Ristorante La Campana in Rome, Italy

Still trying to wrap up Rome before I start blogging about our Mallorca getaway....hopefully I'll have time to get a few posts in this week!  

 Before we visited the Spanish Steps in Rome, we decided to lunch at Ristorante La Campana. Advertised as a local family restaurant with authentic Roman food, it had pretty good reviews and was recommended in a Japanese guidebook that we had on hand, too.
 We arrived just past opening time and there were only a few patrons inside already, but the restaurant filled up rather quickly (mostly with Italians) as the hour progressed. Our servers spoke English well, and they quickly provided a high chair for Keila and making a happy fuss over her snoozing form. In Europe, you never know if you're going to get a high chair or not, so it's always a pleasant surprise when a restaurant has some. Of course, since there actually was a high chair, Keila chose to sleep through most of that lunch in her backpack carrier. Murphy's Law. 
 I can't remember everything that we ordered, since it was over 3 months ago now, but I do know that arancini (fried rice balls), a steak, and some seafood risotto made the list. Didn't try the steak myself but apparently it was good, and the risotto was wonderful. We had the arancini as a starter, and they arrived piping hot and full of pumpkin (I think it was pumpkin) cheesy goodness. The menu was quite extensive and had lots of classic dishes on it, but I'm not a huge meat fan so baby lamb, ox tail, and other choices were definitely out. Other reviewers all seem to say that they're quite good, though.
 All of our dishes arrived promptly, and our waiters made sure we were happy but weren't overbearing. The only part of the meal that disappointed me was dessert: homemade flourless chocolate cake. It was way too dry for my liking, and I recall wishing that we'd just gotten some gelato afterward instead.
 Overall we had a really pleasant experience here: nice atmosphere, service was great,  and the appetizers and main courses were really good too. I'd go back again if we happened to be in the area.

Ristorante La Campana
Vicolo della Campana, 18, 00186 Rome, Italy



                    Most seats were full by the time we left

            Sleeping Beauty

           Arancini

   Arancini, dissected

Steak and potatoes. Sides are separate at La Campana

 Great seafood risotto

   The amazingly dry flourless cake

Keila is 2 and 1/2 Years Old!!!

Quite a few things have kept me from posting anything this past month....various illnesses, a mini-vacation, tax season, you name it. I promise to get a few fun posts about our trip to Mallorca up within the week (and maybe I'll even finish up Rome at some point this year!). For now, we're going to keep on schedule with Keila's monthly update. And it's a rather big one: she's 2.5 years old today!!!

1. Keila's language is still progressing rapidly. So fast in fact, that even I notice how much it's increasing week by week. And I'm around her all the time. We are using more Japanese now, too, but still combining it with English into sentences. She also pretty consistently will say 'Thank you Mama' or 'You're welcome (Mama/DaDa)' whenever she's given/gives something. Very polite little girl!
2. I haven't come up with anything to fill in the teething category since last month. Maybe we'll just drop #2 altogether and move #3 into its spot.
3. Sleep is better for the time being! Keila is napping again and also sleeping through the night for the most part. Had a few bad bedtimes during which she'd lie down to sleep, then start screaming in terror as soon as I left the room. Luckily the pretty pink flower lights from Ikea that Grandpa was so kind to install solved that problem. No more darkness, no more fear!
4. Keila's favorite activites for the time being....she's started to get more into coloring (colouring if you're British), and I often hear her chattering away at imaginery play with her dolls if I'm just outside the room. Not sure if I mentioned that she was talking about an imaginary man for a while, but luckily he seems to have gone. He mostly resided in a corner of our dining room, and I was constantly being warned not to step on him if I was in there. Funny but a bit creepy at night!
 Keila also had a great time with her Grandpa when he visited last month, and she's been talking about going on the airplane to see him soon. Sometimes she will pack a bag and tell me 'Bye Mama', then head for the door. Maybe Grandpa should come see us again soon!
 5. Story for this month. Keila will do just about anything for chocolate. She fell down last week or maybe it was the week before. While crying as I hugged her and rubbed her knee, she wailed 'Chocolate! Chocolate make Keila feel BETTER!' Hah! Smart girl!
6. Have forgotten to weigh/measure her yet again. We measured her while Grandpa was here but I've forgotten what she was exactly...I want to say around 90 cm? Which, if you check the growth charts, means she's below average for height. I kind of find that hard to believe, since most of her little friends are all around her size. Either that or we only happen to have short friends.
 That's it on Keila until May!


Playing at the park today. Run ducky run!

On the swings

Keila's 28 Month Progress Report

  Another month has gone by! And since it was February, it flew by even faster than usual. Keila's been quite active the past 28 or so days, however. Here's her update:

1. Vocabulary is advancing at the rate of a high speed train. Keila is asking LOTS of questions now, especially 'What's that?' and 'What's happening?' or 'What's going on in here?'. She's using a tiny bit more Japanese: the other day she was chasing Wasabi and yelling 'Matte matte! Wait wait!'. Wasabi didn't listen in either language, however. Keila can now also sing the first 2 lines of Baa Baa Black Sheep from memory, pretty good for less than 2.5 years old!
2. Teeth are in as far as I can tell. Now we need another category to fill this blank!
3. Yeah, sleep is off again. We've caught a cold and were up 4 times one night last week, from then on it's been her waking up at least once a night since. Plus Keila hasn't been wanting to nap in the afternoons, either, or really even go down at bed time. All of this adds up to a cranky tired Mommy. Here's hoping she starts resting better soon!
4. Keila is still wanting to do lots of crafts, help Mommy around the house, and she really looks forward to playdates now. So much so that she yells 'No go home' whenever we have to leave. Our house is apparently really, really boring.
 Climbing at the playground is great fun now, and why walk anywhere that you can run? Other games that Keila likes at home include a 'Go Fish' game we got her last weekend, and of course the old favorite Hide And Seek.
 Finally, Keila is allergic to walnuts! She'd eaten some ground up in a cake on Valentine's Day, and then about a week later she wanted more when she saw me eating some. I again ground them up and gave her some...the stomach upset commenced about 3 minutes later. Poor girl! Still praying that she's outgrown the peanut allergy, though.
 5. Stories for this month. Just a couple short ones, but I think they're cute.
5a.We were eating dinner on Saturday and practicing animal noises with Keila. Cow goes 'moo' etc. At one point she told Daddy that it was his turn...so when he made whatever noise tha was required (bawking like a chicken maybe), Keila turned to him, clapped her hands, and yelled in a voice just like mine...'GOOD JOB!'.
5b. Today, I let Keila try a tiny piece of Lindt Wasabi Dark Chocolate. When I first told her she could try a piece, she got really confused about the 'wasabi' bit and kept saying 'Beastie?'. Beastie is her nickname for Wasabi the cat, quite a good nickname seeing as how Wasabi behaves at times! Anyway, I thought I had thoroughly explained that wasabi the spice and Wasabi the cat were two entirely different things...until Keila finished her little bite of chocolate.....and promptly asked me for 'more Beastie chocolate'.
6. No idea what Keila's height or weight is this month. She doesn't usually stay on the scale long enough for it to register, but maybe we'll try tomorrow.
 That's it for this month!

                                              Keila enjoying some 'Beastie' chocolate

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)....