Day 2, part 2

Ok, now for the continuation of Day 2.  I drove back up to the campus for dinner in the restaurant Caterina De Medici, which is the Italian Fine Dining restaurant at the CIA.  It is a beautiful restaurant, and looks very Tuscan-inspired, with soft yellow paint on the walls (like creamy butter) and black wrought iron.  They had a large table for all of us Boot Campers set up and ready. 

We were served an amuse bouche (this is a single bite-sized hors d'oevre) and 3 different platters of italian meats like prosciutto, ham, salami, etc, for starters.  I really liked the salami the best.  They also served us bread, but I didn't eat very much of the bread, to save room for the main course.

We all chose our main course, and I chose Quail with polenta.  I have never have quail before, so I thought this would be a good time to try something totally different.  The quails are really small, and I was served 2.  They were butterflied and secured with skewers, and grilled.  The polenta was creamy and rich, and plain tasting, which is actually what I was hoping for. 

The servers and the cooks in the back were all students at this restuarant, and they did a good job.  The other boot campers were asking lots of questions of the waiter, and what he lacked in knowledge he made up for in earnestness!  He did his best, I give him that.  I forget that the servers are just students in their 20's with very little life experience to be able to answer the questions, but it is all a learning experience.  The restaurant ran like a real restaurant, it didn't feel like a school at all.

Lastly, we had dessert and I got Zuppa Emiliana, which was a layer cake with chocolate and vanilla cream.  The cake was soaked in some kind of lemon liqueur.  I didn't care for the liqueur in the cake, so I ate the creams.  (On a side note, lots of the desserts I have eaten here that have cake in them are soaked in a liqueur, and I am learning I don't care for that alcohol taste.  I know lots of people do like that, but for me it is too much.  I'd prefer a sugar syrup I think.  It is good to know that I am finding this out about my tastes.)

Our dinner started at 6 pm, and I finished up at 8:30 pm, and I excused myself to come back to the hotel.  I think I was the first one to leave, but I was ready to go.  It was a long day, but good of course.  I guess I will find out how late everyone stayed there when we start up at class tomorrow.

Anyway, it was a good day.  Stay tuned for more entries.