I’m still here—just not quite fully cooked yet! 🤣☀️

This Naples summer has been absolutely relentless. Though when my Taiwanese friends send me their temperature updates, I feel a little silly complaining. I mean, they’re literally melting back home. I guess suffering is relative.

Still, I never thought I’d actually cry from being too hot. Life goals, right?

Life Goes On (Even in the Heat)

The good news? Everything else has been normal. I’m eating well, drinking plenty of water, and I’ve still been getting out when I can—swimming, drives along the coast, that sort of thing. You learn to work around the heat in Italy; it’s just part of the rhythm.

But my kitchen? Yeah, that’s been abandoned for over a month.

Yesterday, something just clicked. I woke up with this intense craving for cozze in umido—braised mussels, that simple, soul-warming dish. You know that feeling when your body suddenly demands you cook? Even when it’s 35 degrees outside?

Courage & Fresh Fish

I mustered up the courage, ventured to my local fishmonger, and came home with gorgeous fresh mussels. The kind that smell like the sea and feel alive in your hands. There’s something about stepping into a real fish shop in Naples—the energy, the expertise, the absolutely no-nonsense attitude toward quality—that makes you believe cooking is worth the sweat.

Why Cozze in Umido?

Braised mussels are deceptively simple. There’s no heavy cream, no complicated technique. Just mussels, white wine, garlic, parsley, maybe a touch of tomato if you’re feeling it. The mussels release their own liquid, creating this briny, delicate sauce that’s more than the sum of its parts.

It’s the kind of dish that reminds you why people live here, cook here, build their lives around food and the sea.

Did the kitchen get hot? Absolutely. Was it worth it? 100%.

Sometimes you need to surrender to what your body’s asking for, even if it means standing over a stove in a Naples summer. That’s the real dolce vita—not avoiding discomfort, but finding joy in the middle of it. 💪❤️