ITALY - Kebabs

So before heading to Italy one of my friends mentioned that if I had the chance I HAD to get kebabs. He said that while he was in Germany he had the best kebabs of his life and I had to do the same. I swiftly mentioned I probably wasn't going to be anywhere near Germany this time around but he still told me if I found a place in Italy, I had to try it. 

And man did we find it. 

So, on the way to school each morning we would pass a little place that had kebabs. They had a cute little side window that looked like a drive thu, and of course the meat on the vertical rotisserie that smells fantastic as you walk by. My group of travelers never seriously considered stopping to try it, but one night I was with some of my friends from my italian class and one of the girls (also from America) said that we HAD to stop by! Seeing that we were all hungry, we couldn't find a reason not to, and I'm so glad we did! 

After that night, the group from RIT that I came to Italy with started frequenting this place. We were all in love with it, and it was quick, cheap, and delicious! They were open late so if we ever found ourselves hungry and walking around late at night we often stopped by. They even had french fries that they topped off with an amazing hot sauce/mayo/tzatziki that was like a dream come true for me. If I ever go back to Genova, that little kebab place is definitely on my list.   

ITALY - Seafood and Pasta!

Of course a month in Italy would not be complete without a plethora of pasta. Every shape and size, every sauce combination. The pasta was fantastic. I'm so happy I don't have celiacs and can eat gluten because pasta was a given.

We were also fortunate enough to be right on the water so seafood made the incredible pasta even better! I'm such a seafood lover, growing up my dad would always make sure to have at least fish for our weekly family dinner. Sometimes he would throw in lobster, clams, muscles, shrimps, scallops, octopus, squid or crab also. (My dad has been a chef for over 30 years at a nearby restaurant and he only gets one day off a week. So once a week we sit down as a family and he makes dinner that consists of at least 4 or 5 dishes that we eat family style. For the rest of the week we fend for ourselves. My mom isn't a great cook so we ended up with quite a few instant meals or we would microwave leftovers from Dad's dinner for as many days as we could). 

Carbs and seafood in Italy. What more could I ask for!

Seafood Seafood Seafood!

ITALY - Ciao Genova!

So last June I got to go to Italy for a month. (The wonders of work/study abroad!) For that month we would wake up and go to class for about 4 hours, take a lunch break, and head to our respective jobs for another 4 hours or so. A month in Italy that I wouldn't trade for the world! The culture was perfect, the food was fantastic, and the people I was with made it even better. We met tons of new people, got to learn and practice italian, and just experience the world. 

So in honor of Italy, my first food post will be appropriately themed Pizza! (How American.) 

This guy was from Cinque Terre and is technically a foccacia (I think). Hot and gooey melted cheese on a delicious crust.. take me back!

Of Course in a month I had much more than two pizzas, but these were the two that were documented and found their way off my ipod camera to my laptop to be posted here. But you get the idea! Pizza was served as a personal pizza that was as big as.. lets say a bike tire. Super thin crust that was crispy and incredible (thin crusts are my favorite so I was completely in heaven this whole month). Toppings were always fresh and delicious. I can almost taste it again. There was no way I could've gotten tired of the pizza there in that month. I wish I could go back right now just for another one. 

Pizza Croissants!

Instant croissants + the internet = culinary genius.. or at least a full college student

This was the last thing I baked before setting off to Italy for a month last June. Seems fitting right? Let's take Italian and French classics and just beat them to death with a roll of instant croissants because 'Murica. 

But honestly... these pizza croissants were boss. Sooo good and easy to make. The cheese on the insides were all gooey and perfect right out of the oven. Perfect hand held buttery pizza croissants on the go (I think you get the fact that I like portable food - how modern American is that..) There's not much explaining here, cheese and pepperoni in those little rolls and bam! Food heaven. Seriously, I need to remember to thank my metabolism just a little bit more often..  

ROC - That Vermonster....

That's right, we did it. We ordered a Vermonster. We took the challenge! (And we kinda lost..)

So for our last e-board meeting of the year, my club planned pretty early on that we wanted to take on the Vermonster and Ben&Jerry's. Just some slight background information, as en e-board, we eat. A lot. Traditionally theres 5 positions in our e-board and but by second semester, when we see that there are some of us graduating, we start up re-elections and whatnot and as a way for the new e-board and old e-board to bond, last spring we decided we would eat together. A lot. So we did. E-board meets every other week, and by spring semester we liked each other a lot and decided that we would spend those e-board meetings, discussing, planning, bonding, and eating (and getting me to watch scary things like American Horror Story.. but thats besides the point).

So, by the end of the semester when it came time for the last e-board meeting we all decided this is what we wanted to do as a sort of last hoorah transitioning from old e-board to new e-board. So the old 5 and the additional new 3 settled in. (One of the members had previous obligations and she ducked in an out of our attempt at the Vermonster so lets say there were 7.5 if us working on this thing). A Vermonster, for those of you who aren't familiar, is 20 scoops of ice cream, 4 bananas, 3 cookies/brownies, hot fudge/carmel, whipped cream, and more candy because that wasn't enough sugar already. Now we didn't have banana's in ours because Ben&Jerry's was out that day but that's okay! even without the banana that Vermonster kicked our asses. 3.5 girls and 4 boys and we still had a bit of melted ice cream and what not at the bottom of our bucket... But in our defense, midway through the bucket, a nice girl from the college activities board walked over and offered us pizza.. and when you're a broke college kid, you don't turn away free food, especially pizza. Even if you're in the middle of a Vermonster! I like to think that the pizza actually helped. We needed a break from all the diary, what better than nice pizza carbs to soak that all up in our stomachs. And I can't vouch for everyone with me, but those two slices from the sheet pizza gave me a second wind! (Emily the bottomless pit strikes again!!)

I'm fairly certain, come this May, Vermonster attempt 2 will rear it's head. Maybe we'll be able to beat it this time!! (Especially if we don't have that darned chunky monkey contaminating the whole bucket with an overpowering taste of banana!) Moral of this story? My e-board is cooler than yours.. or at least hungrier....