Halva and the Beard

Looks like shredded chicken!

Feels like fiberglass!

Tastes like delicious!


















What is it?  Curly halva from Tel Aviv, of course.  The best way I can describe it is like cotton candy made of spun sesame, it's sweet but not too sweet and tastes nutty like peanut butter.


















Courtesy of Jacqueline and Jonathan, a couple of ravenous arancini fiends who we also happen to call good friends.


















J&J are moving from Israel to Colorado (all the kids are these days) and decided to stop over in Rome for a few, where we met them and had a great time.  A Rome post will be in the works, as soon as we can tear ourselves away from all this sesame goodness.  Thanks guys!

Also thought I'd share with you the lunch that I made today, cause I'm really proud of it.  We've discovered a new vegetable here, called La Barba di Negus (the beard of Negus).  I don't know who Negus is, but he has a delicious beard.  Tastes a bit like spinach, and has a really interesting texture.  Emily loves it, and I have to admit it's pretty good.


















So today I cooked up some Negus beard, served with olive oil, lemon, and salt.  As a main course I frizzled some sage in butter, and put it over handmade tortelloni di ricotta con prezzemolo (cheese and parsley tortelloni, which we bought because we haven't yet attempted pasta making).  As is practically the law here, we had this with parmigiano reggiano on top, and a nice white wine on the side.


















That's-a my kind of-a lunch, ragazzi!