For the first time I’m celebrating Christmas in Rome when normally around this time, we’d be back in Singapore. It feels a little strange for me to celebrate it as a non Catholic/Christian and at the back of my mind, it’s not the same thing as Hari Raya but nevertheless, I don’t see anything wrong with sharing happiness together.

Anyway, we spent Christmas eve at Cart’s sister, Paola’s house. Entering the house, the tree was the most eye catching item in the room with the presents at the bottom. The dining table was already set with cutleries and appetizers.

By the way, the tradition here in Italy is to eat fish which is a “non rich food” instead of meat on this day so you’ll see loads of families cooking fish related items. And since I love eating seafood, I had a lot of fun, because there were so many wonderful things for me to eat!

We started off with L’insalata russa which is basically a potato salad.

And then little mozzarella balls. Not the type that is yellow and solid and comes in rectangle shapes by the way.

And then mixed Seafood salad.

And then I had smoked salmon slices with tuna salad at the side. The green vegetable that you see in the picture is called valeriana and it’s interesting to me as it tastes a little bit like mint.

And then there are baked crochette of potatoes and olives. Cart and I prefer them fried though *coughs* Perangai budak gemok *coughs*

And then these are ravioli stuffed with crab and served with creamy crab  sauce. Oh gosh, these was such a dream. It was so delicious! I normally don’t like creamy based pasta, but these were so light and yummy!

So good that I ate them all up. I need to ask Paola how she made it!

And here is Cart manually grating parmigiano on his pasta. If you’re wondering what we were watching on the telley, it was a show which was rather inappropriate for christmas

And this my linguini with a sort of arabbiata sauce with tuna.

My niece and nephew are very picky eaters though. They won’t touch anything if they think that it contains things that they don’t like. And to my horror, I saw that my nephew is eating pasta. Plain. Not even with a hint of oil nor cheese.

Anyway, after that we had a sort of quiche with the puff pastry and zucchini and cheese inside. This thing is awesome! But we still had more to go!

These are roasted fish called pesce persico but by this time, I was feeling so stuffed. Even though I was really greedy and I wanted to eat them, I could only pick at them and not finish. Sheepishly asked to have them put in a container so I could eat them later.

And then these are mussels cooked in tomato sauce which was supposed to be used for pasta. But Paola seeing how stuffed we all were, just served them as it is. I could only manage to eat one!

And these are artichokes. But at this point of time, I was already too stuffed to take another bite. Le sigh! How sad! I wanted to try everything!

I felt so full that I had to waddle to the sofa for a bit and soon after I felt sleepy and decided to take a  snooze on Cart’s belly while watching the kids getting ready, stacking their presents to unwrap them. Eating is tiring work!

And when I woke up from my power nap, I found these ready for me. More food! Pandoro with lemon and strawberry ice cream!

I was so stuffed! This is probably what it feels like for a goose being fed for foie gras. And I didn’t even get to try everything!

Nevertheless, it was approaching midnight and we started unwrapping our presents.

Here is Cart opening his present.

Here is Paola inspecting the present that we got for her. It’s a hi-George teddy bear! With inbuilt speakers on it’s little feet.

Here are my in laws inspecting the olive oil bottle stand that we got for them.

Nephew has an Angry bird action set! Now you don’t even need to switch on the computer or phone. I couldn’t believe that it exists! And I blame it on Cart for introducing this horrible game.

Here’s the niece playing a Play doh Smashed Potato game. I couldn’t play this one though. The poor potatoes keep getting smashed and cut and diced …

And after playing for a little while with them and opening our presents, soonafter it was time to go home. It was a lovely gathering. And while I do miss my family and friends in Singapore, it’s nice to be with my other family too.

But it wasn’t over yet, because the next day, there was a xmas lunch! More food! I could hardly even eat breakfast. I was that full. And instead we waited for lunch and had Pasta with funghi.

I added some chili flakes because I like hot food. I’m still Malay after all.

And then baked potatoes with rosemary and roasted lamb. Not only for xmas, but they eat lamb during easter too. I suppose it’s a tradition to eat lamb here on accordance that there are a lot of lambs in Italy and also of it’s religious significance.

MIL asked me if we Malays eat lambs but in all honesty, beef and chicken are more popular meats to eat even though there are loads of ducks and goats around. Not sure what happened to make those meats less popular.

And to end it, a slice of pandoro, a popular xmas and new year sweetcake.

So good! But oh boy, I’m so stuffed! How does one even lose weight this way?!

We’re both very unromantic people that we didn’t plan anything for the day. In fact, even when we’ve finally decided to go out for dinner, we were clueless at which restaurant to go to. But in the end, we went to this little charming place called Checco Dallo Scapicollo.

