First I would like to thank my Momma for the care package. Thanks Mom! Everything I can use and I appreciate your thoughtfulness.
So, last Friday I posted that I was going to Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest is in munchen (Munich) and the last day was Sunday so I decided that I had to go before it closed. I was going to go with three of my roommates; Jason Scott and Steele by train and stay in a hostel Saturday night and leave by train around midnight, as we had class at noon on Monday. Friday night me and Brittany went out to a nice restaurant right next to the Ponte Veccio bridge (the signature bridge of Firenze) 
It was a great meal with a beautiful setting. When we sat down the waiter brought us complimentary prosecco (Italian champagne) and the menus. We ordered in the traditional way, with different anti pasti, primmi piatti, secondi piatti and side dish. I ordered mixed meats, linguine alla funghi, duck with a citrus glaze and seasonal veggies with vino di casa blanco. Brittany ordered a sausage and cheese pate on bruschetta, ribolita and chicken in an amazing cream sauce. Everything was great and perfectly prepared. After we finished eating we had desert... I had white truffle ice cream and she had freshly made wild berry cheesecake. Of course with caffe. After dinner we had a nice walk along the river, where there were live musicians playing. The next day I was supposed to meet my roommates at the train station but I didn't have all my Eurail pass stuff together so I decided to meet them the next day. I had my first lazy American day since I've been here, sitting inside watching movies with Brittany all day. 
The next morning I headed off to the train station for OKTOBERFEST! I had heard great things about the specially brewed Oktoberfest beer, served only in liter glasses and with a higher alcohol content than regular beer. I headed for the train station at about 7 am (Firenze at early morning is great, no crowds of people, just peace and quiet) but when I got there the early train had been canceled so 
I had to come back at 9am. Nothing could stop me from reaching my destination tho. At 9 i boarded my train, a much slower one than the Eurostar I had taken from Germany to Italy when I first came here. The bathroom was just a toilet seat with a hole in the bottom that led to the tracks so whatever you put down there ended up on the ground. A little different than how we do it in the U.S. So the train went through some beautiful country side, 
including Austria (which is not on my eurail pass so i had to pay an extra 25 euro) but was VERY long. I didn't get into Munich until 630. When I got off the train in Munich i was met by hordes of people in leederhosen(the men) and ladies in low cut but traditional dresses. Even in the train station there was a sensation of a party. I took a taxi to where Oktoberfest was (with a very funny cabbie that told a few off color jokes about Europe), which only cost 6 euro and was about 8 minutes. 
He dropped me off at the main gate, which was very big. I was surprised that it was held in what seemed like the middle of town. I expected it to be in a Field or separated from the city. I called my roommates and Jason came to meet me. I was shocked by the size of Oktoberfest. It was massive. I had read that beer halls would hold up to 7thousand people but this was so much more than I expected. There was stall after stall of food and souvenirs and then the massive beer tents, which were very extravagant. Everyone seemed happily drunk. Steele and Scott were still in the tent so me and Jason walked around and I got some food, as I hadn't eaten all day and its not wise to drink special German beer on an empty stomach. I had a half meter German sausage with spicy mustard, which was excellent. I followed that up with a bratwurst on a roll and french fries with mayonnaise
. Good start to the night. After walking around for a while we sat down at an outside beer hall. As soon as you sit down a beerman swoops in with liters of beer. I was expecting a bitter, heavy and dark beer but this looked like an ambe. The beer was crisp and very tasty. We went inside one of the massive beer halls that unless you have seen one you cant imagine what its like. 
Thousands of people standing on tables drinking beer and singing together. There was a live band on a raised structure with a man leading the singing. The atmosphere was electric and INSANE! And this was just one of about 14 been halls. We walked around some more and ate more good German food
(one odd thing that stuck out was the whole, large fish on sticks that were stuck in fire pits the eaten whole. I should have tried one). We went to one more beer hall which was even rowdier than the last and I ordered one more liter. The roar of thousands of people singing is something I will never forget. 
Our train was leaving at midnight so we started to head towards the exit. Me and Jason stopped to get on a ride that earlier had looked like it was for kids but for some reason now felt very fast and almost scary. At the train station I had a strange craving for junk food so I ate at the local burger king. 
Normally I hate fast food (besides European kabobs) but at that time it seemed like it had to be done. The train was full of drunk people streaming out of the city. We had a little compartment on the train and Scott promptly fell asleep on the floor (sorry Scott but its part of the story). We maneuvered our bodies into semi sleepable positions and tried to get some rest. The rhythms of a half different foreign languages bounced around the train, slowly dying out as it got later. For some reason the train had no water and no concession stand, which most of them do. We were parched. Worse, what was supposed to be a 6 and a half hour ride turned into a 10 and a half ride. We didn't get to Firenze until 1030 AM. I got a decent amount of sleep and only had one class that day but that was the worst train Ive ever been on. Oktoberfest was great.
