Wedding 2.0

We're going home for Wedding: the Sequel. I'm excited to see friends and family, EAT, and soak in the warm weather. But duty calls, so we'll also be dedicating one evening to our Chinese wedding dinner.

We also have an entourage of 6 from Italy and 2 from California. The wedding planning I've done this round has consisted mostly of planning a very detailed week-long itinerary for our guests. There is an island getaway, 272 steps and a tree-top jungle adventure in the plans. I can't wait to show them my hometown.

I'll leave you with a shot of our sweetheart table from our wedding day in September. My bouquet is on the left and I loved it! ;-)

White Truffle Lunch

Yesterday we had a lunch fit for a king. Our colleague and friend, A, had generously offered to share with us some white truffles found by his dad. His father lives in the countryside outside the town of Pavia, and with the help of his trained truffle-sniffing dogs, hunts down these prized gems during his free time.

It's white winter truffle season and prices can go easily for something like 2500 euros/kg. Wow, these fungi sure comes with a hefty price tag.

As soon as A opened the glass jar that held them, a strong fragrance or odor, depending who you ask, filled the air. Apparently the highly aromatic smell can even penetrate eggs stored next to them and change their taste.

Truthfully, it reminds me slightly of the smell of durian.

We had it shaved paper thin over a plates of fresh egg pasta. The taste was very delicate, compared to the aroma.

With a glass of good red wine, not bad for a workday lunch. Yum, we could get used to this. Thanks, A!

La Serata Pugliese

We were out having aperitivo with friends one night when two girls in our group came up with the idea of cooking up a meal featuring authentic dishes from their hometown region of Puglia. What a great idea! We offered our home as a venue and that's how we found ourselves chowing down on the best Pugliese food in town one Sunday night.

Puglia is the region that's the heel of the boot. One of the pasta that's synonymous with this region is orrechiette, which literally means 'little ears'. Our friend P spent several hours that morning making these from scratch!

Our friend W cooked up a pot of 'brasciule' - meat rolls with a parmesan cheese and herb filling, simmered in a tomato sauce to-die-for. First we had the sauce with the oriechette. Yes, you can definitely taste the difference in taste and texture of handmade fresh pasta. Then we had the meat smothered in more sauce for the secondi. It was all soooo good.

Here I am with the two talented cooks. I'm hoping some of it can rub off me. ;-)

And if that wasn't enough, P outdid herself further with dessert. An amaretti bavarese with a hazelnut chocolate sauce. Oh, and did I mention we had wine? D brought over 3 bottles of good red wine to help wash everything down.

Wait, there was also that bottle of white wine which we opened while waiting for dinner to be ready. No wonder we were all happy, relaxed and definitely well fed that night.

Thanks P and V for cooking! Can we do this again soon? ;-)

Quart Formage Festival

It was the 14th of August, the day before Ferragosto, when we took a much-needed break from wedding planning. Unfortunately we were at work but the office was deathly quiet. It was the middle of the summer holiday season and everyone was on vacation. We left the office at 5.30pm and headed to the Aosta valley.

The Aosta valley is close to the French border and has many French influences. That's 'karr' for you not 'quart'. My ignorant self surely didn't know that.

It was the annual Quart Formage Festival and we were there for only one reason. Thanks to a tip-off from a fellow blogger, we had to get our hands on one of these cool wooden cheese boardswith a wine glass and cheese knife holder built in.

Success! Now we can wear this around the house while eating cheese. ;-) We purchased the contraption with 10 food tickets to be used at all the different local cheese stands.

We tried all kinds of cheeses that were local to the Aosta region: various fontina, ricotta, gorgonzola, and a bunch of other cheeses that I can't remember the names of.

They had fonduta, a local dish - basically potatoes in a fontina cheese sauce - that was delicious. And oh yes, we drank lots of wine too. Had to make use of the wine glass, right?

There was a good crowd of people at the festival, kids and dogs included.

Unfortunately, there was only so much cheese we could eat. Yes, it was good. And yes, there's nothing like fresh ricotta with honey drizzled over. But it didn't take long for me to feel cheesed-out. We ended up giving our remaining tickets to a friendly family that we had struck up a conversation with. And now we have two cute souvenirs already buried in the mess of one of our kitchen drawers.

Fall is Here

The colorful view from our home today. It was a beautiful day today - warm and sunny, a nice change from the past week. We set our clocks an hour back last night and happily gained an extra hour of sleep today. The only unfortunate thing was that I had to go to work today! Boo...

