Foodtopia Moments

Tonight for dinner, I went to the Tambu Lounge at Disney’s Polynesian Resort. It’s a bar right outside of O’Hana, a Hawaiian flavored Brazilian BBQ type restaurant. I had a pineapple upside down martini, and a key lime coconut martini with a graham cracker rim. For my entrée, I had O’Hana style chicken wings that were seasoned with honey and coriander, and kona coffee pulled pork sliders. The sliders were ok, but the wings were some of the best I’ve ever eaten. 

Taking care of business

This week is supposed to be my week of mixing business with pleasure. Instead, I took care of all of the business this afternoon and will be heading back to NJ tomorrow instead of Friday. Mom has surgery scheduled for tomorrow after a postponement today, so I need to get back sooner than planned.

Today I woke up in Bonita Springs after a night out in Naples. After a tasty breakfast at Waffle House, I headed up to Orlando to handle the business that brought me down here. I checked into Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort and then went over to Disney’s Polynesian Resort for a few drinks and dinner. Before heading back to the Magic Kingdom for a bus back to my hotel, I went to the Polynesian Resort beach to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks show called Wishes.

I’ve been at Disney many different times a year, including the Christmas week, which is their busiest. But tonight they must’ve been mobbed inside. When I got there to head to the busses, the lines for the monorails and boats were back up all the way to the park exit. It took 10 minutes to walk about 40 yards. I realized that the boat launches were so busy because the water electrical light parade was passing on the lake, and people wanted to see it. 

Foodtopia Moments

Seeing that Mom fell at the airport on Thursday and strained some muscles, she really hasn't been to the store yet. Today I managed to pick up some groceries and also make her some meals to keep in the freezer for days when she doesn't have time to cook. I made string beans with tomatoes, perogies, pasta with tomato sauce, zucchini and yellow squash, baked chicken with potatoes, and chicken cordon blue with white wine sauce. I was a busy beaver this afternoon.  

Bags are packed

And you thought the blog was done for this year? I'm off to Florida tomorrow and my bags are packed. I will try to get some posts up this week, including some Foodtopia Moments. 

Foodtopia Moments

For pranzo (lunch), Mom and I were in Rome at Macondo, just up the street from Piazza Navona. Mom ordered the menu touristico (tourist menu), which consisted of bruschetta, a side salad, lasagna, and an iced tea. We shared a Caprese salad and a bottle of water. I ordered a mixed brushetta plate, which included a piece with melted mozzarella and anchovies. It was interesting, but salty. For my pasta plate, I ordered gnocchi al’amatriciana, which has pancetta in tomato sauce with a little spice to it. It was delicious. 

Roman tourists

When we got to the Hilton Rome Airport hotel, the biggest question was whether Mom was going to join me in Rome or just stay back at the hotel and relax. The next biggest question was how long we would have to wait for our room to be ready. First, Mom decided that she would head into Rome, as her scooter could be stored in the baggage hold of the bus for the shuttle ride into town. Second, after we arrived at the hotel at 11:30, we had to wait until 1:30 to check -in. This wasn’t all bad. When we arrived, the lady offered us a chance to check-in right away to an upgraded room for 70 Euros. We declined and told her we’d wait a bit, as the next shuttle into Rome wasn’t until 2 p.m. Around 1 p.m., I started to hover by the front desk waiting for the opportunity to check-in. Finally the lady called me over as she had received permission to upgrade to an executive room free of charge, with access to a lounge with complimentary food and drinks. Not too bad.

In Rome today, we saw the memorial of Vittorio Emanuelle where my father once served as one of the soldiers who guarded this Italian version of the tomb of the unknown soldier. Then we pushed onward to the Pantheon, and Piazza Navona. We had pranzo (lunch) at Macondo, a little restaurant just off of Piazza Navona. The food was great. For dessert, I took mom to Bar Tre Scalini, a famous Piazza Navona haunt renowned for its tartufo (a death by chocolate creation allegedly started there). Mom, a lover of chocolate, thoroughly enjoyed it. We then went back toward the bus, stopping for a drink on the way.

Tomorrow is an early day, as we fly out at 9:50 in the morning. 

We’re back in Rome

We awoke this morning with little energy. Last night, we went out for pizza at Ristorante Netti with my cousin Renato and his moglie (wife) Dorrette. It was a very enjoyable evening, and it made saying goodbye to Campomarino even tougher. We moved a few things inside last night, but we saved the bulk of the work for this morning.  

After showering, I went outside with the ladder and covered the ceiling fan and the air conditioner motor. Both of those combined didn’t take a fraction of the time it used to take to put the car up on bricks, which we no longer need to do. I got Mom stirring and I went and loaded the car.

The ride here was great. We left about an hour behind schedule, but it helped us avoid Rome morning commute traffic. So we got here in about 3 hours. The car we had was pretty good, a Peugot, and I was able to do upwards of 150-160 KPH (90-100 MPH) and it felt fairly safe. It must be a month or so in Italy that made me this aggressive. We passed many small mountainside towns and even some fires, which Italy has a lot of these days.

Now we are patiently waiting for our hotel room to be ready so we can head out into Rome for the afternoon.