Mattina di Mercato

While you were all crawling into bed, or fast asleep, I was at il mercato a Vittorio Emanuele II.  Saw some vegetables and sea food that I've never seen before.  The fish were still flopping around.  Each one I'd ask about, Maria would describe another dish and how to prepare it.  Told her, "too many different delicious meals, and not enough days."  We traveled there with roller suitcase to haul back the produce she bought.  For me she picked up some fresh clams for spaghetti con vongole.  Here are a few pictures to just give a bit of a feel for the market.  (Short explanation of my advancing technological prowess with this camera.  Had few moments of disappointment as went to take first pictures today.  Every time I snapped the picture, the camera would shut down instead of taking the shot.  I was pretty upset that I was going to miss all these great shots.  But, kept trying, and proud to say I fixed the problem.  It seems that rather than hitting the shutter button, I kept hitting the on-off switch instead.  They are right next to each other, if you are familiar with cameras.  So, once I started using the shutter button, the camera started taking pictures again.  I'm an f-in genio!)
Picked up some broccoli siciliani, very different from what I'm used to for broccoli.  Also some melanzane had just arrived from sicilia, so bought a bunch for pasta alla norma.  I was pretty hungry after this excursion.  We stopped on way home for un brioche e un caffe'.  Beautiful way to start the day.  Now off to do some more exploring, and then late afternoon head to Campo dei Fiori with Maria to see the sights, and finish day in a small ristorante with no name that specializes in baccala  Can't wait.  Ciao

Comments

  1. RoaminForumApril 9, 2011 at 6:47 AM

    Gelosa. Mangia baccala' per me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. EmilyRoseApril 9, 2011 at 7:05 AM

    Wow, the market looks amazing. I hope you are taking notes on the cooking so we can relive your culinary adventures. It is a good thing you are walking all over, tell maria thank-you for taking such good care of you.

    The camera incident is funny since I have done that on occasion as well.

    Do you remember going to the market in Syracusa? it didn't have as many fish vendors but the vegetables were so colorful and delicious looking. Lee and I had wished we had a kitchen so we could have shopped and cooked. Did the fish vendors shout out out you as you walked by? The market we went to had a carnival atmosphere to it with the shouting and the smells and the colors of everything.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RoaminForumApril 9, 2011 at 9:27 AM

    Giuseppe,
    Just had a few minutes to really look at the photos. I see you've managed that shutter button perfectly. The seafood looks good enough to eat raw! Is that Maria Grazia in the photos? She is a doll. And, it just sunk in that you get linguine con vongole-- fresca! I'm laughing, too, because whenever I've seen those who are obviously natives walking around with roller suitcases, I've thought, geez, there are a lot of business travelers all shapes and sizes! Now I know that they did not just step off the plane in a housedress, but rather, were coming from the market! Please post how the baccala' is prepared. A presto!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Joe PingatoreApril 9, 2011 at 10:57 AM

    Maria Grazia is the woman in pictures 3 and 5, and if she knew these were posted here, she'd kill me, literally. Much noise in the market, but the venders don't call out. Just back from dinner, and nothing too spectacular. I will fill you all in on next post.

    ReplyDelete

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