Getting Settled In

For someone who planned to eat a ton of steak while on vacation I am off to a pretty bad start. 50 hours and so far the closest I have gotten was some random milanesa that was an afterthought last night. I gotta get working on that.

So far the trip has been, if not exactly a whirlwind, at least pretty packed full of fun. We landed in BA on Saturday morning, took a pretty quick taxi in and spent the day wandering around a small street market near our apartment in Palermo (did I mention that we have an apartment? It’s a 300 square foot beaut with minimal storage space and a deck that serves as our baseball watching wine drinking HQ. From now on we are renting apartments whenever we travel. Cheaper and more space.) We found some rings and then wandered to dinner at an Armenian restaurant nearby, which was awesome. Apparently there was a big influx of Armenians and they have quite a few restaurants. As the Lebanese women we were making empanadas with noted, Armenians are good with their hands. Which is odd, because the only Armenians of notoriety that I know either dated or provided legal counsel to professional athletes (ok same family but still). Either way, great food, including a moussaka that seemed more like a slow cooked eggplant dish but was wonderful.

The next day we first stopped at a local Catholic church so Natalie could make sure and engage in her regular day of worship. Or alternatively, the Yankees are in the playoffs and someone needed to light a candle and ask God for his help in the playoffs. So Natalie lit a candle to ask God to shine down on the Yankees, I lit a candle to ask God to not smite us for only going to church to ask him to help a sports team and we got a third candle for tonight.

Trinity done we wandered down to the market which was, as far as mostly overpriced tourist markets go, pretty impressive. Ten to twelve blocks chock full of 70% tourist tchotckes, 20% fabrics and 10% jewelry. Nat snagged a nice ring and we found a random café where we learned of the “completa” sandwich. Apparently, no sandwich is complete without cheese, ham and egg, so if you get a hambuger completa, be prepared for one of those heart attack specials they seem to serve at various chain restaurants. Good, but a little much.

Anyway, after that we wandered home to sleep of the food and then for dinner went to Club Eros. I know I know you hear “Club Eros” and it must either be a swinger’s club or strip club. Oddly neither, it’s a social club with an indoor soccer field and a small dining area. Sort of like the snack area at a municipal golf course but with steak and salad and wine. Pretty great place, groups of old men yelling at the tv showing a soccer match and a couple of young couples grabbing food. The food (fries, salad, pork chop) was excellent and insanely cheap (with two botltles of wine the bill came to about $30 US).

Today we spent the day in a suburb learning how to make empanadas. Natalie can share more about the actual making but I learned (1) empanadas are insanely tasty with cumin and (2) if I ever want to make empanadas again I am going to get a bunch of suckers/friends to do the heavy lifting. Rolling dough is not my strong suit.