Skip to main content

My time in Italy : Breakfast

Breakfast is the first meal of the day and it will help you power through the day, don't skip it.
Or at least that is what is widely told and believed, and now I realize this is a very strange way to open, yet I did and I'm going to carry on with it. If I have not made myself clear yet, I have been to Italy and I tried to learn their lifestyle and this is my documentation. Spread across three years, I spent a total of 3 months there, enough time to know enough but not all, and it is worth mentioning that I spent all my time in North Italy, after all, I didn't go there for vacation; since my office is headquartered in Piedmont region I stayed there and spent above 95% time there.

Oh, I forgot about breakfast! During my first time my manager took me out for breakfast and it was a cup of coffee and brioche. What is brioche you ask, it is a croissant, sometimes bigger, sometimes flavoured, sometimes stuffed; but yeah that is what all you get in the morning, not once I saw a pizza or pasta place open in the morning! it was strange.
My usual stop for Cup of coffee and brioche is bakery downstairs from our place of stay, but there was also another spot which gathered sort of celebrity status - Canterino it is said they make the best brioche in town, I never knew, neither my taste buds got convinced. Still, I could tell the difference between department store-bought and fresh ones - be if from the bakery downstairs, Canterino, Glamour or the Glamour outlet inside our office - 1886. Most days I buy 2 cartons of milk and 1 pack of brioche Milano or Esselunga brand - costs approx 4 euros and this will last me 1 week. If I buy from bakery daily, same 1-week duration, brioche and cup of latte will cost me 3 euros daily - 21 euros for a week!

Of course, this is not the only breakfast, if someone tells you as a nation, Italy only eats bread and coffee for breakfast, don't blink, punch them in the face. During the coffee break, I asked my colleague what they consume for breakfast since this did not keep my tummy calm and so I had to buy something during 11 am break, most responses were like this - cereal, bread toast and milk, sandwich, some form of cooked eggs,  brioche and coffee (stereotypical), some even confessed about eating a meal like pasta or pizza - mostly because there were leftovers or someone prepared it for them o.O 

Once while touring Florence, we booked a 3-star hotel for night stay, they offered a full breakfast spread like it any western cuisine. Pastries, chocolate, cake, juice, milk, expresso, salad, even bacon stripsomelette on order, fresh-cut fruits, toast with butter, jam and Nutella for spreads. We sort of made bread omelette, by sandwiching omelette between butter slathered toast, if you are non-vegetarian who can eat bacon then can add a couple of bacon strips and make it awesome (I guess).

In my experience, Italians reserved a proper meal for lunch and dinner. Workforce had their breakfast at a cafe or bakery eating brioche, toast, sandwich or some other form of bread with a cup for coffee. But most Italians do consume cereal, toast, leftovers just like any other normal people, though they might claim coffee runs in their vein. 


My Time in Italy

Comments

Popular this month

Puththu kovilum Putho tilesum, as they are built

Its the grand Aadi season here in Tamil Nadu wherever you go you'd be followed by awful noise from no mercy speakers masqueraded as a devotional song. Yes, this is the first post dedicated to it. Hindu is not a religion but it's idealism, a way to unite people, that's perfectly constructed by assuming separate task to every God, no single God worship. Hindus moved from nature worship to idol worship, but that doesn't mean that we don't have nature worship we have created an idol for them and continued to worship them in a different form. Snake is a beautiful reptile, I have made friend with few too... Our ancestor found the natural law, 'every living creature on earth is important for the ecosystem to be balanced'. Maybe to make sure snakes are not killed fearing their venom they made them as God too! Not just idol snakes, they are worshipped as they are at their  conquered (from rats and termite)   nest or  puthu . Puthu...

Up and Close with Sudalai Madan: The Encounter

Night of 13th April all the preparations for the rituals were done in the temple, Sudalaimadan swamy was decorated with flowers, fruits and coconuts; the dedications reached above his chest. My cousin Sudalai Muthu, senior priest of the shrine reached home by late-night got blessings of his father Late Shanmugam Sundaram also previous head priest and blessed the family members in room dedicated for God, then started towards the temple. People have already gathered in huge numbers and were waiting for the Sudalaimada Swamy's arrival at Temple. Different rituals were offered by people to the Lord in order to get the blessings. As it is believed Sudaimada Swamy, the son of Lord Siva used to consume meat in Kailash for this reason he is sent to earth, where he can satisfy his earthy hunger thereby not polluting Kailash. Sree Aaladi Padmanabha Sudalaimada Swamy Temple, Kumarapuram Offering meat to Sudalaimadan is the most important and watchful event of the festival. Many devotees off...

Shame of Sabarimala : Annadhanam under TDB

Annadhana Prabhuve, Saranam Ayyappa It means "The noble who donates food, Ayyappa save us". The legend is not clear about how or why Lord Ayyappa is called so, coincidentally the third step of the Pathinetu padi stands for Annapoorna (the God of food) by crossing this step Ayyappamar assure that they have followed Ayyappa by donating food to peers and made sure any Ayyappamar coming to Sabarimala for Punya Dharishanam is not hungry. I'm sure this year many Ayyappamar did not fullfil this deed to proudly step on it, they neither received nor gave; they were curbed. Though it was ABASS*   who started it all many sangam took up the responsibility to feed the hungry Ayyappamar, people have crossed the toughest times by taking supplies to impossible mountain peak like Karimala, Azhutha; now with roads easing pain kerela government and travancore devaswom board(tdb) is pulling the rug on Seva Sangams. Image edited from The Hindu Double standard of kl govt and tbd ...

Acid rain in Chennai

Don't panic it is not literal acid but a metaphorical one. Probably Poes Garden, maybe Gopalapuram I can't imagine any other area in Chennai to be drained. So why is this? every time? we pray for rain and when it comes we are always unprepared, even for moderate showers our roads are flooded. Is it because Chennai is an old city and its infrastructure not enough for information age or is that because of the vote bank politics? By now you'd have guessed what I quoted as 'Acid rain', it is that one created by the broadcasting network. Nowadays every political party is having its own network, you do the math and imagine the amount of 'Angel and Demon' perspective we are exposed to. From every network that is with the ruling party, we are shown the 'Angel face' emergency number, disaster recovery team, ambulance gushing thru flood, evacuation and so on. Other side which clearly outnumbers the ruling party in 4:1 ratio shows us flood, death, dengue, sew...

Wings of Fire

Though tagged under review I’m going to try and bring the essence of the book, in no means I have the guts to write a review on a book that’s written on/by Dr APJ Adbul Kalam. Unlike regular biographies the book is filled with information and facts on Indian Space research straight from Dr Kalam’s diary, has very limited information on his personal life. From Preface of the book, we can understand Mr Arun Tiwari co-author of this book had brought up this idea to write a book and put it work. The book is organized in seven sections but the core content is put inside 4 sections – Orientation, Creation, Propitiation, and Contemplation. While the rest cover how and why this book formed and what it intends to convey. Dr Kalam being a spiritual person has quoted poems and lines from the Quran throughout the book. Orientation starts with the birth of the legend Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam in Rameswaram to Ashiaamma and Jainulabdeen, Dr.Kalam’s father is a humble boat owner a...