Luck of the Irish

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Cheers!

A cilantrojito from Stanford's Bar & Grill - delicious!

Venice Part 3: Lido

For the most part, hostels are the best way to go when traveling. They offer cheap prices, internet access and a means of bonding with other people that hotels can't offer. But when its off-season - all rules are out the window. Hotels can be just as cheap or even less expensive than staying in a hostel would be. The girls I travelled with booked a four-person hotel room in Lido because it was cheaper than staying anywhere in Venice, hostels included.

Hotel Rigel was an awesome place to stay. Everything was clean, breakfast was included, the bar was open 24 hours a day (although we didn't utilize it) and the rooms were nice. We booked two nights and ended up paying about 30 euro each - great deal! The hotel is only a 5-minute from the water bus station as well. Here are a few pictures of the hotel and the dining area:

The dining room. Breakfast is served from 0700 to 1000 every morning

Catie loved all the variety of fruits!

A waiter came and brought a bread basket to the table with baguette and croissant AND took your drink order. I ended up getting plain coffee, but cappuccinos, lattes and hot chocolate were also available at no extra cost.

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On our first night we got in a little bit late so we decided to stay in Lido for dinner. After a short search, we settled on Gran Viale Ristorante and Pizzeria. To get settled into our new Italian environment, two bottles of wine were ordered and we all settled on ah-pizza pies. Now if you've never had Italian pizza you're in for a treat: 12 inches in diameter, thin crust, fresh cheese, expected to gobble it all down. Well, you may not be expected to eat all of it, but eating it all won't get you any dirty looks.

Claire decided on a "cottage cheese and spinach" pizza. We were surprised (and a little relieved) when the waiter showed up with a ricotta cheese and spinach pizza. Lost in translation much?

Kaitlin and I enjoying our wine and about to dig into our pizzas.

So this was my pizza, and remember I promised you a little blurb on pizza with failed potential?

In no way am I a food expert. The only thing I know for sure is that I love food: the look, the taste, the texture and probably most of all, the smell. Nothing can trigger nostalgia more than the aroma of snickerdoodles coming out the oven or mom's chili simmering on the stove. So when I critique something I've eaten, it's not because I know what would be best for the dish...but I do know what would make it better for my tastes. At Gran Viale I ordered the Thai pizza, which said it included onions, corn, bean sprouts and a thai peanut sauce. What an epic fail. Of course I still ate the pizza because it's ME - but here's where it could have gone so much better:

1. Aesthetics - Everything was one color. There was nothing that popped or provided contrast to the cheese. Instead of white onions (which was an interesting choice in the first place), I would have used green onions, or at the least red onions.

2. Taste - I couldn't even taste the thai peanut sauce. I really don't think there was any on the pizza. Next time, use it as the sauce instead of marinara and add red chile pepper, chili oil, anything to give it that signature Thai kick!

3. Texture - With the corn and the bean sprouts, you'd think that there'd be a good crunch to the pizza. Unfortunately, they cooked the shit out of both vegetables...alas, a soggy, crunchless pizza.

4. CILANTRO CILANTRO CILANTRO. Where is the cilantro??? My favorite thing in the whole wide world that most certainly belongs on a thai pizza - not there. Disappointment.

Now you're thinking, "can you do better Kyrie?" I'm not definitely sure I can, but this is what I love. Finding a food that's missing something, and challenging myself to make it better. That's where I do learn about food...taking a mistake (whether or not it's my own) and improving it the best I can.

But really people, no cilantro?!?!?

Venice Part 2

Last time we left off I was regaling you with our adventures in pick-pocketing...or rather, being the pick-pocketee. It seems like when something like this happens, a whole vacation can go downhill. I was on that fast track to grumpiness for sure. But seeing Claire handle the situation and be able to say, "well, shall we get some wine?" after it was all over kept me in high spirits. At our jobs in Garmisch, we work hard but don't make a lot of money. Claire had been saving up for this trip for quite some time and whoosh - her money was gone in an instant. Was our trip ruined? No. Thanks to Claire's positive attitude, we were able to salvage what time we had left to have fun.

The girls on the trip (from left to right): me, Catie, Kaitlin and Claire

We took a lot of pictures on the bridges in Venice, and of all the buildings. Even though it was raining out, everything was very beautiful. Here are a few pictures from our trip:

A shot of the basilica in St. Mark's Square

Water bus stations and the beautiful canal

One of the many narrow streets filled with shopping

Me being a dork

One of the things I like most about Venice are the buildings - always colorful!

