Italy

One of the best times of my life was in the summer of 2009 when took part in a excavation in the Sangro Valley, Italy. The small town we stayed in for the duration of the month-long excavation, Tornareccio, is about 70 miles east of Rome. There are countless reasons why this excavation was magical and why I felt like it was a dream, but for this blog, I shall save that for the archaeologists and concentrate on the food!

Italian food is one of the world's best cuisines and there are Italian restaurant everywhere in the United States today. So, it can be said the Americans at least somewhat no what to expect. Tornareccio did have some recognizable foods like gelato, which could be found at four different bars in this two-commercial street town, but there were also great local favorites like Rostichini. Rostichni is a local specialty pork kabob. We would have this on special occasions, but could also buy it on Friday nights at the bar. Dance party, beer and rosticini. This small town is also famous in Italy for it's varieties of honey.

 On one field trip, we went to a local honey factory and it was to die for. We got to see how the honey was made and don silly hats. We then we got to buy a honey and by pasta that had been made from grains that have been growling for thousands of years.

When we got to Rome the food was no less excellent. We were only there for a week, and thus my exposure to the food there was limited. However, the gelato was amazing and I remember a wide variety of pizza: what seemed like hot dog pizza and what was shrimp salad pizza. One I loved about Italy was that blood orange juice takes the place of navel orange juice in America.

I have always loved Thai and Vietnamese food. However, if I think about it, as much as I love Asian cuisines, Italy "takes the cake," not only do they have amazing entrées but they have amazing desserts.