Well then, here we are again. A lot of things have happened lately, not only foodwise. However, as usual I've been too damn lazy to update this blog. It's actually like putting together a photo album after a vacation. You
know you should do it and it'll bring back nice memories while doing it, but somehow you can't make yourself do it. That's laziness for you! Well, for me then actually.
One of those things that have happened lately, is we've been taken to Rome for five days, by my parents to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary, all expenses covered. Yay! Thanx mom & dad!
Having been to Rome before and having seen a lot of cultural things that previous time, now I had a chance of getting involved more with the culinary experiences. And boy, did we have some!
We stayed at
Hotel Embassy. When we arrived there in the evening, the front desk clerk, a funny 60-year-old man, made sure we would eat a good meal and made a reservation at a small restaurant nearby, at the
Via Volturno.
That night we were for the first time exposed to Rome's fine, pure, honest food. Pictured above is some of my starter, ham and mozzarella. Bread and (uncooked, unshelled) broad beans were served just like that, alongside some bitter-sharp olives. The saltimbocca was great.
The next morning, we had breakfast for the first time at our hotel. To my surprise, the Italians didn't serve savoury things for breakfast. Instead, just sweet things, like this
cornetto stuffed with chocolate cream. Mmm! Perfect for a sweet tooth like me. Less great if you're more into savoury things, like N or others of our company. And to be honest, the fourth day it started to get a little boring for me too.
That's why, on that fourth day, I went looking for
tramezzini, which are crustless sandwiches, stuffed with great things. Pictured below is
Pepy's Bar at the Piazza Barberini, which bore the very inspired name
Bar Berini. Right.
Nonetheless, they had some nice sandwiches.
This one is actually from the
gelato shop
SquisitCook next door where they mainly served icecream, but if you don't tell anyone we can keep that a secret. It was filled with some kind of cheese and ham. Mmm!
Speaking of icecream, Italians are - of course - the very masters of said sweetness. All over Rome you'll stumble upon gelato shops. It is said each Roman has their own favourite shop. The one most famous however, according to our travel guide books, was
Giolitti, at the
Via degli Uffici del Vicario, in the vicinity of the Pantheon (and a little further away, the Trevi fountain). If your guide books won't guide you there, the lines of tourists waiting for their turn might guide you.
Again, the picture above isn't an icecream from that shop, but it's secretly from another place, also very much worth going to:
Ciuri Ciuri, at the
Via Leonina. The reason I went there (dragging N alongside with me) was that I wanted to have tasted
cannoli at least once when having been in Rome. Reportedly, Ciuri Ciuri served the best ones in Rome.
A cannolo is a deep fried roll of some kind of sweet dough, in this case (the
Siciliana Orientale variety, if I remember it correctly), stuffed with a ricotta cheese filling and dipped in chocolate chips.
My.
Gosh.
It was great! It was the size of a can of coke, stuffed entirely with its extremely rich, cream-cheese like ricotta stuffing. After that,
I was stuffed.
Dino & Toni's
This little
trattoria deserves special mentioning:
Dino & Toni's, at the
Via Leone IV. When we had visited St. Peter's basilica at Vatican city, we had lunch here, encouraged to do so by our copy of Lonely Planet's Rome guide. You're served by one of the two brothers who will make you feel like you're the family they haven't seen in years. There's no menu, but you're just served food, the way it's supposed to go in trattoria's.
Antipasti consisted of cold cuts of meat...
...deep fried potato croquettes, pizzadough stuffed with gorgonzola and chard, some funny little deep fried what seemed like custard, apparently some pizzadough with eggyolks and more pizza. It made for a very fine lunch at the last day in the city of Rome, where you get true value for your money.
All in all, like in the rest of Italy (as I've been told) food in Rome isn't just a necessity to keep you sustained, it's an experience that will undoubtedly enhance your holiday. Beware though, especially in the touristic parts of the city, for high food prices. Going the extra mile for spots like Dino & Toni's will pay. If you're going there, enjoy your stay!
Amuse bouche was a small cup of tomatosoup with a cheese twister.
Every time I eat here, I just have to have the shrimp croquettes as a starter. I'm sure they have other items on the menu, but come one, who'd order something else when you can have shrimp croquettes? Especially when they're the best in town.
Okay, maybe N's lactose intolerance made her choose oxtail stock with ravioli, stuffed with duck foie gras. Apparently, very good. Not as good as shrimp croquettes of course.
Since the asparagus season was in full bloom, we both ordered the special of asparagus, served with a poached egg and fabulous ham of a special kind of pork I've already forgotten. Served on the side were the infamous Flemish fries (whole different league altogether than french fries), though a bit on the salty side. And apparently some salad.