Up next:

• A review of Hotel Rigel
• Pizza with failed potential
• Redemption in Verona

Venice Part 1

"Therefore without attachment, do thou always perform action which should be done. For by performing action without attachment, man reaches supreme" -Bhagavad Gita

These are words to live by. In my life, I've learned that nothing is forever and everything is impermanent. This applies to material things as well - including money. That being said, it took everything I had not to be super pissed when we got pick-pocketed by a little old lady in Venice.

Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

Venice is awesome. I've been there before and was super excited to return when I hopped on a trip with my friends last minute. The shopping is great, the surrounding water is beautiful and the maze of endless streets makes Venice unique (and would ultimately be our demise later on). My friends Claire, Kaitlin, Catie and I all rented a car and made the quick 5 hour drive to Venice to spend a few days eating pizza, slurping gelato and hunting for the perfect Venetian mask. We decided to park our car in the Tronchetto parking garage and take the water taxi into Lido, where we were staying. Lido is southeast of Venice, but only a quick ride away.

The morning after we arrived, we ate a delicious breakfast at our hotel (review to follow) and set out to explore Venice. After spending a cool 18 euro on a 24-hour water taxi pass, we took the boat from Lido to San Marco (St. Mark's Square). St. Mark's Square is tourists galore. People come from all over the world to see the Basilica, climb the bell tower and people watch...or even pigeon watch, since there are hundreds in the square waiting for an absent-minded tourist to drop a piece of their sandwich. We took pictures and explored a bit before heading into the maze that is Venice to do a little window-shopping. Almost every street that connects to St. Mark's Square has a ton of shops, so we picked one and went with it. Predominantly, the shops sold glass and masks. Venetian glass is very colorful and beautiful - you could buy jewelry, plates, wine stoppers, and anything else you could imagine being made out of glass. I bought two glass pendants and a small plate as souvenirs.

Wait, where is the juicy story about the pick-pocketing you ask? Well ask and you shall receive...

After we made a few small purchases and explored a bit, we passed a souvenir shop that sold postcards. The four of us stopped to have a look at the postcards that were outside, then decided to go inside to see if there were any more. Two older ladies followed us inside the small shop, presumably to have a look around. I was looking at some postcards when Claire suddenly bumped into me from behind. Without turning around, I asked her what she was doing. She replied that the lady behind her was pushing into her and looking at something behind the counter. Claire and I stood close together and waited for the lady to leave. After about 10 seconds, she and her friend left the shop in a hurry. We continued to look at postcards, and after a few minutes we had all picked a few out. Claire got into her purse to pay for the postcards - and no wallet. She searched her purse, checked the pockets of her coat - nothing. We figured she may have left it at the last shop where she bought some earrings, so we set down the postcards and quickly backtracked, checking the ground just in case she dropped it. The man at the shop hadn't seen her wallet, and we slowly came to the realization that it could have been stolen. But where? When? How?

I looked over at Claire, and I could see her putting the pieces together. She informed us that her purse was unzipped, and when we were in the shop the lady pushing into her could have easily stolen her wallet. We decided that the lady was not trying to look at something behind the counter, because there was nothing behind the counter to look at! She was stealing Claire's wallet, all the while the two of us stood there and waited for her to finish her criminal mischief and vamoose out of the shop.

I said, "let's find this bitch". So we backtracked again to the shop as quickly as we could, and then went the way we saw them leave. Unfortunately, this is Venice. Like I said before, Venice is a maze and one could get lost easily - or hide easily. Every corner you turn has a corner for its corner, and there are endless doors that lead to courtyards to hide behind. After about an hour of searching, we knew that her wallet was gone forever. She had lost her drivers license, her military ID, debit cards, credit cards, 250 euro of her money and 80 euro of mine (I don't have a purse so I asked her to hold my money for me). If I were Claire, I would have been an inconsolable heap on the ground. Between clenched teeth she said that she "wanted to throw something", but otherwise held it together very well. We went to the police station once we knew our search was useless, and Claire spent an hour explaining to a man who didn't speak english what happened.

