Ciao a Tutti!!!
Friday Evening – for me 5 PM is afternoon but that doesn’t concern us today – the Italian House had its first “Cena Italiana” (Italian Dinner) – it was A-MA-ZING! A little context: The Italian House is actually the Romance Language House where 20 students plus 5 TAs (the Spanish, the Argentinian, the French, the Portuguese from Brazil, and of course the Italian) live; the students who live here with us study one (or more) of our languages and we all try our best to speak in our languages, have fun together and plan culture events with them – it is so funny when in the morning we meet in the bathroom and I see the efforts the make to speak Italian with me, they rather prefer not to come to bathroom at all! So, the Italian part of the house consists of 5 students (Natalie, Sara, Taylor, Stefano, and John) and I; and as I was saying Friday “Evening” we had dinner together, also with Prof. Trazzi and Prof. Masini.
We gather in the kitchen and Prof. Trazzi started explaining what we had to do and prepare, he is the Kitchen Boss. But first, I had to put some Italian music – I’m not such an expert or enthusiastic of Italian songs but when you are abroad you easily become one – in the background, you always have music or a TV on in the kitchen – it creates the atmosphere!
Now we all had our roles and things to do, well some of us had to
experience the role of those who just wait while the others work, yeah there’s always someone who just “gioca a carte” (play cards), play with some board games, or entertain the others with magic tricks – it’s the hardest role but somebody has to do it!
After almost an hour and half the food was finally ready – we have been really quick, it takes more time usually! “Tutti a tavola” (which is the typical expression mothers or those who cook say to gather everybody at the table to start eating … it’s “let’s sit and eat” time now)!!!
When we were ready to eat, Taylor said that she never tasted “il tartufo” (truffle) so we had to record her first time and of course she loved it! So, after this “moving” scene, we start eating two types of Risotto, “Risotto allo Zafferano” and “Risotto ai Funghi e Tartufo” – delicious!!! Oh, I was forgetting that while we were preparing, we have to “spizzicare qua e la” (to nibble here and there), that’s why Italians created “gli Antipasti”: we had “olive speziate (Prof.Trazzi’s personal recipe) con un filo di olio extravergine d’oliva” and “grissini” which “non possono mai mancare” (they are always there, every lunch or dinner together with bread … we didn’t have bread though, but we will one day)!
It wasn’t a typical huge Italian dinner with many courses but still it was enough! Oh well, there was one thing that we all were waiting for … “il Budino”! The night before, Thursday, Natalie and I prepared a dessert similar to the US pudding (or course budino is way better), dark Italian chocolate Budino! Then we put it in the fridge and the following day we ate it with so much pleasure (even if some of us were full, there is always room for the cake)!
We had so much fun! It was beautiful, as if we just went back to Italy for one night. The music, the food, the language we were speaking: the whole atmosphere was so perfec
t!
Of course, we had “caffè” (espresso). Italians need it!
The next day, we had to “fare il bis” (do it again), as if we couldn’t just go back to the American food after the dinner of the previous night, we had to do it gradually. So, Natalie, Taylor, and I just cooked some “pasta con sugo al
pomodoro e zucchine” (tomato sauce with zucchini), prepared a “macedonia” (fruit salad) and we had to finish the budino!!!
This is it! Nothing really big but still something so special.
A presto!
