The breakfasts at my hotel, Hotel Castelbarco, in the middle of nowhere Italy, were stellar. They were everything I could ask for, other than being able to make my own waffles. Here’s some bread for toast (only white bread here) and some pastries. I never tried one of these, but was told they probably had chocolate in them. I’m not sure I would have been able to eat chocolate so early.

There’s the obligatory yogurt. And of course, frizzante water!

There’s also a plate of fruit as well as fresh cut fruit, including blood oranges, kiwi, and pineapple. This was my first experience eating blood orange, as I’d only had the juice before. I love me some blood orange! Those grapes by the way, were ginormous.

They also have a giant bowl of essentially, cookies. And for your toast, butter and jam, but also nutella and other sweet spreads.

I loved the fresh juices. I mostly stuck to orange and then ventured out to try the orange/carrot on my last morning, and I really dug it! What was I thinking waiting so long?

There’s also egg and some hot foods. The egg yolks are so orange (or at least in real life), that’s good, right?
And as it seems to be everywhere in europe, there’s always some kind of cold cut and cheese. We have a couple of hams here.

By the time thursday night rolled around, which was everyone’s last night at this hotel, we were all too tired to venture out to eat. So we just stayed in and let Jimmy cook for us. The food menu here is very small, but that was fine by me. I got a mixed salad and a pasta with garlic, oil, and hot pepper oil. It was so simple and delicious!

Over the weekend of the first snowpocalypse of 2010, I actually wasn’t at home to witness it. Instead, I was in the poconos, where they got about 2″ of snow, as opposed to the 20+” laid down at home. While there, we were treated to some fine home cooked meals. For saturday brunch, we had eggs benedict that M made. How come whenever I try to make poached eggs it turns into a mess, but when M makes them, they’re perfect?

After snowboarding in mostly artificially created snow, we had some appetizers, including cheese and crackers. Everyone was particularly fond of the triple cream blue cheese from trader joe’s. I don’t like stinky cheese of any kind, so I stayed away from it. And who doesn’t like ritz crackers?

Also had some chips and green salsa. These chips tasted like they were guacamole flavored or something? Delicious!

For dinner, we had some of this belgian onion and pepper soup.  It had been made awhile back and the pepper had been stewing for awhile, so it was extremely peppery. Tasty, but peppery.

The main course was a chili. This was also tasty, but a bit on the spicy side. I was fine with the spice, but had to take my time with this. It ended up being too spicy for E, poor thing. She ended up eating a bunch of salad instead. D had added a whole can of jalapenos to this, and man, the hotness had been infused through and through. The sour cream was necessary to cut it, and also, because it just tastes darn good with chili. It was a fun weekend away!

I’ve been to the Cantina a couple of times to drink, but never to eat. I had to come here for the sake of blogging, so we took in some brunch as well. Complimentary chips and salsa. The green salsa had a strange taste. Not bad, just strange. I couldn’t quite place my finger on what the strange taste was. The red one was just fine. Good chips too. Thin and crispy, not greasy.
H/A got the mexican style beef stew. Basically, it was like a mexican style chili with some stewed beef. Nothing thrilling, but if you like chili and mexican flavors, then why not!
H/A and J both got burritos, but you know what burritos wrapped in paper look like. They just look like a couple of white lumps. They both got beef burritos, and the steak in those was excellent! I got the chilaquiles. That’s the plate of mexican slop you see on that plate. It’s a huge ass plate too. It’s a tortilla casserole with guajillo sauce, queso anejo, sour cream, and in my case, chicken. It’s tasty, but it’s not much to look at. In fact, it looks kind of disgusting. Luckily, it tastes much better. The portion of this was gargantuan. I barely ate like 1/4 of this.

J also got a vegetarian hash with tofu and tempeh. The tempeh was kind of gross, but the tofu was fine, and the onions were delicious. But the fried eggs on top? Whoa, some of the best fried eggs I’ve ever had. Who knew? Service was ok. They play some good music there and have cool mexican movie posters. Everyone has tattoos. Their drinks are good and strong, and personally, I think the drinks are what make this place. The food is only so-so. If you want good mexican, go to a taqueria with a less hipster setting.