nacken

We have not had any of those videos in a while …

There is something different this time, I wonder who can figure it out

Always fun to compare this with Julius bathing 4.5 years ago … until it got pulled from youtube for reasons still unknown.

(There is a bigger weekend post in the works … but that might take some time … so: always remember to scroll down!)

Every half a year or so I feel compelled to write something that is not family, food or travel related … and every once in a while along comes something new to comment on [don’t get me started on the iPad, what a disappointment] … (well, back in June 09 I wrote about putting nackendotcom on Twitter … that was a short lived fad for me, but according to The Economist, it is great for some businesses)

I guess by now, most of you have heard of Chatroulette … while it sounds like gambling, it does not involve money, you don’t even have to sign up / sign in … just find the site and ‘play’

The idea is that by now pretty much everyone has a webcam and so 2 total strangers are given the chance for a casual chat … if they don’t like what they see (and unlike text based chat, hard to hide [though some people use costumes or just turn off the lights], they can just click ‘next’ and try the next one … sounds like speed dating …

On the good side, it reminds me of the early, ‘innocent’ days of the internet, when joining a chatroom on IRC did not bombard you with A/S/L questions and looking for online pen pals (swoon.com was such a great site) did not introduce you to all those sweet ladies who only have 4+ more years to sit in prison …

So .. same thing here … great, simplistic idea … and already full of morons …

I could not sum it up better than Jon Stewart and his team

There is a good reason why I am not directly linking to the site (while it is ‘duh’ obvious) … I had my 5 awkward minutes looking around … the best I got was a friendly wave from some dude and another guy just shook his head when he saw me …

I think if they somehow sell that technology to facebook … and you can still do it anonymously (while having a chance to alert someone is something is going awry) or if you could select “chat with people on certain subjects, locations (like doing some travel research) … there could be something there …

Until then … still taken over by people who like to drop their pants.

Since the walk up and down the hill to get Julius to and from school is still a bit daunting for me, we asked Chidi if he would like to do it, knowing that he is very reliable and Julius loves him.

I did all the formal registration at the school on Monday and from now on I hope it turns into something that just goes smoothly by itself (i.e. today Julius was too much distracted by some store display to follow the ‘let’s go to the playground’ idea.

Once back home, things got a little hairy, as J just wants to veg out and watch TV … but I suggested things like solving simple math problems or reading .. at least I got him from eating crackers to eating a carrot … we later used those crackers for visualizing math problems …

And then the boys played with building blocks (something that I could absolutely not do with my back right now) and they had a lot of fun.

According to the semi crap search engine on my blog, it has been nearly a year that I did one of these fillers

But he is still cute when he is asleep and he still does not sleep in his own bed … at 5.5 years of age I am beginning to wonder …

And looking back at old pictures, it is really time for some new PJs (we were looking back in Japan, but Muji had nothing new in his size)

For those joining later, you might want to read this and this first. (Short version, several broken vertebrae)

Anyways, on Friday, February 19th I went to have my check up.

Sounds easy, right? But things are NOT that easy here … see … the great thing about the Italian health system is that when you are waltzed into the emergency room here (no matter if you are part of the public health care system or some foreigner), everything is free, even the food and the sponge bath (which was less exciting as many of you may think) … I don’t want to know (actually I do want to know) how much that would have cost us in the US.

Once you get out of the first response care, it gets a bit hairy … from what I have gathered so far, you are supposed to have a ‘family doctor’ assigned to you by your ‘community’ .. this is the guy who turns the report issued from the hospital into usable prescriptions and refers you to the next place for a check up.

To have this ‘family doctor’ you need to be registered … for complicated reasons (mainly because I am a EU citizen and I don’t need any registration here, plus we are insured through Ritsu’s work and I have been told early on we are not supposed to ‘use’ the public health system, but info is sketchy and people with real hard info are hard to come by)

So, trying to call the local hospital did not do much. Then I found out about ASL (the community health agency) but even they were like ‘without a family doctor, we can’t help you’

In the meantime, my dad managed to get most of my medications just by showing my hospital reports (and for one ‘harder’ drug he asked our neighbor who happens to be an MD for a ‘real’ prescription.) So, while all that failed, I called a husband of a colleague of Ritsu who happens to be a doctor at CTO, who also ran my MRI

(I had also called him before when I ran out of some important medication, because the closest pharmacy would not honor our pediatrician’s prescription, which ended up in me walking around an hour along dark streets of Moncalieri finding the ‘Guardia Medica’, who for reasons unknown, can write me the proper prescription, but they don’t have the drugs! Would it be so hard to set up an all night pharmacy right there, maybe staffed by the same people?), then finding the only pharmacy that is open (4km away, another driving duty for Ritsu and new colleague Sammy, who had dinner with Julius while I was exploring Moncalieri) … [the drug itself costs 1.50€ a box, which is a joke, compared to the effort it took to get it … and no joking … one doctor told me, missing one dose could trigger another episode.)