See if you can spot Woody Allen and Francesco Totti

It’s an unreal looking place, we were driving around Laurentina which is a busy urban area, and then suddenly we found ourselves in a country looking place. It was so pretty and felt so tranquil with the sound of the water flow from the fountains and the shade of the trees. It was gorgeous. I was a little sorry that we weren’t here during daylight. It would have been something to behold.

Inside the restaurant, it looked like a country house with the fireplace and the wooden ceiling and bricks. To be honest, I was really scared to go inside, everything looked so … expensive from the furnishings to the waiters in their little waistcoats.

But Cart was adamant that we have a lovely evening in a lovely food and pointed out that it wasn’t every day that we had our anniversary. So we went ahead.

While the place was gorgeous, service was a little slow though. Even though there were practically only 4 other tables, it took a while for them to take our order and then have it cooked, and then serve our food.

The food was lovely though. Cart had ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach and served with zucchini and mushroom sauce with parmigiano shavings on top.

While I had a sort of seafood Saltimbocca. It doesn’t look very pretty, but it was delicious. On top is grilled octopus slices shaped into a sheet and underneath that layer is some prawns and underneath that is a piece of fish, dressed with lemon sauce. I thought the portions was small, but nevertheless, I felt quite full after eating this!

We also had carciofi alla romana, but as much as I like artichokes, I think they went overboard on the flavourings and I found this much too salty for my liking.

We then had a cheese platter. It was accompanied with 4 different type of condiments : kiwi conserve, fig jam, onion jam and honey. By this time, I was feeling quite full, but I wanted to try one anyway. So I sliced a cheese into four and tried all the condiments with each. They all tasted really good.

I wonder who was the first person to try eating cheese with jam together. It’s amazingly good together.

And we ended our dinner with a nice dessert called “assasino” which is basically molten lava cake topped with tiramisu cream on top. When you cut it open, chocolate flows out. It’s so sinful! And it’s so rich, henceforth the name “assasin” as it’ll kill you! But it’s oh so yummy!

It was a lovely way to end the evening and we both enjoyed our evening together.

But looking at the bill later, I looked at Cartcart, smiled and said, “Happy anniversary! Thank you for the wonderful dinner … but let’s not come back here too soon ”

Before I end this post, just wanted to share with you a picture that amused me so much.

Wow, I’ve never seen one of these things before!

Frozen sushi.

Maybe it’s just me, but I thought the whole philosophy of sushi is about the freshness of the seafood, so that one can savour a small piece of the sea when they eat it.

Instead, you’d have to defrost this in the microwave oven … *gasps* And it’s not even cheap at 8 euro for 12 sushi!

First, it was frozen durian, now frozen sushi … what else?

At 6.50 euro, it’s still not cheap, but it’s a once in a while treat. Moreoever, cooking it yourself is definitely cheaper than in restaurants and it’s not that difficult to do.

The hardest part is probably gutting and cleaning a fish, but luckily, most of the work was already done for me at the counter.

All that I had to do was to cut away the fins on top, the side and the bottom and scrape away any scales that was still there.

Nice clean fish!

Dry it with a paper towel, then sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper and cover it with  some slices of lemon on the outside.

And in the inside where the gills used to be, sprinkle some salt and pepper and stuff with some garlic and parsley.

Wrap in an aluminium foil on top of a bed of potatoes (already mixed with olive oil, salt and rosemary) and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes at 220 degrees Celsius.

The fish will be cooked in it’s own liquid mixed with the lovely ingredients that you’ve added. And when it’s done, the most amazing smell wafts out as you open the foil.

Using a fork to pierce through the flesh, the fish is wonderfully tender and moist. I just couldn’t wait to eat this!

And I did. And it was so delicious and I ate with gusto! (Hence the lack of pictures) All that’s rest are bones.

Le sigh! I wish I could just share with you a taste. It might sound extremely simple, but trust me, it was very very good!

Or at least touched a piece of heaven, also known as the chocolate festival. This event was held in the ippodromo delle capannelle (nothing to do with Hippos) where horse races were held.

We didn’t get to see any horse races, but we did get to see cute fuzzy ponies which was meant for kids to ride on. They are really so very cuddly! I loved stroking them. It was like hugging a toy!

In any case, there were quite a number of things to be seen, non chocolate related ones like stalls selling acessories, clothes, toys … limousines! There was even a stand promoting line dancing.

Candied apples …

And also something that I didn’t care about. These people has been stuffing their flyers (like 10 at a go!) in our mail box. Even if I was the least bit interested with Scientology (which I am not) hard selling like this just turns me off.

Anyway! (changes topic) Fun fact!

While we know that Brazil and Africa are the main producers for cocoa, did you know that Indonesia contributes to 15% and Malaysia 1%? I didn’t know that! I’ve always assumed that the main export was palm for Malaysia.

There was also a working display. I’m not too sure what the function of the machine below.

But this one in particular warms and mixes the chocolate to make it ready to be filled in the moulds.

