We are back week by week with another instalment of our panino diaries.
In this week's segment, I'm going to ask my people, that's right, you millennials reading this: can you have it all?
I have been stumped by this question for a very long time because for the most part, a lot of people have been telling me “You can't have it all Jess", and me being the smart-ass that I am I respond with "yes I can".
If anyone knows me, knows I don't like being told no and I also don't like being told I can't do certain things. Because the reality is, I can. So, although you might be rolling your eyes and reading this, the reason why I can say that is this:
I have not watched both my parents die of Cancer at the age of 15 and 26 to be told at 28 that I cannot do something, I know I can do. I have not pushed my mum through Cancer for three years in my 20s to be told - I can't do what I want to do.
That is where my answer comes from: I have not been through what I have been through to be told I can't do something, because I've gone through the unimaginable and I am still standing.
The reality is, when you go through something that changes your life, you will not settle for less. But there is a problem with this, most of my people (millennials) as you will call us, do want it all. We want the car, we want the house, we want the side hustle that turns into a career, we want to travel, we want to bank money, we want flexibility in a workplace, we want to work from home. WE. WANT.IT.ALL.
Does this sound familiar? Have I hit the nail on the head for some of you? The problem is with this generation (yes, I am part of it and will be the first to admit it). You jump on social media, and you do, see it all. You see the house, you see the car, you see the clothes, you see the relationships, you see the travel, you see the jobs - you literally, See. It. All.
Our generation has so many options right now, we don't even know what we want. Do you want to just stay home and be your own boss? Do you want to be employed and work on your side hustle? Do you want the body but also eat like a wog? What is it that you really want?
So, is it possible that we’ve gotten so spoilt by choices, that we can’t even make one and in turn, we millennials try to want it all?
You should probably ask yourself, what does having it all mean to you?
In my opinion, it simply means: doing the things that you want to do. But sometimes, there are responsibilities that we don’t have a choice but to do, but if you can find a way to have the things that you want or work towards the things that you want to do then you’re halfway there.
So, on Sunday, I decided to do what I wanted to do and visited the brand-spanking new @nonnashouse in Fitzroy North. If you haven’t heard about them then you’re missing out!
I’m sure you’ve seen them recently being spammed on all platforms of social media, broadsheet, sunrise and over Instagram. These guys took it One Panino At A Time and converted their Nonna’s house into a wog specialè paninoteca with a good ol’ kitchen in the backyard, seating in the garden and your traditional back porta entrance with the number 550 highlighted in red just in case you miss it ;)
So, I decided to have it all that day by ordering two panini:
Pesto Chicken
- Fresh chicken
- Pesto Genovese
- Parmesan
So, these guys produced a monstrosity with this one, fresh baguette bread, chopped pieces of pan-fried chicken in fresh Genovese Pesto sauce and shaved Parmigiano-Reggianno shaved on top of the sweltering chicken. Every bite was delicious, the chicken might I add, was cooked to perfection and that pesto was sautéed amongst the chicken just right!
Pesto Mushroom
- Cup mushrooms peeled then;
- stuffed with Pesto Genovese and;
- Double-crumbed then deep fried
- Shaved Parmigiano-Reggianno
So basically, these were deep-fried cheesy mushroom balls with pesto oozing out on the side of the panino with shaved parmesan. They were jam-packed into the fresh baguette and with each bite you could see the Pesto Genovese dripping out of the fried mushroom ball, I was drooling by the end of it and I was full.
The boy's Nonna and Nonno lived at 550 for over 60 years, they owned a catering company and did all their cooking from the back garage. You know, those Europeans that have a second kitchen in their house? Yep, that’s them. They had it all...the amenities, that is.
They wanted to pay tribute to their Nonna and Nonno who are now no longer with us, and they’ve done a bang-up job by converting their famous catering kitchen into a paninoteca. The house has all the traditional aesthetics you will find in your grandparent’s house (if you’re a wog) rosary beads on the door, concrete backyard jungle and of course the backdoor entrance.
The boy's Father (Vince) is the star of the show entertaining all customers that walk through the traditional back door, by greeting them with good morning and what is on the menu for the day. It is quite prominent that his hospitality persona is also what draws the people in, you get free entertainment with your panino, how’s that for having it all?
These boys took it One Panino At A Time after losing their Nonna and did what they wanted to do and in turn, they did it all.
Be sure to check these guys out on Instagram @nonnashouse or, enter the back door at 550 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy North.