Anyways … thanks to ‘connections’ (the one thing that seems to be working best here in Italy), I had a splendid day at the CTO. Not only did I meet my initial MRI doctor again, but he had also organized that I am seen by a German neurologist and an Italian (maybe with Indian background) bone specialist [who spoke great English, so no language issues] and they toured me around the MAZE / ZOO that the CTO hospital is, re-checked all the data that we had so far.

According to the German neurologist … normally, in a first case event, they would not have given me that amount of (and those ‘hard’) drugs … but the fact that this ONE case created such damage, the MDs in Pinerolo wanted to (rightfully) play it safe.

So .. in the brain department I am still on the same drugs, which means when you call me after 22:00 I sound like Mickey Rourke at 8 AM (I am sorry, Mickey Rourke might be doing a long beach run at that time, what can I say, as a kid of the 90ies,, Mickey Rourke is my Sam Marlowe …a guy you just don;t call before 2 PM) , and I am also not allowed to drive (as they said, there will never be any guarantee, but now it is an insurance concern) , but they confirmed that everything looks ok, still no cloud in my mind and we are having a new EEG on 3/15 and when that comes out clear, we can start reducing my meds.

In the bone department … it seems everything is healing well. Surprise was that I had not 3, but FOUR vertebrae fractured … but all ‘very tiny’ fractures [yep, tell that to the guy who takes 500 mg of paracetamol a day, yes, they feel so tiny] We did another CT and that was pretty cool .. initially they told me I have to wait for a week for the results … but thanks to the ‘connections’ I got to watch the whole thing on the screen (I so should have made a video of it … it is like going through your spine slice by slice)

Well .. I still have to keep wearing this metal monster pictured above and it starts chafing … and the walk with Julius to school … well .. I have now started using a wooden cane which I had bought many many years ago in Turkey, but it actually helps.

Emotionally is a whole different topic. Ritsu is very much involved in a very tough workshop this week where I know she is giving her usual 150% , but then she comes home to not the cleanest of kitchens or a husband who complains about pain or proudly lists his tiny achievements (hey, I managed to do a machine of laundry) and forgets to ask about her hard day. So, there is some friction … I wish some smarter insurance company (ours’ only accept calls only from 9 - 12) might have stepped up with some help plan … but jeez .. the downside of the life of the international man of mystery …

I just feel useless most of the time, walking to the supermarket involves thinking ‘can I buy milk or will it be too heavy on the way back’ … doing the dishwasher or laundry machine are actually things I should not do, but someone has to and I do it really, really carefully… but there are other things, like actually taking the car for shopping or going to the bank … if anyone in Torino knows a reliable temp agency for people like that … my ears are getting bigger … i want to see that job replacement add ‘househusband stand in needed for a few weeks’ .. and then see who replies ..

Well .. we shall see …

(This post actually belongs somewhere in February, but I just recently got the pictures, as well as for the Carnival post, for those of you who don’t want to scroll down)

Daniela is one of the very few girls in J’s class (4 Girls, 10 Boys) and they are big friends, we had her and her sister recently over for a play date and Julius has been there, too. (They have a pool, yeah!)

And she celebrated her birthday in style at Ronchi Verdi and Julius came back home all happy, high on lollipops and face painted.

I sometimes feel bad that J’s birthday is in August, when no one is around … on the other hand, besides paying the people at a club throwing the party, I don’t want to know the chaos of hosting such an event at home.

(Photos by Daniela’s dad, used with permission)

Not the most exciting blog post, I know …

But these days we are happy when everything goes well, my back is not acting up too much, Julius brings home a smily face from school and enjoys his food …

I am planning on writing a bigger post on the last medical check up I had last Friday (short version, all good so far), but I have the feeling most people already asked me by email and I have probably told the same story to several friends more than twice …

So, if an interesting pic is coming along, I will post it …

Next day, after breakfast, we went to our regular wine place to get 2 more boxes of wine and our Japanese friends bought 3 bottles of Nebiollo, after having tasted 2 of the reds.

Then a quick look at Canale where we had just missed some kind of ‘ring in the spring time’ carnival. But sure enough we had to stop at that cake shop (what? They have no ‘real’ website?) and Julius somehow got his free piece of cheese at the cheese store, where in season we buy the cream cheese with white truffles, though we did not buy any cheese this time.

