Day 27
Free day in Sicily, sans dinner. Slept in and left the hotel around 1 to go grab lunch. The quest was on. Abunch of culinary and pastry students off to find food. This is always something fun to do.
After much searching and deliberating, we finally came across a sandwich stand with a neon cowboy on top. We looked at the menu: chicken sandwich, boars meat, bacon (yes a bacon sandwich), and hoarse meat. Yes, horse meat. You guessed it, I tried. I had to. I couldn't resist. When else would I get the opportunity to do such? I put aside my humanitarian urges and took the plunge.
They took the ground meat and cooked it on a flattop, served it on a hoagie with Swiss cheese, topped with mayo, jalapeño juice, lettuce, and a spicy cous-cous like condiment. The taste was like a mcdonalds cheeseburger with a slight gamey taste. I'm not sure if I would eat it again, yet would not change the fact I did eat it. I feel that it is what I am called to do as a culinarian, try new stuff and push my limits.
On the way back to the hotel, we decided to stop and grab cannoli. I had a traditional ricotta cannoli that was amazing in texture and consistency. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel where I finilazied a few more plans for this weekend and next week.
For dinner, we went to the same restaurant where we had to cook the other night. Our menu, ironically was what we ate the first night in Sicily, yet prepared properly. For dessert, the chef came out and gave us a lesson on the history of cannoli and ricotta. If you would like to know, I would be more than happy to show you the 40 minute video.
After his demo, we had the opportunity fill our own cannoli and then eat, the best part. The freshness of the cannoli was amazing. The cool, creamy ricotta juxtaposed with the crisp slightly warm shell created a dessert that was sweet ending to an incredible day.
Take time to challenge your palette and loose your inhibitions, you may learn a bit while eating, what a novel concept.
-Until
Matt
No comments:
Post a Comment