I have really really really busy since the last post. So here is an overdue update of what has been happening.
ASSIGNEMENT list….never ends!!!!!!!!
The real reason behind my lack of attention towards this blog is the assignments given for my second year course, we get a project work for every single subject sometimes even 2!!!
Note most of these assignments are group projects some even craft and we also have to do surveys and market research!!!
Here is my list of assignments to complete…and I am doing it all at the same time cause their due dates are relatively close to each others!
- Internship Report – 10,000 words
- Analytical sensors – Report and bake
- Survey Report for our school’s research centre
- Stock Management Report
- Marketing Presentation
- Marketing Report on market research of a restaurant in Lyon
- Concept Restaurant
- F & B technical recipes
Road Trip to Turin
About 4 weeks ago while working at our school restaurant, my classmate, Gabriele suddenly had the urge to have proper Italian pizza. So, he invited me, Yi chang and leopold on a short 3 hour road trip down south to the closest Italy city to France, Turin. So right after our theory class on Friday, we slipped into comfy clothes and started our supposedly short 3 hour journey.
As we left the residence for a gourmet weekend, it started to rain really heavily and continuously for 5 hours while being on the road. The reason it took us 5 hours to reach Turin was because of the misleads of Gabi’s TOMTOM( GPS system) and we wasted 2 hours driving towards the wrong direction.
Me
Leo with his sleepy eyes
Gaga driving
After 5 hours of driving, we finally arrived at Turin. I were actually worried that we wouldn’t be able to have pizza for dinner. Lucky for us, Gabriele’s favourite pizza joint stays open till 2am!!!!
Starter : Water buffalo mozzarella with parma ham
Water buffalo mozzarella cheese is a MUST try in Italy mark my words it is a MUST try…. before this i always thought that it would already a luxury eating Galbani’s RM 40 a mozzarella ball. The real thing is so spongy, and creamy at the same time. It is lightly seasoned during fabrication there giving it a more tasteful and spongy bit to it unlike the commercial one where you hardly get any taste from it.
My choice: Magherita pizza
Simple choice: buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomatoes with basil leaves.
Probably the best pizza I have ever tasted in my whole life. The crust is thin and crunchy, and you know how we have the habit of not eating the edges of the pizza? well in this case, the pizza bread was so aromatic that you wouldn’t want to leave anything behind. The pizza bread is not soggy and soft in the centre like what you’d expect from thin crust pizza due to the tomato sauce and melted cheese. These pizzas were wonderfully made. they were not soggy in the middle and it was crunchy all the way!!
Even the beer tasted better in Italy.
Shortly after dinner, we went back.
The next day, we woke up around noon. And felt really hungry, so Gabriele suggested we go get lunch in city. Little did we know we were going by foot.!!!
View from Gabriele’s grandmother’s,
Anyway, so we walked ……..
walked…..
walked……
and walked…till the three of us couldn’t stand the hungry anymore and kept asking Gabriele’s as to where we were going for lunch. Just then he turned around with his peculiar reasoning, “ok…let’s have ice-cream to fill up our stomachs and eat an hour later” He then took us to the best ice-cream maker in Turin, Grom. Another reason he insisted of having ice cream then was that, the place would be packed with people.
Us walking into Grom
Leopold
My choice : Hazelnut nougat (TOP), Vanilla (bottom)
The hazelnut nougat was soo good….Italian ice-creams taste very light unlike the ones we buy the ice cream blocks from the super markets. As i was saying the hazelnut nougat was soo good, there were bits of chopped hazelnuts in it, making it crunchy and light at the same time. I usually don’t take vanilla because of a certain person, but to know how good ice-cream makers are I had to try their simplest and most popular flavour. Made from vanilla bean of Madagascar, this vanilla flavour is a must try in Turin.
After the sweet treat…we walked some more to in search of a good pasta restaurant.
Yi chang and I
So we continued walking and walking in search of a good pasta place and 1 hour later we found it…!!!
The restaurant famous for it’s home made pasta.
These are Gabriele’s childhood friends who were so nice to take us around Turin the day!!! Left is ricard and his girlfriend Julia.
Waiting for lunch, Gaga and Leopold waiting for his mama to call.
Our magnificent starter: Simple toasted bruschetta, cherry tomatoes, oregano, olive oil with buffalo cheese….yummy…the best things in life are the simplest things of all.
Buffabella, shared with yi chang …it’s a rocket salad with ham, cheese…
Me clearly enjoying my very very very caloric heavy lunch…
Leopold had Tagliatelle ham cream i think..
Yi chang had Fusili tomates cream cheese….
My choice was the simplest spaghetti pomodoro which has cherry tomatoes and basil leaves. I was actually quite surprised of how cherry tomatoes are used more often in their dishes than the regular tomatoes. Just like on the bruschetta and the pasta I ate were all cherry tomatoes, and they do taste differently in Italy. They are much much more flavourful, sweet and have just a slight bit of sour tanginess to it. With the addition of the fresh basil leaves that we find so often in their cuisine, we get a fresh and pungent aroma just nice to compliment the cherry tomatoes, and the chewy al dente pasta.
After lunch, we walked some more…and walked
Sweets we saw all over Turin
We went up to the tower of Turin’s national Cinema Museum.
After that we continued walking and stopped for coffee. And chatted till their closing and we went over to a trattoria/cafe/bar like place where people take alcohol and tit bits right just before dinner.
Leopold fooling around…
Night came, after dinner at the same place from the night before…we wandered some more around Turin. Actually the guys still wanted to go to a night club, but their sleepy eyes and yawns said otherwise.
Leopold playing with the camera…and asking me to make funny faces.
Please….don’t take my picture…
Leopold felt that yi chang carrying my hand bag was so gay that he insisted on taking his picture. In this picture above, we were actually heading to an Irish pub for night cap. We stayed until 2 then called it a night. Couldn’t walk home cause we actually walked quite a distance from Gabriele’s place so had to take a cab home.
The next day just around noon, we were woken up by his grandmother’s cooking from her kitchen. After peaking into what exactly she was doing, we quickly washed up and got ready for lunch.
Gaga setting the table and verifying that everything’s in place.
So first up: his grandmother’s speciality, home made raviolis stuffed with beef.
Best eaten with freshly grated Parmigianno Reggiano, parmesan cheese. Yum yums to the max!!!!
the next course was roasted veal with it’s jus. Simple yet satisfying… (forgot to take a picture of it, we were all so busy eating)
Grand ma and grand son reminds me being with Ah ma….
Moist Chocolate Cake..
Shortly after lunch…we went back to Lyon.
To sum up this trip. It was really tiring…physically due to the non stop eating and drinking…I must have put on around 2 kilos that weekend. It was fun though with excellent food and excellent company…don’t mind doing it again….
