Okay, now you're pretty much up to speed.
To make a long story short, Dish Mom and I were given an amazing opportunity to travel to Italy with some family friends. Keep in mind that Dish Mom is 50% Italian by birth and 100% Italian in attitude and demeanor, and had never been to Italy, making this trip a life long dream for her, and a life long dream of mine to visit WITH her.
As I've said in the past, I think vacation blog posts can be kind of boring for readers. So instead of Zzzzing you with photos of all the gelato I had (that'd probably be around 50 photos in 7 days), I'll just quickly recap my favorite meals.
The best meal we had was at a restaurant in Volterra called Ristorante Del Duca. We ate lunch outside in their beautiful garden, and unknowingly stumbled upon what became my favorite meal I've ever eaten in Italy: handmade ricotta & spinach gnocchi with shaved Volterrean truffles.
If that photo doesn't make you drool, you're not human.My other favorite meal/food experience was also in Volterra at an enoteca called La Vena di Vino-- clearly the Volterrean hipster hangout, with polaroids and bras decorating the walls, and Italian rock music playing from a laptop in the corner. I wish I could post the photo of me behind the wine bar with Bruno, one of the vivacious owners, but alas, it would give away my anonymity. And Bruno's.
It was at this amazingly charismatic wine bar that I introduced Dish Mom to one of my favorite European past times: drinking wine at 4 p.m. We sampled the "Super Tuscan," a 50/50 blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon, which is apparently very popular in the "wine world" right now (all these facts are straight from my Rick Steves guidebook, so any errors you can take up with him), as well as a Chianti Classico from Greve in Chianti-- the town our villa was located! How cool, I thought, to be drinking wine straight from where I had slept each night before. Finally, we also tried the Brunello di Montalcino, which Bruno touted as his favorite but was our least favorite.
When our friend, let's call him DR, came over after visiting the Etruscan Museum (we had opted for wine...oops), he ordered an antipasti plate of cheese and tomatoes. Sounds boring, right? Very wrong. Amazingly soft cheese, like none we'd ever had, paired with crusty Italian bread and tomatoes so fresh Bruno had to run across the street for them-- this was the Italian experience I had been waiting for.
Other highlights of the trip: having gelato in Florence at the exact same place Ann and I had enjoyed gelato in 2006:
Ristorante di Lamole, a restaurant perched on the side of one of Italy's highest mountains:
Pappardelle with wild boar:
Pesto in Cinque Terre: 
Sigh, La Dolce Vita. Is it time to go back yet?
And one more, because I think it is a cool photo:
However, the food did make up for the lack of a trendy scene. To start we enjoyed goat cheese croquettes with a balsamic glaze that, while WAY smaller than we imagined, were rich and gooey; after eating them, I was glad they were bite-sized.
We also really enjoyed the braised lamb shank, accompanied by Israeli cous-cous (which is quickly becoming one of those foods that if it’s offered on a menu, I have to order it) and some sort of “butternut squash flan” as Michelle put it. My only hesitancy with loving this dish was having it in May-- I was hoping for more dishes with asparagus and peas, and less braised meat and butternut squash. 
I also liked (I think more than the others) a ravioli pasta dish, even though it was SWIMMING in a creamy sauce. But I am totally a sauce girl, so I sopped it up with the bread like the true Italian gal that I am.
Though the food at CAV isn’t going to win any James Beard awards soon for innovation or technique, and I'm still kind of confused why everyone's obsessed with the decor, CAV gets points for serving unarguably yummy and rich food at reasonable prices. 
Here's the menu for 
At night, we headed to chic sushi spot, Arigato, right on State Street, the main drag of Santa Barbara. It was a little pricey, but we did manage to try the magic mushroom maki stuffed with shittake, crimini, maitake, asparagus, and truffle oil, and the kobe beef sashimi. My favorite though was the fiesta maki, with tempura halibut, tomato, avocado, cilantro, and habanero sauce (top photo). 
Afterwards, we got Pinkberry!! I've been wanting to try this popular frozen yogurt chain for so long now, and it was everything I wanted and more. The fresh fruit, the tart yogurt, the inventive and playful mix-ins (I got cocoa crispies)-- looove it.
In San Diego, we finally got to try the one, the only, In n Out burger. FINALLY!! We got our fries "animal style" (onions, cheese, and special sauce) and our burgers just regular. I immediately regretted not getting a double-double (what was I thinking!?) but it was amazing nonetheless. Though I think I still give the best burger crown to the #12 at Johnny Rocket's (am I alone here?). And, as others have said in the past, I wasn't the hugest fan of the fries here, even animal style.
