Forking Tasty

Italian Woman Shows Me The Ropes

Forking Tasty – On a Farm Outside Rome from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

I took a tour and explored the catacombs just outside the city of Rome and after they brought us to a farm for some cooking lessons. We were making Gnocchi that day and the eatin was good. I had a lot of fun watching this Italian women make Gnocchi for us all. She eventually had a few of the guests come up to help out. I wanted to join but there was no more room at the table. When it was asked who would like to help make Gnocchi (she didn’t ask because she did not speak a lick of english) I was busy stuffing my face and missed out. Maybe next time.

Booked Solid

One of the things that is great when you’re a crew member on a ship is when you stay at a port overnight. This will allow some of the crew to go out to dinner, which is rare on cruises. We had an overnight in Quebec City, which has a lot of restaurants. I walked around town a little early that day, around 3pm, to scout out and ask some local shop owners about there favorite restaurants in town and the most authentic restaurants. I had a few places that were mentioned a couple of times and they were not to far from the ship. I rounded up a couple people and off we went.

Finally Good Italian Food After 4 Months

Forking Tasty – Philippe’s, San Diego from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

It has been a while since I have had some good italian food. When we port in San Diego there is an information booth across the street and I went in to get a map to Little Italy and asked for some recommendations. I really needed a Chicken Parm sandwich in my life, you know what I’m talking about. The lady at the front desk recommended Philippe’s. Yes, it is the touristy attraction but this place has been around since the 50′s. Little Italy is on India St and you can find Philippe’s at:
1742 India St
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 234-1684

When In Doubt… Go With The Specials

Diabetic Blood Sugar Count
Pre-meal: 88 | Post-meal (1 hour): 109 | Insulin: 5 Units

Port Angeles Washington was my next American port. It is also where they filmed the Twilight movies. There is a scene in one of the movies where Bella and Edward go to a restaurant and Bella ordered the Ravioli’s. We needed to get those Ravioli’s. The restaurant is conveniently named Bella Italia

First Day Off The Ship

Casa Tua – Aruba from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

Diabetic Blood Sugar Count
Pre-meal: 119 | Post-meal (1 hour): 95 | Insulin: 5 Units

My first time getting off the ship since I arrived was Aruba. We were there from the afternoon to late night so it gave me some time to go to the beach and get some dinner.

The beach was nice and the water was warm. The beach we stayed at for the day was behind Hotel Riu and the Westin. I did a little tanning with some friends before headed back to the ship to get ready for dinner. We ended up going to an Italian/Spanish Restaurant called Casa Tua. Casa Tua has 3 different restaurants, Pizzeria, Barcelona, and Mediterranean. We went to the Pizzeria. It was good, as you will see in the video. We had a table for 12 and we were celebrating a birthday, however the birthday boy left before he got his special flaming birthday dessert. We took care of that for him.

Bravo, Bravo!

Jay and I headed out to Huntington Long Island to meet our family on the night of the past big storm. Driving was not the safest that night. The wind was blowing the truck all over the place and the rain was coming from all directions. However, we knew when we finally made it to Huntington we were in for a treat. Bravo Nader is a small restaurant that our family loves to go to. The food is always outstanding. We never order our entrée’s off the menu, EVER. Their specials are just that, special. We call ahead usually to make sure they have the Ossobuco special, seen above, because someone at the table has to have one so we can all try it. It’s Killer!! This table had the entire special list that night including two gigantic Prime Rib’s that Mr. Nader himself told us about on the down low. Here is a rundown of the special specials. There are so many I had to put them in a slideshow.

Special apps, dinner, and dessert

After we left the rain was still coming from all directions. Long Island was starting to flood and was loosing their power left and right. We spent the rest of the night in the dark playing a board game. No, I didn’t win but had fun playing one of the games I haven’t played since I was a kid. I wasn’t on my game. My mind was probably still focused on the delicious meal we ate at Bravo Nader.

Frankly, All I Want is a Polpettone

When you spend 3 years aimed at one goal it is extremely important to recognize the milestones you reach while on your journey to that end. There is arguably no better way to celebrate these events with a great meal. The memory recall of a delicious meal can be savored for years. You know what I mean right? Remember your college graduation steak dinner, that first bite of your wedding cake or the final meal on your road trip across the country? Yeah, I knew you did. Adding taste into the sensory equation has an interesting effect on positive recall.

Last week just such a milestone was reached by one of my favorite, frequent eating companions. Preethi, who you have seen a lot of on the blog lately, landed herself a J-O-B. Being the caring boyfriend I am and a sucker for an excuse to indulge in a decadent meal I congratulated her and asked her to pick any restaurant in New York, my treat, to celebrate. Without hesitation she replied…

Italian Food In China…Never Again!

In Sanya China our goal was to hit the beach for a little while. We got in a cab and the cabby was supposed to take us to a close beach. The cabby kept driving and driving and driving. We must have passed about 4 beaches and we still were not where he was thinking of taking us. Finally we had him just pull over and we walked across the street from a bunch of hotels and plopped down on the beach. There was a little Tiki restaurant on the beach and it was the only thing around that was close that had food. This Tiki restaurant mainly sold Italian food. Italian food is the last thing I wanted on the beach let alone having Italian food in China. I should have known this was a sign of a crappy meal. The menu was interesting. It let me pick the noodle and the sauce for my pasta. I decided on a gnocchi Carbanara. Sounded great when I order it….then it came…

Sandwich Buzz

You can’t hate a job that takes you into the heart of San Francisco, buys you a sandwich and lets you “work” in the park over looking the bay for an afternoon. That’s what went down a few days ago as the Buzz Team and I started work on our next set of BIG ideas. This video will give you a peek into where the “magic” starts and how we do what we do.

Fondue Fakeout

It was a holiday weekend and I headed up to Quebec City to meet Kelsey for 3 days. The Eurodam had a rare double over night and we took advantage. Quebec City is a fun little town with lots of restaurants, galleries, bars, clubs, a huge fort, and a lot of shopping. It was a beautiful day to just walk around town and there are all these café and bistros with outside seating…