Cadbury Easter Products: Cadbury Egg N' Spoon and Cadbury Mini Eggs Dessert Pudding

I'm taking a break from Rome to do a quick Easter-themed post: Cadbury Easter treats, to be exact. We've got two Cadbury treats for this post: Cadbury Egg n' Spoon, which comes with filling in 1 of 2 flavors: chocolate or vanilla; and Cadbury Mini Egg dessert pudding.
  Now, I saw these Cadbury Egg n' Spoon chocolates back a few months ago, but didn't bother to buy them because they weren't on sale at the time (regular price is 3.99, too much for 4 eggs if you ask me). And then I went and forgot all about them until yesterday, seeing as I've been on a dairy-free, gluten-free diet and didn't want to tempt myself with any milk chocolate.
 But...then we rediscovered them in Selfridges department store up in Birmingham, retailing at 5.49 per pack. Seeing as Selfridges is always insanely overpriced, I didn't buy any and figured I'd just pick a couple of packs up at the local grocery store on sale instead. What I didn't figure on is the fact that everyone else had been snapping them up in the meanwhile. I tried 3 different stores today and they were all sold out. The pic below is from the ones at Selfridges, and I'm hoping to get some within a day or two by imposing on the good grace of a friend in a neighboring town. Will let you know how they taste if I do get ahold of them!
 While searching for the Cadbury Egg n' Spoons, I also came across the Cadbury Mini Eggs Dessert Pudding online. And then found it in Tesco this morning. I only had 2 small bites, seeing as I'm still trying to avoid dairy (and the fat and sugar content in this tiny pack is insane)...but it was quite rich and good. If you want a cheap fatty, sugar rush with an Easter theme, go for it.
 Next up...either more on Rome or more on Cadbury Egg n' Spoon, depending on whether I can get my greedy paws on some Easter chocolate by Wednesday....
 


                   Cadbury Egg n' Spoon chocolate eggs

 Cadbury Mini Eggs Chocolate Dessert Pudding (Cadbury Easter egg products)

                  The inside wasn't really all that visually appealing....5 eggs and a tiny pudding cup

3Quarti Restaurant In Rome

We ate at 3Quarti for lunch before hitting up the Vatican. A friend had visited Rome a few months before we went and highly recommended this place, so we specifically sought it out. I'm really glad we did! It was my favorite meal of the vacation, probably because they offered a little something different than the traditional Roman fare. Still pasta, but with more a Florence-style flair to it.
 3Quarti is quite the classy restaurant, but we did see other diners with babies there, so I didn't feel bad about bringing Keila in for lunch. Dinner might be another story, even though Italians in general seem to love children.
 I don't remember the exact prices for the items we ordered, but it wasn't terribly more expensive than other restaurants we'd had lunch at. I think we ordered one less appetizer than usual and the bill was about the same as the days before? Plus we were definitely satisfied with our meal: full yet not stuffed.
 To start off, we ordered a smoked tuna carpaccio with avocado, and the namesake 3Quarti (in our case, the mixed seafood ones). The menu describes the 3Quarti as such:  'Our specialty: 3Quarti, three small buns realized from the dough of the pizza, manually stretched after 12 hours rising then browned with Italian extra virgin olive’s oil, natural or filled with some of our delicacies…'
Sound delicious? They were! Basically, they were just little warm buns full of whatever stuffing you chose...but they were really, really good little buns!
 After stuffing ourselves full of appetizers, we decided to split a grilled chicken salad and a dish of spaghetti with sea bass, pumpkin flowers, and botargo.  The chicken salad was good, but just a simple chicken salad. After all the heavy fare we'd been eating, simplicity was much appreciated, however! And the spaghetti....oh, the spaghetti. I don't know if it was the botargo or the pumpkin flower (or the sea bass) that made this dish, or maybe the combination along with perfectly al dente spaghetti, but it was superb! Most of the dishes that we ate in Rome were good but nothing memorable...this spaghetti alone would make me go back to 3Quarti. It was that tasty.
 Besides the food, service was also exceptional and our waitress spoke very good English. The restaurant is quite modern looking and much more spacious than you'd imagine from the outside. It filled up pretty quickly after we arrived however, and we were at the door waiting just before 12:30! I have the feeling that it gets much more crowded for dinner, too. 
 If you're planning on hitting up the Vatican in the afternoon, make sure to lunch at 3Quarti first. Or hit it up after a morning of the craziness in the museums, as did some fellow Americans at the table next to us. Whatever the case, just make sure you go. And eat some of that spaghetti for me. 
  3Quarti 
Via Attilio Regolo 21, 00192 Rome, Italy 




                           The bar at 3Quarti

   Part of the dining room at 3Quarti

The famous 3Quarti (at 3Quarti!)

