too many types of wine for me to remember. It is a tradition in his family to have these lunches several times a year. What makes it unique is that instead of being served on plates, the polenta is served on boards that cover the table, and everyone digs into the area in front of them. This was a fun way to eat, you just had to make sure you stuck to your respective area, or you might get forked.

Polenta is fairly easy to make. Boil the correct amount of water, proportional to the amount of polenta. Then slowly add handfuls of polenta flour stirring constantly to make sure you don't get any lumps. Then continue to stir for 30-40 minutes and serve immediately. The hardest part is probably the stirring, since your arms gets tired.

It was a wonderful lunch, that lasted pretty much the whole day! Hopefully we will be invited to do this again soon. The photos are curtsy of Andrea, because my camera battery died (bad timing).

The set table

Stefania (Fabio's mother) and Andrea

The not so small pot

Tasting to see if it is ready

Me making fun of David

Andrea is strong!

Polenta arrives at the table

Spreading on the boards

David and Gab

Isn't David so helpful!

Adding the sauces and cheese

Me and David

Andrea and Fabio

The leftovers

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Last Day in London

Saturday was our last day in London. David and I met his friend Peter in Maida Vale for lunch and a walk. But first we couldn't leave for the day without our daily serving of truffles. This time it was black truffle over scrambled eggs and toast, delicious!

Maida Vale is a luxurious neighborhood of London, to say the least. The architecture is beautiful, and it is close to Primrose Hill, which is where our walk took us. Primrose Hill is supposedly one of the best views of the city, where you can see many of the monuments. The walk back to Maida Vale was through "Little Venice", a canal at the bottom of Primrose Hill with tour boats and a few house boats. It is not as beautiful or quite as unique as the real Venice, it was a nice walk.

We said goodbye to Peter late afternoon and went back to Joyce and Roger's house for take-out Indian food. I had never had it in London, but heard it was one of the best places to get it, which was true! All in all our Thanksgiving in London was an amazing experience!!! We are already trying to figure out when we can take our next trip.

Scrambled eggs on toast with black truffle

Maida Vale

View of London from Primrose hill

Peter, me and David at the top of Primrose hill

Little Venice

Sinking boat in the canal

Tour boat

One of the enormous mansions next to the canal

House boat

Assortment of Indian appetizers

Four types of chicken over rice with cucumber yogurt

Roger, David, me and Joyce

Friday, December 2, 2011

London Cont.

On Friday we spent the day walking around London. Our first stop was St. John's Wood where we had brunch at a place called Carluccio's and saw the famous Abby Road crosswalk. We took the train from there to Buckingham palace, walked to Westminster, Big Ben and across the river, past the Eye of London, through an outdoor Christmas fair to Waterloo station where we took the train to an outdoor food market. After all day walking around we went home for an amazing truffle pasta dinner. Every year Joyce and Roger buy a fresh white truffle, it has become their tradition around Thanksgiving. Joyce made fresh pasta with a little cream, parmesan cheese and shaved white truffle on top. It was the first time I had white truffle, and it's fantastic! She also made steak with mushroom sauce and we had a special port for dessert. It was a great day with an absolutely delicious ending!