Roman Holiday, without Gregory Peck or Audrey Hepburn

There is a large flat screen to the front of the seat
 and a drinks cabinet to to the side

Warning: an advertisement follows. 


When travelling on Emirates A380 business class, who needs a destination? The journey is all you need.  No, really - it is that good. Comfortable, private, great service, the good times roll.  I should mention the hunter gatherer was actually downstairs in economy.  But before you feel too sorry for him just bear in mind he qualifies for standby tickets for him at 10% of the usual fare, courtesy of his son the Emirates flight attendant. 


Luxe must end, and eventually we arrive in Rome.  We are here because h-g has not been to Italy before and has a vision of wandering around  "the antiquities".  I think he has been watching too much Spartacus, and the vision I have is on endless queues.  A little internet digging reveals I can avoid the horror of hours standing in a line listening to Mindy and Chip from Minnesota jawing on. I simply buy a pass that promises no waiting for entry to popular sites.  Sign me up!  


This proves an inspired move, as the Omnia pass (another ad - I should be paid for this) makes us queue-bypassing champions.  One day we hit the Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine Hill, and on another the Vatican: St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel.  My God, the Sistine Chapel. The line to get in must have stretched 500 metres at least.  I was last there in 1979 and you could walk around, take your time and admire Michelangelo's beautiful ceiling.  Indeed, I remember the guards telling us off for lying on the floor to better see the frescoes.  In 2012 you can barely breathe it is so crowded.  I have been trying to calculate how many people they cram through in a day - one site I read estimates 20,000.  And that is in a room about 40m x 13m.  Anyway, thanks to our pass, the longest line I stand in all day is for the loo.  Meanwhile I figure Mandy and Chip lose about 3 hours of their lives they'll never get back. 



This is all well and good I hear you say, but isn't this supposed to be a food blog?  Well, the h-g thinks all his Christmases have come at once when breakfast Italian style is coffee and pastries.  Then for lunch on the first day he has pizza with prosciutto, which is extraordinarily good, with a lovely thin, crisp base, smear of tomato and thin slices of prosciutto draped after cooking. This is, of course, research.  We aspire to creating pizza bases in this style once we get the pizza oven working on our return home (finally installed the day before we left).

Food highlights so far include Beef Carpaccio topped with arugula (that's rocket to you and me), drizzled with a perfectly balanced olive oil and lemon dressing and topped with thick chunks of parmigiana.  This delight we enjoy at a neighbourhood restaurant with the decor of a 1970s New Zealand style Italian restaurant, complete with a murial (sic) of the Colosseum. No Chianti bottles with candles or gingham tablecloths though.  The Parpadelle con cinghiale - wild boar - is also a winner.  





Our trip through the Jewish ghetto in Rome not only feeds our minds but also our stomachs.  Unfortunately we fail to find the restaurant spoken of by the recently returned ex-pats - I was dead keen to try a highly recommended pasta dish, the name of which translates to "priest strangler".  Recovering Catholics everywhere dream of such a thing!  

Instead we learn that artichokes became a staple food of Jews in the ghetto, though I am still not sure why.  Many restaurants have large bowls of the vegetable displayed and Carciofi alla giudia ( fried artichoke) is one of the most famous dishes of Roman Jewish cuisine. 

And so our Roman holiday draws to and end. It has been a good five days: we did all the things the h-g wanted to do, ate and drank well, and the weather gods smiled, though a little rain book-ended the day today.  A storm is forecast for tomorrow.  We don't mind as we will be on the train to Venice, and rumour has it there's quite a lot of water there anyway, rumour has it there is quite a lot of water there anyway. 

in the distance, the queue for St Peter's Basilica runs from the far left to beyond the edge of the photo

Week whatever: OMG! Where did the time go?

It is now two weeks since the final week of school and I haven't been good about writing up that last week.  Largely because there isn't much to say, though I am mindful I promised a gossip update.   The week consists solely of revision by way of practising tests, and going over topics that anyone wants to review. Of all people I am probably least in need, especially as I will not sit my final exam with the rest of my classmates in June.  As I will be in Europe then I will do my finals in November with the class that started after ours. 


