Eating my way through Rome

One thing about Italians, they know their food. The first time I went to Italy was in ’95 (sounds, and feels, like such a long time ago) and we got perhaps the best introduction possible to the country and specifically Rome. We ate at all the local places and were introduced to all the food that we needed to have. This time was similar. All day is spent with Romans at work and I just pester them to give suggestions on where to eat. Thus far, we have not been given a bad suggestion.

The best, with no doubt, is Renato and Lusia. The table was booked for 8:30, which is when they opened, and it was a good thing we got reservations. Every table in the house was reserved and full. In the entire room there was only 3 non-Italian speakers, two at our table and a German speaker sitting with four Italians. I let the waitress pick my food and it was excellent. I started with goat cheese balls covered in crushed walnuts, honey and parmesan flakes. It melted in my mouth (helps that I am a sucker for goat cheese, my mother would have hated it!). Main course was wild duck with a chestnut sauce which had whole chestnuts which were marinated in some sort of sauce. My mouth is starting to water just thinking about it. For dessert it was fresh berries over fresh ricotta cheese. All of it was wonderful.
One thing that I have been taking advantage of almost every night has been the gelato. Why can all ice cream be as good as the gelato? Sadly, I did not make it to my favorite one, but I have managed to have some almost every night. The pine nut flavored one is the best, followed by chestnut and then lemon.

Here is a shirp brachetta, which looked so good!

My goat cheese starter. I am getting hungry looking at the picture.

Lastly, my fresh fruit ricotta. My gelato photos, but I can still taste it.

4 Days, 6 Nights

Warning!!! If you have a ton of luggage, then the Milan train station is not the one you want to go to. We got there from Switzerland without any problems. N loved the train, of course. It is just that since we got kids, we travel with suitcases, which is perhaps the worst part of having kids. I miss my backpack!

The train to Verena was interesting, and a far cry from the Swiss trains that I could totally get use too. Since we had so much stuff (lugging the car seats with us as well, otherwise it really is not too bad), we really did not get seats together. Plus the train was super full. Z was happy though, for perhaps the first time on the trip. She loves Italy. All the older ladies go crazy over her (even if they think that she is a boy. Later in the week, we put her in pink and ruffles, still they thought that she was a boy).

Our flat in Verena was nice. It had a view over Lake Como. It took all of a half of day to discover it all, but it is a beautiful city. Of the four days, two were nice weather and two were really crap weather. Unfortunately the crap weather days were really crap. We did not leave but once the second of the two days. If we could have avoided that, we would have. Though we did get our Italian Ice Cream. Mmm, good stuff.

The highlight, besides the ice cream, was a little grocery store in town. They have two of them. The one I liked had a little old lady who worked it. She did not speak a word of English, at least she did not speak a word of it to us, but the store was a piece right out of Italian guidebooks. The type of place that you hope you find.

We left the flat at 5 in the morning for the long day of traveling. Off to the next stop- Utah!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

So we have been on the road for two weeks thus far, and everything has been good...so far. Travel to Kandersteg Switzerland was long. We got there though. N loved it. She thought that Switzerland was the greatest place on Earth. I can not argue with her too much. For her it was all the cows with bells, dogs and trains every five minutes. We see trains all the time, but something here just triggered her excitement with them. Z is a home person. She was miserable the entire time. In fact, she got sick. One night she had a fever of 104.

The highlights for us were the hiking (not nearly as adventurous as usual) and the cheese fondue. Doris, a friend from when we lived in Kandersteg, owns the Hotel Crystal. She made us the best cheese fondue that I think that we have ever had (and I ate one every week for almost 2 years). It was fabulous!

The Finish island Åland

After spending three weeks in Texas with my family, it was time to spend a little time with M's family as well. It has almost become a tradition that they rent a house for a week and then we and M's brother comes for the week. Normally it is somewhere in Sweden, but this year they hired this amazing house on Åland. The house was the best that they have ever hired. It was right on the beach and it was big and clean. Not always a feature on rented summer houses. Other then the cost (1,100 euros per week), I would totally think about going there again.

To get to Åland, you have to take the boat. Well, I guess you could fly as well, but the boat is pretty easy. The trip is fast and it has tax free on board, so you can stock up on your "needed" goods as well. Once there, it is short distances between everything and easy to navigate.

