life-changing pasta

M & L

the eagerly anticipated lunch

mmhmmmm :)

indecent swiss roll

decent swiss roll

now i've had the privilege of dining at many good italian restaurants and i like to think i know my pasta. but, one of the best pasta i've had to date, was at M's on monday. the odds were against the pasta. i'd already eaten (and was relatively full at that!), i arrived late (more pasta than ingredients left) and the pasta was cold. ever the gracious host, M brushed away my paltry protestations of having had dinner already and dished me a generous helping. and boy, am i glad i took it!

after trying M's pasta, i was convinced that if i was a guy, i'd want to marry her. it was that life-changing. because marriage and consequently securing a lifetime of amazing pasta is, unfortunately, out of the question, the next best thing was to impose on M for a lesson which she very kindly gave.

so i went over today, laden with the ingredients and armed with my trusty camera to photograph the process every step of the way. M's meticulous without being overly particular and i really enjoyed watching her work her magic with commonplace grocery items that usually constitute my superbly unspectacular collegiate specials of lazy person pasta as i like to call them. she was truly in her element as she washed, chopped and stirred. appreciated her patient explanation and she even told me the secret ingredient to a good pasta.

we were joined by J and R and the 5 of us had a right royal ladies lunch. M's pasta was superlative, even better hot than cold (duh) and J brought dessert while R made real italian espresso. it was such a treat! thoroughly enjoyed the yummy pasta, then swiss roll doused with molten chocolate and traditional espresso. and, of course, it was great talking to the girls. put five girls together, stuff them with comfort food like creamy pasta, cake, chocolate and coffee and it's recipe for mid-afternoon bliss. digestion took awhile and we lounged around M&L's apartment talking about everything under the sun. they're an engaging bunch with fascinating personalities and i enjoy how we're switching from berlusconi to sarkozy to carla bruni to social security to who L's mum used to date to heidi samuel nee klum and then to our respective apartments back home, bali and tahiti, inter alia.

it's great to have good girlfriends on exchange. thank you ladies!