Rome: Romeow Cat Bistrot

Romeow was Sylvia's choice.  Most of our time in Rome has been travelling through the nearby Porta San Giovanni to the historic centre of Rome.  We had to travel in the other direction to the Ostiense district to find this vegan cat cafe.  This means a vegan cafe with cats, not a cafe to eat vegan cats, though the website subtitle of "taste the cat experience" might be a tad midleading - or maybe it is an error of Google Translate.

We had booked but it wasn't like our cat cafe in Melbourne, where bookings of 1 hour are essential because they limit the number of people because it is focused on intense one on one time with cats and maybe a cuppa and a slice.  Not only does it have a cooler name but it is more of a vegan cafe with some cats. Our booking was for upstairs but it was a bit darker than downstairs.  More crucially, it seemed easier to eat a meal at a table than at a coffee table, despite the upstairs nook being very cute and cosy.

As we walked back downstairs we were able to watch this cat negotiate the obstacle course and slip into the upstairs area.  If only cats would listen to humans and do some of their cuter acts over and over.  If so I would have been encouraging it to do it again. 

You might notice that the are lots of pins in the cork map of the world lower on the wall.  If you have a really good eye you would see no pins in Australia.  When I paid I asked about this and was told that the map was for visitors to add pins.  I was very pleased to add one to Australia so it is represented.

I liked the downstairs area more upon walking into the cafe than from the picture on their website.  I am not sure that this photo does it enough justice either.  It is so lovely with a light and airy feel from the large windows, lots of colours in the chairs and walls, pleasing paintings and little fun additions such as a piano and cat beds.

This was the table that we chose.  We were welcomed by two cats who spent a lot of the time sleeping near us.

We spied a few other cats.  I loved this cat on their window bed staring out the window.

Soon after we arrived the black and white cat on the window bed stretched, had a scratch on the LOVE cat scratcher and curled up in a cat bed behind the tree.  It would have been nice to have seen the cats more active with all the fun of the trees and steps on the walls made out of books.

This cat was the only one we saw that was playful.  He jumped around a chased a ball but then disappeared.

This cat curled up in a ball near the door and slept most of the time we were there.  As an aside the entrance to the building is quite confusing as they have a double door with a buzzer for each door.  After being granted access through one door, the staff check there are no cats in the entraneway before buzzing you through the next door.

Sylvia gently patted the sleeping cat.  She does this to our cat at home and he has never shown any problem with it.  It surprised us that the staff asked her not to disturb them while sleeping.  They then gave us the rules in English which made this clear that it was a requirement of the cafe.  I understand with so many people about that they need to make sure the cats are continually stimulated.  I suspect if our cat does not want patting, he just wanders off for some time alone.

It seemed like there were more rules for humans than cats.  This cat jumped onto the sunny spot on the table beside us soon after we arrived and slept there most of the time.  The staff removed the table settings and left it there.

However having a meal while there, meant we paid less attention to cats than at our Cat Cafe in Melbourne.  The first offering was a tasty amuse bouche.  It was a crisp bread shell topped with vegan feta and a crumble.  I check if there were any peanuts in this and were told yet there were peanuts in the crumble.  It was disappointing that after we had noted Sylvia's peanut allergy in the booking that she was almost given peanuts.  Once we told them, they were good and brought her a crisp bread with feta and no crumble, and checked about nuts in other dishes. 

I was pleased to encounter a kombucha.  It was rose flavoured but quite subtle and had a nice tart flavour.  I think it is the only kombucha I have had in Rome.  It does not seem much of thing here.

I ordered the Crispy tofu with fondu heart and salad of puntarelle with raspberry vinegar.  The tofu coating was really thick and crunchy.  The rectangle of tofu had been slice and had a slice of cheese slice inserted in it so that every mouthful had soft melty cheese.  I also liked the drops of creamy pink dressing which I think might be cashew cream.  Like the salad they were seasoned with vinegar which was a nice contract to the mellow tofu and cheese.  Together with the slick of tart raspberry sauce it was adelicious meal with great contracts of flavour and texture.

