Buttercupchappati Chronicles

Eggplant parmigiana and Emilio

Well, strictly speaking, Emilio's Grandmother.

So there we were on the bus, the small bus not the big bus. Important distinction because the big bus was for the Italian group and the smaller bus was for the motley collection known as the English Speaking Group. Oh and yes, this is while I was in Tibet.

Back to the bus, the back of the bus to be exact, where Emilio has taken a seat by invitation, we made him an honorary English speaker. Emilio is very cool and makes me laugh all the time. We are driving from Mahlo to Labrang, not so far as the crow flies but a long way by roads that are either being re-built or have been washed out by all the recent rain.

We have been late to get started due to various administrative details and it always takes a while to round up all of our Italians and get them on their bus and ready to go.

This means no lunch on the way. While we do have bags of interesting Chinese snacks and biscuits which we all share around, that's not lunch is it? And remember, we have been away from western food for over three weeks now.

This is when Emilio decides to give us, in great detail, with great passion and appreciation, his grandmothers recipe for eggplant parmigiana. You could almost smell the basil and the tomato and the thought of actual melted cheese had most of us in tears. We had to threaten him with eviction to get him to stop.

But I couldn't wait to try it when I got home, and after finding some gorgeous eggplant at the market, today was the day!

 

 

It was delicious!

Who doesn't go to Tibet to get great recipes for Italian food? A hundred thousand blessings on this Italian Grandmother and her slightly crazy but very lovable grandson!

Been busy eating, drinking and making merry,

oh and making fun of PRS and his BIG BIRTHDAY.

Fancy turning 50.

Not happening here let me tell you!

But we had fun. It started with a lovely dinner out for the two of us and our wedding anniversary on the Friday night, at the Royal George in Kyneton. Just beautiful, a real treat.
Then Saturday we had a gathering of friends and family for the Really Old Person and his birthday. It was a great afternoon, a beautiful warm Woodend day and the restaurant Zarby's, kept the delicious food and wine coming.
My super-shopper-sister-in-law stayed over with us before her trip back to Sydney the next day and took us out to lunch at the very lovely Lakehouse in Daylesford.

Spoilt? Oh yes!
Fasting this week? Oh yes!

And I must complain that all this festive behavior has put me way way behind the eight ball for my tilt at the 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month. The crystal ball shows a few late nights on the Powerbook headed my way.

 

Life without tomatoes

and potatoes, and eggplant, and peppers.

It gets more depressing each time I say it.

I am trying a new diet for various health reasons and one aspect is no vegetables of the nightshade family, see above.

Hand on heart I love my veggies (well, not Brussels sprouts).

I never realised before how much I rely on tomato and potato, now seen as old and dear friends! There is no meat on this diet, which doesn't worry me, I've been vegetarian on and off for a number of years now. But vegetarian food without these staples is a bit more challenging. (Add in the fact of no wine, no coffee and no chocolate and one begins to lose the will to live.) 

Try going out to lunch without tomato in this land of the always present focaccia. No-one seems to make soup without tomato in some form, unless you choose Asian food, then there is all that salt. Pasta? Only if you want that fat filled cream sauce. Yes I am whinging.

Yes to rice, yes to noodles, yes to lentils and all their little cousins, yes to tofu, yes I live on spinach and mushrooms - at the moment. I am sure we will come to grips with this. A delicious Thai inspired red curry with vegetables was made this week.

There is also a ban on almonds, bananas, corn and peanuts. Quite an odd combo. Peanuts is hard, I have been a peanut butter girl for years and years. Sob.