Craving for Italy 義大利麵食

Most of the residents of Discovery Bay are expats, and there is a wide diversity of European and Asian restaurants that cater to them. One of our favorites is an Italian restaurant, which also sells a selection of Italian groceries and food ingredients. Since I don't drink carbonated beverages or coffee, and we are frequent customers, the staff allows us to bring our own drinks to enjoy with their pasta, risotto, and pizzas.

I like the traditional pizza with mozzarella cheese and the bolognese linguine, all of them based on their freshly made tomato paste, imported from Italy. The chef tells us that the paste is so flavorful because of the rich and fertile soil in which it was grown. In addition to its thick tomato taste, It has layers of sourness and sweetness, which when enhanced by parsley relish and used to cook chewy pasta or pizza, makes the dish out of this world.  My mother likes their organic brown rice with wild mushrooms. Add some black truffle, and she never gets tired of eating it.

Pairing Italian dishes with Chinese tea creates a contrast between the strongly flavored dish and the light refreshing tea. We tried the Taiwanese Iron Buddha tea （鐵觀音), with its complex fruity, almost caramel taste, and the medium-roasted Dongding Oolong tea and both went well with the "tomatoey" tang. Of course, Mom and dad never miss out on that cup of strong Expresso after an Italian meal.

住在離島的大多是外國人，島上有一個道地的義大利餐廳，他們也賣很多義大利食品雜貨，我們全家人都熱愛他們的餐點，幾乎每星期報到一次。 因為我不喝碳酸飲料或咖啡，跟店家熟了，他們也讓我們「自備飲品」，店家提供咖啡杯讓我們享受 pasta risotto 和pizza 配中國茶的樂趣。

我喜歡傳統的 Mozzarella Pizza ，Bolognese Linguine ，甚至淨蕃茄麵，義大利的各種新鮮番茄或製成的醬，味濃郁帶酸甜，感覺的到來自土地的原始熱情和香氣，麵食或披薩餅味香有嚼勁，加上幾片parsley 提味，已經是人間美食。 媽媽喜歡白醬野菌棕米 Organic Brown Rice with Wild Mushroom.  上頭加入一些黑松露 Black Truffle，她總是百吃不厭。

青茶配這些義大利主食清淡如水，而台灣充滿多層次果香，焦糖味的鐵觀音，或是中度烘培的凍頂烏龍，中西合併，相得益彰。 當然，飯後那杯義式 Expresso，爸爸媽媽一定不能少。