When we were in Italy, it was literally either pizza or some kind of pasta at every meal. Some of my American friends are extolling the virtues of the Paleo diet right now, and I was mildly amused by their potential horror at how we (and a typical Cortina resident) eat. I thought I might get tired of eating pizza or tagliatelle or risotto or polenta with funghi... but instead I felt myself getting hooked. When we flew back to Israel, it was around 3am in Tel Aviv and the trains going north to Haifa had stopped running for Shabbot. We stayed at our friend Mark's Tel Aviv apartment instead and hung out for a day with him. Lunch at a nearby park was roast beef sandwich...and ravioli. (I had the sweetest yet savory beet ravioli during a late Italian dinner with the wedding party one night, and I now need to hunt down recipes for how to make homemade ravioli.) Dinner was mushroom and roasted pepper pizza at a corner cafe. Next to Chinese food, Italian food may be my favorite cuisine for how simple yet tasty it is. I still have not fulfilled my desire to try osso bucco, but I've eaten so much on the trip, that can wait. Cortina's carb-loaded dishes are usually tempered with porcini or speck/prosciutto or venison. Venice, being on top of the waters, has a lot of seafood. The latter is pricier, and not necessarily as flavorful. Daniel was disdainful of the pizza quality in Venice compared to the ones he had in Cortina, and I only had a few bites of a Venetian specialty -- spaghetti in cuttlefish ink -- before I chalked it up to an interesting meal I'd never order again.
As for our gas situation, the gas company came by this morning and--as our dinner contests--we can now cook hot meals again. According to the company, each gas installment should last six months, so it appears that somebody has been stealing our cooking gas. What an odd and petty thing to commit a crime about, especially when cooking gas doesn't cost that much. Time to buy a lock for the gas box.
As Yom Kippur begins tonight, Daniel, Declan, and I went for an after-dinner walk along the Louis Promenade by Dan Panorama. There were bikers everywhere and young children out in droves. Given Mark's detailing about how there won't be any cars on the streets or any businesses open, I had imagined a very quiet two days--like when the North American Eastern seaboard got its power knocked out in the year 2000-something (when I was still studying at UM), and everybody walked around through the eerily quiet dark streets with flashlights. So far it's not been like that at all--In fact, we had to shut the bedroom window because of all the sounds the kids are making while playing or biking on our street. Otherwise, Declan would never go to bed tonight. Jewish parenting is....really interesting :/ I might elaborate on this topic some other time.
It's been kind of painful going on Facebook and seeing pictures of sweater weather in Pittsburgh right now. I'm actually, for the first time ever in my entire life, homesick for the U.S. Specifically Pittsburgh in the fall. Walking through the falling golden leaves in Frick Park. Wearing a light wrap on top of my summer clothes. Breaking out the crockpot or roasting fall vegetables. And, most of all, hanging out with friends at night over Settlers or new episodes of How I Met Your Mother. Now is the time when I keep wondering why I'm hot/awkward/illiterate and lonely in Haifa instead of in familiar Pittsburgh and close to friends. Am I really that much needed here?
Declan enjoying his first-ever ride on the Carmelit, Israel's one and only subway
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