Ep. 129: Outside Gelato

[00:00:04] Welcome to Ink Drinkers, a literary tea party podcast where we discuss books and drink tea. Hello Marissa! Hello Jamie! No more Italian words for me. I'm done with Italian, I'm done with Italy. No, it was- we had a great time. I'm so glad.

[00:00:40] But I was by the end of it I was like I can't wait to get home where like English is everyone's first language and I don't have to like jump through hoops to try to- And you can eat Chick-fil-A. Yeah, and I can eat Chick-fil-A.

[00:00:50] I saw your story. I really- I wasn't missing Chick-fil-A necessarily but it was like I had had enough pasta and pizza and- The same type of cuisine. Yes, every single meal.

[00:01:06] I don't remember where it was that I heard but someone said something about in China you know how in the United States like what do you want for dinner? I was like let's just grab Chinese and it's like that's not a thing. All the food's Chinese.

[00:01:17] Right, right but it's the same thing you know. I mean I know that in Italy they have other types of cuisine but- but not the norm. It was hard to find other types of cuisine.

[00:01:30] Like my cousin Claire one night she was like our family has just had enough of pasta we're gonna go find something else. And they went and ate it some like Mexican or Spanish. Really? Tex-Mex something. Okay.

[00:01:45] Kind of restaurant and she was like yeah I don't recommend going there. Alright I'll stick with my pasta and be safe which you know I love pasta, I could eat pasta every day. You do.

[00:01:55] Generally but their food just is not quite what we're used to and not that it needs to be but I don't think- I don't know if I weren't from Louisiana going to Italy. I would say oh my god this food's amazing.

[00:02:14] I wanted to see where you were going with that because when Michael and I went all your have ever been told is that- The food's amazing. The food is amazing and we had some meals that were really stellar and really good.

[00:02:28] I've had better meals in New Orleans and we were kind of is it us? Like are we wrong? What's going on? We had the same exact thing and like my cousin Rachel kept being like I don't understand. I don't think this food is amazing.

[00:02:42] Like what's wrong with me? And I was like it's not you, we're from Louisiana. That's so bizarre to think about because we really were just like yeah it's really good. But it wasn't mind blowing. Right.

[00:02:56] I loved that the ingredients were fresh, that everything was clean and fresh and wasn't at least was preservatives and plastics but and that they were like oh yes we just picked these tomatoes out of our backyard or whatever. Yeah love that.

[00:03:10] I want more of that but it wasn't amazing. The food wasn't amazing. Like everyone says it is. We had a few really really great meals that I still remember but I've had more great meals at home. Not at home, home but in Louisiana.

[00:03:29] Yeah I thought that was really odd but also makes you a little bit you know happy you have had that experience of like that we live in a place that has better food than Italy. That has the best.

[00:03:42] I mean yes absolutely but also there's a reason we're fat and they're not. No 100% 100%. Like when we did in Rome we did this pizza making class it was our last night it was just the perfect way to end it. It was so fun.

[00:03:58] And they were like yeah we don't use butter here like we only use olive oil and I was like yeah well that makes sense.

[00:04:04] We pretty much exclusively use butter in Cajun Creole food that's why we're all so fat but yeah it was like I'll never forget that trip it was amazing. It was awesome. It was an awesome trip of a lifetime. Of course. Everyone had such a good time.

[00:04:23] My aunt, my mom's sister who is in her 70s and we were you know a little worried about she was a trooper she did awesome. I mean she just recently had back surgery that's why we were worried about her but not because she's in her 70s.

[00:04:38] But she was a trooper there were some things that she sat out of you know whatever but she did awesome.

[00:04:44] And down to the three year old who did awesome as well there were some you know there were some moments I think we all had our moments where we were.

[00:04:55] With that many people in a foreign country I mean that many people anywhere for an extended period of time.

[00:05:00] Yeah but by the end of the trip we all still loved each other we all you know like we were hugging each other by and we just had a great time.

[00:05:08] I think the thing that I was most worried about was how the kids were going to handle it but they had their cousins with them and they just I think they were just in their element.

[00:05:19] And last night I actually went to my parents house and foster and Margo were there and I asked Margo I said what was your favorite part about Italy and she goes my cousins. Oh sweet. I know right? Yes. I was like what about the gelato.

[00:05:34] She's like yeah that too. She made us get gelato every night. It's her fault. I'm serious we would go to dinner and even if they had gelato at the restaurant she would say no I want outside gelato.

[00:05:47] We had to leave the restaurant and go find a place that was open until midnight. Because she got to pick out her own flavor I'm sure. I want the cookie one even though it was her favorite one was Stracciatella which is the vanilla with like chocolate chips. Right.