I could not identify the salad vegetable and when I asked our waitress I was told it was a salad of puntarelle.  When I asked what puntarelle was, she could not explain.  But Google confirmed for me that it is a vegetable related to chicory rather than a type of salad.  I had not expected Rome to offer me a new vegetable but was very pleased to make the acquaintance of the puntarelle.  One I knew of it, I seemed to see it on a lot of menus.

Meanwhile Sylvia had decided she just wanted a tiramisu.  She was told that she could not just have cake but had to have a meal.  I think they meant it was lunch rather than afternoon tea.  So with good humour she ordered the Tteokbokki- seasoned Korean rice cakes with mushroom ragu, lemon caviar and marinated ginger.  She was very pleased to try it as she has never had Korean rice cakes before (but we have a packet in the fridge that she plans to try.)  And she loved the dish.  So colourful and well seasoned and mushroomy and those little pearls of lemon were so much fun.

It was ironic that when she did order her (vegan) tiramisu, she could not eat it as she did not enjoy the cashew cream.  (She is not much into nuts.)  So she was really glad she had had such a great savoury dish.

For dessert, I had the Chocolate mousse cake with a biscuit base, a berry heart, chocolate fondant with coconut milk and fresh berries.  This was more like a dense cheesecake to me rather than a light and fluffy mousse cake but what's in a name!  I loved this dessert because it was not really sweet, though the coconut milk in the filling made it quite rich.  The vein of berry sauce throughout my slice gave some relief to the intensity and a slight added sweetness.  The fresh berries on top were lovely, especially the redcurrants which are rare to encounter fresh in Australia.  In fact, I could have had a lot more berries.  Despite that, I really enjoyed this dessert.

I don't usually photograph cafe toilets but this avocado toilet seat was pretty surprising.  Even more surprising was that they had free sanitary products in a shelf by the toilet.  I think it is the first time I have seen this and was impressed.

 

 

This sign on the cat - "all guests must be approved by cats" - says it all about this cafe.  The cats are the highest priority.  Bu the humans can't complain with such excellence food and company.

Before we paid we went to see this big fella, asleep in the sun.  Then we headed to the counter which was as fun and colourful as the rest of the cafe.  I loved the plant in the cats paw vase.

 

 

Then we headed back onto the street to admire this signal box artwork with the cats and cactus and head down to the spot that Google Maps calls "migliori graffiti e arte di strada a Roma".  This last translates into English as "best graffiti and artwork in Rome".  How could we resist! 

 

The part of Ostiense that we encountered lacked the beautiful heritage buildings and frequent historic ruins of the centre.  However if I had more time I am sure there is more to the area than the streets surrounding the train station covered in  graffiti, dog turds and grim.  The first impression were of suitcases spilling out messy piles of clothes on one footpath near the station looked like either donations for the homeless, a mini flea market or sales of unclaimed luggage.  But the street art was angsty and I wish I had known how close it was to the 4th Century Porta San Paolo.  Indeed, the vibrancy of Romeow pointed to some hipster locals with a desire for good food.

Romeow Cat Bistrot
Via Francesco Negri, 15, 00154 Roma RM
near Roma Ostiense Train Station
Ostiense district
https://www.romeowcatbistrot.com/

Rome: Trevi Fountain, Amorina Gelato and al Picchio restaurant

I threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain on my first visit to Rome and here I am returned.  But perhaps it is my final trip to Rome because I did not have any coins (the world does not need coins as much as when I visited Rome about 20 years ago)!  Even having seen the fountain before, I was still amazed and awed to see how large and detailed it is.  And if these are the crowds in January, imagine what it must be like at the height of summer. 

We took the underground metro to Barberini station and walked from there.  On the way, Sylvia gasped in excitement at seeing Amorino Gelato al Naturale (Via del Lavatore n.94/A, Via della Panetteria, n.42/D), 00187 Roma RM.  We could not pass up the opportunity to have a flower gelato.