A little history of Åland. It belongs to Finland, but it speaks Swedish rather then Finish. It also has it's own postage stamps, post system, airlines and license plates. It is basically its own little country, but not really. Helena Drysdale takes about it in her book "Mother Tongues: Travels through Tribal Europe". For those who know Sweden decently well, it is like Gotland or Öland, just without the large crowds.

The highlight of the week was the wine tasting. Åland is also home to Finland's only winery. They offer tours and tastings. The wine itself is OK. It is not something that I would run out and stock up on it because I love it so much. Though it was decent. It is the atmosphere of the place that is the highlight. I missed most of the tour (Swedish Only) because of Nova, but I did make the tasting. We tried four different types (you can see pictures on www.DnMAdverntures.com if you would like to get a better idea).

Probably the most traditional known things in Finland, is the Sauna and it is not too different on Åland. The place we stayed had a nice one right on the water. We did not beat ourselves with birch branches, but we did hope into the "freezing" Baltic. When I first moved to Sweden, I was not too crazy about saunas, but now I really dig them. If we ever have a summer house, we will have a sauna.

In regards to food, we did not really eat out. Everyone shares with the cooking throughout the week. The one thing that we did get though was Åland Pancakes. I thought that they were good, especially with raspberry jelly and whipped cream (you can get a recipe for it on www.DnMAdventures.com). Though the last night M and her father got sick. Then her brother and his fiancee and finally Nova. Important to note is that I never got sick!

OK, so that catches me up on our travels. Now that I am caught up, I will be doing better...I hope!

Texas in July

Part of me feels like I should be skipping this entry all together. The Texas Trip was the end of June and the first three weeks of July. Though it feels like such a waste not to write about all of the adventures. So instead of about 15 different posts, it is going to be one big one to make me feel good about it.

We took US Airways, the first time for that. I think that it is kind of nice that a museum is still flying. They have to have some of the oldest air crafts in the sky today. It was fine though. The girls did good and the staff were very friendly. Our plane landed 2.5 hours late, so we were told that we missed our flight. In the end, our 2nd flight was late and we ended up getting it. Only thing was that our bags did not get there. We did not think that they would, since the girl at the American Airlines counter had to run us through security.

That is OK though, right. The bags should be sent on the next flight. Well, we went to Texas for three and a half weeks, we never got our bags. Imagine traveling with two girls under the age of two with no clothes what so ever. A big shopping trip and lot of new clothes. Which will be good, as long as the bags come. The first one did, the week after we got back to Sweden. The second did about two weeks ago. After 90 days of the bags being missing, we still have not gotten our last one. The last time I talked to American, the lady was rude and just a real witch. So, we will wait some more.

The first weekend we were there, we went to San Antonio. Been there so many times. Once, the water was drained out of the river walk (to my surprise). This time, it was full. In fact, super full. Texas got more rain this summer, then they got all of last year. We really went down there for Sea World. The plan was that we go on the first day, but my cousin lost her keys. The next day we went and N loved it. She was not that impressed with Shamu, but the coral reef was great. I decided that I wanted to show that I was young and road on the Great White roller coaster. I felt like crap the rest of the day. It sucks getting old! Right as we were leaving, it started to our down. We just made it to the car when it happened and it continued for several hours.

Speaking about the rain, we decided that we would go to Texas in July since the weather is usually nice in July. It is hot, but that is what air conditioning is for. It rained almost every single day we were there. It was crazy. I have never seen anything like it!

We did eat good while we were there. N's favorite was mac and cheese and hot dogs. I think that she would have been happy to have that for ever meal (instead we had it for almost every lunch). Her cousins thought that it was great, the first couple of days, then they grew tired of it. Here is a couple of places that I would recommend if you are in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area:

1. Loco Coyote- it is located in Glen Rose and the food is amazing. The place itself is a dump, but the food is great (a picture of it is on www.DnMAdventures.com).
2. Lone Star- Also in Glen Rose but in the town itself. Good BBQ and a nice "feel" to it
3. Hamburger Bar- Cleburne Texas, I wrote a blog about it a while ago. It was not as good as usually. In fact, I was very disappointed. With that being said, it is still worth it just to see the place (a picture of it is on www.DnMAdventures.com) .
4. Movie Tavern- Great idea, tavern food while you watch a movie. The food is fine, but it does not matter. The room is dark and you can't see it anyway. IT is a small chain all over the States.

The Fort Worth Museum of Science was having a exhibit on Star Wars and how it works. It was excellent. OK, I am a little biased, since I do believe that Star Wars is the greatest movie ever made. With that being said, I also think that it was done in such a way, that someone that does not care for Star Wars (M for example) could appreciate it. Well worth a visit, where ever it is now.

