Today started out like most since we have been in Bologna - wake up sleepily and check Facebook and Instagram, quickly realizing "Oh yeh, no one is up at 3am." Go grab an espresso at the little cafe down the street and either set out to get lost in the maze of streets surrounding Piazza Maggiore or head to a recommended or well known restaurant like a culinary heat seeking missile.
Today had a different purpose though: find a pasticceria or somewhere that makes their own pasta and apply to stage there. First on the list was the place where Thomas McNaughton cut his teeth making pasta, and what is acknowledged one of the best pasta/salumi shops in Bologna. I was daunted by the fact that he had worked there, thinking it would be just as difficult as getting into as a Michelin 3 star for a stage as it had no doubt been popularized throughout the North American cooking underground by McNaughtons mention in his book.
So up the street we walked, me completely oblivious to anything Lynn was saying (sorry), absorbed in my own little world of shortcomings and what-ifs. We walked into the shop, and I turned to the woman at the cash, asking "Avete uno momento?" "Si" I took out my little piece of paper on which I had scrawled my script in Italian. All I could think was "cuoco, cuoco, cuoco", since I was walking down the street a couple of days prior, rehearsing what I would say and proclaimed loudly and proudly "Sono uno cucchiaio profeszionale!" ("I am a professional spoon!"). Someone was smiling down on me, cause I'm pretty sure I said "cuoco". As soon as I got past the line about being a professional cook a wide smile spread across the woman's face; she had obviously been fed this line or something like it about a million times before. She let me finish and pretty much told me they had chefs in the laboratorio for the next week "I can work the week following" I quickly said, remembering to be much more tenacious than I typically am. She quickly flipped through the calender and smiled and told me they could take me. I was drunk with a supershot of adrenaline and the caffeine from the espresso and was fist pumping and ninja kicking all over the place (once we were outside and out of view of the shop)
A celebration was in order, so we stopped at a trattoria we had spotted last night that was crammed with locals. What proceeded was one of the largest shank dishes I have eaten at a restaurant (Stinco e patate al forno) and one of the most filthy schnitzel-esque dishes I have every consumed (Colotetta - a ginormous veal cutlet breaded and fried smothered in a thick butter and parmesan sauce with bits of ham.
That pretty brings us here, to me writing this blog post in the sweltering Italian heat in my tattered skivvies. And I'll just leave you folks with that image to percolate.
Parma on Friday!!!
Ciao tutti!
Until next time.
Mmmmm cured meats and fresh pasta
Stinco e patate al forno
Cotoletta
A solid handle on effective verb, adjective, noun and adverb usage as well as a willingness to post in the buff to near buff are all skills and traits the blogger must possess
The shirtless photo really ties the blog post together.
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