After our police station excursion, Claire prayed that the little old lady took only the money out of the wallet and dumped the rest in the water. We decided that the only way to console Claire and ourselves was to have some wine and pasta. Unfortunately, our meal was subpar (Osteria Nova - don't eat there), but the wine was good. After our early dinner we decided to get more wine to take back to the hotel and a few pastries to satisfy our sweet tooth. Kaitlin and I split a chocolate cannoli and walnut-rum cake. They were both delicious. And our trip got better too...but that's for my next post. I will leave you with a picture of our scrumptious pastries to tide you over until Venice, Part 2:

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lido_di_Venezia

Picture of the Week

Saint Malo, France

St. Malo is a small port city in Brittany, France. When I studied abroad in Angers two years ago, we came here on an excursion. St. Malo is walled-in, making it feel very small and quaint. The city also has great shopping (although expensive). This is actually a picture from the main city, facing Grand Bey Beach and a gorgeous castle on St. Malo Island. Go here now!

*If you want to read more about my adventures on this excursion, read this post from an old blog of mine. It'll make you laugh if nothing else!

Some good web recipes

Tomorrow is my six-month anniversary for living in Germany and I've been baking up a storm! I've been having a blast here and can't imagine living anywhere else. That's not to say I don't miss home. If I could, I would fly all my family and friends here and house them in my tiny bedroom (I'm sure my roommate would love that). Another part of home that I miss are my cookbooks. The Bread Baker's Apprentice, Baking with Julia, The Cake Bible...there are so many books sitting perched on my shelf at home gathering dust. But since I left all of my oh-so-precious cookbooks and baking books at home, I've found the internet a very useful place to gather recipes. Here are a few recipes that I've tested while I've been here, along with pictures (if I took them) and modifications (if I made them):

Belles Hamburger Bun Recipe

allrecipes.com

Being at such a high altitude I had to adjust proofing and baking times, as well as baking temperatures. Unless you are living in the Alps like I am, I wouldn't worry too much about the adjustments. Also, I added some diced jalapenos and cheddar cheese to give it an extra kick. I say add however much you want!

Jalapeno Cheddar Hamburger Buns

Old-Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie

allrecipes.com

There isn't any coconut extract in this pie, and since I've never made a coconut cream pie before I thought the coconut flavor would be lacking. I almost added some extract, but instead toasted an additional 3/4 cup of shredded coconut and added it to the layer between the egg mixture and the whipped topping. The end result was kickass!

Cappuccino Fudge

Annie's Eats

For this recipe I left out the cinnamon. I wanted to make sure the espresso flavor got as much bang for its buck as it could. I brought these to a work party during Christmas time and everyone loved them! They're super easy to make too.

Cappuccino Fudge

Buckeye Cookies

The Busty Baker

I really wish I would have taken a picture of these (although there is a great picture on the blog that I got them from). The contrast of the dark chocolate and the peanut butter rolled inside is really nice, and these were really tasty. Great recipe!

Midnight Rum Balls

all over the internet, but I found the recipe at chowhound.com

My good friend Corinne made these as a cake topper for our friend Richard's birthday (that's for another post). She decided to roll them in powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar, which was a good decision considering they were already sweet. And wooooooo did they get you drunk! There is only 1/3 cup of rum in the recipe, but for some reason they were potent! Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing for the birthday boy...

Crunk cake with midnight rum balls

Sean's Falafel

allrecipes.com

These turned out really well. I did however have to add a lot more bread crumbs than is recommended in the recipe - probably an additional 1 to 2 cups. Just make sure that the patties hold together really well before frying them. Also, I used cilantro instead of parsley because...well, I don't have a reason. I love cilantro.

Brownie Tart

Ina Garten on foodnetwork.com

I often go to Ina to find a good recipe, both savory or sweet. She didn't disappoint with this one - I'll be adding this to my permanent stockpile. I omitted the walnuts and the coffee granules, but I'm sure the tart would taste just as good with them. I decided to top the dessert with chocolate-covered strawberries and add some strawberry ice cream as well. The richness of the tart and the subtle flavor of the ice cream went well together.

Brownie Tart with Chocolate-Covered Strawberries and Strawberry Ice Cream

Peanut Butter Pie

allrecipes.com

My friend Rachel planned to make an amazing vegetarian lasagna the other night for dinner and when I asked her what she wanted me to bring for dessert, she replied, "something with chocolate, caramel and peanut butter. I love all those things!" I didn't want to break her heart and tell her that we would go into a sugar coma if I combined those flavors, so I tried to make it work. I decided to make a no-bake peanut butter pie, and the recipe I found was really easy to do. The pie had a good peanut butter taste, but was still very light. Once that was frozen I added a layer of chocolate ganache on top (sort of like a buckeye pie if you will), and when I served the dessert I drizzled some homemade caramel on the plate before placing the pie slice on top. Voila! Three very strong flavors that could work in harmony thanks to a great pie recipe.