Tuna carpaccio at 3Quarti

Amazing spaghetti with sea bass, pumpkin flowers, and botargo at 3Quarti

Taverna Romana in Rome, Italy

  If anyone tries to tell you that there are no decent restaurants near the Colosseum, don't believe them. Taverna Romana is at most a 10 minute walk from the big tourist site. (I'm not  by any means knocking the Colosseum, it was one of my favorite places in Rome, and I will hopefully post about it at some point this month. That being said, it IS ridiculously swamped with tourists at any given time of day).
 But, on to Taverna Romana. I did a quick search for good restaurants the morning of our Colosseum visit, and Taverna Romana popped up as having consistently fair home-style pasta and meat dishes. So we made a beeline for it around 12:30. Taverna Romana is a fairly small restaurant, so I'm glad we got there early-ish, as it filled up quickly and the staff were turning people away (mostly Italians) by the time we were halfway through our lunch.
 Service was pretty good; one waitress was very speedy while the other one....not so much. Nobody spoke a ton of English but we didn't have a problem ordering or getting our questions answered. Seeing as I'm not really a big meat eater, we decided to forgo the lamb and beef choices. We instead ordered the spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams), spaghetti alle carbonara (not my choice), and a side of meatballs for Keila. The meatballs were decent but overpriced in my opinion--something like 8 euros and not a very big plate, either. Adding to the insult, of course Keila decided to turn her nose up at them and only ate noodles. Sigh.
 The vongole was quite good but not the best I've ever had. Food in Florence has apparently spoiled me for life. I didn't have more than a bite of the carbonara but it was ok: too cheesy for my liking, but not awful. The noodles were quite good in both pasta dishes, however. Basically, imagine authentic homestyle Roman cooking, and you'll get Taverna Romana. As I said...not the absolute best ever, but pretty darn decent if you like food from Mom's kitchen.
 Finally, dessert was tiramisu. I was disappointed in it unfortunately. We were so indifferent to it that I don't think we even finished the one bowl we were splitting. Meh.
 Overall score for Taverna Romana: 6.5 or 7 out of 10. If you're in the area, it's worth heading to. Especially if you want to experience an authentic Roman family-style restaurant. Just don't bother with the tiramisu.

Taverna Romana
 Via della Madonna dei Monti, 79, 00184
Rome, Italy

                 Spaghetti alle vongole at Taverna Romana in Rome

                    Spaghetti alle carbonara at Taverna Romana

             The rather disappointing tiramisu at Taverna Romana 

Keila's Belated 27 Month Update

  Because I've been battling a lovely influenza virus that just doesn't know when to give up, I completely forgot to post Keila's monthly update on Wednesday. Going to bed before 9 pm didn't leave much time for typing, anyway. Sorry about the oversight, and please excuse any typos below!!

1. Keila's vocabulary is still advancing rapidly, but mostly in English (have I mentioned that before?). Daddy tried talking to her completely in Japanese a few days ago, and she rather obviously didn't understand everything. We'll have to get her picture books out and start naming animals and objects more often. Full sentences are becoming more and more prominent, even if they're not always correct. One of her favorites is 'I want to want it!', meaning 'I want to do it'. Keila can also remember song verses pretty well and even corrected Daddy the other day when he didn't get Twinkle Twinkle Little Star completely right. =)
2. Keila's teeth are just about completely in! That final molar made an appearance a couple of days after last month's update, and it's probably 75% through now. What am I going to blame naughty behavior on after she's done teething, though??
3. Sleep! Well, I don't know when it happened, and it's still not 100% consistent, but at some point during the past month Keila started sleeping through the night. I'm putting her to bed closer to 7:30 or 8 to make sure she sleeps until at least 6. Really praying I'm not jinxing myself by even mentioning how well she's doing with sleep. Now if only Daddy could ever leave work before midnight, and maybe we'd all be rested! 
4. What else has Keila been up to lately? (Mommy's brain is still somewhat fuzzy from aforementioned flu battle). Play-Doh is big on her list right now, and she loves making little animals or cakes and ice cream with it. Hiding under the covers or hiding things in Mom and Dad's bed is great too: last week I woke up to a multicolored pillowcase (and face), only to discover a deflated, drawn-on balloon inside my pillow. How did that get there??
 Keila is really into doing all kinds of crafts, too. She likes gluing pieces of paper, coloring, the usual. Oh, and dancing is also back on her hot list. Turn on a song she likes, and the girl will dance!
5. No actual story for this update...but....some potential good news! Keila had her annual allergy exam on Wednesday, which Yuki took her too since I was too ill to be of any use. I was completely expecting that they'd just verify her peanut allergy and maybe do a pineapple taste test to see if she'd grown out of it. But....the skin test for peanuts came out NEGATIVE!!! Keila has yet to taste any peanut butter/products and won't until another follow up with the clinic, but pray that she really has outgrown it! We also go the go-ahead to let her try pineapple, but seeing as she'd been denied it for so long, whenever I try to give her a piece, she yells 'No like it!' and refuses. I may have to sneak it into a smoothie or something and hope for the best.
 6. Keila has regained the weight lost from food poisoning (she's well over 13 kg now) and is shooting up like a weed. I haven't measured her lately but will do so today if she lets me.
 Until March (and I do promise to get some more Rome posts in before her next update, in case you were wondering)....

