Alberto Pica Gelateria In Rome

  Pretty much the first thing we did upon arriving in Rome and dropping our bags off was to head out in search of a gelateria. The main reason being that I'd somewhat stupidly told Keila that we would have ice cream in Rome and see lots of statues. So needless to say, all we heard about on the plane ride over was 'ice cream ice cream ice cream'. I wasn't about to disappoint the girl, and everyone who knows me knows I'm not terribly opposed to having some gelato, either.
 Luckily for us, Alberto Pica was relatively close and also open on Christmas Eve! This gelateria has been open since 1960, and Mr. Pica himself is usually present somewhere in the bar. There are quite a few awards on the walls (I think he is or was president of the gelato association, but don't quote me on that). The bar itself has a very old-fashioned feel to it, and I'm guessing it hasn't been updated since it opened. Which is a good thing, in this case!
 Besides at least 18 flavors of gelato, the bar also serves some yummy-looking pastries, coffee, etc. But definitely go for the gelato.

 While Alberto Pica's gelato isn't the best I've ever had (Perche NO! in Florence still holds the gold), it was pretty good nonetheless. Keila got a chocolate the first time that we were only allowed a few bites of, but it was quality stuff. Enough to keep her up half the night afterward. I think we also got a hazelnut chocolate that was good (Yuki said 'too sweet') and pistachio, but my favorite was the seasonal Christmas pannetone gelato. Sweet, yes, but I loved it!
 The second time we went back (yes we went twice), I got Keila a rice gelato, not knowing that Alberto Pica is famous for rice gelato. Keila didn't really take it, and once I tasted it we figured out why--there are actual semi-hard pieces of rice in the gelato. Sort of like a frozen rice pudding. I loved that one too, but I can see how little mouths wouldn't want those random hard bits. I'm told there's also a cinnamon rice gelato at Alberto Pica, but we didn't see that one so didn't get to try it.
 So when in Rome....while Alberto Pica isn't the best-ever gelateria, they're solidly good and also somewhat cheaper than their counterparts across the city....go if you can!
Oh, and one more note if you do get to drop by Alberto Pica--pay for your gelato at the register in the back first, then give your ticket to the man behind the counter. No ticket, no gelato! The gelato man behind the counter will kindly tell you this, but save yourself the trouble of finding out and just go pay first. There's no need to wait any longer than necessary for good gelato.

Bar Pica (Alberto Pica)
Via della Seggiola, 12 Rome Italy

                            Blehhh! Rice in ice cream?? Keila much preferred the chocolate. 

Keila's 26 Month Update

  I've got a TON of posts about Rome coming up, along with some product reviews to do whenever there's a free moment. For now, since it's the 6th of January already, here is Keila 26 month report.
 1. Keila is putting more complex sentences together. She said her first full-length sentence a few weeks ago, something like 'I want to eat cookies'. That wasn't it exactly, but you get the idea. Really should've written it down. She's been saying a lot of 'No want to' and 'WANT to's lately, we have a very determined little girl on our hands. Naming colors, reciting people's names, and counting are also fun verbal activities.
 2. One molar to go. It's nowhere in sight, so we'll see when it decides to show its face. My bet is it's waiting until she actually starts sleeping through the night, and then it'll make its painful debut.
 3. Yeah, sleep. STILL waking up at least once a night! Keila did ok in Rome for the most part, but then again she got to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed the whole time. She did have one night terror while there, look them up if you aren't sure what they are. Frightening and frustrating for Mom and Dad, too!
 4. Keila loves all kind of pretend play: she makes 'coffee' for Daddy and carrys around a glass of 'beer' for him sometimes, too. I'm often offered toy tomatoes or potatoes that she's carefully microwaved in her toy kitchen. When she doesn't think I'm listening, I can hear her having conversations on her toy phone or talking to her dolls. Tonight, she put on her mittens and told me we were going on the airplane to Rome again in the morning, so she had to get ready. This kid loves travel. She even had her little toy animals flying off to Italy on a book a few days ago.
5. In place of the potty training category, I'm going to try for a quick story every month. This month's: In Rome, Keila was repeatedly stuffing pretzels into Yuki's mouth one evening. I mean, really forcing them in. She'd yell 'OPEN! Mouth open!!!' if he tried to keep his mouth closed, and she wouldn't even let him chew before shoving more in. He tried to tell her no more, but she wouldn't give up. Luckily the bag was nearly empty, so after he'd suffered through the last one being stuffed into his mouth, Keila turned to me, shook the empty bag, and gleefully exclaimed 'HUNGRY BOY!' Priceless.
6. Keila's lost a bit of weight due to our food poisoning fiasco on holiday, but hopefully she'll regain it soon. She's eating like she has a hollow leg, so I'll be sure to weigh her for next month! Until then...

