Milanese Food

Ah, reading menus in a language you don't understand!
There were so many times that we had to rely on our knowledge of Latin roots and our Spanish class experiences in order to figure out what the heck we were going to eat... Some of the wait staff could speak a bit of English, some could not. Most places did not offer English menus...

That being said, we did pretty well! Above, Jim eats at Premiata Pizza, a place near the canals, on a street calld "Via Alzaia Naviglio Grande". Fancy, eh?
He got some sort of thick, rolled pasta with fish bits and sauce. I tried a pizza with ham, mushrooms and cheese.

I was instructed to take a photograph of this bottle of water from our dinner at Rigolo. In most places, one must ask for 'still' water (rather than sparkling) and specifically ask for 'table water' if you mean tap water, lest you end up paying out the nose for bottled water... Needless to say, the Europeans are not really 'water drinkers'. You'll get a better deal on sodas and beer than on water.

Rigolo was to be our one 'fancy' dinner out in Milan. We had attempted to eat at another place called La Trattoria Milanese, but it was closed for the summer. By the time we found Rigolo, we were both starving and faced with a menu all in Italian. Our waiter tried to help but identified every pork/beef/lamb/chicken option as "meat" and all the seafood options as "seabass". (We got a kick out of that last one.)
Also, they very much encourage the five (or more) course meal. This means that you begin with an appetizer/antipasta/pasta (we both had two delicious types of pasta) , move on to a first course, then a second, then dessert. However, one must pay separately for all of these, not to mention find room for them all in the belly! One of Jim's first dinners was a heaping bowl of mussels (above). We shared it along with my dinner option, below.

There is something delicious about the mozzarella and tomatoes that you'll get in Italy. I'm wiling to bet that they don't use ANY type of skim dairy product, and their tomatoes come fresh from the local valley.

Ah, but our favorite place was the small, hole-in-the-wall establishment, called Geppo. As the DK Eyewitness Travel guidebook states: "A fairly small classic pizzeria with over 50 varieties of pizza to choose from. The convivial atmosphere makes this a good destination if you're on a budget." All of our dining suggestions came from this book (thanks, Tiffanie!). We wanted very much to eat pizza and pasta in Italy, as well as sample some local wine. And we did!

The pizza that we ordered and split had arugula, some kind of spicy meat (small circles), tomatoes, cheese, and thinly sliced eggplant. Olive oil was drizzled over the top, the thin crust crunched ever so lightly in my mouth with each bite... The pizza was divine.
We should have taken a picture of the decor (totally out of the early '80s, complete with a Christmas wreath and lots of hooks for hanging helmets on the walls), or a picture of the very kind waitress. As we were leaving, she mustered up enough English to let us know that the best place to visit in Milan, her favorite, was the Duomo. "We're headed there tomorrow!" I told her. And boy was she right.