Il Giorno Italiano Sogna: Cibo, that's Italian for food!

So maybe you are wondering why we have not really talked that much about the food we've been eating seeing that we are in Tuscany and we created a whole other blog so we could write about what we have been eating. Well, the simple answer is that the food is not that great here. Granted we don't have an unlimited budget where we can afford to spend 100 Euros a night, but in general (this may be a generalization!) the food is just not living up to our expectations. Of course, we have mostly dined here in Siena, short of a few trips here and there, and I believe it is safe to say that Siena is not a dining metropolis.

In the book "Eating in Italy" by Faith Willinger, she describes the cucina of Toscana as simple: Bread and Oil. That would be great but the bread is salt-free. We miss salt in our bread! She goes on to write that "The food in Siena's restaurants is miserable.....Most tourists who come to Siena stay only for a few hours, and restaurants haven't gone out of the way to make this brief stay memorable...." I couldn't have said it better myself! Back in C'ville when we were planning this move we were a bit dismayed by this and did not think it could be possible, alas, it is!

We have found two restaurants in Siena that we do enjoy very much and therefore have decided to solely frequent these two restaurants: Pizzeria Carla and Franca and La Chiacchera. We have tried other places to eat and just seem to be disappointed.

The simple option seems to be that we should cook for ourselves considering that both of us are capable of cooking. The problem is the grocery store and selection of food. Different cuisines aside, the grocery store closest to our apartment, Conad City, does not even have large potatoes to make baked potatoes or pizza dough for that matter! It is unbelievably frustrating to go there especially having been used to a greater selection at home; it is almost like trying to shop at a mini-mart.

We have made a few Italian dishes that have been good including our meal from the goods we brought back from Rome, a few decent lasagnas (including a spinach, sausage, and pumpkin one that was pretty darn good), and some pork dishes. There is a fish counter at Conad but it smells horrible so we have not had any seafood!

Occasionally the urge hits to have something other than Italian food: i.e. Indian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican. ANYHING. We have had relative success with Mexican, especially after finding sour cream and taco shells, and our supply of taco seasoning (thanks Lilly!). When we first moved into our new apartment, we found that someone had left taco seasoning packs behind-Old El Paso. And it was even in English! We ran out to the store to get ingredients for tacos. Imagine our disappointment as we cooked the meat and it smelled and tasted like Indian Curry-Yikes! So, curry.....We bought some curry powder at the store and had some high hopes for some Indian food, especially after the taco incident. I mean, if Old El Paso taco seasoning in Italy tastes like curry then the curry most be really great! Not really. We attempted to make a curried pork and cauliflower dish and needed to use about half the jar to even achieve a slight curry flavor thus rendering the sauce kind of pasty. It was ok. Chinese has just been a disaster!

That leaves Thai. I love Thai and greatly miss Thai 99 in Charlottesville. What I would give for a Krapao Tofu. A long time ago we found the Asian market in Siena. It is about the size of a closet and has all types of asian food. We had been wanting to make (and I to eat) Thai food for a long time now and tonight was the night. Well folks, it was a success!!! Yippee!!

Dinner tonight was: Red Curry Pork with Eggplant, Peppers, Onions, and String Beans. In fact, Reed said he thinks that the curry paste we got today was better than anything you can get at home, even at the Asian market in C'ville! It was great to finally have something other than Italian food!

The Recipe:

1. Some red curry paste and coconut milk.