Recently, I took a trip with my triathlon team, Full Throttle
Endurance, to the Campania region of Italy for four days of intense cycling.
The goal was to cover about 250 miles with assorted daily elevations ranging
from 4,000 to 7,000 feet. No small feat, to be sure, but we're FULL THROTTLE
AND WE'RE HERE TO TRAIN!!!
Or at least that was the "joke" of the trip as we all
attempted to win vacation.
I decided to document the trip from the food perspective. What
did we eat? What DIDN'T we eat would be a simpler question, as we certainly
left no stone unturned in our search for calories. Luckily, Italians as a
people are incredibly accommodating about feeding their guests. So
accommodating, in fact, that I'm sure we all made up for our expended calories.
By far, my favorite meal of the trip was our accidental lunch at
Hotel Parsifal in Ravello.
Having just swished down the curving pathways of the Amalfi Drive
and eeked ourselves up the 5 kilometer climb to Ravello, we were hungry.
Famished. "Abbiamo fame", as they say in Italian. We stood doubtfully
by some road signs momentarily and contemplated where to go.
Luckily, one member of our group – Benji – took the proverbial
bull by the horns and conversed with the natives to get the low-down on what
was happening for lunch. He insisted that we go to Hotel Parsifal where we
would be assured impeccable and copious amounts of local fare, expansive views
and friendly waitstaff.
Could nine people in sweaty spandex impose upon such an
establishment to partake in all these wonderful enticements? They sure can. And
did!
The staff at the Hotel Parsifal was incredibly accommodating and
tolerant of our questionable hygiene. We sat on the porch (to air out AND take
advantage of the view) while we dined on a specially prepared sample menu
prepared by the kitchen staff.
Note: Our server suggested we have the "light" menu
because we were cycling. We insisted on the "heavy" menu, as we had
no desire to count calories and wanted to stuff ourselves as full as possible
in order to propel ourselves back down the mountain all the quicker.
We began with a pasta sampler of housemade ravioli stuffed with
porcini mushrooms and a pasta topped with local pesto, made with sun dried
tomatoes instead of basil. Both pastas were freshly made and cooked to perfect
al-dente proportions. More than that, they seemed light as feathers, melting in
your mouth with every forkful.
The stand-out pasta for me was the fresh tagliatelle seafood
pasta. The mix of muscles, octopus, clams and shrimp had just been wrangled out
of the ocean that day, and the pepper tagliatelle circled it all in a salty,
brothy web. I felt I was eating right from the fisherman's net.
Following that we were served platters of meat which included
veal, sausage and beef, and a fish sampler featuring giant prawns, lake fish
and the most flavorful tuna steaks known to man-kind. I jest you not. I thanked
them profusely for whatever they did to that tuna (grazie mille!). Buttery,
well seasoned and perfectly rare – both in tenderness and likelihood of me
tasting such a thing again.
Unless I go back to Hotel Parsifal..
