Food

We are in Italy now!! It has been a crazy two days of traveling to get here. We left Barcelona a few nights ago and took the overnight train to Nice. We spent the entire day in Nice - going to the beach, eating lots of gelato, having caffe lattes (espresso with milk), sight seeing - the french riviara is amazing. It was the first time I was in a country where I didn't know enough of the language to fully communicate. That was an awkward feeling to get used to. I didn't really anticipate how that would feel until we were on the train and two random French men boarded our cuchette (sleeper cart) and tried talking to us. It didn't take us long to understand basic conversation (through hand gestures, etc) but it was definitely an experience. Then we took another overnight train to Rome. I am really impressed with what I have seen thus far on our trip. What has impressed me the most is the food. I am usually a person who is somewhat picky about food and likes to be consistent with the food I am eating. (chipotle! - though it's getting harder to eat there all the time now - terri is probably jumping with joy since I have finally admitted toThough I like to try new types of food - I am generally the one who will get a safe dish and let Mita get something new. Anyways - the food in Spain and Italy has been surprisingly extremely delicious. We have been trying new things left and right. In Spain we went out with some friends who took us to some amazing restaurants. They had this bruchetta ham (very thinly sliced) that was good and we also had traditional dishes (piella, seafood, croquetas, omlette con patatas) - all very tastey. In Nice - it was back to the sandwiches again. Mainly ham sandwiches on french bread. Didn't really like that too much since they were cold - but still decent. Italy has by far been my favorite when it comes to food. I usually don't have the best time at Italian restaurants in Chicago but Italy's Italian food is sooooooooooo good. I can't get enough of it. So far I've tried a tuna pasta, lasagna, steak, pizza, seabass - all very good. I can't wait to see if the rest of Italian food is just as good (since we have only eaten in Rome) Though the food tasting has been great, I have to admit seeing and sometimes eating at a McDonalds in each of the places has been comforting too. (I actually found the McDonalds in each country very interesting - I must say that they have branded themselves in such a unique way. They are really consistent throughout the world. I decided to take a picture of their menus which I will attach to this post at some point). In London the McDonalds meals were smaller - in fact I even heard a man complain about getting a large fries when he ordered a medium. One of the main sandwiches was a Chicken Tikka burger - I later heard from people that their national chicken dish is the indian dish of Chicken Tikka. In Spain the McDonalds was very trendy - they were giving out fashionable belts with a purchase of a meal. They also had people talking orders from a pda. Size of the orders were more similar to Chicago. In Nice (France), the McDonalds also had an "indien" sandwich. Italy was more or less the same. As far as desserts go - chocolate is amazing all over the world! I love all the different flavors of gelatto - who wants to open a gellateria in the states? Let's get one started...