Where to Find Ribbon in Milan

These were the invitations we sent out. We have Yi Leng and Matt to thank for picking these out at Michaels. That was already half the job done, especially considering how I can turn into a blubbering indecisive mess in front of a wall of choices. Yi Leng actually lugged a box all the way to Copenhagen and passed them to me when we met up there.


They're actually Martha Stewart boxed invites. Not bad, right? We loved the flower cut outs and the paper quality was nice. The printing took forever because it just wouldn't line up right with the printer we were using. I think Stefano was starting to get real annoyed.


The bows were something we added. Looking for ribbons in Italy wasn't exactly an easy feat. Stefano had no clue. Ribbons?! The selection at Carrefour was paltry. There weren't any craft store superchains as far as I could tell. I searched online (again not easy since I had to search in Italian) and found the existence of the 'nastroficio' store (that's like saying 'ribbon-ery'). Wow. Finally I came upon something that looked promising. It took me a subway and tram ride, then a long walk in the sweltering heat to get there. But boy was I excited when I got there. It is a manufacturer's wholesale store with shelves of ribbon, tissue paper and paper bags. So if those are the things you're looking for, this is where to go. We also ended getting all our bomboniere supplies here.

Celcar
Via C. Tacito, 6
Milano

Mom and Dad Visit Italy

I'm back! And it's time to quit reading blogs and start writing. I figured I really have to write everything down or risk losing the memories.

I would say the wedding events kicked off with the arrival of my parents to Italy, and the started building up from there. It was the first weekend in September. We had spent the last couple days cleaning and scrubbing down the house (hey, gotta have a clean house for our guests) and various trips to Ikea for items such as bed, comforters, duvet covers!

Then early Sunday morning we woke up and headed to Malpensa. I was so excited to see mom and dad. We got home, got them settled in, then we were off to the supermarket for groceries. They were very impressed with the wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables available. Dad took a picture of mom next to a giant wheel of Parmagiano Reggiano. ;-)

For lunch we had pasta with Stefano's mom's pesto. It was a hit. Dad suggested that mom make it at home too. hehe. After a nap it was time to visit downtown Milan. It was the three of us since Stefano had to pick up a friend from the airport.

We visited the usual suspects - the Duomo, Galleria, Via della Spiga, Piazza della Scala.

At one point I decided I REALLY needed a gelato as a pick-me-up. Mom and dad said, no thanks. And I said, 'Are you sure??'. To turn down gelato? So I stood in line and bought a cone at Grom just up the street from La Scala. Gave mom a taste and her eyes grew wide. Turned out they had never had gelato before and that 'ice cream' in Italy is not just that. They were happy tasting my cone but the very next day and for the rest of their stay, they made sure to stop and get gelato as a snack. haha.

Unfortunately the beautiful day was marred by an incident that happened on our way home. We were at Cadorna waiting for the Metro train to arrive. When the train arrived, we made our way towards the open doors. Mom was in front, and I stepped back to let dad go ahead of me. At that moment, a young lady pushed into my dad. After a few seconds, she turned and left saying 'niente (nothing)' to her companion and then they both ran off. It all happened so quickly; I didn't have time to react. After we entered the train, my dad told us that she had stuck her hand down my dad's front pocket where he had his wallet. Luckily my dad was still alert, albeit the jetlag, and he grabbed her wrist before she got to his wallet. He had held on tightly to her wrist but finally let go so we could get on the train and that was when she ran off. I was incensed. The nerve of her! She was one of those gypsy girls that you always hear about and that explained the scared look she had on her face when she turned around. Thank God my dad was able to react quickly enough. Grrrr!

During my parents stay in Italy, they visited Rome, Florence and Venice using Milan as the home base. I regretted not being able to take them but I really wasn't able to take any more time off from work. So instead I booked the lodging and drew up a detailed itinerary complete with maps and transportation instructions plans for them.

And on the weekends when they were at home with us, Stefano really spoiled them with a whole breakfast spread setup in the mornings. We cooked most of the time for them since they had to eat out when travelling. They got to try sarde al forno, branzino in salt shell, and various other simple but delicious Italian dishes - fast and easy dishes that we usually prepare. In the end, they really appreciated Italian cuisine. Not once in the 3 weeks they were here did they eat anything but Italian and they enjoyed it too!

The visit turned out great and I hope they will come and visit us again soon.