Although not too fancy on the outside, the gelato store was pretty impressive on the inside.  All the flavours made it hard to choose but finally we ordered a chocolate and strawberry, and a mango and strawberry.  Once we had admired the skill of sculpting gelato into flowers we were directed to the cashier to pay.

Sylvia's rose looked more impressive than mine but she wasn't so keen on the mango.  We both loved the strawberry and I was so happy to have my favourite mixture of berry and chocolate.  As we walked down the Via del Lavatore towards the fountain, we had admiring glances from passers-by.

Then we got to the corner where the magnificent Trevi Fountain appeared before us.  There were so many others who also wanted to see it.  I n fact I think I was distracted by all the beautiful people posing for photos in front of the fountain that I could barely focus on it.  And navigating all the crowds to get a decent photo was also challenging,

I looked up the Trevi Fountain on my phone for some context.  Sylvia chided me for being there and looking at it on the web instead of in front of me.  But I liked the read a bit about it.  Then I could understand that the above statue was Abundance.  It seemed a fitting theme for the extravagant fountain. Though I also found that the overall theme is the Taming of the Waters.

Then I was surprised to be dragged into the nearby United Colours of Bennetton store by Sylvia.  Up the first flight of stairs, the windows gave great views of the fountain.  It wasn't a particularly sunny day and yet the water was still the gorgeous aqua green that made me want to plunge into it.  As well as the above photo, I took the top photo there.  Even there, we had to wait for a couple before us to stand at the window to take in the view.

I had a quick look in the the Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio a Trevi Baroque church.  Rome is overwhelming with so many wonderful views and buildings.  It seems crazy that a beautiful historic church like this one is so overshadowed by the Trevi Fountain that it seems so overlooked by many tourists.

By now it was dinner time and we were keen to try Rome's foodie offerings.  We walked a short way along Via del Lavatore looking at some cafes until we decided upon Ristorante al Picchio at number 39-40.  I had a good feeling about the place but also loved the whismsical wiindow display with pasta, a wagon wheel, flowers, chianti bottles, corks, strings of dried chillis and garlics.  It was befitting of a place whose name translates as The Woodpecker.  And the seats above were the ones where we sat, complete with blankets over the chairs to help us keep warm as the  night darkened and chilled. 

We ordered sparkling water and apple juice to drink.  Sylvia was not keen on her juice but we had plenty of sparkling water to share.

For starters, we had suppli al rice.  It was one of the dishes that Sylvia was keen to try in Rome.  These little crumbed, fried, rice croquettes were delicious with a tomato sauce and melty stretchy cheese in the middle.

For our main dish (aka Primi Priatti) we had big bowls of fresh pasta.  Sylvia had a traditional Roman dish of tonnarelli cacio e pepe (with cheese and pepper) and I had linguine al pesto genovese.  It was lovely but we had already had gelato and suppli so we ended up taking half home for dinner another evening!  

We were very happy with our choice of a dinner venue.  It was great food and a great place to people watch.  That is watching the tourists and the guy trying to sell roses.  The only downside was the man demonstrating his toys for sale which made really annoying squeaking noises.

By the time we finished dinner, it was dark.  All the better for the fairy lights to twinkle.  We had a last look at the Trevi Fountain and, after a visit to the aqueduct in the basement of Rinascente, we headed home.

Rome: Basilica Santa Croce, Aurelian walls, Giardini di via Carlo Felice

 

On my first full day in Rome I went exploring the area around our apartment.  Porta San Giovanni (St John gate) is very nearby as one of the gates through the Aurelian walls that were built between 271 and 275 AD to replace the previous city walls.  So I walked through the Giardini di via Carlo Felice to get an eyeful of the walls to the Basilica di Santa Croce to see some holy relics.

First stop was to see the statue of St Francis of Asissi and his followers that was erected in 1927 to commemorate the 700th anniversary of his death.

Then a stroll through some lovely gardens.  These gardens are quite narrow and situated alongside the Aurelian walls but incredibly green.

 The gardens are beautiful especially with the Ancient Roman walls in the background.

 I loved the fence beside the walls.  The wooden fence posts make it blend well with the Ancient walls.

