Cibo (Food)

I love Italian food.
I loved it in the states, but man - the food here is amazing.

I wasn't sure before if my stomach would agree with authentic Italian food, cuz I had heard from a couple other people who have been here that the food is different from the Italian food we have in the states. So far I haven't experienced any problems (at least with the Italian cuisine, I had a burger yesterday which didn't taste very much like a burger.. it wasn't bad, but it was interesting and not really what I wanted tastewise). Way more often than not my stomach has been perfectly happy and satisfied with the food here, which is great. :)

Our meal plan consists of meal vouchers to seven establishments located all around Alba: Duchessa, La Locanda dell'Oca, VinCafe, Osteria Nuova, Hemingway, Akash, & the Self-Service Comunale. The comunale is basically a community cafeteria and is our lunch spot on weekdays because those are the tickets they give us. The food there is okay - I mean, it's cafeteria food, but it's good cafeteria food and they definitely do give you quite a bit. The Italians definitely have long and large meals here - many restaurants serve an appetizer, first course, main course, and dessert. It certainly fills you up! I've been accumulating several delicious dishes of leftovers :) For the other six establishments, it sort of varies on what the vouchers get us, but I think for most of them the voucher gets us about ten or eleven euros worth, which you can most definitely get full on. It's a wonderful food setup they have for us, I must say. :)

I kept forgetting to take pictures of my meals before diving in with my fork the first couple of days, but here are some of the delicious dining delectables that can be had here in Alba:

Breaded chicken & potatoes at La Locanda dell'Oca

I don't remember what kind of pasta this was at Hemingway, but it was pretty tasty.

Nutella dessert crepe at Hemingway

Chelsea with her "sweet salami" at Locanda, which were like chocolate/cookie things that just looked like salami. So good!

My dessert from Locanda, it was called "semifreddo" - the texture was like half ice cream, half whipped cream, and it was just marvelous.

Me & my strawberry daquiri back at Hemingway. I know this isn't really Italian cuisine, but I wanted to put it up as part of my Italian experience, and to document what drinks I've liked and actually finished :P

Lilian's small feast at Akash - all covered on the voucher!

Tortellini Duchessa at Duchessa - this place is my favorite so far. I get full on half the serving, and their pizza and pasta are just sooo good! :)

Gelato! 'Nuff said. :]

At one of the local bakery shops.. they all smell sooo good, and everything looks so yummy!

Speaking of heavenly smells, have I mentioned that the Ferrero factory is right here in Alba? They're the ones that make Nutella, and the Ferrero Rocher chocolates that I love so much. So, very often there is a tantalizing smell of brownies or something like it just blowing by in the breeze - it's so good and so unfair at the same time, because we haven't been able to go to the factory and get any of their chocolate (yet?).