Merry Christmas

We were invited to have Christmas Eve dinner with Dante and Mariella, an invitation which we happily obliged. Dinner started at around 8 o'clock and finished well after midnight! These people know how to eat! First there were about 8 antipasti, all sorts of little nibbles like marinated anchovies, olives and a few Romanian specialties that our neighbors Radu and Donna brought with them. Then we had frutti di mare, a marinated seafood dish consisting of octopus and who knows what else came out of the sea that day. Then came the seafood risotto, a massive bowl of rice and huge prawns (with the heads on of course). Next was another huge bowl of mussels sauteed in white wine, oil and garlic and finished on top of the fireplace stove served with bread toasted over the flame in the main fireplace. Finally, the main course arrived, it was an octopus stew with potatoes, tomatoes and olives.

Eating massive amounts of food is nothing new to us Americans but the real surprise of the evening came in between courses. The music was changed from Christmas songs (in English, for some reason) to waltz music. All of a sudden, people began dancing in order to make room in their bellies for the next course. I got an impromptu lesson on what I referred to as the "box-trot" from a friend of Dante's. Unfortunately, I'm still an awful dancer. We also did some traditional folk dances as well, which were a lot of fun too.

After all of the food and wine had been finished off, more or less, we played a few games of Uno in order to pass the time before another tradition had to be observed. At midnight there is a sparkling wine toast and a little slice of panettone (a light, airy, semi-sweet, spongy cake) and everyone says Auguri! (best wishes).

Where the heck was all of the bloody meat? Well, Italian tradition is to eat seafood on Christmas Eve, so in keeping with tradition, we ate massive amounts of seafood. Everything was great, it was the first time we'd ever eaten octopus and we both really liked it and are looking forward to trying it again down the road, though I think we've had enough seafood for a week or so!

Well, we hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and that you get up and dance a little between courses! Auguri!