Tag Archives: food hipster

Day 14 – Parma where the ham comes from

We were in a good spot to start early for Parma. Camping Arizona was still muddy from last night’s rain and the mud bogged us down a little, physically as well as mentally. It was 10am before we left, having had to pack the awning still wet.

the streets are narrowing, we are getting closer to our goal

In good time, we arrived in Parma, only to be mind-boggled again…this time by the old inner city, which as a surprise for us had limited access for cars. Google maps led us around in circles, through houses and into places we were not supposed to go. We didn’t quite understand it at the time but the inner city has zones that you’re not supposed to enter with a car. Electric cars would have been allowed in, though only with a permit that we would have needed to organize days ahead.

We just desperately tried to get to a charging point all of which were in the inner city with no good way to get there. It took us quite a while and little bit of driving through zones we weren’t supposed to be in to find a free charger and start exploring the city on foot. We will find out in a few months if that will cost us a bit extra.

Our first point of interest was a prosciutteria where Flo bought ham to take home and some salami and cheese to consume on the road. I would have loved to buy fresh pasta but we have no way of cooling it (and carry way too much food already) so it would probably spoil. Having secured these before lunch we went to “Officina Alimentare Dedicata Parma” where I’d booked a table to break our dry spell around lunch time. Parma, we had decided, was going to be all about food for us.

I feel that with both Flo’s love for savory treat and Nina’s sweet tooth, we have to focus hard on portion control for Number 3 …

We dug in. Starters included both a local cheese and a cold meats platter. Both kids dug into Flo’s salami, Number 3 also liked my parmigiano reggiano. The Agent just sat there, slowly letting her piece of sausage dissolve in her mouth. We were quite impressed.

For mains, I had gnocchi with pesto, Number 3 went for tortellini, the Agent of Entropy got a torta fritta and Flo had buffalo tartar. Finally, the dessert I ordered was a lemon pie dipped in white chocolate with pistachios and cream on top. It turned out not to be entirely “my” dessert as I had to share it with Number 3.

Full to the brim, we got up and walked around a little more. We checked out the Baptistery and the Duomo, but soon after headed to the car to get to the next campground. Before settling in for the night, we had a short stop at a gigantic coop to stock up on things the Agent can eat as well as fresh milk. It took Flo and Number 3 45 minutes to come out of the grocery store again, getting lost twice in the huge complex.

Our campground for the night turned out to be quite…basic. It had the feeling of a rest stop near the Autobahn. It was the only option close to Bologna and we’d only stay one night – so okay. The mosquitoes were a different thing though. I got bitten so often that I retreated to the tent. After a mosquito sat on the Agent of Entropy’s temple, she came into the tent with me. Still full from our indulgence at lunch time, we had a light muesli dinner and went to bed soon after.

ok, bare with me: This is the Agent grabbing my phone, activating the camera and taking a non-garbage picture. We were impressed when we saw this

Day 7 – Post Bus to Gluttony

It is rather unusual that we stay in one place for three nights. But we had full supplies, no deadlines and plenty of choice for things to do. We did want to take a break from any serious walking, though – the memory of the tower incident might still be too fresh. So, we decided on what we love to do and what this kind of travel affords us the spare funds to do so: Explore the next best town!

It rained during the night and stayed overcast for almost the entire day – which was kind of perfect for this kind of excursion. Not having had many distractions in the morning allowed us to meet a rather ambitious 9.38 am bus ride to town. It is only 4 km and we could have walked there, but for only 2 € the convenience of a bus was too hard to resist.

As a sign that we are -that- close to the Swiss border, the bus was operated by the Swiss postal service (a High Alps thing). We got almost a bit confused when all the signs and ads in the bus were in German instead of Italian 😊. Six stops later and we decided we were “in town” enough to hop out. Time to explore Chiavenna.

We got our first glimpse of things to come looking into the old town from the new bridge over the rushing river Mera. And we saw a lot of ongoing construction on the banks, covering up some but not all significant damage done by severe floods in northern Italy in the last years.

Before we would hit the old town, we couldn’t help but stop at a brand new Pasticceria (plus café) on the far side of the bridge called Soul Cake. I mean … we had to, right? I myself was quite delighted by the realisation that we are in Italy now – for I had the best coffee in weeks served to me. Nina was completely enchanted by the huge selection of petit-four, filled croissants and cakes on offer. We settled on a variety of three croissants and a bit of relaxation. After all, we had two hours to fill before the chosen restaurant would open at 12.00 noon.

Well prepared, all of us performed admirably at the 1 ½ hours stroll through the narrow alleys of the old town. The most impressive feature had to be the steep 8m drop in between the 4-6 story buildings down to the rushing river Mera. The shift to “Italian” feel and architecture is pretty severe – only 10 km up the valley you can find the wood-clad romantic idyll of the Swiss Alps, whereas here the Romanesque window openings and slightly crumbling yellow washed facades evoke a clear Mediterranean feel.

We finished our walk with a mere 20 minutes to bridge and we were able to distract the Agent with a feed and Number 3 with a magical little footpath cut into the rockface – all mossy green and gloomy. The place where you would expect to meet nymphs and fairies.

We got lucky by being there right on opening time and still got a table even without reservation. It turned out, as is kind of our luck, it was Republic Day today! No wonder we had trouble finding a free campsite for Thursday and Friday.

