Pork for the Year of the Pig

Kung Hei Fat Choy to everyone! I hope that the Golden Pig year brings the happiness and prosperity it is said to!
The celebrations for the start of the Year of the Pig did not amount to much in Trieste, but Chris, Percy and I did go for a pork fest in downtown Trieste on Saturday afternoon. Da Pepe was packed to the door, and we ate our plate of mixed pork (on a pig-shaped plate) standing up. Washed down by a small Dreher beer, it wasn’t really the healthy Saturday lunch I had hoped for, but good nonetheless. The intriguing swirl of mayo in the pic is a Russian Salad – essentially cold mash potato with frozen veg, and an enormous dollop of salad cream. It seems way too unhealthy to bear the title salad!
After lunch we went for a coffee at the bar near the No 11 bus terminal. This place has a huge range of coffees from around the world, including Ethiopa, Puerto Rico and Nepal (Royal Everest coffee). We opted for a Tartufato – coffee with cocoa powder and foamed milk in a shot glass.
The coffee shop is great, not only for the range of goods available, but also for the advice that is given with each coffee. In our case yesterday it was mix well, no sugar. Previously I have been told in no uncertain terms that this coffee is only to be drunk with white sugar, that with brown, and that you must of course clean your palette with a glass of water first.
These are all tips that I hope to draw on on February 28th when we are going (finally!) for a company visit to Illy Caffe – one of Trieste’s most famous brand names. During our visit to the company we will take part in a coffee connoisseurs course – for which we will receive a certificate, and no doubt will ruin us even more for futre trips to Austria. Next time I might have to do like Marina and take my coffee machine with me!