Milan

  We leave for Rome in less than a week, and I haven't even gotten around to writing anything about Milan yet. So I'm going to try to sum it up in one blog post. If I had to describe Milan in one word, that word would be: disappointing. For those of you thinking I'm crazy to say this, in my defense I will say that 2 other people have given me the exact same appraisal of Milan: 'It's just another city'. One woman was German, one British, and they didn't know each other. I have to say I agree with them, however!
If you love shopping then obviously Milan is the place for you (although most of the stores I saw there were chains that could be found anywhere else in the world). If you love Italian food and culture, then try another city. Not that Milan doesn't have its fair share of art, museums, etc, but I'd have to say that the food was good at best, nothing outstanding. And it's so hard to see the ever-so-famous Last Supper that you either have to pay an insane price or reserve your tickets months in advance (or both). I'm not saying the Last Supper is the only quality piece of art in the city, but if you're touring Milan then you're more than likely going to want to see this famous masterpiece if at all possible.
 The fact that it rained our entire weekend there probably didn't help my appraisal of the city, but here are a few highlights from our little getaway.
  Milan's Duomo is beautiful. Of course it is: it's the Duomo! And one of the largest in Italy, I think. Didn't really do my homework for this trip unfortunately. Just beware the scammers outside in the piazza: guys will try to give you some birdseed and get you to hold your arms up for the (dirty!) pigeons. They then offer to take a picture on your camera of you feeding said nasty birds. Not really sure what they plan on doing at that point other than picking your pockets or charging you for taking a photo. In any case, if they force the seed on you, drop it and go!
 For our first dinner (and our only formal/expensive/sit-down dinner) in Milan, we ate at Nerino Dieci Trattoria, one of the top-rated restaurants in the city. Good service, home-made beer, very eye-pleasing food...but I can't say that our meal was the best ever. Tasty, maybe, but there was no one dish that I specifically remember, either. (Whereas I'm still craving some ribollita from Florence!). For the price, I was expecting some gastronomical treats, but what we got was average food made to look beautiful.
 Also, while the service was very attentive and everyone was pleasant to us, it was quite obvious near the end of our meal that our waitress was quietly being told off by the manager because she hadn't cleared a small plate from our table. We'd asked her to leave it for Keila (who was sleeping in her stroller), and while I could see that she was explaining this fact to the manager, there were still lots of annoyed gestures on his part about the whole thing. Kind of ruined the meal for me. The waitress came back and never mentioned a word about the plate, but if it was such a big deal they could've at least been polite enough to discuss it in private instead going at it in full view of us and other diners. I'd still recommend trying it if you're in Milan and want good service (even if they are a bit TOO attentive when it comes to clearing plates), but it just doesn't compare to food in Florence or upper-class Venetian restaurants.
  Sweets: we ate some gelato at Gelateria Rinomata, and also had gelato and cake at Chocolat. The gelato at Rinomata was pretty good, although a bit too sugary for my taste. Apparently they've held onto their original recipe for years, and the inside is quaintly old-fashioned, too. I'd stop by again if we were in the area.
 Chocolat has great dark chocolate cakes, and their hazelnut dark chocolate gelato was top-notch, too. Keila loved the regular chocolate gelato, but I don't think she's too picky! The cafe interior is very trendy and relaxing at the same time. It seemed to have a good mix of clientele, too. Would defintely return there again.
  And, that's it for Milan! We're glad we went but likely won't return. It was a nice weekend getaway but I wouldn't bother going for longer unless you really want to shop or tour some museums.


  Nerino Dieci Trattoria in Milan: Via Nerino 10, 20123
  Gelateria Rinomata: Ripa Porta Ticinese | Angolo Viale Gorizia
 Chocolat in Milan: Via Boccaccio 9, 20121

                    Nerino in Milan: Lovely atmosphere, staff, and presentation. Now if only they'd spice up the food a notch or two!

                                  Rinomata Gelateria: Quaint gelateria with good service and quality gelato

                       Great chocolate cake from Chocolat Milan

Keila is 25 Months Today!