The dog park by the walls is a mighty fine place to let your dog run free (see the dog in the park).  Enough to make me want a dog.  As well as the dog park there is a drinking fountain and a children's park.

Across the road from the end of the gardens is the Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.  This translates as the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem.  This church was originally a room in the Empress Helena's palace until she transformed it into a Christian church in circa 320 AD.  The floor was covered in soil from Jerusalem so the basilica was considered to be IN Jerusalem.  Helena (later canonised as a saint) made piligramage to Jerusalem where she acquired relics from Jerusalem that are on display in the basilica.

The basilica has been a place of pilgrimage for almost 2000 years.  It has remodelled since its inception and now has this grand entrance but no Jerusalem soil on the floor.

Upon entering the basilica it is dimmed with the lighting directing the eye to the aspe.  It has a detailed fresco telling the Legends of the True Cross. 

In the middle of the fresco is St Helena standing with the true cross.

On the walls are paintings.  I had the name of this one but some of my notes have gone.

Then I followed the sign towards the relics.  To get there I passed through the vestibule which includes notes on the relics and the stations of the cross.

Although I am no longer a practicing Catholic, I loved the stories of the stations of the cross when we went to this solemn ceremony on Good Friday as a kid.  This station of the cross above is sixth: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.  The story is that she felt pity for Jesus struggling with the cross and offered her veil to him to wipe his face.  The veil was returned to her with an image of her face.

Although I have quite a few pictures, I was reluctant to photograph the copy of the Holy Shroud (of Turin).  I have never seen the shroud in such detail and wondered what if that really was the face of Jesus.  Afterwards I had to search it and found opinions to support the story of the shroud being the one that wrapped Jesus' body after he died on the cross, and some that dispute the veracity of the story.

The Chapel of the Relics of the Passion feels sacred.  People sit on the pews in prayer and reflection while a brave few made their way close to the cabinet of the relics and took photos.  The above photo shows the main attraction: in the cross icon are fragments of the True Cross.  Above that from left to right is a piece of St Thomas' finger, more holy relics from Jerusalem and two thorns believed to have come from the crown of thorns on Jesus' head.

This relic is the wooden tablet where Pontious Pilate wrote King of the Jews in Hebrew, Greek and Latin and fixed it above Jesus on the cross.  While part of me is cynical, another part is excited to see actual items from the stories of my childhood.

This photo is an old fashioned confessional.  It looks to me like the priest sits in the middle and there is a seat either side.  But I am not clear that a priest would be totally concealed and the confessors would be speaking where they might be viewed.  Though I remember going to confession in the privacy of the sacristy so maybe this would be in a private place.  It still would not explain why there are two seats for confessors.

Then I was asked to leave because the Basilica closes at 12.30pm until 3.30pm.  So I walked back on the road side of the Aurelian walls.
 

Here is one final photo from the Aurelian walls.  They were so beautiful I just wanted to keep taking photos but I went home to where Sylvia was finished resting and ready to go out.

In My Kitchen February 2024 and making fresh pasta

When this post is published, I expect to be in Rome.  I wasn't sure what to do about the February  edition of In My Kitchen until I had some dishes I wanted to share.  The above dish is not just a home made vodka pasta sauce but also home made pasta. I wanted a few notes on my first foray into pasta making. 

I am writing this mid-January before I leave for my trip.  The weeks after Christmas always feel a bit of time to relax, potter around the house and refresh for the year ahead.  The kids are on holidays, many businesses close and the sun shines.  I've got some home organisation done - dropped off stuff at the op shop, given some unused stationery to the Operation Backpack program that distributes it to local children, given Sylvia smashed ipad to the Apple store for recycling, dug out my digital camera for Sylvia to use, Sylvia's baby towels and other worn-out clothes to H&M, taken a ream of old bills and papers to Officeworks to shred and cleaned the house more than I have for a few years. 

