My Mommy and Daddy Are Here!

And so are my aunt Donna, family friend Toni, and her friend, Janet.

Just a quick side note on Donna: every year for Easter, she gives me, my brother, my sister, and my cousin an Easter Egg from Aunt Charlotte's, the greatest chocolate store in the world.

And guess what! She brought me one all the way from New Jersey!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was beyond excited.

Anyways, for our first meal, we headed to Stallo del Pomodoro for lunch--a restaurant that used to be a horse stable.

We got some salumi and prosciutto to start of course.

I got cheese tortelli with cinghiali ragu--more of that wild boar meat!

The next morning, we headed to one of my favorite cafes for a late breakfast.

Tiny espresso cups!

I LOVE the pastries at this place. This croissant is filled with a lemon cream and topped with fruits of the forrest.

Then I took my parents to Mercato Albinelli. They are in love.

They got to meet my salami guy (who first thought we were from England, and then, when I said we were American, thought we were from Minnesota. Interesting).

We got a bunch of food and had a delicious lunch of cheese, meat, and bread.

That night we went out for aperitivo. The sky was looking pretty cool.

Yesterday, we went to Genova.

Mostly because I wanted pesto.

Alright, we went there for the sole reason of getting me some pesto.

We had a fabulous lunch with prosciutto and melon...

and pasta with PESTO! It was incredible. Definitely worth the four-hour train ride.

However, if you can tell from this picture, it was pouring for a majority of the five hours we were there.

Luckily, we found an Eataly to pass the time in.

I could live in this place and never get bored.

An hour before we had to leave it finally stopped raining.

And now I really want to go back to Genova because it's a really cool town.

I just have to convince someone to go with me...

So I picked out four kinds of pesto while at Eataly. I find it much easier to get things when my parents are paying.

One is traditional Genovese pesto (basil and pine nuts), another is sun-dried tomato, another is pistachio, and the last is fennel.

Of course I got the giant jar of the Genovese and realized this morning that it has to be consumed within three days after opening.

This will be an interesting challenge.

-Meri

A Very Chocolate Weekend

There always seems to be some kind of party going on here.

I like it.

This weekend is the "Cioccolato Vero a Modena." Basically a weekend filled with chocolate. Basically a bit of heaven for me.

In the Piazza Grande, about a dozen different vendors had stands set up. All had chocolatiers showing off their stuff.

This one had chocolate animals.

Every stand had hot chocolate. White, milk, and dark.

Lollipops.

Chocolate salami!

Chocolate fettuccine.

Chocolate purses and high heels.

Horse shoes! And some hammers.

 Chocolate with farro!

Hahahahahaha. A $3 brownie.

So many Sacher tortes.

I'm going to see Melissa and Brad tomorrow! Melissa loves turtles so I got her a chocolate one.

I dunno what Brad likes so I got him two tiny sheep.

In the center of the Piazza they had a little information tent, which included this giant chocolate-churning thing.

It also had a bunch of chocolate history on posters hanging around the tent.

This sign tells one of the legends surrounding chocolate. Apparently, there was an Aztec princess left to guard a great treasure by her husband who left to go to war. When the enemies arrived, she refused to give up the secret location of the treasure and they killed her. From her blood was born the cacao plant.

I wonder if my blood would give birth to some kind of dessert...

Here's what I bought, after much thought (seriously though, it took me about 45 minutes to decide what to buy after observing each stand).

Chocolate salami and white chocolate that looks like cheese.

Mmmmmm chocolate and hazelnuts (per usual).

Chocolate with balsamic filling. Classic Modena.

Coconut chocolates.

A mini Sacher torte.

I've never had one before. My favorite part was definitely the ganache topping.

And finally, some chocolate liquor for good measure.

A visit to the acetaia, where they make balsamic vinegar, was part of the days festivities.

This guy talked all about making aceto balsamico. I could understand most of what was happening if I tried really hard to pay attention. Unfortunately, my natural reaction is to zone out because it takes so much brain power for me to decipher everything. What can I say? I'm lazy.

Here are the barrels. The vinegar travels from barrel to barrel over time until some of it evaporates so that the barrel is only half full. That's how it gets so thick over time. The guy made a joke that if you left it long enough it would become like marmalade. He didn't seem to think it would taste very good, but it sounded fabulous to me!

And we all got a taste of some 10 year balsamic.

My favorite thing that I learned is that no two bottles of balsamic are alike. How cool.

-Meri