Meat/La Carne
The day started again with coffee and Columba (they’re huge—we’ll be eating it for five more days), and a mid-morning walk. We wanted to see what might entice us for dinner.
Since we had a long recent run of seafood, I suggested a pork loin to roast, porchetta style, or something simple to throw on the grill. That was all Joe had to hear. He loves the pork chops we get from our not-usual butcher; this one is women-run, and further down the road. We picked up three bone-in slabs that looked right out of The Flintstones.
I noticed they had some dry-cured hard sausage, so I had to snap a pic for my sister. She loves salumeria.
We swung through Lidl on the off chance they’d have the lungo peppers we crave, since all the ortofrutte seem to be out of them. No luck there, but we remembered we needed shampoo, deodorant, shower soap, etc., so it was a good stop anyway.
I’ve been wondering all along these past couple of months, what’s happened to the four big white strays who used to hang out on the big sidewalk near the Esso. We saw some of them on the way back from Lidl. At least two of them are still around! This made me happy (but worried about the other two).
Joe’s been craving a big chunk of good parmesan, so we went to the Delizie & Premizie ortofrutta near the house, since they’re also a salumeria. This is the place where the nice man saved me a bouquet of wild asparagus a couple of weeks ago. We also wanted to try their bread, because they make it at their home and bring it in each morning. Imagine that flying past a St. Paul food inspector.
So, bread, parmesan, peppers, bietola (green chard), and fresh garlic, plus a ton of our favorite salami! We loaded up.
As we were being rung up, I asked the woman if the two of them were married. She replied they’ve been together 26 years. Wow, congratulations! And you are still friends! She started to say, confused, no, we are married—but then her face lit up and she laughed. Yes! We were friends for ten years, then married for sixteen, 26 total, and friends all the time! We really like this couple. Next, I must ask their names!!
Back home, we put things away, then heard Ettore coming up the stairs. He was in a great mood. We played for several hours, then Aziza showed up around 5:00. I profusely apologized for yesterday’s mess up. She was gracious about it. She’s very good with Ettore in a day-care or kindergarten teacher way, which I’ve admired about anyone possessing such skill. Elena is the only one who has us all beat (ok, also Lilliana and Mariella)! After a while, Ettore wanted one-on-one time to play downstairs with Aziza, so we bid goodbye.
I took a 15-minute catnap, awakened by a text, then also saw Elena’s earlier text:
I asked Joe, and we said the pork chops could wait. Bersò is where we’ve had the most incredible burgers. Each burger bun is a different handmade dough to perfectly go with a particular burger. There is even one made from vegetable ash, which of course turned out as a blurred photo. But they’re huge, and the quality puts American burgers to shame.
I had asked Joe ahead of time if we could split a burger. But once we got to Bersò, we remembered they had “mature” (aged beef) steak. I told Joe I’d share, but mostly have the veggies and a couple of bites of meat. When our food came, I realized that this was more The Flintstones story—in fact, Giuseppe picked up the bone of his tomahawk steak (he ordered the same to share with friend Vincenzo), and told Ettore he was gnawing on a dinosaur bone.
The evening was nice, with Elena, Giuseppe, Father Giuseppe, Vincenzo, Alessandra, and the kids, Gaia, Ettore, and Matteo. Giuseppe ordered a nice Planeta Cerasuolo to have with the steak.
I’m splitting my pant seams, but it’s worth it. We haven’t had steak like that in a while.
It was a day of meat, followed by an evening of meat. My sister, Joe’s daughters, and my friend Anne all would’ve loved it!
I DO love the salami pictures!
ReplyDeleteI figured you would😊
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