Foodtopia Moments

At the traveling market today, I picked up some grande abuffata. It’s a type of lunchmeat with a bacon-looking porchetta wrapped around an olive and pimento loaf. If you ever see it in the states, try it. Someone actually took pickle and pimento loaf, married it to olive loaf, and then housed them in bacon.

A gardener I am not

Today began with a trip into the main part of Campomarino Lido to pick up some food for the fridge. I bought some lunch meat, a variety of cheese, farm-to-me veggies, bread for the day, pizza for breakfast, and meat for the freezer. It was a pretty good haul for less than 50 bucks.

When I returned, I knew I had to tackle the garden outside of our place. In the nearly 11 months since I left here, the vines have overgrown the garden, virtually strangling the trees. So I went about cutting vines, bagging scraps (four big bags today and two yesterday), and raking out old leaves, then sweeping it all up. This was all done in about sunny, 100-degree weather. The shade had a slight breeze, so I made sure to take a respite from time to time and drank plenty of water.

Tomorrow is a trip to my dad’s hometown, Torremaggiore, in the morning, followed by a mopping of the patio. I am actually looking forward to driving the Renault Megane again tomorrow. It handles really well. 

Foodtopia Moments

Spending seven hours on the road can be a drag. Italy, however, has some good eats on the Autostrada. One of my favorites is the Caprese sandwich from the Autogrill. When they hot press this simple sandwich of artisan bread, fresh tomato slices, and buffalo mozzarella, all of the flavors come together and burst in your mouth.

The robbery...

For those that don’t know, I am not a sleeper. I sleep 5-6 hours a day or I usually feel terrible when I wake up. However, today wasn’t one of those days. I went to bed about 11:30 last night, and didn’t get out of bed until after 9:30 this morning. We really didn’t have anywhere to be as our reservation for the car wasn’t until about 11.

After waiting an hour in line for the car, and then another half hour for our Renault Megane to be cleaned and delivered, we finally pushed off about noon from Milan on our seven-hour journey into the unknown. During the drive, Mom and I would periodically hypothesize about what we were going to find upon our arrival since the condo was burglarized in April.

Luckily, when we arrived, the damage was small. One window pane was smashed with a brick, one screen was slashed, some clothes were thrown on the bed, and the TV was taken. I guess the robber didn’t want Mom’s old robes or my old undies.

So I swept the patio and cleaned up broken glass, Mom started and hung two loads of laundry, and we went out for pizza. And I got my wifi internet working. Now we need to begin working on getting a glass guy, a screen guy, and a person to install iron security bars. Ten homes were broken into that night in April according to the police, and none of them had the iron bars on the windows. They specifically targeted the easy ones.

On the way to dinner, we walked by the new play area for kids. They’ve added a Ferris wheel, and spinning swings. 

Foodtopia Moments

Mom and I decided to stay in tonight and eat at the il Cannetto restaurant at the Sheraton Malpensa Hotel. It was a great decision. Mom had the tagliatelle Bolognese, and I had spaghetti carbonara. The meal was decadent. Complimentary prosecco, and the fanciest buffalo mozzarella Caprese salad just added to the delicious meal, which we finished with a shared tiramisu.

Made it to Milan

As I get older, I’m leaning that overnight flying is not my thing, especially when we arrive at 3 a.m. EST. Luckily, after a smooth flight, we were able to check into the Sheraton Malpensa Hotel for some much needed rest. After a few hours of shut eye, I trekked out into the middle of Milan to see the Duomo, hook up Italian phones, and see if there is a way to take my mom to the Expo (World’s Fair) at the end of August.

We both managed to get some sleep, and we were ready for dinner at the hotel. It might sound like a lame meal in Italy, but the restaurant at this hotel makes its own pasta, and the food is outstanding.

Tomorrow morning we head out on our journey to the beach house. Hopefully it won’t be too damaged from the break-in that occurred in April. A stolen television can be replaced, but hopefully we don’t need to replace much glass. 

And off we go...

Nearly a year has passed since my last post, and I am ready to do some traveling. Actually, I am ready to do some lounging...by the beach. This is the latest I've stayed in New Jersey in a while, and it has been pretty fun getting in almost daily bike rides.

I was also able to enjoy my week-long moratorium on Italian food. Seeing as I will be eating nothing but Italian for the next six weeks (I know, boo hoo), I went on a non-Italian binge. My favorite was the Korean food from Dolsot House in Cherry Hill. Their honey sesame wings are arguably the best wings in the area, and their spicy chicken dolsot bowls are bursting with flavor. The scallion pancake was the best I've ever found as well. As for dessert, I need to go with Royale Crown in Hammonton. Located in the blueberry capital of America, Royale Crown offers lots of locally grown blueberry flavors. Their blueberry custard has real blueberry bits in it as well.

The next post I make will hopefully be from Milan, Italy. If it isn't, I'm sure there will be a good story behind why it isn't.