When isn't it about food

Buon giorno! Time is seeming to fly by, especially now as I am planning trips and activities for the upcoming months. I think that my big trips outside the city are going to be Milan, Sicily and Barcelona. My roomies and new friends will be joining on the trips and we've already booked hostels and travel arrangements - stressful with a group but I'm so excited! We will be going to Milan the weekend before fashion week so we will hopefully miss a massive crowd and tourist prices. Speaking of fashion week, Vogue's Fashion Night Out is coming to Florence this coming Tuesday!! So from what I can tell so far its going to be an open house for all the designer stores with some special events and special guests. Florence is one of just 3 cities that Vogue picked for this event. Obviously I must go and do a little research for my Fashion Marketing class, my teacher even has a friend that owns one of the stores that's having an event and we got invited. Here's a trailer I found on their site, and here's a link of the events that will be happening. http://vfno2012.vogue.it/firenze/iniziative-speciali

Also this week in my Consumer Behavior class we got introduced to our semester project. We will be working closely with Il Panino Tondo in creating customer surveys and helping in other areas such as brand awareness. This is right up my alley! Especially after my summer at M3, I know that this project is gonna be fun and great to build my real life experience. A little info about Panino Tondo: it means round sandwich (aka hamburgers people!), they use all local products, the burgers feature 100% organic and local meat, they have vegan and vegetarian options (soy, tofu and seitan burgers), AND ITS DELICIOUS! I don't have any pictures yet but we got tons of samples when we visited the store the other day. I feel bad that it's not Italian food, although they occasionally have specials like homemade lasagna, but the locals love it too! I'm giving you their FB link because the pictures are divine. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Il-Panino-Tondo/168735313157457 Seriously what a perfect match though: marketing and organic food in Italy.

Okay so next up is the meal I had last night. Ganzo provides a themed dinner with guest chefs on Thursday night. This was a six course feast. I am so impressed with our school's culinary program. Here's why I had to go for an hour walk after dinner last night:

Amuse: Octopus with potato and maionese

Delicious 

Antipasto: Cickpea soup with cardamom with bread crumbs and mussels

Cardamom is the spice that's tasted in most Chai Teas, this was an interesting mix which I enjoyed, the mussels were great too - I also go my roomies cuz she didn't like them :)

Primo Piatto: Risotto with tomato, fried capers and baby calamari 

This is the best thing I've had to eat here period. The rice was cooked just perfectly, not too soft. The sauce was flavorful and when you got a caper it was so incredibly savory. By this plate I was full. 

Secondo Piatto: Cod with fig, orange and potato

Fish cooked perfectly, soft and warm but not raw. Good mix with orange and fig. Potatoes were flavorful and buttery flavor added sweetness. 

Paradiso: Mango gelato with coconut milk

Very sweet, lime zest was good offset and pairing right on with coconut milk. 

Purgatorio e inferno: chocolate ganache with macaroon and pear liqueur. 

Without the liqueur it would have been too much - and that's coming from a chocaholic! The tactic was to still have some of the ganache in your mouth and a sip of the pear liqueur. An amazing end to an amazing meal. Bravo Ganzo!

That's all for now my friends, a dopo. One love.