His ‘other’ girlfriend has returned from a summer stay at her grandma’s house in Breccia … it took them like 2 minutes to warm up again … and then is was the usual kids’ chaos … only this time they were roaming inside and outside … which includes 2 traffic heavy streets … so .. most of my eating was done walking around checking on under which cars they might be…
Food was as usual great and I really love their new sushi menu … which makes them teh best and cheapest sushi place in town!
Ritsu had visited this place 2 weeks prior as part of a work lunch and recommended it highly … so today we went.
Very nice setting … a huge appetizer buffet greeting you at the entrance … and I really loved the food.
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I think this must have been the best presentation (and thus also yummiest) of the regional specialty ‘carne cruda’ (yeps, it is basically mined meat nicely fixed up & also extremely generous, I’d say enough to make 4 decent hamburgers) …
But the key, as with sushi, is that it has to be super fresh!!! |
Ritsu had the sword fish carpaccio with funghi and then later some very nice seafood pasta (which Julius ate most of, but he tried a bit of everything else.)
Though I had ordered only a half liter carrafe of white wine, we got a whole bottle .. but at the silly prices for wine in Italian restaurants, it did not make much of a difference …
For dessert we both went with the frutti di bosco on gelato … nice …
Though Julius was a tad tired and antsy and in general not on his best side this whole weekend … he was surprisingly behaved in this restaurant setting .. I guess he has just seen too many already and he just knows how it goes … (and he LOVES the bread baskets that come early on.)
Also noteworthy that they did NOT charge coperto for Julius (nowadays it becomes more common, well .. he is not a baby anymore) and they have a daily changing menu … we initially got the one from the day before, but as it had turned out they had run out of fresh tuna, but lucky for us, the had fresh spada (sword fish)
RISTORANTE LA PACE,
Via Galliari Bernardino, 22
TORINO, 10100, Italy.
Phone:+39 (011) 6507102
On one of the last school functions (still unblogged, shame on me) I learned that Julius has to special friends who he constantly hangs out with: Ogarit & Costanza (yep, both girls). And Ogarit (whose parents are Lebanese and Italian) also is on the same school bus.
The last 2 weeks she was absent (probably some early vacation) but Monday she was on the bus again, and as soon as Julius saw her he shouted her name in excitement.
And funny thing today, Ogarit was sitting in the front row with some other girl in the kids’ seats, so Julius had to sit in the row behind … and Ogarit said something in Italian to the driver and started getting her seatbelt off … 2 minutes later she was sitting next to her Julius and they were very happy.
After summer I will try to set up some play dates, both parents speak some English, so it should be fun!
It has been a very long time since I had been to a live music performance .. and probably the first we dragged Julius to as well.
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But more important than the actual performance was for Julius to make new friends … and he found that in the 6 year old Matteo (or however you spell that in Italian)
.. they both had a fun time and were later so fascinated by the performance that they would sit together holding hands … very cute. |
The show itself was great … open air .. so no sweating when the dancing started … very nice Brazilian music … you can google around and find quite some stuff on youtube … Julius fell happily asleep in the stroller (which we had not used in about a year)
They had those nifty t-shirts at PAM for just 1.99€ … i could not resist … I am still wondering if there is a typo or if the dates are wrong …
You might wonder what this is about .. here some helpful links: wikipedia, FAQ on geocaching.com …
It basically is a fun ‘treasure’ hunt utilizing modern technologies like the internet and a GPS navigator.
I thought it would be a great outdoor thing to do as a family and indeed, it works pretty well … we headed up the hill to the Superga and followed down a path into the woods (while very nice, it is incredible how littered that area was .. from condom wrappers to panties we saw pretty much everything)
We found the well hidden cache, inspected it, logged our visit, took a little dice out for Julius and put some foreign coins in …
Some mountain bike lady who had some trouble getting up that path was very curious what we were doing … We then spend some extra time on a beautiful lawn just below the Superga.
Now we will look around what else we find around here … and then of course plan for our summer trip!
And Ritsu is very excited about making our own cache .. we shall see where we can hide one.
We went up to the Superga to start the new family hobby of geocaching (too bad .. we did not find the one that we were looking for, thanks to swarms of mosquitos bugging us and cutting our patience short)
Afterwards we went to a small trattoria close by for lunch .. and it was very nice.
The tricky part was that they don’t have a menu … it is all done by talking .. in Italian … great challenge .. but I think we faired fairly well. Julius was already happy with his bread.
