Tasty Travels: Rome

Our last night in Rome, Tim and I returned to a restaurant we had visited our last time in Rome, in March 2007. His brother joined us for dinner.

The restaurant, Armando Al Pantheon, is a small, cute restaurant right around the corner from the Pantheon (and our apartment). You need reservations; they take them over email, or you can have your hotel call the day before or day of and book you a table. I wouldn't travel all the way across town to eat there, but if you're staying nearby, I recommend it!

We started out with two kinds of bruschetta: truffle and wild boar.
For our pasta course, I had spaghetti alla verde (spaghetti with lemon, arugula, and Parmesan).Tim's brother had spaghetti alla gricia (spaghetti with bacon, Parmesan, and black pepper).Tim had gnocchi pomodoro.
For our main course, we split the Saltimbocca Alla Romana (which we had made in cooking class the day prior)...
and grilled Scamorza cheese (so delicious but so cheesy-- good to split between a few people).

We ended our night with gelato from Della Palma.
Tim had Creme Caramel and some other flavor. His brother had mint chocolate and tiramisú. I had a triple threat of Pomelo, Pine Nut, and Strawberry.
The pine nut and Pomelo were SO GOOD!!
We then stopped at one more gelato place (yes we ate even more) and tried the ginger-cinnamon at San Crispino. San Crispino is the favorite place of our cooking class instructor and was mentioned in the Northwest Airlines magazine. We had to try it. Then we exploded from eating too much.

Tasty Travels: Learning to Cook like a Roman

Our last stop in Italy was the Eternal City of Rome.

We took a cooking class through Context Rome, with instructor Francesca Flore.

We made:

Supplí al telefono (rice and cheese balls)
The name comes from "telephone" because when you bite into them, the mozzarella cheese can stretch out like a telephone cord.
Pomodori al riso (rice stuffed tomatoes)
Zucchini alla Scapece
(fried zucchini marinated in vinegar and mint)
Pasta carbonara
Pasta puttanesca
Pasta e ceci (pasta and chick peas)

Saltimbocca alla Romana
(veal escalopes with sage and prosciutto)
This photo is before they were cooked.

And tiramisú for dessert (didn't get a photo).

Tasty Travels: Praiano, Italy

Tim and I ate very well on our 8-day trip to Italy.

Our first stop was Praiano, on the Amalfi Coast.

From the restaurant La Strada:

Seafood Risotto
Ravioli

From the Trattoria S. Gennaro Pizzeria:
Green salad with sliced fresh fennel
Pasta Carbonara

...and some Limoncello at the hotel Le Fioriere to finish off our last night.

Tasty Travels: Ravello, Italy

Tim and I had the honor of attending a wedding in Ravello, Italy on the Amalfi Coast. The beautiful wedding was at Villa Cimbrone, and the wedding meal was held at Hotel Caruso.

Our menu:
Rossinis
Proscuitto di Pietraroja, Stringata e Capocollo, Sausages with Fennel Seed, Fresh Mozzarella, Marinated Eggplant Strips, and Sundried Tomatoes
Pizza MargheritaThe Amalfi Coast's Seafood Risotto
Neapolitan's Classic LasagnaGrilled Selection of Vegetables with Olive Oil and Parsley; Potatoes Gateau with Peas and Melted Cheese
Wedding CakeFriandiesEspresso
... and later on, a little Limoncello

Tasty Travels: Thailand

Our first new food in Thailand: coconut puffs. They were very yummy! Our guide Tong ordered them from a street vendor through the van window. Thai Fast Food!The famous floating market:
Tong and her "Thai Starbucks!"
Fried bananas, anyone?
How about some chicken wings?This noodle soup was my favorite food item of my entire time in Asia. SO GOOD!Clockwise from top left: fish coated in shrimp paste and then fried, prawns, whole fin fish in tamarind sauce, fresh crab:

Close-up of prawns and whole fish in tamarind sauce:
Close-up of fish coated in shrimp paste and crabs:Tamarind Soup with sea catfish, green beans, and a vegetable similar to morning-glory.
Fried spring rolls:
Prawns with chili and fried basil (very spicy!):
Prawns with lemon sauce:
Mango and sticky rice:

Tasty Travels: Hong Kong

Some dishes we tried during our three days in Hong Kong:

Our hotel had an amazing buffet breakfast, with both Western and Asian items.The Chinese options: noodles, glutinous rice dumpling with chicken and pork steamed in a lotus leaf, and beef dumpling.Here are a few photos of the inside of the glutinous rice dumpling... It was really good. Of course, I seem to like anything made with glutinous ("sticky") rice!
I also had a bowl of plain rice congee. There were four different toppings: salted peanuts, sliced scallions, crushed tortilla chips (?) and something that looked like fish. I tried the first two. Congee tastes like... maybe cream of wheat? I don't know, basically warm breakfast cereal. It's not bad. I am glad I could try it.
Lunch at Ned Kelly's, an Australian Pub:
Nachos... We have seen nachos made with doritos (instead of tortilla chips) in other countries, too!
A broiled, open-face Hawaiian sandwich-- it was really, really good! Ham, pineapple, and swiss:

Lunch at The Yellow Door Kitchen:
We started with dumplings in chili sauce. They were delicious, as was the spicy sauce.
This dish was air-dried ham with garlic stems. The server dropped it off, and we waited to eat it until I had taken a photo, but right after I took the photo, the server re-directed it to our neighboring table. We ordered sliced pork with garlic stems. It was delicious as well. I am looking forward to the green garlic from our CSA this year!This dish was also good, and spicy! Sliced beef with breadcrumbs was served on a bed of shredded scallions.