On the tour to the Painted Monasteries, the seven of us stopped for lunch in a restaurant by a clear and shimmering creek. 

Monika, our guide, ordered the local specialty--the fried brain, and urged us to try.  It tasted like fried oysters in sushi restaurants. 

For my lunch, I ordered polenta with cheese and a fried egg, which I was supposed to mash altogether while the polenta was hot enough to the melt the cheese.  The final mix tasted pretty good.

On our way back, Fabio the Italian bought a bucket of freshly picked porcini mushrooms off the road, so that we could have them for dinner.  Back in the hostel, Monika had to take an important phone call, leaving the responsibility of cooking the porcinis to me and Taeko, a Japanese graduate student in genetics. 

What porcinis?  I have never heard of them in my life until now  !

But of course, one important training from graduate school is that you learn to fake it.  Taeko and I cooked up a stew of onion and porcini, and served it with a smile.

Everybody was so hungry by then, they ate it all up.  Even Monika thought it tasted good !