We had a small ham on corn bread appetizer with a sip of white wine … then we all had pasta dishes which were just lovely.
For dessert I had zabaglione, freshly made (which is kinda rare … most restaurants have some pre-made zabaglione cream instead) and Ritsu had the bavarese with frutti di bosco (in syrup form)
Big surprise was that there was no coperto on the check (even though we had a free appetizer and a free mini wine) and overall for 36€, that was a pretty sweet deal.
We inspected with interest the appetizers that other tables had, most of them looked very cheesy, maybe something to try when it gets colder … and we still have no idea what their main dishes may be like … but all those slow food stickers on the door must be a good sign.
On a totally different note … our eyes kept popping out when we saw on our neighbor table that the 2 kids of the family, aged 10 and 13 (rough estimate) were drinking red wine just like the grown ups with them … ah .. different cultures …
BEL DEUIT
Via Superga 58 – Baldissero Torinese
Tel.: 011 9431719
Closed on:: Wednesday and Thursday (lunch)
gee .. there is even something on youtube
| Finally we returned to Mare Nostrum for our 5th visit (while counting we found that Ritsu had been there one time in a job function without me .. so it was her 6th time)
Luckily Alice had time to take care of Julius and the little guy was very happy about his date and enjoyed his ice-cream (which he got after he had eaten all the peas and all the fish on his plate) |
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We had reservations last months, which was cancelled last minute because of a very important soccer game … I rubbed that into the manager’s nose … but besides another ‘sorry’ there was no further action .. I had anticipated maybe a free dessert or a bottle of wine … but on to the food:
Again we skipped the appetizers and headed straight for the pasta: Rigatoni with shrimp and aubergine for Ritsu and I had fussili with spicy anchovy sauce … both very good. |
Then we were very happy to hear that they have the raw seafood platter again … exactly what I was in the mood for. (Click here to see everything they offered tonight.)
2 different kinds of very fresh fish tartar and 3 different kinds of crustaceans, all raw and super fresh … it was extremely yummy.
For dessert we both selected the frutti di bosco covered in zabaglione cream … very good.
Overall another success and we managed to stay under 100€ (barely) … I think I was a tad disappointed that after we had encountered surprise discounts and freebie wine bottles … this time, even though there was a good reason .. there was nothing of that … but again .. the food was outstanding !!!
I bought this monster of a watermelon today (6 kg .. the smallest they had, had to cut it in half to fit it into he fridge .. gladly is was only 18c a kilo .. unlike my neighborhood supermarket, still charging 69c per kg)
And Julius had quite some fun with it:
I guess tomorrow I will try to make watermelon juice 
… he just can’t resist when he sees running water somewhere.
The afternoon was beautiful and Ritsu had come home from work early, so we all took a stroll up the hill to Monte dei Cappuccini, where we heard they were also setting up for some concert later that evening (9:30 PM … too late for Julius, but we might try again next Monday and bring a stroller)
But we got beautiful sunshine views from the top and the band was already rehearsing. which gave the whole setting an extra nice atmosphere.
But Julius was most impressed by this water fountain and gladly he brought his yellow balloon.
(These are probably the last photos with my Fuji Finepix F50, which I have dragged for 9 months and 6000 exposures all across the planet, including the sands of Wadi Rum … It is kinda understandable that after this much use / abuse I am now getting a ‘lens control error’ … )
Finally a weekend that mama is around and we can go back to visit our favorite Asian restaurant … too bad Lucy is still spending the summer at her grandma’s
But Julius is very happy with his rice crackers and diligently puts some sweet sauce on it
And papa is happy about the new sushi menu .. they even have ikura .. but when I order that, Julius gets just too interested … so I stick too salmon and tuna sashimi and some salmon nigiri.
Now that Ritsu is back we can finally show her that nice bar we have recently discovered.
Once again very nice, though some of the food items on the free buffet looked like leftovers from last night (which is probably understandable with so few customers around this time of year … Torino is already turning into the summer ghost town that we have experienced the last 2 summers)
After a Saturday work lunch with colleagues, Ritsu came by the market and bought Julius this very comfy (and at 4€ very cheap) shirt / short combination … but who would have known that you need to spell-check kid’s clothing?
Not that Julius can read it yet .. but soon he might ask ‘what is that’ or ‘ince aeagle?’
Anyone any idea what the Chinese designer could have meant? This word does not even show up on google.
