So much good food in Italy! The best part of Finale was seeing family and spending time with them. And everything we did revolved around food. And it was awesome! A huge part of Italian culture is wine, too, and perhaps some of the best wine around.

Here is what we ate…

A beautiful green spiky cauliflower we’ve never seen. We dipped this and other veggies in a sauce of anchovies and garlic. Delicious!!!

Fresh baked bread…see the steam?

Bread with olive oil

Yummy cod dish with potatoes and olives

Franco’s homemade wine

More amazingly good wine

Apertivos…olives, chips, mini sandwiches, and the best, most perfectly moist almond cookies ever

Pancetta on bread

Huge, incredibly tender and delicious steaks, fresh from the butcher

Italian parsnip-like vegetable

Juicy, plump tomatoes (they grow all the veggies on their own, in their huge garden on their property….organic!)

FRESH focaccia…it was soooooo good

Dried apricots

Octopus and potato salad

Cheeses

Italian chocolate…melts in your mouth

The most amazing cookies in the world…so light, buttery, and not-too-sweet

Italian sausage and fries from scratch…fried in yummy olive oil, seasoned with rosemary

Tripe Italian style

Risotto

Italian cold cuts

Fresh focaccia

Carpaccio with Parmesan and freshly grated truffle. Truffle! Never actually seen it before…

More cheese

Special cheese. This cheese is made from sheep’s milk, and it is set out in the sun for a while. For a long while actually, where worms will start appearing in the cheese. There were no worms in the cheese when we were eating it, but it sure was a tasty cheese. It is eaten with honey.

Desserts!

Nougat

And finally, Korean food. Andrea spent a semester in South Korea for school, and sent to his home a bunch of Korean food and seasonings. He wanted my mom to throw together a Korean meal of rice, bulgogi (marinated beef), nakjee bokum (sauteed spicy octopus), and spicy Korean salad. This was also an opportunity for Andrea’s parents to try Korean cuisine. It was all very delicious and a fun way to end our time there. I was so consumed with the eating part, I forgot to take photos!