Where did the past month go? I could've sworn we had just finished celebrating Keila's second birthday. Now it's already going on Christmas and she's 25 months old. Here's what my little girl has been up to in the past month:
 1. Keila's language skills continue to improve at an astronomical rate, although still mostly in English. She's consistently repeating 2 or 3 words at a time now when I talk to her, instead of just one. Keila also LOVES singing and can go through a verse or two of 'Santa Claus is Coming To Town'. Japanese still needs some work, and Keila apparently recognizes that it's not English, or at least not what Mommy speaks, as she told Yuki this morning (when he was trying to count with her). 'No! Momma count! Dada no!" Clever girl. But we definitely need to ramp up the Japanese whenever Daddy is home.
 2. Another molar is working its way through! 1.5 teeth to go....
 3. Sleep is still hit or miss. I'm going to continue to blame that on the teething issues....and pray that it gets better once they're finally in!
 4. Keila's newest favorite activities include: playing 'Supergirl' (having Mom or Dad lift her up in the air), 'swimming' (flailing on her tummy while in her crib), and throwing any and all food she doesn't like. First 2, cute. Last one, not so much. Throwing has calmed down a bit since she's realized that Mommy will take away ALL the food until she stops throwing things.
 5. Still basically potty trained (with a few accidents here and there). I think this category is officially done with!
 6. Once again forgot to check weight and height. She seems pretty average for height, and last time she was playing on the scale I think she was 12.9 kilos. Keila is growing out of her clothes pretty quickly, so we're not too worried about her growth progress.
  That's all until 2013!

Product Reviews: Lindt Excellence Wasabi Dark Chocolate Bar, and Cadbury Snow Bites

  Quick review for 2 impulse-buys from the store yesterday: Lindt Excellence Wasabi Dark Chocolate bar, and Cadbury Snow Bites.
 The first one: Lindt tends to make decent supermarket-level chocolate, so I figured that I might as well try their wasabi flavor and see how it fared. Verdict??? They did surprisingly well! While the blurb on the back of the package declares that it's the 'finest dark chocolate, subtly flavoured with wasabi', I wouldn't say that the wasabi taste is 'subtle' at all. Which is fine by me, but be forewarned if you're sensitive to spice. What you get really is a lovely dark chocolate sensation, followed by the sudden spice and heat of wasabi. Wonderful!!! Perhaps my only complaint is that the bar has a minimum of 47% cocoa solids. This definitely meets the European minimum requirements of 35% cocoa solids for a 'dark chocolate' label, but being the chocolate snob that I am, something around 60% or so would probably still be sweet enough to balance out the wasabi but provide more of a chocolate kick.
  Next up: Cadbury Snow Bites. Have these things been around for years and I've just never noticed them? I know they haven't been for sale in America, but perhaps they were out with the Christmas treats here in the UK last year and I just overlooked them. In any case, I'm going to go ahead and review them and hope I'm not discussing a holiday staple as if it's something entirely novel.
 The front of the Snow Bites package reads: 'Cadbury milk chocolate balls surrounded in a crispy white dusted shell'. Which is exactly what you get. If you're American and have never seen these things, imagine the Cadbury milk chocolate candy-coasted mini Easter eggs and you'll have a pretty good idea. Only these have a white powered sugary dust outside the shell. Not sure why they're call Snow Bites instead of Snow Balls, but they are at least bite-size. Not bad, not life changing, definitely Cadbury. I'd buy them again if I wanted a cheap sugar rush and some added vegetable fat in my chocolate.


      Lindt Excellence Wasabi Dark Chocolate Bar

           Seasonal product:  Cadbury Snow Bites

               2 and 1/2 Cadbury Snow Bites

Last Night In Barcelona: Bo de B Sandwich Shop

  This is the second-to-last Barcelona post (only 3 months late, and I still need to write about our Spanish guitar concert experience!), and it's about our dinner on our final night in the city. It'll just be a blurb, since my memory is already a bit hazy on the details.
 Since we were tired (and had eaten a HUGE lunch at El Cangrejo Loco), Yuki ran out for food while I stayed with Keila in the apartment. He returned with some amazing (and amazingly HUGE) sandwiches from Bo de B. Little did we know that this place is said to be the best sandwich shop in town, but even without that knowledge, Yuki used his deductive powers to guess that they had to be pretty good if there was a big line in front.
 He got us a roasted chicken sandwich, and also a vegetarian/falafel-like option. Both really good, both loaded with veggies (at his request). Great food, cheap prices, no complaints from us!!! I would definitely go back--they're like the I Due Fratellini of Spain. (Click HERE if you have no idea as to what I'm talking about).