The next day we parked ourselves on the beach all day long, enjoying the San Diego sun (and wind) and flying kites. After the long day, we stopped at this Mexican place Roberto's, located right next to the beach. It was dirt cheap, but seemed awesomely authentic, and we loaded up our plates with baja fish tacos, enchiladas, Mexican rice, and refried beans. YUM.
Part II of California round-up to come... including Zaytoon, a Santa Barbara Middle Eastern restaurant with fire pits at each table where Ann's roommate made a love connection with our waiter, and Porto's, amazing Cuban food in Los Angeles. 
Ah, New York pizza. Amazing at any hour of the night.
I thoroughly enjoyed my spicy bloody mary, though did not enjoy its $11 price tag! But somehow it made me feel a little buzzed and a little silly, so I guess it did its job ;)
I also really enjoyed my eggs benedict. I decided to lighten it up a bit with sliced tomato in place of the meat, much to the confusion of our waiter. 
Oh, did I mention I thoroughly enjoyed our tall, dark, and handsome waiter as well? ;)
For my official birthday dinner later that night, we visited another Lower East Side establishment that I had read about, 
I loooved the fried manchego cheese with membrillo ($8) (like a sweet jam)- they were like grown-up mozzarella sticks. I also liked the encortido ($4), a salad with shredded cabbage, tomato, scallion, and poblano peppers. Though to my chagrin it reminded me of stuff I can make on my own, but it did inspire me to buy poblanos next time I'm at Shaw's.
Beef skewers with chimichurri sauce ($8) were delightfully tender, and plantain chips with guacamole and black bean dip ($4) proved to be a nice change from chips & salsa. But the arroz con pollo ($18) was a big disappointment. When we asked if the kitchen had forgotten the "pollo" part of the meal, our server claimed it was "traditional" that you can't even see or taste the chicken. Huh? Anyone know anything about this? And it came without rice and beans but with the aforementioned plantain chips and salsa. Double huh?
New york, you're too good to me. 
This place is famous for its amazing, brick oven pizzas, and that's apparent when we showed up at 5:45 p.m. and were faced with a line winding out the door. However, Dish Bro claimed this wasn't even as long as usual! I'm so glad we waited though...
Once he ordered, he couldn't contain his excitement-- or control his hunger. He would only be satiated with some freshly grated parmesan, eaten excitedly out of his mother's palm...
But it was worth it! I dare you to not be hungry just looking at these photos.
Dish Nephew's favorite was probably mine as well-- their famous "cheeseless" pizza. At first you'd think huh? No cheese on a pizza!? But somehow it's amazing, especially when you shake on some fresh parmesan.
All in all, Frank Pepe's gets two thumbs up from this North End resident-- pretty high praise if you ask me =)
There were so many other yummy sounding drinks, but sadly, my dwindling bank account prohibited me from trying them. One in particular I was eyeing was the cilantro margarita. As I’ve admitted before, I’m a cilantro-a-holic, and I’m still so curious as to what this would’ve tasted like…
…also the diced ahi-tuna, which the waiter described as a “deconstructed salad nicoise”—accompanied by an haricot vert salad with hollandaise dressing, and some truffled potato chips.
Our last choice was the heirloom tomato salad with homemade burrata mozzarella and olive oil fried croutons.
Had we gotten lost? Had our waiter failed us? Tall, mushroom-shaped trees loomed over an oversized chess board. A ladder led to nowhere. In the distance, we could see a long, infiniti pool lit in blue with a table and chairs on top, as if walking on water. White cabanas with flat screen TVs were roped off on the opposite side of the pool. We saw a faint light at the end—it must be the bar!
So we enjoyed some white wine and trail mix...probably a little bit too much. Once on the plane, we got some more wine, and I discovered the secret to beating a fear of flying: booze!
It was a miracle. Take-off, landing, the SCREAMING child behind me, the roaring engine we were seated next to-- nothing fazed me! Stepping off the plane, I stripped off layers of coats and sweaters and scarves that Boston weather demands. I kicked off my boots, and slipped on my flip flops, and I couldn't help but skip a little with glee.
Finally, we were offered TWO desserts. One with mango ice cream, the other... Um... Was...Oh, shoot, I must confess: I was too busy drinking and dancing to remember. . BUT I do remember the TWO cupcakes we got on our way out...YUM!
The post to come: our nighttime, true "Miami" restaurant experience...
