After class on tuesday my roommates and I headed out to "sports night" but since we had left late we missed the meeting time. No one was there when we showed up so we headed out on our own to see if we could find where everyone was playing. We went over one of the bridges and headed towards the hills, since thats where we heard everyone was going to be. After about a half hour of walking we gave up on finding sports night and just decided to explore. There was a large piazza way up the hill that looked like a great place to see the city. As we looked down we could see the walls around florence, which was pretty cool. I didnt bring my camera because i thought id be playing sports, but im going back soon. When we got to the scenic area there was a large villa above us and a huge piazza with food, street vendors selling their knock off purses and glasses and artists. One in particular that was cool was a man that used spray paint and a brush and could work majic. The view of florence was incredible.
Wednesday i had Italian regional cuisine, with the same teacher as my introduction to italian cooking class. He told us about the differences in each region and how if you asked an italian what italian food was they would all have different answers. He stressed that each region has completely different food. We then began to cook with polenta, which is corn meal. We brought half a pot of water to boil and added olive oil and polenta. We boiled for a while and stirred constantly. During boiling we cut up fontina and talleggio (not sure about the spelling) cheese and grated parmesian. When the polenta was thick (you can add more if not the right consistency) in a bread tin we layered polenta, cheese, polenta, cheese and put in the oven. It was very good. Make sure you dont use too much cheese tho! The chef also took some just polenta and cooled it down, then fried it in olive oil. That was also very good. My next class was Italian language, a class that I have been looking forward too. The class was in the Florence University of the Arts campus so we had about a 20 minute walk ahead of us. My class had about 10 people in it and we started with the alphabet and went through basic introductions and questions.
Today i woke up early with jason and went to the market. We had already decided to make garlic mashed potatoes and artichokes but werent sure of the meat yet. We looked around at the butchers but had a hard time understanding what was going on. We didnt want to spend money on the expensive meat and get the wrong one. We gave up on the butchers and bought a couple kilos of salmon. I, being from alaska, know some good recipes. The artichokes were only 2 euro for 7 artichokes. At the market i bought a sandwhich that has to be the best sandwhich of my life.
Only 2,50 euro it was roast beef sliced right off the roast, pesto, chili sauce, and S&P on a roll. So good. A funny story was that when i asked for a roast beef sandwhich the Italian next to me said to say "panino" as sandwhich means "touch me a little". Im surprised he said it with a straight face because it definitely does not. The rest of the day was spent finding brown sugar, which Italians dont use, or even know of. An international store had some, which we found right before my last class of the week, nutrition. In the nutrition class we spent the first day with introductions and a description of the class. Im still here at the school, updating my blog before i go home and make dinner. Ill try to put pics up tonight, as its not letting me now.
Wednesday i had Italian regional cuisine, with the same teacher as my introduction to italian cooking class. He told us about the differences in each region and how if you asked an italian what italian food was they would all have different answers. He stressed that each region has completely different food. We then began to cook with polenta, which is corn meal. We brought half a pot of water to boil and added olive oil and polenta. We boiled for a while and stirred constantly. During boiling we cut up fontina and talleggio (not sure about the spelling) cheese and grated parmesian. When the polenta was thick (you can add more if not the right consistency) in a bread tin we layered polenta, cheese, polenta, cheese and put in the oven. It was very good. Make sure you dont use too much cheese tho! The chef also took some just polenta and cooled it down, then fried it in olive oil. That was also very good. My next class was Italian language, a class that I have been looking forward too. The class was in the Florence University of the Arts campus so we had about a 20 minute walk ahead of us. My class had about 10 people in it and we started with the alphabet and went through basic introductions and questions.
Today i woke up early with jason and went to the market. We had already decided to make garlic mashed potatoes and artichokes but werent sure of the meat yet. We looked around at the butchers but had a hard time understanding what was going on. We didnt want to spend money on the expensive meat and get the wrong one. We gave up on the butchers and bought a couple kilos of salmon. I, being from alaska, know some good recipes. The artichokes were only 2 euro for 7 artichokes. At the market i bought a sandwhich that has to be the best sandwhich of my life.
Only 2,50 euro it was roast beef sliced right off the roast, pesto, chili sauce, and S&P on a roll. So good. A funny story was that when i asked for a roast beef sandwhich the Italian next to me said to say "panino" as sandwhich means "touch me a little". Im surprised he said it with a straight face because it definitely does not. The rest of the day was spent finding brown sugar, which Italians dont use, or even know of. An international store had some, which we found right before my last class of the week, nutrition. In the nutrition class we spent the first day with introductions and a description of the class. Im still here at the school, updating my blog before i go home and make dinner. Ill try to put pics up tonight, as its not letting me now.
4 comments:
Looking forward to seeing the new photos. Yummy polenta pics? The walk in the hills sounds really nice--maybe you were able to see a bigger slice of the sky from up there. Too bad about sports night, but you can catch up with them another day. You have a three day weekend? Have fun exploring. Sometime when you get a chance, you might check out the Florence youth hostel. ;-)
The hills of Florence. Are you sleeping all right? With all of the activities and exploring you are covering a lot of ground. Feet go good in olive oil. It was a good idea to take turns cooking. Does it feel cool in the mornings? It has been the same temperature as Alaska in the evening. Maybe they will teach some Italian for the market in your language class.
Big beautiful sky!! Thanks for the pics.
Interesting about the brown sugar. Do you know where they import it from? Can you tell from the packaging? Great picture of the sky.
What's up with the guy and the touch me line.
Is the internet over there pretty fast? Are you still going to ESPN.com a lot? Or are you finding that you care less and less about stuff like that?
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