We also went to a Texas Rangers game. It was the first one for N and Z. N thought that it was great. Lots of music to dance to, fireworks, clapping and the best part was...ICE CREAM! I was just happy to get to go to a game. That is one of the worst parts of being in Sweden- no baseball!

The trip was good and we had a lot of fun. It felt like we were messing with trying to get our bags back half of the time and the weather was crap the other half. We had several things that we wanted to do, but just was not able to. Maybe next time we will.

If you want to see some pictures from the trip, go to www.DnMAdventures.com.

The Damn Finest Burger Around

I have narrowed down the best burger in the world contest to two different locations. The race is to close to call, so I have decided to have two winners, but it is not a tie. Ties are stupid and should be saved for soccer and hockey. Instead we are going to say the finest franchise/chain burger and the best private burger.

Bar none, the best chain burger has to be In and Out Burger in California. It is beyond good. They have no freezers in the place. Everything arrives in the morning and is made only after the order has been taken. Thinking about it makes my mouth water. The fries are good, but the chocolate milkshake to go with the burger takes the price. Apparently all the meat is free range beef and the vegetables are all ecological. They treat their employees well, so there is really nothing one could complain about, except for the fact that they are only in California!

For the best mom and pop style burger, you have to go to a small town just south of Dallas/Fort Worth called Cleburne. The town itself has about 27,000 people (with about 70 Baptist churches). The Burger Bar is located just off the square behind Patrick’s Floral. The restaurant, if that is what you want to call it, can fit in the back of a pick-up truck. You can either eat it there, on one of the four stools by the counter, or you can take with you. If you stay, be prepared to talk to the chef/owner of the place. This place is true Americana! Next time I find myself in that area, I will take a picture of it and post it, because the building is part of the experience. The other part is a damn fine burger of course.

Traveling without even having to leave the house

My parents were in town not too long ago. I wanted them to experience something that they had never experienced before, so we took them to an all you can eat sushi buffet. I was in heaven as I gorged myself with 21 bits of sushi, plus some Thai food. My parents took the Thai food and ignored the sushi completely (with the exception of the Wasabi, which mom took a generous portion. Only because she thought that it was guacamole).

I did not grow up eating seafood. The only time we ate anything that came from the water was on Fridays when we had to have fish sticks (at the time we were Catholic). If we wanted to have an exotic meal, we would have Chow Main. It was then we were having “authentic” Chinese. Boy how times change. As the world travels more and more, the Earth is getting smaller and smaller. When we travel, we try to eat “ethnic” food (ethnic being a very general term that encompasses everything from Italian, to Moroccan to Mexican and everything in between). Then when we get home, we want to have that same, or as close as we can get to the same, food again to remind us of the trip and the travels we have taken.

Looking in my food cabinet, I discovered just how true that is. We have a blending of just about everything. We have curry sauces, coconut milk, ginger chutney, jambalaya, bulgur, minso soup, sushi rice and wrap, olive cakes from Spain, glüvien and Mozart Balls to name a few. In the fridge/freezer we have snitzel, kebab meat, moose, reindeer, four different types of olives and three different types of soy sauce, bamboo shoots and lemon grass, peanut and fish sauce, and three different types of hot sauce. If you look at our wine “collection”, we have wines from at least ten different countries that was purchased mainly from the country it is from or from friends who traveled to that country. The beer collection, even though it is getting progressively smaller, is similar.

Right now, Southeast Asian is some of our favorite. In order to get the “right” ingredients, we go to specialty shops that specialize in Asian food. That in itself is an adventure. When friends travel to Italy, we have then pick up olive oil; when friends travel to France, we get cheeses and the list goes on. When I travel with work, my bag will be half empty when I go down, but will be totally full on the way home, full of food and wines.

My parents are not nearly as “bad” as we are, but if you look at their cabinet it is not too different. They will have a mixture of food from a multitude of different cultures. If you compared it to what it was 15 or 20 years ago, it would almost be shocking. As traveling has become more affordable and more people are traveling for pleasure, the food in our cabinet has diversified.

If you are unable to go to Italy this year, that is ok, bring Italy to you. Turn on a little Italian music, light some candles, have some good olive oil with olives and fresh mozzarella, and pop the cork on your favorite Tuscan wine. Then have Italy in your very own kitchen. If that is not enough, turn a soccer game on in the background for the added effect!