Then we followed a recommendation from Malcolm and went to Cisterna d’Asti, which is pretty high up and offers great views of the countryside (well, by that time the clouds had come back) … and we found a very nice restaurant (Guess what, you now find restaurants on facebook) with strange (for Italy) opening hours … lunch on Sunday 10:30 - 1PM … and it was 12.55.

But they still let us in, seated us downstairs, which was a bit gloomy and dark, but the food was overall very good (and not too much .. I was still full from the dinner the night before) . [Full Menu]

It was great to be able to select from ’small’ dishes .. so it was up to us if lunch would be light or heavy … everything was very nice, starting with a huge platter of salami and fried bread (this is what you pay ‘coperto’ for in Italy) .. but honestly, that could have been enough for lunch for me … but the pepperoni with bagna couda sounded tempting, and while I make my bagna couda a bit more on the garlicky, spicy side, well .. I guess it is a questions what flies well with most patrons.

Great lunch, great views … really want to try this place again. Maybe in summer when they do outdoor seating.

Ras - Ciamuraje Vino et cetera
Piazza R. Rossino, 5
14010 Cisterna D’Asti (AT)
Telefono: 0141979330
GPS: N44˚49.495′ E8˚0.285′

Weird opening hours, I recommend you call ahead.

This weekend we introduced Yuika’s family to Cascina Vrona and the kids had a lot of fun looking at the animals (although the path to the stables was super muddy, it had rained all week before, but now it was sunny)

Dinner was again a feast, many things we had before, but some of the new things were broiled sausage with cheese sauce, roasted chicken as the main dish (I kept feeling that I had seen that chicken alive just a few hours ago) and the quadruple dessert platter had some very yummy Zabaione on it (freshly made, for which I complimented Piera many times).

While Julius was very happy to have Yuika around, he was quickly way more interested in some other, older kids at a neighbor table … and it always baffles me how quickly he switches to Italian, especially when he talks to kids.

Going there is fun, we know each other by name now and it feels like a second home and Rino, man if the house, always comes around for a friendly chit chat and was of course very interested in my recent mishap …

Oh .. good time to mention that Ritsu did all the driving again, including highway!

I had been aware for a while now that the kittens find their way out of closed rooms.

Unfortunately, our apartment came with no keys to any of the doors (other than entrance and one of the 2 bathrooms)

But it sure took me a while to see how they (and by ‘they’ I mean Whisky, the male cat, who has about double the body weight compared to Sheesha) does it AND get it on camera … enjoy!

Sure enough, a quick search on youtube shows many more videos like this …. but there is even one where a cat is actually able to open a twist door knob!

I would not mind the cats roaming around freely at all … but they get very active around 5 AM … and that is a time I still like to sleep.

So for now I am blocking the door with a chair and a few books, so that the handle cannot be turned.

I had asked Ritsu about a week ago if she wanted to go anywhere special on Sunday and she said ‘not really’ … much later she explained that she was not aware that I was talking about Valentines Day. Maybe the combination of the recent medical mishap and her Japanese genes (did you know that in Japan, on V-day, only women are supposed to give chocolate to men, not even only to loved ones? But retaliation comes March 14, when men have to return the favor, and giving back ‘only’ the same amount of chocolate is the same as a ‘Dear John’ Letter. [source: wikipedia]

So, besides being semi invalid, I managed to get a box of chocolate, a bouquet of roses, but calling restaurants on Saturday just before V-day was a very interesting, though not very surprising experience … I got everything from a very polite ’sure, let me check, oh, I am so sorry, but we are fully booked’ to ‘HA HA HA HA HA HA HA’ ..

But my best and most successful conversation was with our pals at Magorabin, where we had been once, twice before. After the usual ‘we are fully booked’ spiel, I tried things like ‘but we are nearly regulars and maybe you can squeeze us in’, I even recognized the voice of the guy on the phone: my Gin & Tonic man, and he started to remember me … and suddenly he had an idea … ‘We are still fully booked for dinner … but how about lunch???’

And that was music to my ears … lunch on a snowy Sunday makes things like getting a babysitter so much easier … (also, I am getting old and want to be in bed by 10)

So, off we went by taxi, we were indeed greeted like regulars and we were presented with the special San Valentino menu (we could have ordered a la carte as well) … but pretty much everything on the menu sounded fantastic and once we communicated that Ritsu cannot have anything with oysters (allergy), we settled for that. Amazingly, even 2 different kinds of bubbly (one white, one rosé) and one desert wine (all from here) were included in the whole deal.

We got to talk again to chef Marcello directly who suggested to exchange Ritsu’s risotto (which according to the menu comes with oyster butter) with a risotto based on crab meat.