 
 

Ristorante Alle Fratte Di Trastevere

  We made Christmas Day lunch reservations at Alle Fratte Di Trastevere because of all the positive reviews we'd seen about it. Plus, it was pretty close to our apartment, another bonus seeing as it was only our second day in Rome and we had no idea what would be open during the holidays.
 Alle Fratte Di Trastevere is run by a husband/wife team from Naples. Both of them speak excellent English (the wife told me she'd lived in New York, and I can't remember if her husband had too, but they have at least one child in the US, if my memory serves me right).
 We were warmly greeted by the owner upon arrival at 12:30, and much fuss was made over Keila. Italians really do love babies! The interior of Alle Fratte Di Tastevere is very cosy and classic, with lots of pictures on the walls (especially of Naples).
 Service was wonderful and very prompt, even when the restaurant started to fill up towards the end of our meal. (Tip while in Italy: eat early at the good restaurants unless you want to wait for a table). The owner even came over several times throughout the meal to make sure we were enjoying everything.
 To start, we had a lovely marinated seafood salad (Antipasto di Mare), and a plate of grilled veggies (Verdura Mista del Giorno). Yuki proclaimed the salad too 'sour' but he really doesn't like anything that's even slightly sour, so I got lucky in this case and ate almost the entire plate. Mmm.
 We were hoping for an authentic Neapolitan pizza as part of our main course, but unfortunately pizzas weren't being made on Christams Day for some reason. I'm guessing they may have been a bit short-staffed in the kitchen due to the holiday, although you honestly couldn't tell it based on the superb service and quality of our food.
 Instead, we shared a shrimp and artichoke risotto (Risotto Carciofi e Gamberi) and some eggplant pasta (Penne Alla Siciliana). Both dishes were solidly good, but not the very best I've ever had. They were probably some of the best pasta we had in Rome, however!
 For dessert, we had homemade tiramisu and (again homemade) chocolate cake. These were amazing! Definitely save room for dessert if you go here.
 Our bill came to around 55 or 60 euros, not bad at all if you consider that it included: 2 starters, 2 main courses, 2 desserts, a bottle of water, a coffee, and some house wine. Really not bad when you also consider that you're eating in a popular tourist neighborhood.
 So when in Rome....visit Alle Fratte Di Trastevere if you'd like some solidly good pasta and simply excellent service. I would definitely recommend this restaurant!

 Alle Fratte Di Trastevere
Via delle fratte di Trastevere, 49


 Antipasto di Mare (8.50 euros)

  Penne Alla Siciliana (8.50 euros)

Risotto Carciofi e Gamberi (10.50 euros)

House Tiramisu (4 euros)

Homemade Chocolate Cake

Keila digging into the homemade cake

CoYo Coconut Yoghurt (Yogurt)

  Quick break from posting about Rome to review this awesome coconut yogurt we found at Whole Foods a few weeks back. I hunted it down after getting a tip from a friend that coconut yogurt was in existence. I'd been wanting to find a dairy-free soy-free yogurt for some time. Enter: CoYo! Their motto is: “Heaven in a mouthful” and I have to say that I'd agree! The first time, we just bought a tub of the natural coconut yogurt. And it was amazing! No sugar added, but very sweet and incredibly creamy. Just a tiny, tiny sour aftertaste (it is yogurt after all).

 The rest of the product description is as follows:
 vegan coconut milk yogurt, 100% natural, 100% dairy free, 100% gluten free and 100% guilt free!

I'd have to disagree with the '100% guilt free' bit, however. One medium-sized tub contains 2.5 servings (250 grams), which I could probably easily eat in one go. However, 1 serving has almost 13 grams of saturated fat, more than half of your recommended daily amount. Ouch. I realize that virgin coconut oil/fat contains medium-chain triglycerides, which may/may not pose the same health risks as other saturated fats, but until there are more studies done, I'm not going to stuff myself full of it. This yogurt is definitely in the 'treat' category as opposed to the 'daily breakfast' one.

