Sunday, September 8, 2013

Sunset at Relais dell'Olmo . . .

so one day, when I played golf, we went swimming instead of lunch . . . we didn't realize we were swimming instead of lunch, it's just that most of the restaurants close at 3 and don't re-open till 7:30 . . . not quite as outre as Spain, but the same dedication to a long lunch and a siesta, if you see how I mean . . . so, we don't like to eat that late, especially the size of the meals we were getting . . . and no pizza, please, even in tuscany . . . but Relais delle'Olmo had a little sunset ceremony that all the guests seemed to visit at least once . . . you could have just a glass of wine and relax after a hard day of hustling down to Fiorenza and back, or add some nosh for a minimal charge . . . we got a whole bottle of Prosecco and the full-on nosh:
peanuts - meh
green & black olives - the green ones were really nice once they thawed out a little bit . . . we're just not that wild about plain old black olives tho . . . 
some cubes of peccorino cheese - very nice
some dark cubes of something he called "speck" (sic) -- aha: from Wikipedia 
"Speck is an English word meaning "fat" or "blubber", attested since the early 17th century.[1] This word also exists in German with the same meaning, but it normally refers to pork fat with or without some meat in it. Normal English use refers to German culinary uses, particularly of smoked or pickled pork belly.
In parts of the English-speaking culinary world, the term "Speck" refers to Italian Speck, a type of prosciutto,[2] rather than German Speck, which is identical to the Italian "lardo". The term "Speck" became part of popular parlance only in the eighteenth century and replaced the older term "bachen", a cognate of "bacon".[citation needed]"
then there was some cubes of another meat product  mortadella . . . heard of it before, but couldna tol'ya whether it was animal, mineral, or vegetable . . . 
"Mortadella (Italian pronunciation: [mortaˈdɛlla]) is a large Italian sausage[1] or cold cut (salume [saˈluːme]) made of finely hashed or ground, heat-cured porksausage, which incorporates at least 15% small cubes of pork fat (principally the hard fat from the neck of the pig). Mortadella is a staple product of Bologna,Italy. It is flavored with spices, including whole or ground black peppermyrtle berries, nutmeg and pistachiosjalapeños and/or olives, though those with flavoule are not made with the original recipe from Bologna."
some slices of salami, and,
some crusts of bread . . . we gotta say we're not wild about the breads, I mean the crustinis offered in Tuscany, always seemed dry if not actually stale . . .

still it was very pleasant & bug-free sitting out waiting for the sunset . . . 

waiter even brought us some extras. . . like these salmon mouse hors douerves with capers . . . mmmmmmmm
and some parma ham roll ups with ricotta cheese



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