Food Porn Daily

Hello! Some of you may be wondering what I have been doing besides travelling and I wanted to explain by mainly pictures but a few descriptions as well. The title of this post comes from one of my favorite websites that I view on a daily basis. Food Porn daily is a website that puts up a new photo everyday and it looks so mouthwatering and delicious you can almost taste it, and you are instantly hungry. Hence, the food porn. Anyways, you should check it out if you're ever bored and kind of hungry. These pictures won't be quite as good as the ones on the website but I tried! I've taken a picture of everything I've cooked so far so here is a quick summary to get you caught up. I'll go through my four classes:

Food, Culture, and Society: The third week of class we went on a walking tour to one of the markets and got to do an oil and balsamic vinegar tasting. So, that day there was no cooking. The next week was all about aperitivo, which is basically the Italian version of a happy hour. It is like 2 hours before dinner and you eat small portions and drink wine to "open" up your stomach to prepare for the full meal. How Italians stay so thin is beyond me....  Anyways, we made an appetizer called coccole which is essentially fried pizza dough balls that you serve with stracchino cheese and prosciutto. Stracchino cheese is a cow's milk cheese that resembles the inside of brie. It's very creamy but has a mild flavor and is delicious. And the other appetizer we made was called Cecina al Rosmarino with Pepe Nero. This was essentially a flat bread that is made with chickpea flour, rosemary, olive oil, and black pepper. And it was delicious and chewy from the use of the chickpea flour. I don't have a picture of the coccole but here is the Cecina al Rosmarino:

Cecina Al Rosmarino

The next week, which was this week, we made my favorite: Zuppa di farro e verdure. This is a traditional tuscan soup with farro and vegetables. One of my favorite soups I have had since I have been here is the traditional tuscan ribollita soup which is bread soup made with carrots, cannellini beans, black cabbage, leeks, celery, and olive oil. This soup reminded me of that except we added farro instead of the bread. You literally just sautee carrots, celery, leeks, and cherry tomatoes in olive oil. Add farro. Then you puree half of the cannellini beans that you cook with sage and garlic to thicken the soup and add the whole beans as well. Then add the black cabbage at the end. And drizzle a rosemary olive oil on top at the end. So filling, yet so healthy! Literally my favorite thing I've made thus far.

Zuppa di Farro e Verdure

Moving on to Chocolates, my favorite class of the week. The third week was our first class where we actually cooked. We made chocolate souffles and a flourless chocolate cake with homemade strawberry sauce. So simple, and so good...the pictures speak for themselves.

Chocolate Souffle

Flourless Chocolate Cake

The second week we learned what it means to temper chocolate. When making chocolate it is important to make sure that the right kind of crystallization happens so the chocolate has the right scheen and snap. A good chocolate should be shiny and when you break it, it should have a hard snap. Tempering is a process where you heat the chocolate up in a double boiler, then pour it onto a marble slab and scrape it to cool it down, then return it to the double boiler to heat it back up again....and this gives you the perfect chocolates.

Dark Chocolates

Chocolate Covered Candied
Orange Peel

White Chocolate Lollipop with
Pistachio and Black Sesame Seeds

Lavender Dark Chocolates

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Tarts

 And then, this week we did more tempering of chocolate but also learned all about ganache, which is the filling to truffles. We made homemade lavender truffles by making a milk chocolate lavender ganache and filling dark chocolates with them. We also made dark chocolate hazelnut tarts with dark chocolate ganache. Too delectable for words.....



Moving on to Tuesday.....Pastas. Week 3 was probably the only thing I've had that I wasn't in love with. We made Tortellini in Brodo, which is essentially Tortellini in broth. Sounds good enough....except for what the tortellini was filled with. It was a combination of pork, parma ham, and mortadella, which is Italian bologna. Now, anyone who knows me knows I'm not a huge pork or beef eater, so obviously this wasn't my favorite. But, I'm in Italy, so of course I tried it. It stared with beef bones and rabbit bones to make a delicious beef broth with carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Then we made homemade pasta dough for the tortellini and combined the three meats in a blender with parmesan cheese and then filled the pasta and made the homemade tortellinis. Then you serve the tortellinis in the broth.