It was a great meal with a beautiful setting. When we sat down the waiter brought us complimentary prosecco (Italian champagne) and the menus. We ordered in the traditional way, with different anti pasti, primmi piatti, secondi piatti and side dish. I ordered mixed meats, linguine alla funghi, duck with a citrus glaze and seasonal veggies with vino di casa blanco. Brittany ordered a sausage and cheese pate on bruschetta, ribolita and chicken in an amazing cream sauce. Everything was great and perfectly prepared. After we finished eating we had desert... I had white truffle ice cream and she had freshly made wild berry cheesecake. Of course with caffe. After dinner we had a nice walk along the river, where there were live musicians playing. The next day I was supposed to meet my roommates at the train station but I didn't have all my Eurail pass stuff together so I decided to meet them the next day. I had my first lazy American day since I've been here, sitting inside watching movies with Brittany all day. 
The next morning I headed off to the train station for OKTOBERFEST! I had heard great things about the specially brewed Oktoberfest beer, served only in liter glasses and with a higher alcohol content than regular beer. I headed for the train station at about 7 am (Firenze at early morning is great, no crowds of people, just peace and quiet) but when I got there the early train had been canceled so 
I had to come back at 9am. Nothing could stop me from reaching my destination tho. At 9 i boarded my train, a much slower one than the Eurostar I had taken from Germany to Italy when I first came here. The bathroom was just a toilet seat with a hole in the bottom that led to the tracks so whatever you put down there ended up on the ground. A little different than how we do it in the U.S. So the train went through some beautiful country side, 
including Austria (which is not on my eurail pass so i had to pay an extra 25 euro) but was VERY long. I didn't get into Munich until 630. When I got off the train in Munich i was met by hordes of people in leederhosen(the men) and ladies in low cut but traditional dresses. Even in the train station there was a sensation of a party. I took a taxi to where Oktoberfest was (with a very funny cabbie that told a few off color jokes about Europe), which only cost 6 euro and was about 8 minutes. 
He dropped me off at the main gate, which was very big. I was surprised that it was held in what seemed like the middle of town. I expected it to be in a Field or separated from the city. I called my roommates and Jason came to meet me. I was shocked by the size of Oktoberfest. It was massive. I had read that beer halls would hold up to 7thousand people but this was so much more than I expected. There was stall after stall of food and souvenirs and then the massive beer tents, which were very extravagant. Everyone seemed happily drunk. Steele and Scott were still in the tent so me and Jason walked around and I got some food, as I hadn't eaten all day and its not wise to drink special German beer on an empty stomach. I had a half meter German sausage with spicy mustard, which was excellent. I followed that up with a bratwurst on a roll and french fries with mayonnaise
. Good start to the night. After walking around for a while we sat down at an outside beer hall. As soon as you sit down a beerman swoops in with liters of beer. I was expecting a bitter, heavy and dark beer but this looked like an ambe. The beer was crisp and very tasty. We went inside one of the massive beer halls that unless you have seen one you cant imagine what its like. 
Thousands of people standing on tables drinking beer and singing together. There was a live band on a raised structure with a man leading the singing. The atmosphere was electric and INSANE! And this was just one of about 14 been halls. We walked around some more and ate more good German food
(one odd thing that stuck out was the whole, large fish on sticks that were stuck in fire pits the eaten whole. I should have tried one). We went to one more beer hall which was even rowdier than the last and I ordered one more liter. The roar of thousands of people singing is something I will never forget. 
Our train was leaving at midnight so we started to head towards the exit. Me and Jason stopped to get on a ride that earlier had looked like it was for kids but for some reason now felt very fast and almost scary. At the train station I had a strange craving for junk food so I ate at the local burger king. 
Normally I hate fast food (besides European kabobs) but at that time it seemed like it had to be done. The train was full of drunk people streaming out of the city. We had a little compartment on the train and Scott promptly fell asleep on the floor (sorry Scott but its part of the story). We maneuvered our bodies into semi sleepable positions and tried to get some rest. The rhythms of a half different foreign languages bounced around the train, slowly dying out as it got later. For some reason the train had no water and no concession stand, which most of them do. We were parched. Worse, what was supposed to be a 6 and a half hour ride turned into a 10 and a half ride. We didn't get to Firenze until 1030 AM. I got a decent amount of sleep and only had one class that day but that was the worst train Ive ever been on. Oktoberfest was great.
Monday was Italian traditional cuisine which is usually Damiano but he was in Spain so we had a substitute. We were making a kind of strip steak with balsamic sauce. In Italy, but particularly Tuscany they like all their red meat very rare. We put balsamic, red wine, garlic, rosemary, sage and sale pepe in a pan and let it reduce to a thick sauce. We grilled the meat very briefly in olive oil that had cooked with rosemary and garlic. When the sauce was done we drizzled it over the meat and ate it. It was a very simple recipe but we learned about how meat is traditionally cooked, plus it tasted amazing. Monday night meant sportsnight and that was a great way to work the soreness and stiffness from about 20 hours on a train.
