Cena di donne italiane!

Once per month I meet a group of Italian women, or women who live in the Triangle Area and who speak Italian. This group was founded some years ago by a few women, and now, whenever they meet some new Italian woman who seems nice, they invite them to the meetings.
I really enjoy them, I began to attend more frequently only recently. It's really nice for many reasons. One, is that we speak Italian. :) Then, we all share a similar experience - being foreign in the US. Often, the women are married to non Italian people, so it's always interesting to hear their experience, and for example an interesting topic is always what language they speak to their children and between each other.. There are all possible varieties. Sometimes the kids don't speak Italian at all, especially if only one parent is Italian, but other times they speak it to the Italian parent, even if the other spouse doesn't speak Italian at all!
We also have some American women in the group, either married to Italians, or who have lived in Italy for quite a bit, and who speak Italian perfectly, with amazing little accent.
Mostly, all the people are very nice so it's always a pleasure to meet them.

Moreover, each time we try a different restaurant, and we try to explore all types of cuisines. Last time it was Greek. Actually, I suggested the place, since I had been there a few times for lunch and it had always been very nice. For the people who may happen around here and want to try it, the place is called 'Spartacus' and it's actually in Cary. I had always gone when the buffet was there, and to be honest, I think it's better than the actual meal 'a la carte' like we had on Saturday. Also because looking at the menu you realize that it's a bit of a mixture, with some mispelling both of the Greek food and of some Italian food that they make (ehm.. notate la bruchetta :) ). But anyway, the appetizers (that are similar to what you find in the buffet) were really good, and I wanted to show them here:
From the top left (the pinkish thing), you're looking at taramosalata - a fish spread, then on the right melitzanasalata - eggplant/garlic spread, then hummus - with chickpeas, and at last scordalia -a garlic/walnut spread, with feta cheese, tomatoes, peppers and vine leaf rolls in between. In the center, tzadziki (yogurt and cucumber). It was actually very good, served with warm pita bread.

The other appetizer that we had was also very good, and the idea was quite nice, so I think I may try to reproduce it: feta and mozzarella cheese, mixed together and baked, with some hot spices on top and some alcoholic liquid that they lit on fire when they brought it to our table. They extinguished the fire by squeezing lemons on top. The taste was very intersting and the presentation was quite scenic. Unfortunately I wasn't ready and I didn't take pictures of the firing moment. :)

Per i miei lettori italiani.. mia mamma e mia sorella, per pura coincidenza, mi hanno appena mandato la ricetta della taramosalata.. se volete avventurarvi a provarla, eccola:

Taramosalata
Ingredienti per 6 persone
Uova di pesce (bottarga) g 100 – 5 fette di pancarrè ammollate nell’acqua – limone – olio extravergine d’oliva
Tempo: 15’
Raccogliete nel frullatore le fette di pane ammollate e non strizzate, circa 100 g d’olio, la bottarga privata della pellicola di rivestimento e tagliata a fettine, il succo di un limone. Frullate a bassa velocità fino a ottenere una salsina omogenea.

Sembra facilissima, ma dubito che io trovero' la bottarga qui negli States. :)