I'm just back from an eating excursion to Melbourne.  Among others, I love Mo Vida, a tapas bar just over the road from Federation Square.  With a glass of fino sherry I enjoy Quail with blood sausage; Croquettas de choco en su tint - squid ink with cuttle fish ribbon; and Boqueros, the most divine white anchovies with caperberries and parsley. It sounds like a lot, but it is all bite size and just perfect.

Quail with blood sausage

squid ink croquette with cuttle fish ribbon

Boqueros

I meet  the banker niece for brunch - there are three banker nieces as it happens, but only one living in Melbourne. We meet down town in Hardware Lane at trendy The Hardware Sociéte.  Great menu beyond the usual brunch fare of Eggs Benedict blah blah blah.  I order poached eggs with duck confit and mushroom galette - magnificent!   And ridiculously cheap - can't remember exactly what it cost, but this labour intensive dish which tastes delicious is less than $20. 

An ex-colleague who also now lives in Melbourne, and I share another delicious tapas type meal  at Señoritas. Great food in small portions so you get to try a range of things. The cactus taco was tasty!  I  like the decor which is very  Day of the Dead. The tiles in the loos were unique, to say the least. The light shades are made to evoke the image of Mexican dresses.

So, eating aside,  what has everyone been up to?  Most people seem to have completed their work experience in low key kind of sad cafe joints, or in pubs where their talents for deep frying are fully developed and appreciated.  Only a few make the effort to find large hotel kitchen placements or good restaurants in which to develop their skills.  Chatty girl  worked in the pastry section of a hotel kitchen but says she spent all her time making muffins and biscuits.  No-one had dramatic or overly exciting experiences to recount, so no dramas.  

The only one close to drama involves one of the older guys from another group. Big Boy is a real kitchen know it all, as in "I've been working in restaurants all my life......" and on and on. He drives his cohort mad along with our group when we are together for theory classes.  No matter what the topic or the experience the tutor relates, Big Boy has to argue or "add" his knowledge or generally just annoy the rest of the class. As soon as he opens his mouth there is a collective sigh around the room.  So I am keen to hear how his work experience panned out.  Predictably, not well.  It is an indicator of his incredible lack of personal insight that he tells me that, after the first couple of days, the chef asked him if he had a learning difficulty or was just plain stupid!  Clearly the chef didn't appreciate Big Boy's superior skill and knowledge.


However the main drama occurs earlier in the year, when Jiggly guy, on one of his attempts to go straight and rejoin class, rips off one of the others. You may recall in a very early blog I mention we have a guy who appears mildly autistic.  In fact he should never have been admitted to the course as he has to have a learning support person with him all the time. The story runs that the two of them go out drinking on night.  Being highly open to suggestion, easily led and lacking any kind of understanding of nuance - or let's face it, any understanding of blatantly obvious social interaction - the poor guy takes Jiggly back to his flat.  Jiggly was fixing up (and I don't mean the decor) when our guy left the room.  When he returns Jiggly has disappeared - along with the guy's laptop and phone. 


Tongue stud girl is heartbroken as her most recent boyfriend (the love of her life you understand, as it can only be at 17) went to Australia on holiday, came back  with tell tale signs of another woman on his person, and is now moving across the ditch.  Cue tears and recriminations.  All in all, not much excitement really. Dumb matured a bit over the nine months but still has no plans beyond mountain biking.  Dumber hasn't been seen for several months, though rumour has it he was working in a pub for a while.  Our Kenyan lad has enrolled to continue and do the hospitality management degree which he will do well in.  Pony tail guy is enrolling in the follow on Patisserie course as are several others. 


So school ends not with a bang but a whimper.  Thanks to those of you who loyally read on, and especially for your comments and emails.  It is good to know someone is out there reading my musings. The hunter gatherer and I head off to Rome in a couple of weeks and I plan to food blog our trip so don't cancel your email feed just yet!