Friday, March 20, 2009

My Italian Mama :)

It might not sound all that exciting but I had a really nice day today with my landlord. I am so lucky because she is like my own personal Italian mama here, as she treats me like I am part of her family. I don't usually see her that often because she works 6 days a week 12 hours a day, so today was a treat for me.
We went to the Mercato (fresh open air market) in the morning and she instructed me one how to choose the best meats (their meat looks nothing like ours, there is usually the skinned animal head in the cases right along side of the meat, to show how fresh it is), fresh vegetables and fruit. Then she took me around and introduced me to various friends and acquaintances of hers that she thought I might like, mostly artist and craftsmen.
http://s410.photobucket.com/albums/pp184/Reneestique/my%20Italian%20Mama/?action=view&current=VID00042.flv
Back at our apartments she made me speak Italian to her so I could work on my horrible pronunciation while she taught me how to make 2 authentic simple Italian dishes (as she put it stuff you would never see in cook books or restaurants). I got some of it on video, and OMG was it delicious!! So I didn't explore any ruins, museums or new piazzas (town squares), today I got to explore and spend some personal time with true Romans and it was lovely.

2 comments:

dweaver said...

did you write it all down when you got back to your place so you can re-create it back in Jersey??
it looked really good- except for those eggs inside the chicken- that was a bit bizarre- never expected that- thank God for American butchers who take care of those minor details to protect our delicate sensibilities...

Spain is like that too-must be a European thing... when I was there 26 years ago- they had dead piglets and upside down hanging de-feathered chickens in their front windows of restaurants! Like THAT's going to draw you into the place!?
When you order chicken, they bring it out on a plate with head and feet still on it... like the duck dinner that they had in the movie Christmas Story.
They don't have any hang ups that Americans do.
I'll hold onto my hang-up's, thank you very much!

Renee said...

hahahaha that's why I have had almost no meat or seafood since I've been to Rome unless it was already prepared in a restaurant. I just can't bring myself to buy something that isn't neatly packaged and cut down, (possibly color and chemical injected), I like it when my food no longer resembles something I could have as a pet!!