I think I'm going to Like it Here (https://wordpress.com/posts/dramababyabroad.wordpress.com): mouth watering

Grocery shopping here is a delicious adventure.

Every little market seems to have farmer's market quality produce - at a fraction of the cost.

Once prepared, the colors of the food pop right off the plate.

Shopping for dinner is fun, but also relatively easy. Although at first it seems that there is not much variety here, I have already learned to appreciate the seasons of food. What is fresh and in season is what is available. Right now, zucchini, various lettuce, apples, eggplant, tomatos, figs, peaches, green beans, and mushrooms are starting to show up.

It's not a matter of finding a recipe and then getting the ingredients, since many of them are not possible to find. Lately it has been about selecting the ingredients and then finding a recipe. It's really an entirely new way to think about food.

A famous caparese salad - with melt-in-your-mouth mozzarella di buffala...

Roasted endive, roasted zucchini, sardines, salad with rocket and romaine. Vegetables taste like they come right from your own backyard...

Beautiful grilled sardines - these are a bit of work to eat because there is a significant amount of bones that can poke you - not like the smaller fish that you can eat whole.

Local caught fish - Orate and Spigole

Here are the little fish, Triglie (small red mullett) - before the frying pan.
We've already had these for dinner a couple of times... They rival any fried fish I have ever had.

Local mussels. We think these are farmed - we can see "beds"
out a ways in the ocean in certain spots.

And then of course there are also the local and regional specialties...

For example, there is something truly remarkable about the lemon flavor of things here... Literally bursting - not too sweet, not too sour...

These cookies are the bomb. Pretty literally - they have this soft almost creamy lemony filled center... I have already eaten an entire bag of these...

In the states, the Major wouldn't be caught with pre-ground coffee in the house, but on the recommendation of a friend, this is what we use in our little coffee "machine".

Bitters - Major is on a quest to master this category... apparently a type of alcohol meant to be mixed in drinks - some apparently have historically medicinal qualities. Many classic cocktail recipes call for bitters of one type or another... Here you can find many varieties on the shelves.

I do adore the tiny bottles, and some of the other juices come that way as well - here is a blueberry...

The deli counter at the grocery store holds a lot of fascination for us... The choice of sandwich meats in particular is pretty extensive. The Italian delis back home seem to offer just a handful of choices. Here the selection is overwhelming. Just getting to know the salamis should take a considerable amount of time. My favorite so far - Salame il Golfetta.

The Major now prefers Prosciutto Dolce (and he really likes the crudo style as well), but he ate it faster than I could document it... maybe next time...

We didn't buy any of this, but I had to admire the size of this giant can of tuna!

The selection of olives at the deli counter is fantastic...

Sicilian Olives (the big green ones are my new favorite).

Extremely juicy, not too salty (unlike the black ones here), and full of flavor.

And then, of course, there is the cheese.

When we came to Italy on vacation a few years ago, one of the most embarrassing moments I had was listening to a guy from Wisconsin proclaim loudly to an entire restaurant how the Italians were clueless about how to make cheese because it was so "hard". I wanted desperately to disappear under our dinner table watching his young bride smilingly nod along with his rant... I wanted to die. I know parmesan is not for everyone... it is only one of the world's most famous cheeses... But I digress...

Since we are not in the region of Parma, we don't eat much of that at the moment, and we are quite familiar with the taste, so we have been branching out...

We have been working our way through the different styles of Pecorino cheese. There seem to be a million different ways, ages, and treatments (like smoked), that it is prepared. This one is pecarino nero, medium hardness, strong but not overpowering flavor.