Tortellini in Brodo

Week 4 was all about Gnocchi and Gnudi. The word gnocchi actually is also a slang word in Italian for when you want to call a guy or girl "hot" or "sexy" Like if I thought a guy was hot I would say he was "gnochho" and if a guy thought it was hot they would say I was "gnoccha." I thought that was pretty funny, I guess its because the shape of gnocchi is cute. So, this day in class we made Gnocchi con salsiccia e cavolo nero. This is gnocchi with sausage and black cabbage. Unfortunately, every sausage in Italy is made with fennel in it (finnochio). But don't get me wrong, this dish was still delicious. We also made gnudi with ricotta and spinaci with butter and sage sauce. Gnudi is so easy to make and it essentially naked ravioli.

Gnudi con Ricotta e Spinaci

Gnocchi con Salsiccia e
Cavolo Nero

 And then this week! I also forgot to tell you how good of friends me and the chef have become over the past five weeks. Chef Desi picked up early on that I am super interested in cooking since I was always peering over his shoulder, asking him questions, and taking more of an interest than most of the other kids who are taking this class for fun. So, he has now started calling me his "Executive Chef" and puts me in charge of my group most days. Sometimes he calls me "Exec", sometimes Allison, sometimes Paige, and sometimes he just calls me Gottwalt, thanks to Colleen. So I have four different names when I am in Chef Desi's kitchen. I always have the most fun in his class! This week we made Ravioli di Zucca and Ravioli agli Spinaci. Ravioli with Pumpkin and Ravioli with Spinach and Ricotta. Both were good but the pumpkin ravioli was more like dessert ravioli. It had crushed amaretti cookies and candied fruit in the filling which was interesting. It was also served with and orange butter. But both were still very good...just a lot of butter for the sauce. Thank god I went on a 2 mile run after eating these dishes!

Ravioli with Spinach and Ricotta

Ravioli di Zucca

Ok, now I know you're probably sick of all this food by now but one more class! Keep in mind that I only eat a few bites of each of these....haha
Contemporary Italian Cooking: Week 3 we went on a walking tour but week 4 we made another one of my favorite dishes! Ravioli Verdi di verdure con salsa al Pomodoro. This was essentially spinach ravioli stuffed with vegetables and served with a tomato sauce and fried eggplant on top for a garnish! So delicious and perfect....

Ravioli Verdi di Verdure

And we're almost done! Today in class we made a contemporary dessert! Tre gusti per un dolce. It was one dessert with three flavors. We first made creme brulee, then chocolate mousse, then coffee bavarian cream. Then we layered them and let them set. Then we turned them over onto the plate and garnished with hardened sugar and chocolate. If we had had more time, they would have set more but here it is....

Tre Gusti per un dolce

Hope you are all salivating by now....then I did my job!!! Thanks for bearing with me through all of that and hope you enjoy all the pics! I realize I look like a complete fatty but hey, I'm in Italy, what's a girl to do??!

Salute!
Alli

Adventures in the Swiss Alps

Well I'm back from another weekend adventure! This time it was Interlaken, Switzerland, and it was a beautiful (but cold) winter wonderland! We left on Thursday night again around 7:30pm and arrived around 3:30am at the Funny Farm Hostel. This hostel wasn't quite like our fusion hostel in Prague...think musty, old-fashioned, medieval, outdated hotel and you'll get the Funny Farm. There was nothing really too funny about it at all. We checked into our room which had two twin beds side by side and a bunk bed and we went straight to bed. Of course, I got the bottom bunk and all we had to sleep with was a tiny little blanket that was faded and gross. It was what my family and I might call, "rude." And I am proud to say that term was used a lot this weekend by the four of us. I showed them how rude can be used to describe much more than just impoliteness but it can be used to describe your greasy face after sitting on a bus for 8 hours, or the crusty blanket you're given at a hostel called the funny farm. I think I'm converting them. Anyways, we woke up at 8am to get ready for a full day of skiing. We went to the rental place to get snowpants, jackets, gloves, helmets, goggles, skis, and poles. All that for under 200 dollars and that included our lift ticket, not too bad. Then we took a bus to a train station where we literally took 3 more trains before we finally reached the mountain called Grindelwald. It was around noon when we finally hit the slopes. Now, picture this: one expert skier, 2 decent skiers, and one who has never skied before in the Swiss alps unable to read any confusing maps and signs. That was us. It was quite the adventure, but after many falls down some hills that were definitely not for beginners, Mikey mastered the pizza plow and we were very impressed! Colleen probably was bored on some of the hills since she's been downhill skiing since she was like 5, but we didn't want to separate for fear that we'd never find eachother again. Here are some pics from our day:

After an exhausting day, we headed back to the hotel starving since we had not had time to get lunch because we wanted to have maximum time on the mountain. We went to dinner at a place in town called Brasserie 17 where we enjoyed an entire pitcher of local beer and then ordered wings, soups, and salads. We were so happy to be inside and warm for the first time all day. That night, we crashed and went to bed early.

Day 2, Saturday: Day Trip to Bern

We woke up around 8:30, got coffee and then met our tour leader in the lobby of the hostel. We then took a bus at 10am to the capital of Switzerland, Bern for the day. Bern was a really cool, medieval city. When we got there, the first thing we did was go to a museum called the Kunst Art Museum where we saw artwork by Picasso and Salvador Dali. Them we went and had lunch at this tiny little restaurant where we enjoyed eggplant, parmesan, and arugula paninis. After lunch we went on our most important mission: to get Colleen chocolate. We went to this chocolate shop that would let you sample slabs of so many different flavored chocolates. Colleen got almost 25 dollars worth of chocolate for sure. I also got the best pistachio truffle I've had in my life...it had like pistachio flavored marzipan inside and was so creamy and delicious. Then we went to the Albert Einstein Museum which was actually inside Einstein's actual apartment from when he and his first wife first moved to Bern. It was cool to learn all about his life in both Europe and the US. After the Einstein haus, we got back on the bus to head back to Interlaken. 

 That night, we had the front desk make us a reservation at a restaurant that was supposed to have really good Swiss food. It was called the Goldener Anker. I wouldn't say it was amazing, but I also was sick the whole weekend and couldn't taste anything but my french onion soup still felt really good on my throat! Dana got some sort of pan fried chicken, and Colleen and Mikey got a chicken stew with mangoes....not sure this was really Swiss food but it was good!

 Day 3, Sunday: Long walk to find a lake....
So we weren't scheduled to leave on our bus home until 2pm on Sunday so we decided we would do something until then. We had heard of this beautiful lake nearby and so we asked for the directions. We were told to just follow the river all the way until we found the lake. But I think people failed to mention how long this would take....we were literally trudging through snow not even sure if we were going the right way for almost an hour. But, I tried to suck it up and not complain too much and it was so worth it when we got there and saw the breathtaking views.

The long walk

The beautiful view!

 So that was Interlaken! It was this adorable little ski town and although it was cold, it was worth it and so beautiful in so many ways! Can't believe I have already been gone a month...time is flying by!! Later this week I will update you on all my culinary adventures:) I am so excited to stay in Florence this weekend and looking forward to seeing my best friend Alex who is coming to visit me from Rome. And then after that, our next adventure will be Brussels, Belgium!! Bring on the waffles....

xoxoxo
Alli

Czech This Out

Buongiorno!! I am back from Prague and already getting ready to leave again tomorrow, so I barely have time to blog, but I know I have at least a few people reading so I thought I would fill you in on my latest adventure:) So last Thursday, me and my roommates went to our favorite sandwich place by our apartment called Antico Noe and then walked to the train station where we were to meet our tour leader before getting on a 12 hour bus. We left around 730pm from Florence and got to Prague the next morning at 830am. It was a pretty rough bus ride, but I did manage to sleep for around 3-4 hours. We got to our hotel, "The Fusion Hotel" where we were able to go up and freshen up and then eat breakfast before we left for our walking tour. On our tour we saw Wenceslaus Square, the Jewish Quarter, and also went to the main square where there is an astronomical clock on one of the towers. Every hour, the clock chimes and out from these two windows pop little statues of the apostles. It's kind of creepy but cool that it does it every hour. Despite the weather, Prague was so beautiful and unlike anything I've ever seen before. It's like stepping into a fairytale with all the colored castles it felt like I was in the Shrek movie! Our tour ended at Bohemia Bagels which I was so happy about...not only because I love bagels, but I also hate being cold and Prague was SO cold! Like 30 degrees the whole time with no sunshine at all. But, we still made the best of it and tried to stay warm when we could. We got hot tea and bagels and soup and it was great. When we had first gotten there I had exchanged some of my euros for Czech Koruna. For 100 euro, I got 2,500 Crowns. The currency amounts really threw me off! My lunch at Bohemia Bagel was like 180 crowns! But really that's just 9 dollars. So, after Bohemia Bagel, we met up with Dana's friend from high school who is studying in Prague and she took us across the Charles Bridge to the other side where the Lennon Wall is. The pictures really say it all.

