Big Cashews European Adventure
Back on the blog again after a couple days break. There really hasn't been much to bore you all with. The last two days were rather uneventful except for a visit or two, a trip to a farmers/flea market and the dinners we enjoyed. So I will get right to it.
Wednesday, Chiara wanted to see Carmelina, who is one of her sister-in-laws from her first marriage. She lives in a town called Monte di Procida, which is a typical old Italian town, but in this general area. It has narrow winding and hilly streets that can confuse and confound you as you try to make your way to a particular address. Numerous streets are one way and others can be blocked off except for local residents. We drove around, and sometimes I was ordered to stop to wait for her to figure out the next turn. Mind you, I am in the middle of the street blocking traffic while she is figuring things out. The turns can be very tight and you have the locals zipping around and past me since I go too slow for the drivers here. It is a fun time. We finally find the building and I park half way on the sidewalk. Her sister-in-law invites us in and we have a lovely chat, well they have the chat in Italian and I just sit there smiling occasionally. Quite a recurring theme here, but I knew it coming in.
After the visit they decide to go down to the beach for a stroll. You get a decent view of the water and off shore islands and the face of the escarpment that this town is built on. It is interesting since they build houses right on the edge. Here are a few pictures from one of the viewing areas on the mount.
That evening we were off to Genaro's restaurant as we had not seen him since we arrived in Italy. They were both happy to see each other and we were joined by Genaro's wife, Salatina.
They chatted away for a couple of hours and we had dinner. Due to the time and the fact that neither one of us could pack it away, we had a slightly reduced menu of sorts. There was an octopus salad, bruschetta with mussels, some fried cod, some minnow like fish severed similar to french fries and then a whole fish, something like a Grouper, that was first covered with a small mountain of salt and steamed. The salt does not impact the fish meat but keeps the moisture and flavors in. The waiter brings it out on a large platter, removes the crusted salt layer, removes the scales and outer skin, and then all the bones in one fell swoop so you are left with just the meat of the fish. You dab a little lemon and have at it.
It was not the whole package, as I noted, since we could not eat much more, but it was another enjoyable meal. We will try to get back for a lunch get-together before we leave.
Yesterday was another easy going day. After my usual cup of tea, I settled into just relaxing reading my IPhone. That lovely time was shattered by the women stating they was to go to the farmers market. Since I had nothing really planned, I was volunteered to drive them there. Its just a couple of miles to the site and very popular. We drive in down a long narrow driveway or street fully lined with cars and basically packed. I wonder where I will park when a person starts directing me towards him and then has me fit diagonally in a small but adequate spot. Adequate except that I am 20 inches from the parked car on the drivers side. They also have a car in front of them so it could be interesting to see them get out of their space and to see if my car survives undented. Well, that is my problem as the ladies take off and leave me there. They are gone for over 2 hours but I entertain myself with another book on tape. I also watch the people as they go by and work out the parking situation. Most of the cars are small and look like it would be a squeeze to get four people in one. They park in every direction, in every slightly open space or they just park in the street blocking those who are parked at an angle. Its anything goes apparently. After two hours, the crowd has thinned out and there is no problem turning around and driving back out. And that was about it for the rest of the morning and afternoon. However, it was not the end of the day's activities.
We were invited to a friend of Angela's, Adriena, for dinner. It turns out a lot of people were invited to the dinner. 12 people in all. And there was much more food then they could all eat. I will get to that shortly. All guests were expected to be there around 7 to 7:30. The most important guest (this time it was not me), was Onofrio. He held this title as he was the main chef for the evening. He did not show up until about 8. But to his credit, he brought the food, mostly already prepared, with him. Since I had originally figured it would be another hour plus to cook things from scratch, I was relieved. It still took about 40 minutes to get things in place and finished cooking, so dinner did not start until near 8:30. Another late time for me. I needed to be cool and eat sparingly. Yeah, right! This was not a dinner to try that tactic on.
The table used expands to hold the 12 people (barely) but there was food from one end to the other as you see in the pictures. The dinner consisted of the following: Smoked Salmon on toasted/buttered bread, Octopus in tomato sauce, fried calamari in a creamy tomato sauce, potatoes with cuddle fish, potatoes with broiled fish, beans in a sauce with cuddle fish, roasted peppers with octopus, large whole body shrimp lightly covered in breadcrumbs, and steamed mussels followed by pasta fagioli with mussels, mixed fried fish and assorted mozzarellas. Wow, that was a mouthful just to type. But you cant get the who picture without a picture, so here it is:
Just a lite snack as you can see. The guy in the black shirt is the cook, Onofrio. He really knows his stuff. Everything was delicious, but I especially liked the octopus, calamari and the roasted peppers. I do not eat peas with any sort of accompaniment, and I was too full for the pasta. But as you can see, I did not go hungry. I seemed to get treated rather well, although at these type gatherings, you take you life in your hands, or should I say stomach. They are not interested in what you already ate, they are interested in feeding you more. You almost need an armed guard to keep them at bay with more and more food! I guess its a dangerous job (the eating that is), but someone has to do it! No wonder I am the hero in these situations!
That kinda wraps it up for today. We still have places to go, people to visit, beaches to try to get to meals to consume. So forward we go rushing into the valley of food. Lets see if we come out the other side.
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