And then the feast started: (do I even need to repeat my food porn warning?)

(I will hardly even mention the delicious selection of breads with pink pepper butter that precedes every meal here)

Wild salmon from Alaska which was incredible in flavor, while usually smoked salmon is already a tad salty, in this case the (by now signature) flakey salt of chef Marcello and some drops of lime favored creme fraîche rounded it up very nicely.

1.) Salmone selvaggio dell’Alaska marinato con creme fraîche al lime

Overall an impeccable start and signs of things to come.

(Interestingly, one of the waiters came back to rotate the plates, as if (maybe) the chef had tried to create a fish shape dish … if you squint really hard, it DOES look like a fish.

This dish was easily the highlight of the evening and I would have given it a perfect 10 on the Goodale scale, if the pieces of avocado had been a bit softer .. they were barely ripe.

3.) Insalatina tiepida di arance e calamari Served in a Martini glass, this tiny, delightful mix of tangy flavors was just great…

Oranges, soft calamari pieces in funky shapes & tiny capers … and I keep wondering it they used some walnut oil … I always got some nutty flavor which added immensely to enjoying this dish.

As much as I am usually trying to skip the primi as I see them just as fillers, this was fantastic.

5.) Risotto biologico Acquarello al burro d’ostrice, caramello d’aceto rosso a caviale Asetra

Did I mention how much I liked that the first primi was pleasently small? Same here, good portion, not too filling and just incredible in flavor.

Asetra is a caviar that is price wise just one tier under Beluga, which means you easily pay 200+$ for an ounce for that [source International house of caviar and I had at least quarter of an ounce on my risotto.

Since Ritsu can’t do oysters, she got a risotto with crab meat, which was equally cooked to perfection, had a more ‘fresh’ flavor to it (because of some greens, mine was more sweet and rich)

So far all we had were seafood dishes … but when they came with the knives that looked like we are going out hunting, we knew it was time for meat.

6.) Punta di petto di manzo, cioccolato 72% e peperoncino Braised beef cheek to a point that it was so soft that it fell of the fork, teamed up with a bitter, sweet, spicy fusion of dark chocolate and hot peppers. Yes, meat and chocolate sounds like a weird mix,

but I recall some Mexican restaurants that do meat in ‘chocolate sauce’ .. it is only sweet if you add sugar .. and sweet is not bad at all, right? (Think about how sweet BBQ sauce and ketchup actually are)

A very delectable dish, but if I had to give grades (and so far, no one is paying me to do so [yet]) this would have been the lowest rated dish of the menu, while still being a way above average concoction. It sounds really bad to call it ‘lowest rated’ .. it was really amazing! it just shows how great the other dishes were.

7.) Pancia di maialino da late al rosemarino, crema di piseli e gamberoni al cocco

A classic … slow cooked pork belly. We had that in a variation the first time around. New this time was the pureé of peas (with some pieces of asparagus) and the single shrimp on top did not come across as bitter as it did last time …

If I could change anything .. this pork belly is perfect … why not just serve it with some sweet red onions … (Or ask Malcolm again to wreak havoc on his oven and waste 4 hours of his time)

Dessert time:

8.) Fragole e limone No, they did not give us half a lemon and some strawberries .. it was rather a fusion of 2 sorbets with sauce and powdered sugar, a mint leaf and some more flower petals .. followed by:

9.) Zabaione al vermouth con crumble die nocciole, composta di mele e canella Since it was day time we asked for a coffee and we also got their evil tray of extra sweets, of which I especially loved the mini tiramisu.

A new spin on the zabaione thing .. instead of using sweet marsala wine, using dry vermouth .. very interesting … and that with crunched nuts and a mix of apple and cinnamon. Delightful.

Overall: I have liked this place a lot before … but the first time we were too full too quickly and the second time it felt a bit like repeat business … so THIS time, it was all new, great size of portions, an overall fantastic menu, so THIS time has been the best meal there so far for us. And I tried to convey that to Marcello that he should do more themed Sunday lunches for regulars who otherwise know his menu. (Next V’day on a Sunday is in 2016, I don’t want to wait that long)

Checking the website later, I see that they are usually closed on Sundays … so this Valentines Day must have taken quite some extra power, but must also have brought some welcome surplus money.

Speaking of which .. the price was at 60€ per person very reasonable (including drinks) but I would not hold it against them if they hiked the price up a bit for dinner (Good chance of no shows thanks to the snow, plus dinner patrons drink way more)

Magorabin
Corso San Maurizio 61/b
10124 Torino
011 8126808

Ever wanted to know what Food Porn actually means? And google and wiki were just not around … click over there where it is blue … or here …