After another lovely slow start ( we never go anywhere before 10 as the town of Tropea is still fast asleep) we enjoyed a guided historical tour of Tropea. Thank you Francesco for sharing your local knowledge and showing us your artwork. We would love to take some of your ceramic work home, especially your hand painted roof tiles but we are afraid they will be damaged by over zealous baggage handlers.
The plan was to enjoy lunch alfresco style overlooking the sea but Tropea had other ideas and sent down the rain. Plan B was indoors. Many restaurants are sunken, a floor below road level. Apparently in some old buildings there are many floors below road level. Just while I am mentioning roads, they are more narrow than you can imagine, especially in the heart of the town. Imagine the smallest car and add 2 cm either side and you have the width. The cobblestone roads are picture postcard variety.
I am getting off the track here but I missed mentioning the beach. I had an amazing exfoliation of the soles of my feet! It started off feeling quite nice but by the time the small stones turned into pebbles, I was yelping. When we climbed back up the million steps from the beach there was a roadside trader selling beach shoes!
Back to lunch. This was a light one apparently because tonight is our proper farewell and Peppi will be giving us a cooking lesson and then we will be feasting. Here is the evidence of our light lunch. Apologies for having missed a photo of our first course.
This was smoked swordfish with lime pieces plus marmalade.
These were little cheesy biscuits wrapped with smoked wild salmon and roasted red capsicum.
Delicious prawns on bread with 'nduja.
A tropical dish with octopus, tomatoes and red onions.
An eggplant parmigiana (I think) sitting in a purple cabbage leaf, yum.
And of course there is always pasta. This is when the word 'light' is stretched a little too far. Delicious tagliatelle with prawns and preserved lemon.
This is Barb trying desperately to keep her lunch light!
I've missed chocolate so had to have some of this gooey chocolate pudding with orange marmalade. There is a great deal of citrus around here and it is used quite extensively in savoury dishes and with cheese. The fresh oranges are so sweet and juicy. There is also a great deal of onion jam/ marmalade.
And then there is Chrissy!
And the Italian coffees just keep getting stronger. I couldn't drink this one but I could tell it was a good one just by the aroma! Please give me more boiling water! ...... And maybe even some milk (not UHT). And maybe even some froth! Never mind the skim milk(I could never find the words to ask for that!)
Just in case I have left you salivating, here is the restaurant:
With that I am finally up to date. Tonight is the big grand cooking affair and I can't wait. I have asked to learn how to make gnocchi so I won't disappoint anyone when I get home.
Wish me luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment