feels good to travel...

Germany was great. I got a chance to walk around A LOT and use the trains many times. Scott was a great host and showed me some really cool places. His parents were also great. Very generous and nice. Scott and I cooked the ravioli recipe that I invented for my final for his parents and they enjoyed it. The morning I left we went to a different christmas market first. I had some glovine which is mulled spiced hot wine and the best potato soup I've ever had. We also had some fried potato batter which was called krampuffin or something. Scott took the train with me to the airport and walked me as far as he could go. I was flying air France and I had heard that they weren't that great an airline. The people checking me in had been great tho. My flight was leaving about 4 and I was there pretty early so I watched a movie on my laptop and shopped in the airport stores. It was amusing seeing that the airport had better stores than Alaska. I boarded (touching the side of the plane, of course) and sat in my aisle seat. This first part would be only about an hour and a half so I barely had time to put a movie in before we landed. when we landed in Paris I had about 2 hours to kill. I found the gate I was supposed to board then wandered around. The stores here were even better and I enjoyed walking around listening to people speaking French. Italian and French are the "romance language" but to me Italian sound much smoother. The Paris airport was beautiful and much more user friendly than any US airport I have been to. There were long rows of computers to use (for a fee) couches set up where you could play playstation 3's (for free) and an area with desks and plug ins incase you have a laptop. I found one of those and looked through my photos for a while. With about 30 minutes to departure I started wondering why there werent that many people waiting there. I looked at the screen and in red letters it was blinking a different gate number and the word "boarding" in french and english. I was surprised that they hadn't made an announcement. I had enough time to get to the other gate so it was okay. To get on the plane I had to show my boarding pass about 5 times. The plane was huge, with pretty nice seats and a new feature that i had never seen on a plane. There were video monitors in the headrest in front of me that were touch screens. You could touch them to select from about 20 movies, different TV shows, games, news, sports or flight information. I was sitting next to a young guy from Haiti that only spoke french and a young lady from Brasil They were both nice. I was beginning to think that who ever said the airline wasnt a good one when my thoughts were confirmed. They begin passing out free champagne, wine or beer and we weren't in first class! That was followed by the best airplane food Ive had. It was bree cheese, a baguette, wine, beef and rice in a kind of tomato sauce with eggplant, a salad yogurt and a little desert. That was followed by more drinks. After they were done serving drinks they put soda and water and fruit juice at different stations for people to help themselves to. Pretty good service. I couldnt sleep so I read for a while and watched Seinfeld. With about 2 hours to go they served a sanwhich and a couple other little snacks. As we begin our decent I started to get excited. Europe (especially Italy) and New York are the 2 places I've always dreampt of going too. Now I was doing both! After We landed I made it through customs pretty quick. waiting for my baggage took a while tho. When I walked out of the arrival area I searched the crowd. Mario had sent me his sisters myspace page and said she would probably be the one to pick me up. I saw a lady with a "Sean" sign and after she asked my last name she introduced herself as Mario's mother. I could tell right away she was a good person. We loaded my bags and set off for the house. Although it was about 5AM my time I was excited. Just on the way from the airport I saw the New York times printing facility, Shae Stadium (where the mets play), the US open tennis court and 2 huge bridges. We drove by Flushings which she explained was chinatown. She was a good tour guide! We went through a nice neighborhood and pulled up to a beautiful house with large columns in front. She explained that they were doing some renovations but that I would have the 3rd floor to myself until Mario came. Even with the work being done they had a beautiful home. Nice wood floors and antique furniture. My room was awesome. With wall to wall windows on one side I could see the two bridges and across the water, part of the city. Beautiful. I met one of his sisters and I could tell it was going to be a nice stay. They were the type of people who make you feel at home in a place you've never been. I loved getting into the big bed after the little thing they give us in Italy. I woke up this morning about an hour ago and I'm getting ready to head out and explore. P.S.: I HAVE LAKER TICKETS!

Mi Piachi Birra di Germania

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.

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!

Vacations over....

