Well let’s just say the Nuffield journey has been amazing so far and I just have not had a moment to sit down and keep you up to date with what I’ve been up too. It is an intense experience throwing me completely out of my comfort zone and very little time for sleep… I am tied!
I fully intended to keep up with the updates however I have got caught up in the experience and not had time. So far I have had two days in Canberra and then on to the Contemporary Scholars Conference in Holland for a week. The week was amazing, intense and mind blowing. I will write more at a later date. Once CSC was done it was straight onto GFP…. first stop Italy!!! I’ve titled that the culture of food tour in Italy and I will give you a full tour of the region later but for now…. a food tour of Testaccio, Rome.
piazza Testaccio square
The tour started in a square full of kids playing soccer and roller blading. It was a lovely atmosphere.
To start with we headed into the cellar of a local pub, dating back to the 1200s, for a cocktail of bitter freshness. Apparently you need to start a meal with something bitter to help you digest your food. We also learnt some Italian facts when it comes saying cheers in Italian. Apparently one must look directly into the eyes of the person you are cheersing and if you only have water or soft drink you should never touch glasses, it should be the back of you hand!
It is an Italian thing to service bar snacks with your drinks, but this place puts a whole new spin on bar snacks. €10 a drink and you get to help yourself to a whole selection of foods… I would say a feast more than bar snacks. This is only a small portion of the selection.
It was then onto apertizer, deep fried veggies. Apertizer is either bread or deep fried veggies. And of course being in Italy you have to have wine with food
Cured meats and cheese are next
then main meals of pasta, Ox tail stew and an offal. Offal is used in the Tessico area as there was a massive slaughter house in the area. Everyday people cured at the doors of the slaughter house to get work for the day, there was no permanent positions, one had to line up each day hoping you got work for the say.
If you weren’t still hungry pizza pockets. Absolutely delicious, the dough is risen over a long period of time. I had a chicken pizza with a cheese sauce. All of the filling are tradition flavours from the area.
and finish of with gelati, from a shop that has been making Gelati for 4 generations and running since 1914
What a great tour and food experience.
If in Rome make sure you look up www.eatingitalyfoodtours.com and ask for Nesim Bekalti. There is nothing better than eating where the locals eat. It was a fantastic tour and capped of the tour of Italy so well as many of the place we had seen or things we had learnt were mentioned.
Nesim with Barry. Barry is required to travel around the world with the youngest Australia scholar of the year group, Emma is one of the Chile Champs. If you’re interested you can follow Barry on twitter @BarryNuffield.