Dinners Out on the Town

La Fenice

We went out to dinner with Matt’s Rhode Island people again.  This time we went to a restaurant that was not meant for Americans and our waiter spoke Italian only.  The menu was in Italian with some crude translations to English, such as noodless with porky mushrooms and sausage.  Matt wanted a pizza and decided to make sure that there were no anchovies on the pizza.  This was a very difficult conversation.  Several of our friends know some Italian so they were trying to help.  One of the girls is fluent in five languages and studying Italian and another one studied Italian in college.  Needless to say, I felt like the slow student and wish that I knew more Italian and had more time to study.  At least I am signed up for a class in January.  ANYWAY, Matt and the girls tried to say he wanted a pizza with only meat no fish.  This is his pizza:

As you can see, we all need to practice Italian!  The pizza had shrimp, squid, mussels, olives, mushrooms, and octopus.  He LOVED it!  This is not something that I would have enjoyed.  One of my fears about living in a foreign country is that I will order something gross.  The food is different and being a very picky eater, there are lots of things that I think are gross, such as a fish with its head.  If I had come to Italy five years ago, I am not sure I would have survived eating.  Luckily, since I have been with Matt I have become willing to try most things at least once.  Even the things I know I hate, like black eyed peas.  Cause sometimes I am wrong. Shocking I know.  My dinner was risotto with sausage and porky mushrooms, it was just average.  One of the other girls order pasta with lobster.  I envisioned chunks of lobster tossed with linguine.  I was wrong.

One thing that was different than the United States was that when one dish was ready, it was brought to the table.  This meant all your food was hot and it all came out at different times.  And you couldn't use your manners where you wait until everyone is served to eat.  This works out well for the baby!  She got to be held by all the different people.  As the person holding the baby got his or her dinner, someone was ready to grab the baby.  She loved it but it was very tiring being so popular.

The next night, we went to dinner with Matt’s work people as a Christmas party.  We went to this really neat restaurant.  The restaurant was called Panart and it was in an old castle.  I can’t describe how intriguing this place was with the combination of traditional and modern.   Our table was up to the side and there was this really cool sliding glass door and there was creative lighting throughout the restaurant.  There was a cool modern staircase surrounded by stonework that seemed like it had to be 1000 years old.  The bathroom was down a little hallway that looked like it dead-ended into a wall and then the door would automatically open.  (Interesting facts-none of the public restrooms have toilet seats and most don’t have toilet paper.  I will start carrying toilet paper in my diaper bag and doing lots of squats!) I wish I had taken pictures, but I didn’t so you will all have to go there and see it yourself. The atmosphere was so awesome and the food was fantastic.  We got there at 7:00 and the place was empty. This was my first restaurant where the entire menu was in Italian and when I started to look at the menu to try to decide what to eat, I was lost!  I have to be careful because if I end up with a full fish on my plate, I will not be happy.  I was studying the menu looking for words I know like pollo, pizza, etc.  The party organizer arrived and alleviated all my stress by saying it was a preset menu!  Yippee...no decisions.  We had an antipasto of prosciutto, cheese, and squash with a tangy mustard sauce.  Then we had pasta with ham and basil and a delicious cream sauce (not at all like an Alfredo sauce).  Then we had steak and French fries.  Not very Italian but very delicious. 

During the dinner, we did a White Elephant.  Matt was the one who got the evite which included the information about the White Elephant and he didn’t know what it was so he never mentioned it to me.  Needless to say, we did not have a present for the white elephant but one of the families had brought a present for the one year old who was much too interested in the stairs to participate so we got to use her gift!  I love White Elephants (or as I call it Dirty Santa) because the stealing of the gifts is always entertaining.  It is inevitable that one person ends up getting all his or her gifts taken.  During the dinner conversation, we learned that one of the couples was going to Winston-Salem (where I grew up) for Christmas to visit her sister.  Of course we continued to talk about WS and her sister lived near my parents, taught at the same school as my sister in law’s sister, and knew lots about it. It was a nice little reminder that we are not here amongst all Italians and that these strangers will have some connections to me and not just Matt.  This same girl also graduated from UVA (Matt’s alma mater) and her husband got his Master’s at NCSU just like me.  Everyone said Italians eat late and it is a true statement. Towards the end of dinner, the place was packed with all sorts of people, even young children.    All the people near us actually just stood and chatted.  Maybe meals are more of a social event where you walk around and visit instead of seat and talk.  We shall see.   Overall it was a great dinner and the baby was very well behaved until the end!  She decided that she needed more attention and wanted to have a blow out.  And of course she caught me unprepared.  I always have an extra outfit in my diaper bag but I switched baby bags for our downtown adventures (didn’t want anyone to try to steal my Coach!) and apparently did not include my spare clothes.  Luckily she only leaked through the onesie and was able to still wear the rest of her outfit (from her Aunt Sassy).  Another successful evening in town!