I went to visit a friend in Mulgrave and took some Condensed milk choc chip cookies.  When thinking about baking something to take to afternoon tea, I fixated on a can on Ube purple condensed milk and decided to try it in a favourite choc chip cookie recipe.  The result was purple but not overly so.  My friend's son loved them but thought they were chocolate and I wasn't sure if he would have liked to hear they had purple ube in them so I just smiled at his enthusiasm.  

Having a long drive alone was a good opportunity to listen to ABC RN.  I heard about Julian of Norwich (fascinating for her 30 years sealed in a room on the side of a church and her book being the earliest existing English-language book by a woman), a discussion on Forever (a documentary about Judy Blume and her fantastic books for teens), and a inspiring interview with Sinéad Burke, Irish fashion blogger and disability activist.

I have tried to avoid buying too much food for our kitchen.  As I write we are trying to use up what is in the fridge and pantry.  It has taken self control with all the post-Christmas sales but I did give in to temptation when I saw these Chocolate Rocky Road Tarts for sale.  They had a very pleasing fudgy chocolate filling topped with marshmallows, raspberry jelly lollies and shredded coconut.  All in a chocolate pastry shell, which was almost unnecessary!  The biggest surprise when I got home was that there were only 5 tarts: one was missing.  This was a little disturbing but I really just wanted a taste of them and could live with one less than I thought I purchased.

This photo is one where it just does not give justice to the food.  It is a walnut, mushroom and cauliflower minced meat substitute.  I was impressed that this was just a matter of finely chopping in the food processor, mixing with oil and salt and then roasting until dried and smelling amazingly good (like a baked potato, Sylvia said).  Sylvia took it from this vegan ragu recipe for the below soup.

Sylvia's vegan minced meat starred in this Lasagna soup.  I asked her for her recipe source and she said she just looked at different recipes and used them as inspiration.  It was quite thick like a traditional lasagna with bolognaise sauce.  It was quite thick and reminded me of a lasagna that is hot out of the oven and will not hold its shape.  Sylvia liked this because she made the bolognaise sauce and broke up lasagna sheets to cook in it rather than doing the layering.  She topped it with basil and spoonfuls of ricotta that had been mixed with parmesan, salt and pepper.  The soup with ricotta mixed through tasted great.  There was grated cheese in the soup but it was not so noticeable.  I loved it, though it was quite rich.  Sylvia would have liked more lasagna sheets in it.

Sylvia went out with her grandfather and father to Galleon in Carlisle Street, St Kilda.  This is her leftover that she brought home.  She also brought a pumpkin, basil and parmesan scone for me.  It was more like a muffin but was amazing: fresh, flavourful and soft.  Sylvia was delighted that the Drunken Sailor big breakfast gave the option of substituting bacon for avocado.  So hers was Two eggs on buttered sourdough multigrain toast with avocado, mushrooms, tomato and spinach, plus she had a sweet potato and feta hash on the side.  Of course it was too much and she brought home quite a bit of it.  Her dad had Banana, pistachio Praline, vanilla bean ricotta and maple syrup.  E could not eat it all so there was some of that in a tub.  It was rich and delicious.

I bought a pasta machine so many years ago that it seems like I have had it at the back of the cupboards in a box forever.  Every now and again I say I will make fresh pasta but get distracted.  Then about a week before I wrote this, I said I would made it and I did.  Yes, I was surprised.  And pleased and proud! 

I started off following the Kitchn's guide on how to make fresh pasta.  I followed their recipe of 2 and 2/3 cups of flour, 4 eggs and 3/4 teaspoon of salt.  My dough was really tough.  I guessed it was because they use an American cup measure (240ml) and I used an Australia measuring cup (250ml). I gradually added water to the dough but I was worried it was not quite right.  So I made another dough with 2 eggs, 1 cup of flour and less salt.  This one was really soft and needed some extra flour.  The pictures above show the two doughs.  The yellow one on the right is the second soft dough.  If I stuck a finger in it, I could easily push through to the table.  The paler stiffer dough on the left was tough to knead and if I pushed my finger into it it seemed a bit of an effort to make a deep dint and I did get as far in as the table.  I want to try dough again and will do 4 eggs, 2 and 1/3 cups of flour and 3/4 tsp salt.

