April 28, 2012
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Dining in Rome
Italy is known for having amazing food. We Sellers are known for eating incredibly bland food. How did we get along?
Well, you already know we went to Burger King for lunch on Michael’s birthday. And we also ate gelato. And we didn’t want to spend loads of money. A bottle of soda is almost 4 euros there! We developed a good system. We had a buffet breakfast at our hotel (which was supposed to be 10 euros a person a day, but I emailed and asked for a cheaper rate and got it for 6 euros a person). It was typical European: lots of breads, cereal, yogurt, fruit, lunchmeat, cheese. Sadly, there were no eggs and bacon for Michael. Anyhow, we’d stuff ourselves at a late breakfast, eat a snack of pretzels/candy bar around 4:00, and then have supper.
In Rome, restaurants don’t open until 8:00 pm. By that time, we had gone back to our hotel. So, we mostly ate supper at the two restaurants near our hotel.
Our first night, we went to an osteria.
I believe this is the Italian equivalent of a diner. It had low prices and was full of Italians after work and hanging with friends. James and the kids got pasta.
They didn’t really like it.
Libby got roast beef.
It was almost still-mooing rare.
I got meatballs.
They were delicious.
The next night we tried a different restaurant down the street. It also had low prices. And it had the most incredible bruschetta I have ever had.
The family tried fried mozzarella. They didn’t like it. (It tasted like motz. cheese. They were used to more breading.)
I also had a fried rice ball. We watched a Rick Steves DVD before we traveled, and he mentioned these fried rice balls. I got one with tomato and cheese mixed with the rice. It’s that brown thing I cut in half in this picture.
It was DELICIOUS!
Rachel tried a salad. The salt dispenser was fun. It was battery-operated and ground the big salt crystals. Then, the bottom of it just fell off into her salad. Good laughs, so-so salad.
Mostly, though, we just ate pizza.
Although, Rome McDonald’s knows how to be classy! A kiwi on a stick?