[00:06:02] But to her it was the cookie one. Yeah. And that's what we had to get. Well we were in Louisiana but I did take Lucia to Trader Joe's to pick up flowers when I picked her up from school on Friday.

[00:06:12] And of course we went right by La Divina and there was that giant fake cone and she was like ice cream ice cream I can have some ice cream.

[00:06:20] And so I was like okay that's not really what the plan was so we picked out flowers and then she had to go get gelato. Yeah well and Margo did call it ice cream every time it was not gelato to her. Yeah ice cream.

[00:06:33] She doesn't know what gelato means. Well I'm super excited to talk books with you in addition to hearing all about your trip abroad.

[00:06:41] Yeah I didn't do a ton of reading surprisingly not surprisingly while I was in Italy like I would get it to my hotel room at night take a shower. Exhausted.

[00:06:52] Get in bed and I was like alright time to turn on the book and then I was asleep two minutes later. As it should be. And I was totally fine with that.

[00:07:00] But I did I can't remember if I started this book when I was in Italy or when I got back but I did read a book that is just one of the best books that I've read in a really long time. Oh I'm so glad.

[00:07:13] Tell me about it. Okay I'm so excited to tell you about this book today. Tell me about it and I'm excited to hear it. Okay you've probably heard of this book because it's been all over but it's called The Wedding People by Allison Esback. Okay.

[00:07:26] I think Esback is how she said it. Yeah I've seen the cover. Very purposefully listened on the audiobook for her name and now I've already forgotten it. But it comes out July 30th so you're so close so close to being able to listen to it.

[00:07:38] Yeah so far away. But it was so so so good. I don't want to hype it up or anything. Hype. Hype all you want because it makes me want to read it. Okay so the like the premise is just it is it is an interesting one.

[00:07:56] Okay let me start from the beginning. So Phoebe Stone has checked herself into this hotel in Newport Rhode Island which I've been to Newport before and so it was fun from that perspective for me. Newport's just a cool little it's a fun little city.

[00:08:17] And it's very I say swanky because they have all of those like giant houses from the early 1900s like the huge mansions that you can go in and check out.

[00:08:28] And so the whole town just feels kind of swanky because of that but anyway so Phoebe checks herself into this place called the Cornwall Inn and it turns out there's a wedding happening while she's there.

[00:08:40] And the crazy thing is she should never have been able to book that room because the whole hotel was supposed to be checked out for the bridal party and wedding and all of that.

[00:08:53] So there was some kind of mistake their short staff due to COVID and she got this room. Okay. Well she has kind of a little meat cute I guess you would say with the bride.

[00:09:07] Not a meat cute in like a romantic kind of way just kind of like this is going.

[00:09:12] Just they meet in kind of a kind of an entertaining way on the elevator and then the bride realizes that she's not there for the wedding and she is kind of a bridezilla and she's like what is going on I don't understand.

[00:09:27] And Phoebe informs her the bride that she is actually like don't worry about it I'm only going to be here from one night I just came to kill myself.

[00:09:37] Yep shocking I know I know I know really what you want to hear during your wedding weekend and of course the bride is like excuse me you can't ruin my wedding by killing yourself in this hotel.

[00:09:52] So the two of them very unexpectedly kind of become friends because they figure out that there's things that you can tell a stranger that you just can't tell people that you know. Yes.

[00:10:08] So Phoebe can very easily just come out and say the actual reason that she's there in that hotel and why and all these things and the bride.

[00:10:17] She realizes that she has certain insecurities about her wedding and her life etc that she can only tell Phoebe because she doesn't know Phoebe.

[00:10:26] So they kind of form an unexpected bond in this way but yeah and so it's just a story of unexpected friendships and figuring out I don't know figuring out how to exist in this world when things aren't always going your way.

[00:10:45] And there's a little bit of an unexpected love element to it. That was sweet and it just was really funny like you wouldn't think that because I just told you what the main character checked yourself at a hotel to do. The writing was fantastic. The writing was fantastic.

[00:11:03] It was funny. It was down to earth. It was heartwarming. It was just absolutely lovely and everything played out in such a realistic way that it just felt perfect. That's awesome.

[00:11:18] And as soon as I finished it I was like I'm not going to be able to read anything else because I'm going to be thinking of the wedding people. It's a good problem to have.

[00:11:28] It is but it's also like now I can't enjoy anything else and I'm like okay do I go back and really you find your next great. I know but I'm like I don't I loved it so much do I go back and reread it like already.

[00:11:42] No let me tell you about my book and see if this has any interest for you. Okay. So it was also really great. It came out recently. It's called Saber It by Tara Duet. Have you seen this? Covered? I don't think so.