Sunday was the night of our welcome dinner. We had seen the place dinner would be during orientation. (walked by it not inside) It was a huge stone building with high castle walls about two blocks from one of our school sites, on via san gallo. It had large black gates and what looked to be a beautiful garden. The Invitation said to dress casually but by the look of the place and the city that we were in, me and my roommates decides to wear ties and dress nicely. I love dressing up and rarely wear a tie outside of work in Alaska. I had bought a nice burberry tie and shirt before i left and decided this would be the night to break it out. We figured that we might me the only guys in ties but had been told on a few occasions that in Italy, and especially Firenze, that there was no such thing as being too dressed up. When we got to the gates we were stopped by two men in suits that checked all of our names before being allowed to enter. That impressed us and we knew we had chosen correctly. We entered and directly in front of us was a long row of short columns with small statues on top that led us to an open lawn inside the compound. All around the lawn pillows and almost on the ground tables had been set up for people to sit at. There were about four food and drink stations scattered around the perimeter. The lawn was full of all the Florence University of the Arts students and students from my school, Apicious. All the girls were in dresses and were very pretty. Alot of guys had dressed up but we were the only ones in ties. We walked over to the food stations that were covered in beautiful spreads of fresh cheeses and meats, including a large side of pig that had men in bow ties cutting slices of the cured meat on request. We got glasses Prosecco, a sparkling Italian wine, and raised them. Their was also mini sandwhiches and other very fancy finger food that I dont know the name of! My roommates and I walked around, meeting as many people as possible. Hidden away in one corner was a food station that had deep fried zucchini flowers, basil leaves, potato, and other things that i had never had but that was absolutely delicious. You all have to make fried basil leaves. So good. They came in a large coned leaf and was the best food I had that night. After about an hour and a half of mingling I went inside and found yet another complete food display. Good thing we walk about 20 miles a day because the food here is unbelievable.... The inside of the villa was beautiful with paintings all over, including a mural on a domed ceiling. A huge wooden staircase spiraled upstairs but we were not allowed to explore too much. I listened to the count who lived there and he seemed like a very nice old man. He was heavily accented and was very personable. In the ballroom they had sign ups for the daily activities, which include soccer, basketball, recreating cooking shows, and hilltop walks. I signed up for them all. After the faculty talked for a while Dessert came out, which was also great, and we met more people ( there was over a hundred people there) and finally left. It was a great night, very elegant and friendly. The next day was my first class.

The next day my first class was Italian regional cooking. On the way there the clouds begun to darken (one thing i have noticed is that i miss seeing the sky. in Alaska you always see a whole eyeful of sky, but in an actual city I usually only see a sliver. I actually notice it alot and it feels weird. Never though id be missing the sky) and only a few minutes later begun to thunder, lightning and pour rain. It reminded me of flash floods id been in in the south. I arrived in the Apicious chef Jacket and Hat that came with the book fee, along with a knife set. The kitchen that my class was in was about a 8 minute walk from my flat. There were about 5 stations, all in a row with two people per station. I was partnered with a 25 year old Londoner named Ed. After a brief summary of the class and a once over of the syllabus the chef said we'd be cooking spaghetti. The key to Italian food he said was simplicity. Every recipe would be with as few ingredients as possible but would have the best, freshest ingredients available. We first received our basil, garlic, tomatoes and olive oil. He had up make a "T" on the top of the tomatoes then drop them in boiling water for about 15 seconds. We then pulled them out and cooled them and took them back to the station. When we pulled on the T the skin peeled right off. He collected the peels from us and put them in the oven. We cut up all the ingredients and cooked it down for about 20 minutes and that was it. With some pepper and salt it was a very simple recipe but very very tasty. When he took the peels out he handed them to us, along with fresh Parmesan to use as decoration. Definitely a fun class. The teacher is laid back, funny, and most importantly very knowledgeable. The rest of the day i wandered around my neighborhood, bought chef pants and an apron and took it easy.

Today my first class was at 9am. This one was introduction to professional cooking. My teacher for this class was the master chef at apicius. He was originally from the Ivory coast and has worked in New York, Orlando, and at Apicius for a long time. We went over the basics of the kitchen and how to be sanitary and what each utensil did. He was very thorough and personable, although his accent was pretty strong. The next class I had was wine appreciation. that class had raised tables that fit 3 people and had a trough along the top that emptied out the bottom for spitting wine into. My teacher for that class, Carlotta, was extremely outgoing and funny. She talked about the different classifications of wine in Italy and the rules and regulations that wine makers must follow. That class also seems very interesting. At the end of class we had a nice white wine to celebrate the beginning of school. Definitely going to be a good year. All my classes are ones that I would never want to miss. Homework for most will be eating and drinking, which works for me.