COOKING LESSON in ROMA

When in Rome, do as the Romans!

Me and my friend Rachel rather recently (June, cough) went to Rome. 
It was one of the best experiences of my life and I would highly recommend visiting Italy. A country of such rich history, art, culture and love for the good life can certainly teach you to relax and enjoy the beauty of doing nothing "Il bel far niente". I think there is an underlying message there, us busy Londoners almost crave keeping busy, in a constant rush, instead of enjoying a peaceful and stress free life. We can learn a lot from Italians.

Anyway one of the things which we planned (well I planned) was to take up a cooking lesson in Rome. Ever since becoming a vegetarian one of the most difficult things is having enough variety, so as not to get sick of eating the same food, the way I like to avoid this is by trying out different cuisines.

Here's just a collage of my favourite images from the lesson. The food was absolutely delicious and every wine pairing was impeccable. I'm only 20 years old so I don't have much experience with wine, my general motto is to buy the cheapest, but after a brief lesson I feel like a connoisseur. 

Chef Andrea was quite the character, very loud and oddly humorous considering the slight language barrier. He made sure to make an example of us since we were quite late (but not the latest). I suppose the mix of characters added to the joy of the lesson: we had a few Londoners, then some from the States, and finally a couple from Switzerland.

My favourite item from the whole menu was definitely the first course, and the wine that was paired with it! How I wish I could find it in London... However my sister is going to Tuscany soon so hopefully she can track it down for me! 

Other courses included homemade fettuccine with homemade sauce, eggplant parmigiana and finally our personalized chocolate souffle.

Favourite dish: Pumpkin Flowers with eggplant and mozzarella with Southern Style Pesto

 Wine: Chardonnay Spumante 2008

 xxx 

Parisian FOOD

Whilst I was in Paris I was taking away by the beautiful scenery, the community feel of the towns (ALL independent shops as far as I could see) and more importantly the array of food they had to offer!

I was underwhelmed by the repetitive menus served at every brasserie in central Paris but where my hotel was situated a bit further away from it all there was this quaint little restaurant that whenever I passed it, it was always frequented by locals and always very busy (both in my eyes are a give away if a restaurant in other countries are good, follow the locals!)

Keep in mind I'm vegetarian so I don't find the meat pictures appealing...

I really wanted to try Parisian scallops!

Turkish VEGETARIAN?

Vejetaryen Pide: ıspanak, beyaz peynir, mantar ve domates.

Above is a picture of a vegetarian pide, basically the vegetarian version of lahmacun (Turkish pizza). There are different variations most with some sort of cheese, mushroom and bell peppers but above is a spinach, feta, mushroom and tomato version. I really love Turkish bread, a similar version would be a focaccia (Italian flat bread) very soft and crunchy at the same time.

I've been a vegetarian for almost 5 years now. In my culture it is practically UNHEARD of because we are known for our meat specialities (kebab, shish, adana - I'm pretty sure we like to take credit for creating BBQ's as well xD).

No matter what time of day it is, meat is most likely going to be served, yes, even at breakfast! It is so rare that we don't even have a word for vegetarian it is basically used as an English word but I'm pretty sure if you said it to a non-English speaking Turkish person they wouldn't know what it meant..

So I like to try different cuisines because eating the same kinda food all the time not only has adverse effects but is very dull: for instance if you ate a tomato everyday, for the rest of your life it wouldn't have the same effect on your body then if you ate it every so often.