adesso noi mangiamo! now we eat!

No, I didn't go back to Italy, but I do have a fantastic Italian roommate. 

Here in Vienna I share a 'flat' with 4 other girls. 2 from Calgary, Canada, and 2 from Russia. A good combination I must say.

Let me describe some of the many benefits of flatmate's. 

1 - they let you throw in your whites with theirs, to save time and money on laundry.

2 - there is a wide variety of music, playing at any given time.

3 - you can share things like salt and coffee filters.

4 - there is often someone to accompany you to a party across town, and take the ride home with you.

5 - you have a huge variety of teas.

6 - travel buddies.

7 - some like to cook.. :D

When Jackie and  hang out, it almost ALWAYS involves food.

For me, someone who strongly dislikes cooking, and is quite bad at it, a flatmate that shares her natural talents and joy of cooking is like hitting the jackpot. I have had so many new, strange and delicious foods just within the four walls of this flat. Everything from fried cheese to Russian bagel bites, you name it. 


Just this week, a fellow flatmate from Calgary took it upon herself to test out a new recipe for Risotto. Now, before this encounter, I have only ever had Risotto in restaurants, and from Uncle Ben's line of 'Fast and Fancy' side dishes. Of course I wanted to try some homemade!! Acquiring this recipe, and a box of rice earlier this semester, Jacqueline easily mastered the technique, and I was lucky enough to be home when she offered it to me. 
Obviously the result blew Uncle Ben out of the water.


After stuffing my face, Jackie herself gave me the idea to include the experience in this blog. (Thank you Ms. Jacqueline!) She jotted down some names, dug out the recipe, and gave me a run down of how she did it (and how easy it was for her.. I haven't tried myself yet.) SO, for all you chef's out there who have never made Risotto- I have included the epic recipe from this week. One day back in Canada I will certainly experiment with this again.  


Risotto! (with additional ingredients of your choosing).


Ingredients:


2 handfuls of Arborio Rice per person (rice with a high starch content)
leak (as much as you want)
garlic (as much as you want)
olive oil (as much as you want)
white wine (about 1 glass, or, as much as you want)
salt and pepper to taste
finish with Parmesan


PLUS: anything you need to clean out of your fridge. (ie: zucchini, mushrooms, peas etc.) 

1 - Boil one pot of hot water and put the green part of the leek in the water, with salt.
2 - Heat olive oil and put the white part of the leek in, chopped. As it goes transparent, put 2 handfuls of rice in per person. (so, 4 handfuls for 2 people, and so on :P)
3 - Add a little bit of white wine (a glass or so)
4 - Keep stirring until water absorbs and add hot water from first pot, pour in little by little.
5 - Taste until you like it (supposed to be be cooked and tender).
6 - Finish with Parmesan, salt and pepper

Ok, I forgot to take a picture. But here is one from Google that looks quite similar.

So, if you are not naturally gifted in just knowing what to do here, I would practice maybe once with someone who does know... I am not the kind of cook that can just whip something together and improvise- that doesn't EVER work for me. However, its the kind of recipe that you can play and experiment with. Jackie added everything from zucchini's to mushrooms in hers, and it was fantastic. I consider it a bit like stir fry, you throw in what you have and what's going bad.. a real fridge cleaner-upper.
So, if you're feeling ambitious, test it out! Let me know if it worked out just as amazingly as it did for Jackie.


I must now find a talent of my own to share with these girls.. because officially, cooking is NOT it. Thanks again to Jacqueline, I eat well when you're around.


until next time, shannon xx

Ich liebe Griechenland

I love Greece.


Ok.. who knows anything about Greek food? Clearly I did not. It is more amazing than I could have ever imagined. And this is why Greece is officially my favourite of all the places I have been. (Not just because of the food I guess.. but yea thats mostly why.)

Moussaka!

Unfortunately, I did not always have my camera on me at meal time due to its massiveness. So my photos of this fabulousness that is Greek food are limited. But, take my word for it.. I have never eaten so much delicious food in such a short period of time in my life. After being back for a week, I still feel full, and find myself eating crackers for dinner.


So what does Greek food consist of, you might ask? Well to start, there's a LOT more to it than just souvlaki, yogurt and feta cheese. With a culinary tradition of over 4000 years, I have learned the the Greeks don't fool around when it comes to food. Although I wish I could (in my opinion) say the same for the wine, beer and coffee.. eww. NOT high on the list of priorities, clearly. 

A frappe (cold coffee with sugar, not horrible) and insanely thick yogurt.

Olives, a variety of cheese, tomatoes, fresh fish and thyme honey are only a few of the historically significant foods we tried in Greece. In the islands, where we spent most of our holiday, fish is whats most available. I had the opportunity to sample an AWESOME plate of salmon, in a white wine and dill cream sauce, served with a side of cooked carrots and zucchini. Can't say this is a famous Greek dish by any means, but at least it was seafood!


You can also tell that some dishes are from deeper origins, or influences, like Turkish or Arabic, just from the names. Things like tzatziki, gyros and moussaka and so on and so forth.. I had to google this, clearly.


So if you haven't caught on yet, I love Greece and its food. We should all just be a little more Greek when it comes to food, starting with yogurt and honey.

Other than eating here, we didn't do much else. As we were told upon our arrival in Mykonos, there is nothing cultural to do, so go to the beach. We did just that! In both Mykonos and Santorini, we rented ATV's for a day and adventured through the rural side of the islands, ending up at great beaches and incredible views. 


In Santorini, we also had the opportunity of taking an all-day tour around the islands that make up what is now Santorini. 
A huge sailboat, The Albatross, was our ride for the day, a volcano was our exercise, the hot springs were our lunch break, a deserted island was our nap-time, and the sunset numbed our butts. 

Explanation: A wonderfully huge sailboat took us from one island to the other, stopping at each for a different sight to see. The first being a volcano, where we hiked 30 min to the top to get a handful of information about volcano's, and how they work.. cool. From here we took our descent back to the boat, where we hitched a ride to the 'hot springs'... which really means warm springs. It was then I put on my sweater and took pictures of the suckers swimming in the freezing cold sea. (Good job girls! :P)

Next on the itinerary was a small island, which I am sure would be hoppin' in the summer, but as of now was pretty quiet. All 6 of us took a nap on a concrete dock, and got a bit burned. Serves us right. 
To end the day, we were dropped of at the bottom of a cliff looking up at the town of Oia, where the famous sunset is seen every evening by a ridiculous number of tourists. To get up the cliff? Ride a donkey!! Yeaaa, won't do that again. 

Sunset was beautiful, but took too long to be brutally honest. We were WAY to early, resulting in a numb butt and jelly legs from sitting on a slab of concrete. 

The remainder of the trip consisted of us laying on a black beach, building black sandcastles, and taking old school all night ferries back to Athens. It was truly a memorable vacation, and there are SO many more things that I could talk about in here. But to keep it short with facts, so I don't lose you.. I will keep it here :)
What should you take from this post, if no other? Greek food, think about it. 


Back to Mozart balls and schnitzel, shannon xx