Bo de B
c/Fusteria 14 Merce 35, 08002 Barcelona

Half a chicken sandwich, and half a loaded veggie sandwich from Bo de B

Rainbow Cake and Origami Butterflies: Keila's Birthday Party

  While it's fresh, I'm going to post a few pics from Keila's birthday party yesterday. The theme was a rather loose rainbow butterfly combo, mostly because when I asked Keila what she wanted, she agreed to any and all options presented including 'purple', 'blue', 'animals' and 'pretty'. So there you go.
  The rainbow cake turned out to be both harder and easier than expected. I got the idea off the Martha Stewart website (http://www.marthastewart.com/256688/rainbow-cake) but used a basic white cake recipe and didn't stick with the recommended filling or frosting recipes, either. After all, who wants to use 19 (yes NINETEEN) eggs in total when baking a cake? Not me. Plus, we were avoiding dairy and soy for one of our guests, so I substituted oat milk for cow's milk and non-hydrogenated margarine for butter. (Question: how do they make margarine without hydrogenating the oil? I probably don't want to know, right? Am guessing it's still not incredibly healthy).
 The cake recipe is here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/nanys-white-cake/  I have to say, for a plain white cake, it turned out really well, quite tasty!
 For the frosting, I used this recipe: http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/vegan-buttercream-icing-recipe   Seeing as I was frosting and filling a 6-layer cake, I doubled the frosting recipe, using the UK's Sunflower Pure Margarine. Also found that I didn't need any rice milk to thin out the frosting, either. And I didn't use quite as much powdered sugar as they called for. But it was still a LOT of sugar!
 So, baking the cake itself wasn't really difficult, just time-consuming to divide up the batter, color it, and then bake it in six different pans. All of the colors came out great, besides the red. I used red gel food coloring too, so not sure why it wasn't stronger? Anyone? Anyway, it was still pretty.
 The problems began while I was frosting and stacking the layers. I'd left the layers on parchment paper and just flipped each one over onto the growing stack after frosting the layer below. All was going well until....the layers started sliding around like greased hockey pucks!! AHHHHHH! Had completely forgotten that margarine isn't as dense as butter and therefore softens up much faster at room temperature. I managed to get the layers all stacked up, but the whole cake was doing a good impression of the Leaning Tower of Pisa by then. I hurried and shoved it into the fridge (at which point it toppled over and came to rest against a container of almond milk; imagine the sounds emanating from our kitchen at that point!!). I had thankfully reserved a lot of frosting in another bowl (also put in the fridge) for the next morning, hoping that the cake could be fixed.
  12 hours later...I pulled the cake out, shoved the layers somewhat back into place, and skewered them into place with 2 chop sticks. Topped the chopsticks with butterflies, frosted over the mess as best I could, and added more origami butterflies to try and conceal the damage. All this really did was make a rather tacky butterfly/leaning cake mess, but it was the best I could manage with the time that was left!
  So....ready to completely write off the stupid rainbow cake (even though Keila yelled 'PRETTY' upon seeing it)...imagine my surprise upon cutting it. Perfect rainbow layers inside!
Lesson learned....just cut the cake and don't show it to anyone before serving individual slices. Or use real butter and refrigerate the frosting in between each layer!
   As for the origami butterflies: they're quite easy to make and very cute for a child's party. I used them as decor and also as toppers for the party favors. Click on this link if you want the step-by-step tutorial: http://goorigami.com/single-sheet-origami/origami-butterfly/3006
 Finally, for a craft, I had the kids (with mom's help) glue strips of pastel rainbow paper onto pre-cut clouds. They then topped the clouds with cotton balls for a fluffy realistic effect. Or they just ate the cotton balls and/or licked the glue.

  I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking!


                       Lopsided Butterfly Rainbow Cake

                       Rainbow Cake! Amazing layers

               Children's Party Favors: Rainbow markers topped with ribbon and rainbow butterflies

                                   Rainbow butterflies on our rubber tree

               Rainbow butterfly streamers for the birthday party

                   Kids' Party Craft: Rainbow Clouds