[00:11:57] Let me see when did it come out. I think it's May of this year the end of May so it hasn't been out that long. Okay. So it's set in Spoons, Oregon which is not to be confused with Forks Washington which is where Twilight was set.

[00:12:17] Oh okay I was like your books. Anyways. Is Spoons a real place? I don't know I didn't look that up. Is Forks a real place? I don't know. Okay. I never read Twilight. Anyway.

[00:12:30] So Sage Bird lives in this small coastal town of Spoons, Oregon and in this small town everyone knows each other. She's lived there her whole life. Her parents passed away when she was young and she has three older brothers who raised her.

[00:12:47] Everybody you know it's kind of that that small town feel with these specific characters that kind of fill these spots of like the cranky old man. Yeah. You know whatever. Right. Yeah.

[00:13:00] But she has a animal hobby farm so like it's not a farm that produces much but she has these animals and she takes them, takes in animals like the vet calls her when there's like a new animal that gets dropped off and that type of thing.

[00:13:13] So she has all these like different strange animals on her property. Sounds fun. Yeah. So she was in a five year relationship with what they say is the town golden boy Ian and they've since broken up.

[00:13:29] He's now engaged to someone else that she went to high school with and their wedding is coming up and she just kind of feels alone at this point in her life.

[00:13:36] Her brothers are still very much president in her life and they're like part of the, they are the fire department. They are the police department. It's like that kind of small town.

[00:13:47] Her ex sister-in-law owns the bakery in town who she's best friends with and you know her nephew Sam is in high school and so it's like this really comfy cozy feel. But she's feeling like she's alone and she kind of needs like a win.

[00:14:05] She needs to feel excitement again and she just doesn't see that happening in this small town where she knows everybody and everything. In walks Fisher Lang, who is a New York chef. He's won a star. He is in a bit of a crisis in his personal life.

[00:14:24] He's since been fired from his job for an outburst at a food critic that came into his restaurant. Uh-oh. And that's all because his sister Freya, I believe is her name passed away in a car accident and left her daughter. Oh gosh.

[00:14:45] He has to take care of his niece.

[00:14:47] So he was listed as listed as supposed to be, he was supposed to get custody of her, but he was so immersed in his career at the time of being a New York top chef that his parents who live in like another small town were just will obviously keep her.

[00:15:09] You know, I know Freya wanted you to be her guardian, but this is less disruptive to her life. Well, she is just completely upset by this. Oh, she feels abandoned and all of this has kind of culminated with his firing of just he, his life starts to unravel.

[00:15:28] Sounds like it. Yeah. So the owner of the restaurant who is sort of like a family member. I think her name's Carly. She basically doesn't look.

[00:15:39] I know I had to fire you because that was not okay, but we're trying to open up a new restaurant in spoons, which is like this small little destination town. And I want you to go and get things set up for us.

[00:15:55] I'll pay you on the down low and you'll be able to kind of get things back together because at this point he is taking his niece and decided that he's going to raise her. So they go to this small town, they rent this house.

[00:16:09] And of course in the first night they're asleep. They've traveled all day. It's 3am and they hear something downstairs like banging in the kitchen. Oh no. She freaks out she goes into his room and wakes him up. They call the cops.

[00:16:24] When they get downstairs, it's a Roomba that is set to go off at like 3am, which who does that?

[00:16:30] So he tries to call them back and then like they're already there and it happens to be Sage's brothers and they're like, you know that these are all of our like who calls someone for, you know, like basically calling him a pansy and so many words.

[00:16:45] You know, like he's just like, I'm really sorry. Like we didn't know what was going on. We thought someone broke into the Airbnb. Sage lives on the neighboring property, her farm. So she comes over and then of course there's like a romantic element to that.

[00:17:00] So it was just really cute. It felt you feel just in love with these characters. Sage is wonderful. He always says when she says her little words of wisdom he calls it Sage advice. Love it. I just thought it was really cute. Love it.

[00:17:20] But yeah, I mean you just love all the characters in the town. You love Sage and Fisher. The story is just super cute and cozy. Cozy sounds good. Yeah. I mean it was just an all around there's a bit of competition in there. There's like a town competition.

[00:17:37] So it felt very Virgin River. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what else but it very, very Virgin River. I'm good. I'm in. Yeah. That's all I need to know. Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. All right.

[00:17:56] I am currently in the middle of like six books because of my book Hangover from the Wedding People. Sure. One of which is supposed to be our joint read. I haven't started it yet. But we'll see where my reading life takes us.

[00:18:09] Maybe I'll just start savor it instead. Add savor it to your list. Yeah, I will. I will. All right. I'm excited to tell you about this tea and my experience in getting it.

[00:18:20] So when we got to Rome, the first thing we did was a golf cart tour and they took us around in golf carts to see the big sites, the Spanish steps, the Coliseum, the whatever whatever. Well, they dropped us off at the Spanish steps at the end.

