the soupmenu

Per request of Mr. Kamenoff…I will write more about the food here.  I haven’t talked about it that much on the blog…and I guess when I have it hasn’t been ‘in depth’ enough.  So far I love the food here.  It is really as good as people say it is.  While I’ve had a few interesting dishes.  Most of the food is basic pizza, pasta, and variations of both.  Somehow though…everything just tastes better here.  Give credit to the cooks, to the farmers, to the weather, to whatever…somehow the food here is always flavorful, hot, and delicious.  I think the biggest outright difference is in the seasoning.  Italians are not afraid to put bold, spicy, or bitter seasoning into their food.  They do it in such a way that one second the dish seems really spicy but then next second it seems sweet.  An example is that I had a pizza with pepperoni, hot sauce, garlic, and beans.  I would have never imagined this combination as good before.  This pizza was amazing.  Due to the pepperoni and hot sauce the first taste would be really spicy, but then the beans would make it bland again just in time for the garlic to give you a kick in another direction.  Do I have a favorite place to eat?  Not yet.  This is because everywhere is really good.  I have not been disappointed at any meal I’ve had.

Even homemade food is better here.  Today I made a simple pasta dish with meat and tomato sauce.  It was glorious.  The basic tomato sauce here that comes in a jar from the supermarket is much better than anything I’ve had back home.  I guess it’s just the product of a nation of people who know good food.

One downside is that the variety of food here is less than in the states.  While there are different places here and there…the vast majority of places are either small, counter-only pizza places, or sit down Italian restaurants.  There are also a decent amount of Kabob places as well…a fact that I haven’t quite figured out yet.  Yes, we have found a good Chinese place, a decent sushi place, and a good Mexican place….but my diet still consists mostly of starchy objects.  When you think about it, in the states, there really is a wide variety of food choices.  Am I getting tired of Pizza, Pasta, and Calzones? Not really.  While sometimes I might think to myself how I want something different….if I just think about how good the calzone will be I end up getting one and enjoying it anyways. (It is amazing to be able to stop in a small pizza place and 3 mins and 2 euros later you are walking down the street with an awesome calzone)

Here are some prices:

Wine (restaurant)……7-20 euro a glass
Wine (store)…..2-3 euro a bottle
Single serving of meat (store)….3 euro
Pizza (restaurant)…..6-9 euro
Pasta Dish (restaurant)…..6-7 euro
Booze from Europe (jager, desaronno, etc)……9 euro a liter
Whisky…..30-35 euro

Another topic I love…tv.  We finally got one today.  Our landlord warned us ‘Italian TV is horrible…just download shows from America…that’s what I do’.  So far I’ve really enjoyed it.  Within the span of an hour and a half…I’ve seen Italian ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ an Italian dubbed version of ‘He-Man’ and an Italian dubbed version of ‘Room Raiders: Arizona’.  Another nice benefit of Italian TV is that MTV actually plays videos.  Perhaps 3 out of 5 videos are in English…but I still really enjoy the stupid MTV transition-to-commercial animations.

we are still without internet…so posts and pics will be infrequent.

Another great lecture here at domus.

Frank Stephenson
VP of Design of Fiat

Designer of:
Ferarri 430
New Mini
BMW X5

Yah…wow.  This guy was very interesting.  He was very nomadic as a kid and knew 4 languages by the age of 6.  He’s lived all over the place and worked at some of the biggest names in the auto industry.  He was/is completely passionate about auto design.  It is always great to hear someone speak about a topic which they dedicate their lives to.  A little too often, we’ve been having mundane speakers here.  Coming from my business background it is all too easy to pick apart bad presentation skills.  One would think that product designers would be passionate about the products that they developed and realized, but it seems to be more the case than not that these designers will come in and almost stare at the ground while talking about a product that they developed.  Anyways, Frank was a great speaker who brought up some great points and stories about design and specifically car design.

Here is an interesting thing that we learned about the mini…

Some areas are designed after body parts.  The curves and ‘hump’ of the dash are designed after the thighs and crotch of a woman.  The rear-view mirrors are designed after the breasts of a woman.  The tailpipe has a 17 degree upward angle……that’s….uhhumm….to represent ‘power’. (designers words…not mine)

Most people love the design of the mini, yet many can not specifically say why.  The car just has a natural beauty about it.  Well it makes perfect sense that it’s because it is modeled after the parts of the body that humans find attractive.  I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at a mini the same way.

Had a couple firsts in the last few days.  I went to my first design show opening.  I had my first Hamburger, and took my first trip to the convention center.

The design show was insane.  Since the design community is so huge here, no matter what kind of show is opening, everyone has to show up to be seen.  A lot of the time, everyone has seen the objects or doesn’t care about the designers but they just want to go out and act cool around their friends.  Even though there was an insane crowd there, I still enjoyed the show.  Some pieces were really unique and well thought out….other pieces were just pointless.  To show off the pieces they set up a conveyor belt with spotlights on different parts of the belt.  The pieces would slowly roll into and out of light while you looked at them.

This is my first hamburger in Italy.  I got it at a restaurant called ‘The Titanic’ which is right across from school.  The burger was small and I really don’t think there was any beef in it….perhaps no meat at all.  I do miss burgers already…but I might be able survive simply due to how great calzones are here.  There are two basic types…the huge ones you get at a restaurant, and the small ones that you can get to go.  I love just popping into a small pizza place and two minutes later be walking down the street with a good handheld meal.

I went to a huge expo at the convention center.  The center itself is amazing.

It was just finished last year and is just a beautiful building.  The expo was really cool with tons of great products from all kinds of companies.  The only bad thing is that the convention center is way out in the suburbs.  It takes a good hour at least to get there from the city.  One funny thing that I’ve noticed around here is that all beggers/metro performers have McDonnalds cups.  McDonnalds is the only place that gives you paper cups to go, so naturally anyone who wants to have a cup with them on the metro has to take a trip to McD’s.  It seems like some kind of hidden Bumvertising Campaign.

Tomorrow we move into our apartment finally…..I can not wait.  I will post pics of the new crib once we are in.