Such as this chocolate spoon one. I also saw another mould all filled with chocolate and wrapped with a clingwrap, sitting while getting ready for it to set and harden.

And the end product would be cool shapes such as this one.

Ring ring!

Anyway as we were walking around the chocolate stands, there were interesting things to be seen. I literally hyperventillated and squealed and gasped, probably a little too loudly at every stall.

There were so many different types.

Like this chocolate kebab. Have you ever heard of a chocolate kebab before?

It’s made of three different chocolate “meat” out of white, milk and dark chocolate which will be grinded and then served in a sort of crepe “bread” and drizzled with nutella sauce.

And here are pastries all filled up with chocolate. Looks so good!

Crepes with chocolate sauce … Mmm!

There was even a booth where they sell a full meal such as appetizers, first course and second courses which was the main reason why I wanted to go to this fair.

Unfortunately, we had to wait for at least two hours for this, and in the end, we gave up. But doesn’t pasta with cocoa, chilli with rabbit meat in tomato sauce and wood berry sauce sound interesting?

(Actually, looking back in the menu, I don’t think I could eat anything here since almost everything contains meat and I don’t like gorgonzola)

For me though, the highlight of the chocolate fair was in seeing the different types of chocolate shapes. This one below says, “In sweetness I believe.”

Chocolate in bunnies and cow shapes in front which I’m not sure if you could see them properly. Anyone know how I could reduce the glass glare effect when I take a picture by the way?

And some of the displays, I had to take a double look because they looked so realistic!

The coal-iron for example, it looked real! Like a rusty old one that my mum used for ironing her clothes when she was really young.

And the hammers and the spanners and these keys below. It looked so realistic, more like a rusty tool rather than chocolate. Genius work!

There were also other shapes such as these roses, computer mouse, pens and toothbrushes. I got a toothbrush because I thought the idea of brushing my teeth with a chocolate toothbrush is funny.

As Halloween was coming soon, there were quite a number of spooky related shapes such as these skeleton in coffin ones.

And it’s probably a little too early, but there were a number of Christmas related ones too. Not sure if you could see from the plastic glare, but there is a cornucopia, Christmas trees and snowmen.

One of my favourite ones would have to be these shoe shaped ones. Chocolate AND shoes! Which woman wouldn’t love this! I looked longingly at Cart to get them for me and even told him, “If you love me, you’ll get me one”

He just laughed and said no. Boo!

Check out how busy these chocolate sellers are. I bet they are having a booming business from this event! Makes me kind of keen to learn the art of chocolate too. Like in chocolat and meet a piraty Johnny Depp

The only problem is that being surrounded with chocolates, and seeing chocolates every day, one can get sick of them very easily. My sweetness tolerance isn’t very high.

Oh! Before I forget, we also saw these chocolates. I thought that these could be a nice gift to someone. Each of  these chocolates are for sale at 1 euro per letter.

Lets say Cart + Rinaz for example would make 10 euro. But if we both used our full real names, it could easily go to 38 euro … quite pricey … not to mention if someone claims their love for this place in New Zealand

I also spotted out a chocolate fountain where the sellers sold dipped spiedini (basically fruit skewers) Didn’t get a chance to see how much it costs though.

But I’m over it, because for us in Singapore, we even have them at home! I think we should buy a set when we get back to Singapore, so that we could invite friends over for a chocolaty fun treat! Heheheh!

There was also this chocolate banana cake which I was sorely tempted to try (didn’t get in the end, because a slice is just too much for me)

A couple of the high end chocolates.

All of these chocolates shown in the pictures are handmade by the way, in fact the only booth that sold commercial chocolate was from Perugina.

And I saved the best for last. Handmade cremino. Probably my kryptonite. It was so good! Made of hazelnuts, almonds and cocoa butter, it tasted even better compared to the commercial one I tried before.

In my opinion, if you’ve never tried one before, you’ve never really lived. It’s the creamiest, most tasty and delightful thing that can be made out of chocolate. The one on the left is the classic while the one on the right is pistacchio. There are also other variants.

But it’s also thickening to the throat, so eating one is actually enough at one sitting. It’s also quite fattening too, unfortunately … *so sad*

Cart also got this candied tangarine covered with chocolate. It was super sinful and sweet for me, that I couldn’t take more than a bite. See why I can’t work at a chocolate factory?

To end this post, I thought I’d share a picture of this cat we found at the chocolate fair. She’s a timid little cat, but came over quickly when I handed her some treats.

She also has an overactive saliva gland. When she was done eating, my hand was all wet. Bleh! Nevertheless, doesn’t she have an intelligent look? All that’s missing is a pair of glasses.

I would totally kidnap (or catnap?) her home.

In Italy, there are actually a significant variety of items that a vegetarian could pick in a regular supermarket, even in restaurants. And I thought that I’d share this vegetarian meal that I really enjoyed.