Tuesday was professional cooking and was a great class. We made 4 different kinds of pasta, one with white flour, one with semolina flour, one with cocoa(chocolate pasta) and one with spinach. The pasta was all made the same way, with 100 grams of flour with 1 egg and a tiny bit of olive oil and salt, only with spinach or cocoa added for the difference. We set the dough aside and began sauteing broccoli, onion, peas, shallots and zucchini with lots of olive oil, sale pepe and garlic. We set that aside and made a bechamel sauce (50 grams flour 50 grams butter for 1/2 liter milk) which is a thickener. we then rolled out the spinach dough and the semolina dough and cut it into taglioni. We cooked the pasta (make sure to put sale in the water) put the veggies back on the heat and added the bechamel sauce into the veggies. Use about a cup of the bechamel sauce, maybe a little more. It should be creamy. We then added grated parmigiano and mixed the cooked noodles into the pan with the veggies and sauce. We stirred it together then put into a baking or casserole pan. We sprinkled more parmigiano and put it in the over until the top browned. We didn't do it but I think it would be good to put bread crumbs on top also. It came out amazing. After that we had wine class, which was great because we had an hour lesson then a trip to a wine making villa. The lesson was about how to pair food with wine, which I will go over later. We took a 40 minute bus ride towards Sienna and arrived at a beautiful hilltop villa. When we were introduced we discovered that it was owned by an old noble Tuscan family. We were introduced to the descendant of the lady who posed for the Mona lisa, and actual real princess who also is a famous Italian actress. She was very nice and friendly. We were told that the family (I believe the Strossi family) made the first DOCG (the top classification of wine) ever in Italy in the 60s. They had owned the land for over 1500 years and had on the property wine from every year since the end of the 18th century. Amazing. We took a tour of the old wine making areas that they had turned into a museum and into the modern manufacturing areas. We then sat down for a wine tasting and had an excellent, very floral and simple white (simple is a characteristic of Italian wine vs the American trend to try and make a complex wine) and a very dry, excellent Chianti. It was a great experience. After that we went home and It was my turn to cook. Im the package my mom had sent me was some spices that you cant find here, including habanero. I decided to make Habanero chicken, but since I had never made it before I decided to make up a recipe. I call it San Zanobi habanero citrus chicken (San Zanobi is my streets name). Ingredients: Chicken breasts. (I used 10) Red or yellow bell peppers. White or yellow onion. Honey. Habanero seasoning. Chili powder. 5 oranges. 2 grapefruit. 1 lemon. 1 jar caramelized bell peppers. So I made it up as I went so if anyone makes it go ahead and change it to your taste. I put a jar of honey into a bowl with a little water and olive oil and stirred in about a tablespoon and 1/2 or the habanero spice. I set that aside. In a large bowl i squeezed the juice of the oranges (pulp is good) and the grapefruit and half the lemon dont throw away the peels. In a large saucepan I added the juice, the honey and habanero mix along with half the bell peppers (chopped) half the onion (chopped) and the jar of caramelized bell pepper also add some sale and olive oil. On medium heat i let it cook down for about 30 minutes. Adding habanero and honey to taste. Drop in a teaspoon of chili powder as it simmers. Rinse the chicken breasts and place in an olive oiled large dish. Squeeze the other half of the lemon onto skin. Pour the sauce pan of liquid over the chicken. The sauce should almost cover the chicken (covering is good too). Cut the peels from the squeezed fruit into pieces (not small) and place on top of chicken. Throw other halves of the bell pepper and onion on top also. Place in oven and baste with own sauces periodically. I thought it turned out great, tell me what you think.
Wednesday I got a call from a man I had emailed about jobs advertised on the Internet. He told me to meet him at a club he worked at that night to talk about job opportunities. I need money so a job would definitely help. In class (Italian regional cooking) we made liver over onions and risotto. Very good. After that a girl that lives in Brittanys building took pictures of me and B by the river for her photography class. Italian class was next and we did a little review for our midterm, which is next week. After class I went to Brittany's for a while before heading out to the Club (mericana) to meet the guy for the Interview. Basically I would get money for each person that I got to go to the clubs or bars that they promote. Could be fun. He also said that they were opening up an American style caffe and that I could work there. After the interview I hung out there with my roommates and danced for a while. Hopefully I can get back to my posting schedule Ive just had a really busy week and no good computer access. I dont have my camera cord with me, just my hard drive so ill add pics from tuesday and wednesday later.
Ciao!
3 comments:
After reading all of your amazing stories, I must admit that this one has truely inspired me. I mean, Rome was cool and the chapel was awsome,but did you see the size of that sausage. I cant believe you had four of those beers, that should have put you on your back longer than Michealangelo. Tell Scott I am proud of him as I would have been in the same condition.( you could tell who he was from the pic)Funny
Glad you had a nice trip. I know you hated it, but to one reader the ride home sounds like a peaceful counterpoint to the crowd frenzy in Munich. Too bad about having no water for hours though. Did you bring your water bottle?
I guess people don't walk on the train tracks there. We used to have those toilet facilities on US trains--USEPA called them the poo-poo choo-choos. Not very good for water quality and unsightly on the ground.
I'll try the pasta soon. To make that kind of recipe where the food is exposed to the air for a while, I need to remove the dogs from the kitchen and mop. ;-)
We had snow yesterday, just a dusting. More predicted for the next few days, along with lovely freezing rain. Ahhh, the banana belt. I'm horse sitting out of town on a hilly and winding road--time to get the snow tires on.
Ciao!
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