Reader Annie points out this related ebay auction
Reminds me of ‘He loB ar”.
Since Ritsu arrived in the morning we had the rare chance to go out for lunch without dragging the kid along.
We went to “La Scaletta”, a typical Italian food place which Ritsu had tried earlier with her colleagues, and indeed it was very nice:
Ritsu had a seafood pasta and I was happy about some raw tuna. Both was very good (though I still like the raw tuna at Conti di Saluzzo better).
Setting, atmosphere and service are very friendly and homey. If curious, here is the full menu.
The desserts are all in the 5€ price range, but they offered us a special fresh frutti di bosco with vanilla ice and that at 8€ I found a bit pricy. But other than that everything was fine … I am looking forward to trying their 18€ lobster pasta some day.
RISTORANTE LA SCALETTA
Via pietro giuria, 27
10126 – Torino (TO)
011.655763
This was a bit of a scary week. Ritsu was on a one week business trip to Kabul, Afghanistan … and she had sent this last sunday to be published here:
“So, guess where I am… I’m in Kabul, Afghanistan!
I am here with my colleague with whom I traveled to Sudan last year. We took a UN flight from Dubai to Kabul, which was much nicer than the UN flight we took from Juba to Khartoum last year.
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Upon arrival, we had a security briefing and were handed over a VHF radio, one for each.
We had one in Sudan too but I didn’t have to use it at all. Here, we were asked to do a radio check every evening from 7-9pm. So, I really need to get used to how to use it! “This is Kilo Quebeck… Radio check, over…” etc. |
We were also told that there is a curfew from 11pm-5:30am. We were not allowed to take a private car or taxi, but only UN vehicles. We have only a dozen of restaurants that we are allowed to go… All of this was a bit of a shock to me!
But the guesthouse we checked in is very nice. It has wifi and a nice garden with flowers. My room even has a private bathroom! Not bad at all. But when I asked my colleague here if we can walk around the street just in front of the guesthouse, she said “Well… This is the area where you can potentially be kidnapped…” Of course, we don’t dare to do that…
The city of Kabul is very busy with lots of stores… It feels like a huge city. I see very often women with burqa, which is also very new to me… I only see them in movies.
All in all, very exciting experience and I’m learning a lot about the country. Really looking forward to starting a workshop and learning more from the participants!”
This was the evening before the big suicide car bomb at the Indian embassy just north of the UN compound:
and IHT articles.
I had spoken with Ritsu via skype that morning and she mentioned they had heard an explosion … later when I read the news I called her right back if she felt secure and she confirmed that she indeed feels very secure, but that it was a shame that they were pretty much confined to the UN building.
She also asked me then to take the post off the blog to not freak out anyone … until she got back …
So .. she returned this morning and all is good (for our family … I am still sad and mad about the lives lost in that attack) and she brought lots of nice gifts .. like a cool carpet for our living room and some handcrafted shorts and scarfs. I hope later she can add some pictures. Julius was very glad to have mama back and went out with her to have gelato.
First playing some darts
Then drinking some water (mouth full of cheese thanks to free / included apperitivo buffet)
And finally a girl to kiss
Oh .. I know her … Adwoa is back in town !!!!
Julius was all over Adwoa (who is here on a short visit and who we have last seen in November and it is really hard to catch up when you only have about half an hour and a kid that wants constant attention or otherwise will run to places where you have no idea what he is doing … like the fairly busy street just in front of that bar …
While missing mama … papa’s back is always a great place to climb around on …
Not much to report these days … Julius is pretty beat when he gets home from school (I found out that they actually got a pool now for summer and he seems to be in it every day) … but the time he gets home the house has heated up and we are mainly mellowing around.
We are spending a lot of time in the same room, wherever we have the big fan on (it has gotten warm here) …
And tonight Julius surprised me with spontaneous falling asleep in his chair … at the incredible hour of 6:30 PM … and it turned out he was down for the night …
How about flying an airplane?
I followed an add in the paper getting young yuppies to spend like 10K$ for a flight license … they gave away trial flights for nearly nothing (cheaper than those 11 minute chopper flights) .. it was 1 hour and a boatload of fun .. though I actually had to fly the plane the whole time .. I was kinda stressed out after it …
I do have a certificate of this somewhere … once I find it I can date the whole thing … I believe it was summer 99 … but maybe I hear from Nicole who came along and took the pics for me.
Check out the twin towers … I doubt they let newbies like me fly that close anymore.
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