Dinner at Barbara’s

When we were researching our trip to Rome we came across a video recommending a dinner party hosted by a Roman open to travelers. Even though you interact with fellow travelers on tour groups and pass them in the streets you rarely get to sit down with them and share food and drink. I was excited for this opportunity.

Getting there

Boarding public transit, we headed for the other side of town to Barbara’s house. Having learned that the buses run on their own schedule we arrived early and took a walk around the Trastevere neighborhood. Like our own this one comes alive at night but looks prettier.

La casa di Barbara

Gathering outside with about 15 other tourists we were greeted by Barbara and ushered upstairs to her apartment. Initially there was a milling about section of the night with Hors d’oeuvre. Devin and I are not good (terrible) at small talk and didn’t make many attempts to show off our lack of prowess in this department.

Assigned seating

Barbara started to assign people to specific chairs at the three tables. There may have been a method to her madness but when I tried to move one chair to my left she stopped me and told me the chair was not strong enough for me. Her method might have been based more on chair structural integrity vs social planning. Devin and I were seated at one table and Linda at another.

US, Canada, and Israel

Our table consisted of two additional couples and ourselves from Israel and Canada. We discussed the large quantity of white wine we had been served and as if listening to us Barbara’s family staff switched to red wine.

We learned that the Israeli couple had a child 10 months ago and they were experiencing their first full nights of sleep since the birth of their child. The Canadian couple had spent time on this trip in Paris and had seen the same video we had on this experience. They highly recommended the pizza that we hadn’t taken the time to find.

There were several running jokes at our table during the evening. I informed them all that Barbara assigned them all to me and I was supposed to grade everyone on their participation effort. At one point we all looked at the wine bottles that were piling up and someone asked, “How many do you think there are?” The woman from Canada replied, “49” without blinking and confidence that we were all confused as to how she knew this. Turns out she didn’t and we are all suckers to fake voices of authority.

Food

We were served our first course which was a roasted tomato filled with rice and seasoned with fennel. The fennel was so strong I almost mistook it for anise.

Subsequent excellent courses followed; lasagna, pesto gnocchi, and turkey meatloaf.

Like us you might be scratching your head upon reading that last course. Meatloaf? The meatloaf had turkey, prosciutto, and pecorino cheese. There was a prune sauce on top. It was excellent. Note to self: Remember to add prosciutto to meatloaf.

Dessert

Dessert was an ice cream in what I can only describe as the Italian equivalent to the American mason jar. It was good and served with espresso. Aperitifs were also circulated that included Amaretto, Sambuca, Grappa, and others that didn’t come to our table. I added the sambuca to my espresso like my family taught me. The Grappa smelled like floor cleaner but in the small taste I had it tasted completely different.

The man from Israel said that his friends mix Sambuca with grapefruit juice. We all thought that was weird and his wife added that his friends are weird.