[00:18:36] That's where it ended. And so we ended up going down the Spanish steps and at the very bottom I like turned around and looked and there's this tea shop at the very bottom of the Spanish steps. You know what I'm talking about? Okay. It's called Miss Bavington's Tea.

[00:18:53] And I saw it and we had other things going on so I couldn't stop in at the time but I was like, oh mom check this out. Like I need to come back here.

[00:19:02] I don't know what it is but it looks adorable and it's tea and I'm sure like me you're always looking for tea shops when you travel. Okay. So I knew I needed to get back there.

[00:19:13] I didn't know when I was going to be able to but our last day in Rome that morning we went to the Vatican and then we had the afternoon free and then that evening we were going to do pizza making.

[00:19:24] So I thought, okay I've got the afternoon free to go do what I want. I just want to go walk around by myself and explore. I wanted to go by Harry Potter and Italian.

[00:19:32] You know there were a few different little things I wanted to see and one of them was Bavington's. And so I went there and I walked in and it was the most adorable, most charming little tea shop you could possibly think of.

[00:19:49] And the way they described it was like something like a little piece of Britain in Italy or something like that and it just so was. It was so British and so adorable and it was like you could sit down and have tea or neat. Yes.

[00:20:04] Or you could just you know buy different teas. And I initially went in there thinking I was just going to go buy a couple of different teas and when I walked in I told the lady I was like I'm just shopping. I'm not going to stay.

[00:20:14] And then I started thinking about it and I was like, I've got like four hours to do what I want. I'm staying for tea. So I sat down and I had tea and British scones and it was absolute perfection.

[00:20:27] That's going to be a bit of a surreal experience at the Spanish steps. It was. It was feeling like you're in this English, you know, posh, chic tea room and then outside is just Old World. Yes. Italy. It was very surreal but it was exactly what I needed.

[00:20:44] Like I needed me time. I needed just something comforting and yeah, it was it was perfect. I just had a pot of tea and awesome two scones and it was amazing. And so the tea that we're drinking today is not the one that I had.

[00:21:01] But when I was looking around it sounded like a decent tea. It's called five o'clock. And by the way, Babbington's has been there since 1893. In that location? Apparently. What? I that's that's I mean wait what? I don't yeah. Okay. It was so cute.

[00:21:22] The all of the all of the staff was dressed in like these long pink dresses and white tennis shoes. Like they were all dressed the same and it just it was so cute and they all had their

[00:21:33] hair up with like a little but it was so cute and perfect. Anyway, so this is a delicate blend of black and Oolong teas for a relaxing afternoon tea. And that's why I got it. It's like I wanted a relaxing afternoon tea to have at home. Yeah.

[00:21:49] And this one's is pretty smooth. There's a little bit of a taste that I'm not loving. I can't quite pinpoint what it is. I think it's a it's like you said it's very a smooth black tea. I think it's good.

[00:22:03] It's something that's just for any time, not just five o'clock. Yeah. It's five o'clock somewhere right because it's not five o'clock where we are currently but I think it's getting more bitter the more time we leave the tea bag in it.

[00:22:19] When I first sifted it, it was a lot more smooth. Good to know. Yeah. Um, yeah, it the they their, um, their illustrations that they had as part of their shop, it was it was all very interesting.

[00:22:38] Like I got a mug with, um, it's like a clock and it's all like a clock. And it's all the same kind of you can see the same kind of like drawn illustration. Right.

[00:22:48] And it's like this clock and then it has a, a, like a fork and a knife on either side of it. And on the other side it says like it's always time for tea or something like that. Like just cute little stuff like that.

[00:22:58] And I just adored it so much. Well, thank you for bringing it back to us and letting us sample it. Yes. A little bit of Italy and England. Right. Right. And what more could you want?

[00:23:13] And then, um, the other one that I bought and brought back was the one that I tried while I was there, which is called like Miss Babbington. It's like their signature tea from what I could tell. Yeah.

[00:23:25] And it was delightful, but I'll let you decide that next time. Okay, perfect. Okay. Well, thanks for listening to all of my travel stories. Of course. I mean, what more could you ask for a little afternoon? Well, morning, I guess, no, it's afternoon. It is afternoon.

[00:23:38] A little afternoon tea, a little afternoon story time, hearing of your travels abroad and talking about great books. Perfection and cheers. Cheers. Thanks for listening. Be sure to check out the show notes for the full list of books we discussed today.

[00:23:55] You can find that in your podcast app or on our website, IntrinkersPodcast.com. And please support us by subscribing anywhere you listen to podcasts and leaving a review. You can find us on Instagram and on Twitter at IntrinkersPod. Cheers.