  The second time we purchased CoYo, I got one more natural tub, and also a small (100 gram) tub of the chocolate CoYo. This time for some reason, the natural tub, while still good, was less creamy and more of a cheese consistency?? No idea why but it was really like a hard cream cheese. You couldn't really spoon it out, but it tasted ok spread on rice cakes.
 As for the chocolate CoYo....let me say right away that it was disappointing. Unless you happen to like sour chocolate. Because I can't think of any other way to describe the flavor. It definitely had more of a sour taste to it than the natural one. You could easily tell that it contained chocolate, but in this case that wasn't really a good thing. Not awful, but I won't be buying it again.
 In summary....CoYo natural yogurt is AMAZING! Just remember that it should probably be a treat instead of a daily staple if you're concerned about health and your saturated fat intake! (Oh, and one final note....CoYo is not cheap. I think we paid almost 3 GBP for a 250 gram tub on sale. Ouch).


CoYo Coconut Milk Yoghurt (Yogurt!!). Amazing stuff!

  

Pasticceria Valzani in Trastevere, Rome

We happened to stumble across this little gem of a pasticceria in our neighborhood the night we arrived in Rome, Christmas Eve. It was well past 7 pm when we went by, but they were thankfully still open!
 Valzani is more of a chocolate/sweet shop than a pasticceria, so don't go there looking for a good pastry. But do head over in search of some marzipan, cannoli, and cute chocolate pieces!
 I don't think that Valzani's interior has been updated since it opened, as it still retains its somewhat dated 'old-world' appeal. But it's quaint, and everything was quite clean.
 Service isn't the friendliest, at least not for us non-Italian speakers. The grandmother-type woman who runs the cash register doesn't speak any English but was kind enough. The younger granddaughter who did speak some English was a bit surly both times we were in. Not sure if she's that way to Italians too, though. On our third and final visit, another younger woman was working who also spoke some English and was very slightly nicer than the first woman. Oh well. Pretty sure they don't need great service in order to continue attracting customers!
 The first night, we got a cannoli and some marzipan fruit. And also a chocolate-covered marzipan, if I remember correctly. Cannoli was amazing but Keila scarfed most of it before I could get more than a couple of bites. The fruit marzipan were slightly bitter on the edges due to whatever coloring was used. Pity, since the interior was quite tasty. Chocolate marzipan was equally delicious.
 The second time we stopped back in was simply to get Keila a piece of butterfly milk chocolate (they have all sorts of chocolate shapes for sale). Surly woman #1 really didn't seem impressed that we were only buying 1 piece. The grandmother was again quite kind, though, especially after my bungled attempt to tell her Merry Christmas in Italian.
 For our third and final visit, we bought a small chocolate ganache-covered torte (a Sacher Torte, which I'll explain in a minute),which cost us 14 euros. Ouch. But we did the math in advance and figured since it was going to last 2 nights, it was about the same price as we'd pay for dessert both nights anywhere else. And on holiday, I eat dessert every night!
  Unfortunately, this lovely chocolate cake was somewhat marred by a apricot puree layer in the middle. I am simply not a fan of chocolate/fruit anything. Bummer. I still suffered through it, but it could've been so much better! My better half declared it 'Ok but way too sweet'. No disagreements there; I just happen to not mind large amounts of sugar! Overall consensus: not the best cake I've ever had by far, berries or not: it was a bit drier than we'd been expecting, and while the ganache was solidly good, it was not amazing.
***Side note...we didn't realize this at the time, but the original Sacher Torte is Viennese. Had we know what exactly a Sacher Torte was, we would've realized in advance that it had apricot filling inside. Why Valzani is selling a Sacher torte, I'm not sure? I also just read that it's reputed to be the best Sacher torte in Rome, beloved by a famous Roman film director. Yes, it was good...but I won't say it was THAT good! Perhaps I'm just more of a French-style pastry fan, however..***
 Final verdict for Valzani? Go if you can! It won't be life-changing chocolate (unless you really like Sacher tortes!), but the cannoli is pretty darn good, and their other sweets won't disappoint by any means.

 Pasticceria Valzani. Via del Moro 37b Rome, Italy 00153


    
   Valzani's display window on Christmas Eve

            Tree inside Valzani

          

　　　Cannoli and marzipan fruit from Valzani

     Valzani's famous Sacher Torte

  It looked so good...and then those apricots showed up!