Happy Thanksgiving!

We wish everyone had a wonderful and happy and food-comatose thanksgiving! We didn't do much on the Thursday since it's not a holiday here. But Friday we had friends over to celebrate: Marta, from Florence, Italy, and Jue, from China. So of course I made cheeseburgers and mashed potatoes. What else would we have? Turkey was not an option since we don't have an oven. The burgers were...not bad. Could have been better if we had a barbeque.

We did learn some interesting things during our dinner. Regarding chinese food and culture in the states: as many of us know, chop suey and chow mein are not chinese food and most chinese people have never heard of these things. They were invented for americans. Also the fortune cookie was invented by a Japanese-American man in Los Angeles or San Francisco (this must be true, I read it on the internet). We may need professional help on this from a librarian: Jean??? Yes, to our surprise and hers, Jue informed us of these cultural tidbits. She also told us that in fact chinese restaurants do NOT have red lanterns as decoration. Hmmm.

Jue also imparted a valuable lesson in rice cooking after we told her of our difficulties in this endeavor. Her secret recipe: bring a rice cooker from China. Of the people Gen has met in her school (from different countries), each seems to bring some food or cooking item from their own country that the don't want to do without. Elsa brings cheese back from France on a regular basis. Marta has her own little personal olive oil import business along with her personal coffee maker. Jue the rice cooker.

Marta told us that "Florentine" foods, such as Chicken Florentine (meaning "with spinach" I guess) were also not from florence. Florence is known for it's butchers, however. Our tenant in Santa Monica, Nancy, sent us an article she wrote about tracking down a famous Tuscan butcher, which reinforces this theory. According the Marta, there is a famous butcher near florence; famous because he can recite the Divine Comedy by memory. Well, that's something we have to see.

English Lessons: update

Addendum to Greg's post on what I'm teaching my friends to say in English:

Marta, my Italian classmate asked me the following question recently, with her charming Italian accent: "what is the word for the person who crushes the balls' ?" I stared at her blankly for a few moments before I hesitantly replied, "um, ballbuster?"

Paraiso

Today, Greg discovered a wonderful thing about living in a small apartment. While sitting on the couch, with TV remote in hand, he can open the refrigerator and withdraw a beverage by simply listing to port. (Although he could probably open the bathroom door by listing starboard, I'm hoping he doesn't get any ideas about using his...uh..."water cannon" long range).