We got to sleep in a bit today before heading out on a guided tour of the city.
Our local tour guide actually grew up here in syracusa and was a child during WWII (if that gives you an indication if his age). He would stop to point out little details that we would had walked by as well as told us about the way things used to be.
As part of our tour, we got a chance to visit the local market. Those who read my earlier post know how I feel about markes. This market was no exception. Being on the coast, the market offered mostly seafood along with some fresh veggies towards the end, mostly tomatoes and peppers. The seafood was amazing, there were whole swordfish that were over 7 feet long along with tuna that was 2 feet in diameter, not to mention the piles of octopus, sea bass, and prawns. Amongst the orgy of fish were the vendors hawking their goods to the shoppers in the street.
After the market, we headed to the city's old center where the cathedral is. We had a chance to go inside, the church was very simple in design, mostly white marble and loads of ironwork.
Then it was time for lunch, a group of us were determined to end our bad food streak so we found a seafood restaurant that seemed promising. It was amazing to say the least. I hada seafood risotto that was LOADED with calamari, mussels, clams, octopus and just a touch of tomato paste. The streak was over.
After lunch, we went out down by the harbor where we discovered a miniature beach and an abandoned concrete dock. We decided to stick our feet in the water and literally, sit on the dock of the bay.
The afternoon brought us to our boat tour of the harbor. We all thought it would be the typical large boat that makes it's typical route and heads back to port. This was not the case. We arrived to find a party raft for a lack of better terms blasting techno music waiting to take us out. We headed out on our journey and were informed that we would have the chance to go swimming off the boat if we wanted to. We stopped after about 40 minutes, dropped our anchor and several of us jumped into the crystal blue, Carribeian like water, including our chef.
After the boat tour, and some seasickness, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We were informed in the lobby that the chef would be doing a cooking demo for us when we got to the restaurant, what a cool, pleasant surprise.
We got to the restaurant around 7, sat down and awaited for service to start. After about 5 minutes, the chef and a translator come out to inform us that we would be making our dinner. Normally, hardly any of us would have a issue with this, in fact, many of us would jump at the opportunity to work with a Sicilian chef in a fine dining restaurant. But the thing is, we weren't expecting to cook, hell, we didn't know about the demo until we had all gotten ready. Most of the girls were in heels and dresses and the guys, including myself were in kakis and a button up (and flip flops, of course).
If there is anything I have learned as a professional it is safety in the kitchen begins with proper clothes and footwear, neither which we had. Plus, not to mention, we were all tired and hungry (and slightly irritable).
But here we go, talk about being placed in a difficult situation in the workplace. We were going to have to cook our dinner under the instruction of a sicilian chef who spoke little English with a translator who doesn't know food, and in a kitchen we have never seen (in Europe).
Dinner was finally served starting around 9 pm.
It started with buchetta
Followed by fresh ricotta cheese
then capanotta
pasta with spicy tomato sauce
pork stuffed with breadcrumbs, cheese, eggplant, peppers, and ham that was breaded then baked (the dish I worked on)
for dessert was an almond pannacotta that had too much gelitian.
Dinner was finally over at 11:55, which was followed by a walk back to the hotel. By the time I made it to my room, it was 12:30. I was drained.
Lesson for the day: 7p's as learned from Chef Ted McCall: Proper Prior Planning, Prevents Piss Poor Preformance
-Until
Matt
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