In our quest to not accumulate too much “stuff,” we usually forgo souvenirs when we travel. If we do buy something, it is often edible. Here’s our booty from Italy:
- Truffle-infused pici — a thick noodleto be prepared in a traditional way, simply topped with olive oil, grated cheese, and black pepper)
- Very high quality dried porcinis — super flavorful and much fresher than any dried porcinis you can buy in the States
- Sciacchetra — a special dessert wine, product of the Cinque Terre region. We plan to use a bottle to toast baby’s arrival this summer 🙂
- Our two non-edible souvenirs are still food -related: a big ladle and a baby spoon, both made locally in Siena from olive wood.
Sure, edible souvenirs don’t last forever, but that’s kind-of the point. For lasting memories, we have plenty of pictures!
I also have a few trip “souvenirs” that I would like to disappear. First, there’s the cold that started halfway through the return flight from Rome. A week later, with lots of hot honeyed tea, water, and regular neti pot usage, I think it’s on it’s way out.
Unfortunately, the knee pain that started in Siena or Rome shows few signs of subsiding. Regular walking is not too problematic, but going downstairs (or down steep hills), is a different story. Today I discovered that I can walk downstairs at a slightly faster rate if I go down backwards.
To make matters worse, biking is also painful. I biked to my dentist appointment last Friday and haven’t been back on since 😦 I’m really itching to get back on the bike, but I also want my knee to heal, so I’m trying to be good. Will I get desperate enough to go see a doctor? TBD.
Her Green Life 
Those souveniers look great! I especially love the wooden ladle. Sounds like you had a great trip.
As someone who went through some really bad knee stuff my suggestion is don’t push it. If it hurts… STOP! It’s not like muscle pain or something that you can just push through, when it hurts you are making the injury worse.
I’m still not sure what I actually did to my knee, torn menisicus is the best guess but I never had an MRI. My doctor literally said that I just had to stay off it for 6 months and if it wasn’t better then we’d talk. It totally sucked, and it took over a year to fully heal, but it’s better now, and if I ever do get a little twinge, I’m religious about not aggrivating it further.
You found some wonderful foods!
I ran into your husband at Bell Gardens this weekend (we were both rummaging through seed packets) and we got to talking about the Indian dumpling curry you enjoyed in Rome and what would be a good recipe for it. I promised to let him know via a comment on your blog so here I am.
The dish is called malai kofta. You made dumplings (kofta) and add them to a creamy curry.
Here are a couple of recipe suggestions. The koftas are traditionally deep fried but you can pan fry them with very little oil if you prefer.
This recipe is quite elaborate but could be simplified-
http://www.monsoonspice.com/2009/03/malai-kofta-temptress-seducer-and.html
This gives a scaled up recipe for a crowd but it could easily be scaled down:
http://www.themahanandi.org/2009/12/21/malai-kofta-for-potluck-party-of-25/
Enjoy!
That’s fun that you ran into each other there! Thanks for sending the links — we look forward to trying our hand at making malai kofta.