Astronomical Clock

Wencenslaus Square

View from the Charles Bridge

Me at the Lennon Wall:)

So after our sightseeing for the day, we were cold and exhausted but still wanted to do one more thing so we went to the Communist museum that was near our hotel. It was interesting to read about everything and understand how Prague was affected by Communism. Fun fact....did you know that Stalin's right hand man's name was Klement Gottwald???? Weird....also, I hate when people mis-spell my last name like that but it was still funny to see it. So maybe the Gottwalts are some descendants of communists??? Not sure about that one haha. So after the museum, we were exhausted and went back to the hotel to nap before dinner. I had pretty low expectations for the food in Prague, especially since loads of meat and potatoes really isn't my thing, but our dinner was exquisite! Some of our guy friends from Cornell are actually studying in Prague and we wanted to get dinner with them. I think we may have gone to the nicest restaurant in Prague. It was called Mlynec and it is famous for its Bohemian cuisine. The restaurant was so cool and swanky it felt like we were eating in an intimate lounge or something. I ordered the salmon with celery root puree and an herb oil. And for a starter, they brought out a fennel-mushroom mousse. And anyone who knows me, knows I HATE fennel. Literally one of the only foods I cannot stand. So, needless to say I didn't eat that. But the salmon and the wine we had was amazing. The boys got veal schnitzel which looked delicious as well, if I ate veal. And Dana got duck which was good too. Our dinner was 7,000 crowns....you do the math haha but it was worth it! You're only in Praha once....right?

So, after dinner, we went to a giant pregame at one of the boys apartments where we met up with a ton of other guys and girls from other schools either visiting or studying in Prague. And then we headed over to an 80s-90's club called Lucerna. The music was the best: think Spice Girls and Britney Spears all night long. It was such a fun night and it was so nice to go out with boys we knew because we always felt safe! Overall, great first day and night in Prague!

Day 2, Saturday. We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel and then met our tour leader in the lobby where we were going to be led over the Charles Bridge and to the Lennon wall, and then see one of the huge castles across the river. Even though we had gone the day before, we figured we could go again and take more pics at the wall. Oh, and another great thing about Prague, they have Starbucks!!! Oh how I miss Chai Tea Lattes:)

The guards at the Castle

View from the top of the Castle

After all this sightseeing we were hungry and decided to be adventurous and try the Prague street-food (but my roommates will tell you I was the least adventurous) I got the mulled hot wine which was delicious and tasted like hot cider only with red wine. The other three got sausages with sauerkraut and ketchup. I did have a bite of one tho!!

Me with my Hot wine!

So, that was pretty much the extent of our sight-seeing that day. We went back to the hotel and got ready for another night out. We first went to a traditional Czech pub called Kol Kovna where I ordered chicken noodle soup...yes I know boring haha. It was good tho and we got free beer! Then we walked to our friend Roberto's apartment for another pregame before we went to a five story club! There was different music on every floor and it was so much fun!

And that was Prague in a nutshell...it was truly such a beautiful city and we were so glad we made the trip! Even though the 12 hour bus ride home on Sunday wasn't so fun. And now we get to do it all over again tomorrow when we head to Interlaken for a weekend of skiing and eating Swiss chocolate in Switzerland! Only this bus ride will be around 7 hours:)

Stay tuned for an update on all the food I've been making in class! Oh, and mom and dad you'll be happy to know I am doing some academic things, I had an Italian quiz yesterday and a paper due in Chocolates about diabetes and chocolate! See, I am doing some work......

xoxo

Alli