Anyway, we went to a “Crotto”, a local form of small menu restaurant that evolved of cellars for curing meats and cheeses. They had few enough items on the menu that we could basically order “one of each”. Once more, we got a bit emotional – because the food was excellent, home made gnoccetini (with cheese), cold cuts from their own cellar, polenta (with cheese :D) and biscotti for dessert – but more so because eating out has become part of our identity, and we were not able to do so for almost a year by now. We missed it so much! Even the house wine was great.

The bus was on time (Swiss precision and so on …). Unfortunately for us, we were not able to convince Number 3 to take a nap or at least a bit of rest. So, the rest of the day was a bit of a drag with him getting up to worse and worse plots cooked up by his sleep deprived brain. At least when it was time to go to bed, he fell asleep mid-sentence.

— sorry for the amount of pictures. We had to nights of gaming and I want to get is out, no willpower to be tough on the selection anymore 😀 —

Day 13 – Fusion delight

Almost … we are so close to this not being enjoyable anymore that we seriously considered taking the off day right here. But then, it was more of a cheap stopover than a place to linger. More importantly, we found a place that seem just right to relax. The timing would be perfect, too. It makes everything that much easier when you both know that it is going to be just a short day on the road and where exactly you are going.

Three things to do: Go see Málaga, get groceries to get us over the Sunday and go just 170 km north to our designated camp. Spoilers: It worked out pretty smoothly, too.

Málaga had a great vibe. We meandered about for a while before going into the Alcazaba. Another fortress palace from the Muslim era. We took a liking, even more so when we tried to stop treating it as the Alhambra consolation prise. We just had enough time for a brief meander around the cathedral before heading for a place to have lunch. I must confess, a little more time would have been nice. The Cathedral felt mountainous from the outside and I would have loved to get a feel for it from the interior.

Lucky for us, our alternative program held up to any attraction. Following the Lonely Planet advice we opted for fusion tapas this time and oh my, was that delicious. Once again, we were pretty much the first lunch guests at Uvedoble Taberna (even though 12:30 am is already way past our usual). There are no pictures for once, but believe me – the food was amazing. Number 3 had all eyes on him when he happily shared my tapa of black noodles with baby squid and aioli with me. Nina squirmed a bit – they were delicious. Bonus point for me – a lot of the places we go to have a non-alcoholic craft beer on the menu, perfect for me without spoiling the great meal by lack of appropriate beverage.

Shopping was hindered a bit by everyone but me conveniently falling asleep in the car on our way. So I had to herd my sleep drunken family through the ridiculously enormous Carrefour. The ham section remains an attraction for me in every supermarket. Even though we have been on the road only two weeks, we are back at the point were huge walmart like box stores seem like a spaceship from outer space to us. We live on a different scale while on the road.

The campground, once again chosen from Rustiek Kamperen turned out 100% to spec. Super quiet, out in the sticks nested in between olive groves with great hosts to boot. The weather was perfect, too. Sunny but at reasonable temperatures. Another pool will surely tempt us tomorrow. For now, it was time to sample the spoils of our supermarket visit (non-alcoholic beers and ham for me) and soak in the places atmosphere.

Roman theatre in Málaga
Walkway on the outside of Alcazaba
Over the roofs
Staircase detail
“Well…we have those two columns…why not chuck them in here? Nobody will notice.” 😛
Inside Alcazaba
View into the city
Happy baby
Mosaic detail
Giuess who was also tghere
Another detail
Part of the cathedral
Colourful building
Too many hams for my taste…
“First you take a peg”
“Then, you put a string through here”
“And now, put the peg in the ground and attach the string. All done!”

Day 309 – The Day of the Food Hipsters

The camp ground was lovely. The weather was lovely. And Flo had been pointed towards a job that he just needed to apply for. So we quickly decided to stay put another day so Flo could put his application together. Which in turn meant, I’ll have the whole day to myself…with my book. 🙂

Hipster food shot

After the food disasters yesterday, we carefully made sure to have appropriate food hipster food today. At 2pm, slightly late for lunch, we went into a vegetarian café close to the camp ground. It was brand new, in fact yesterday they had still painted some of the outdoor furniture, but it looked cosy and just like our thing. Which it was. 🙂 I had the bread platter while Flo took the falafel plate and we shared equally. It was fantastic food. It made us wonder a little bit on how much amazing food we were missing out because we cook ourselves when we camp.

Going back, more laying in the sun followed for me. In the evening, when Flo had finished his documents, we went out for a real dinner. The Lonely Planet recommends Saraphane which is the Turkish word for “wine house”. This seemed like the right place to celebrate that Flo started

Frist wine since Sohar – offically since Kuala Lumpur

on the application process already. Again, it was amazing. The super friendly cook took me into the kitchen because the menu didn’t feature a vegetarian main and gave me option what she could make for me. She spoke more German than English so with a mix of languages I ordered a cold yoghurt soup as a starter which is refreshing and a great summer dish and got a custom-made pasta plate as a main. The pasta is home-made, too, and with cheese, walnuts and rocket…it was delicious.

But the main attraction is definitely the wine menu. Choosing chicken as a main which will go with red wine, Flo was superbly advised while picking the wine to go with it. A local Turkish red wine. Can’t get much better. It reminded us of so many evenings in Wellington but also in Frankfurt when you have good food and are able to share with friends. Slightly home-sick, we contacted at least one of the ones we thought of.

To round things off, we went for coffee and tea afterwards. Also, superbly done and yummy. Paying, we realized that those drinks were not on the bill and when I asked about it the lovely lady said it was on the house. Happy, we walked back to our tent.