Veggie burgers! I first tried a veggie burger at Burger King in Singapore a long time back, and then more recently in Komala’s. They were both really yummy.

Anyway, my eyes were attracted to this frozen burger during our last grocery shopping. So it was sort of an impulsive buy. (By the way, you HAVE TO ask an Italian person to pronounce “burger”. It’s SO CUTE!)

I also chose this burger by Kio Ene, because it was much cheaper than the other brand – that one had 2 patties and sold for 3 euro, while this one has 4 patties and sold for 4 euro.

This burger is mostly made of soy, flour, onion and a mix of spices.

And it looks like this right out of the box. Doesn’t look all that appetizing …

But look how it looks like after being fried in olive oil after a couple of minutes. Oooh! What a bewdy!

We dressed it up with mustard, chilli  sauce (forgot to buy ketchup) a slice of onion at the bottom and sottilette cheese.

And it’s so crunchy and surprisingly really really tasty. So good! I wouldn’t mind eating this over a real meat burger sometimes. I guess you can call me, a flexitarian

I can has moar?

Anyway, Il gelato is located in the charming area off Via del Corso, but it’s fairly attainable with a bit of a walk from the closest metro (Spagna). What’s interesting to me is how cars seem to love to pass through this particular road.

Unfortunately for them, it’s very cramped and it takes very skilled manoeuvring and thick skin-ess to cross to the other side.

Anyway, inside, there are so many different types of gelati. And if you’ve been living in Italy for a while, you can tell more or less tell by sight if it was handmade (artigianale) or not. Firstly, the gelati doesn’t look overly fluffy.

But it was quite mind boggling to decide at the first visit. There were so many kinds! In fact, it was divided into two segments. I mean just look at their chocolate ice cream segment. Even a chocolate lover like me was just stumped at what to get.

There is the chocolate. Then there is the dark chocolate. And then there is the extra dark chocolate. If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, there is chocolate with cinnamon, chocolate with ginger and lemon, chocolate with chilli …

I was a little overwhelmed so we chose to have the set-apperativo in the end. I was looking around at the other plates and Cart and I were a little worried as we saw something looking like ham, so we asked for those to be omitted and asked for the prosecco to be changed to coca cola.

(In my personal opinion, we should have gotten more portions of gelato since we didn’t get the mortadello and cola is cheaper than wine, but that’s just me, moreover the proceeds go to charity  )

And then we got this :

Huh? What is this?! Gelato with nachos and vegetable slices? That is so wierd! But there are stranger flavours of ice cream around the world like Horse Meat, Charcoal and Wasabi so I had to keep an open mind, moreoever it’s not ice cream-ice cream … it’s an apperativo-ice cream.

So let’s start!

This bright and cheerful orange gelato here is peperoni (not to be mistaken for cured sausages).

Have you ever had bell pepper ice cream before? No? Me neither. Tasting it, you can definitely detect the bell peppers inside, but it was refreshingly creamy. And while the experience wasn’t like eating a salad dressing, it surprisingly went well with the vegetable slices.

This is the pistacchio ice cream.

It looks so tainted with the orange peperoni bits … boo! Nevertheless, I quite like at how light it tastes like, and that it was slightly gritty with the little bits of pistacchio inside. Just beautiful!

And then this is Cart’s half eaten Gorgonzola ice cream.

Gorgonzola? Cheese ice cream?! Woah!

I have to admit that this definitely is an acquired taste and probably not for everyone. I’m not a big fan of ripe cheese but I gave it a try anyway. And indeed it was very strong. If you were blindfolded while eating this, you could totally tell from the smell that it was made of blue veined cheese. The taste is completely unique. And it was really wierd for me to taste it as a gelato. Cart, who adores cheese, liked this though.

I was observing some of the other guests who were there trying out this ice cream, and I was amused to see them had the same curious reaction as I did

Luckily for me, I was able to change mine to another flavour. Can you guess what it is? It’s Green!  Is it mint? Is it another type of pistacchio?

HOLY TOOT! It’s green tea! When I saw it at the counter, I completely hyperventilated. I’m crazy about Matcha ice cream and it was love at first taste for me when I first tried it at a Japanese dessert shop. And this was the first time that I’ve EVER seen Matcha green tea gelato for sale. I’ve almost given up hope about it existing in Rome.

This made me so happy! And I was deliriously joyful, ignoring everyone while I digged in. Cart didn’t like it so much though  and thought that it tasted like grass. Bah! Who cares about him. He can keep his Gorgonzola gelato 

Little things like these just gives me hope to carry on with this life 

Il Gelato di Claudio Torcè
Piazza Monte D’Oro 91/92

If you liked this post, you might enjoy :

• Il Gelato di San Crispino
• Tony Gelateria