IMG_0012It is New Years Eve, 2013 and we are in Northern Italy.  No, we didn’t splurge on plane tickets, we invited friends for a communal Italian feast.  The dining room is awash in candlelight and we are beautiful.   After  a Milanaise aperativo of prosecco and chunks of parmegiano reggiano to wake our taste buds, we sit down to a Milanaise risotto.  Knowing  that more dishes are to follow doesn’t stop most of us from helping ourselves to seconds.

photo (1)Saltimbocca is next.  It means ‘jump in the mouth’ and the combination of fresh sage, prosciutto and thinly pounded chicken breast does just that when topped with a buttery, winey, sagey sauce.   With the saltimbocca comes a sauté of baby spinach blended with plumped golden raisons, garlic and toasted slivered almonds.  A colorful mixed salad refreshes our palates and prepares us for our dolce – a dense chocolate Torta Barozzi from Modena, topped with a scoop of homemade hazelnut gelato and drizzled with bittersweet chocolate sauce.  We are slowing down but there is still room for coffee, chocolates, homemade biscotti and a local ice wine –  or  grappa for the more courageous.

Throughout our feast, the conversation is most often of  foreign adventures.  Lisa and Duke recount the disappearance of Lisa’s 83 year old mother from their hotel on her first night in Naples.   Michael follows with a classic tale of Neapolitan robbery of the Volkswagon van (shades of Alte Liebe) that was home during six months in Europe.   Marc has memories of summers spent working at the Milan consulate.   I  describe the experience of landing aboard the aircraft carrier George Washington in the company of the mayor of Milan and assorted generals.  Mark recollects the weekly Swedish auctions where Venetian glass chandeliers, such as the one in our dining room, were put up for bid by Swedes whose modernist tastes  excluded extravagant flowery shapes.

Without leaving home, we have shared one of the great pleasures of wanderlust –  the tastes created by another culture.  Without leaving home our stories have taken friends to  places they have never been.  We are nourished by both.

May Foreign Writes provide nourishment for your wanderlust in 2014.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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