Once the dough was made I had to work out my Imperia pasta machine.  There was only one piece I could not fit on it but it wasn't necessary.  I used a piece of the drier dough to give the machine a quite clean of any grime, as suggested in one website.  I watched a few videos on the machine.  Then I fed the pasta through the machine on ever decreasing thickness (2-3 goes on each thickness) until it was a good consistency and made some fettucine and spaghetti.  So far so good.  I even wondered if I should have gone as far as making a second dough.  The first seemed fine.

So I then made lots of fettuccine, given I had two batches of pasta.  I actually left some in the fridge a covered bowl overnight because there was so much.  Once I made the fettuccine I hung it over a chair, feeling like an Italian nonna.  Some of it I cooked fresh and it cooked really quickly - about as long as it took to bring the water back to the boil when I added it.  The rest I let dry and we ate it over a few days.  The vodka tomato pasta in the top photo is one of these.  I cooked it too quickly and found it was not quite soft enough.  There is still work to be done in getting a good feel for making and cooking the pasta.

The fresh pasta I cooked to mix with Sylvia's alfredo sauce (based on this recipe).  It was amazing.  Sylvia is very into creamy pasta sauces and was very excited for an opportunity to try something new.  Creamy sauces are not really my thing but this fettuccine alfredo with crispy Tofu bacon and parsley was so so good.

Previously I had made pasta with a friend about 30 years ago.  So I am happy with my first solo fresh pasta making.  It needs some work but I hope to try it again.  We are planning to try ravioli.  I just hope it does not take me so long to get to my second go at pasta making.

I was inspired by Lorraine at Not Quite Nigella to try her Sardinian Minestrone.  Once I realised it did not have sardines in it, it sounded healthy and delicious.  I made lots of changes: not many carrots, no potato, no fresh garlic and added garlic granules, sweet potato, capsicum, cherry tomatoes, capsicum, zucchini and more barley.  It was so good and there was so much.  I ate it for meals on a couple of days and then to my horror realised I should have put it in the fridge.  After two days it had soured and had to be thrown out, along with my plans for meals this week.  What a shame job!  Thank goodness for the Council's composting scheme.  I have made another stew for the rest of the week and promised myself to be more careful in future.

 My mum's green thumb has produced lots of apricots and yellow zucchinis.  The apricots were unripe so I left them on the bench.  Within a few days they were really lovely despite still looking quite green on the outside.  I had to put some into the freezer to avoid them feeding the compost like my minestrone.  It is well known that home grown apricots are far superior in flavour to those in the supermarket.  These were juicy and delicious.  I ate some standing up at the table and some with my muesli and yoghurt.  They reminded me of the apricots off my nan's tree that we loved as a kid even though the juice would dribble down our chins.  The zucchinis went into my ill-fated minestrone which was good until it wasn't.

We haven't been out as much as expected.  Sylvia and I had a trip around St Kilda that included a walk along Kerford Pier and pizza at Rococo.  I met a friend to see One Life at the cinema.  It was an excellent film about rescuing refugees from Prague on the eve of war in 1938-9.  The story is very relevance today.  I heard recently that there are now the most refugees since World War II.  We've been down Lygon Street with my parents and to a few cafes with friends. The photo is of chocolate fudge and 100s and 1000s doughnuts at Juanita Peaches where we had a burrito and an eggplant burger with chips.

Sylvia made this simple meal where she fried oil, parsley and garlic, added a bit of hot water, sauted the tomatoes and mix in some angel hair pasta.  Served with lots of parmesan.  It was a change from her creamy sauces, which I call a heart attack in a bowl..  Simple but very good.

There has been lots of preparation for our trip to Europe: collating tickets, writing an itinerary, researching things like an e-sim and money options, purchasing portable chargers, packing suitcases, planning to see people, and online research.  I've got my suitcase lock stuck with packing in it (but Sylvia worked out the combination after trying hundreds of combos).  I have found a lost passport when looking for my current one (and I looked a lot for it before getting another). Shadow was very interested in my case.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her gorgeous hand drawn header.