If you’ve been following me for a while on social media, then you know I’m not the kind of person to shy away from the truth.
At the same time, my truth can change depending on the season I’m experiencing in life…and if you’ve been following my journey this past year, then you can safely assume it’s been quite a challenging season for me in Italy…
What started as an exciting, new adventure that happened to coincide with my budding career in academia soon turned into a whirlwind existential crisis. Suffering through a second wave of COVID lockdowns, struggling with a new work environment, and experiencing disappointment with my attempts at cultural assimilation led me to come head-to-head with my depression again.
And the biggest trigger was my current job, which ironically was what allowed me to come to Italy in the first place.
Winter 2020 was when I first began to feel academia would never be the place for me. I thought that the fellowship opportunity I was provided with in Italy would reignite a spark for academic research—that a successful stint in Italy would perhaps push me to pursue a tenured professorship position soon after.
In my situation, the complete opposite happened. I realized that the things I wanted to prioritize for my life and career—financial security, work/life balance, benefits—were better achieved within industry. These things could be achieved in academia, but given that the current number of post-docs significantly outnumbers available faculty positions, it would take a helluva lot more work (and luck!) to get to a place of security in academia.
Despite the ups and downs of the job hunt I fell into this year, I managed to find a unique, career-boosting opportunity that was exactly in line with my newfound career goals. It’s been a slow but interesting process to undergo, and to see it firmly taking shape in recent weeks has been such a relief.
Found a nice spot to run to in the north part of Milan—staircase to some great sunrise views!
So, what does this all mean for me and Italy?
I’m joining a pharmaceutical company in a scientific communications role! When I stumbled upon this opportunity, I was absolutely thrilled. The timing happened to work out well with the company’s needs and what I was looking for. Best of all, the job description seemed to tick off all the boxes for items that would make me competitive for a similar role in industry (medical science liaison; MSL) in the future, as I further my career…
Obviously this opportunity will allow me to continue to stay in Italy for now, but…I’ve realized thatItaly is not long-term for me. As a US citizen with a biology doctorate, I know that financially, I am better off returning to the US after gaining industry experience—especially if I am to pursue a medical affairs career that has the potential to develop into an executive role. They say money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy security. Safety. A comfortable retirement. The freedom to pursue other passions while not feeling pressured to rely on them for income…
Milan, looking from North to South
This overall experience has helped me to firmly organize my priorities. I want to grow in my career. Get back to serious training with my running. Pursue writing projects I hope to develop into something big and invigorating…
Living abroad for a substantial period of time has also made me feel a new appreciation for home and my family.
Since I know Italy isn’t long-term, this also means a shift in my priorities. I’m not too hung up on learning Italian, at least as much as I was when I first moved to Italy. Establishing this in my mind takes a huge amount of pressure off—especially in regards to no longer taking offense by people who switch to English and prevent me from practicing Italian in the first place 😂!
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Going into the new year, I’m excited to work remotely for a few weeks in the US before returning to Italy. We’ll (my new company and I) be working towards an EU Blue Card as my new visa, so that will be an interesting experience to go through and document 😅.
Even though my priorities and future outlook have metamorphosed in regards to Italy and I, I am truly excited for my new career venture. And let me just say—compared to academia, my overall compensation package is 🤩. Being able to carry out a job with skills you’re passionate about, while getting appropriately compensated for it, is every career-oriented millennial’s dream, that’s for sure!
Alright 2022, let’s get going! I’m ready to make moves in my career, and let the ripple effect flow into other aspects of my life!😉
It’s 8am on an unusually chilly, mid-summer morning, but I suspect you’ve already been awake since dawn. You’ve put a moka on the stove, and gave Cappuccino her kibble.
What’s next for the day?
Porta Nuova, one of the major train stations in the city
A brisk walk around the city’s famous piazzas? It’s familiar, it’s routine, but doing that today feels unsettling.
On the way to Piazza San Carlo & Piazza Castello
81 years have been spent in this city, and you realize that’s been a lot of time. Wasn’t it just yesterday that you were walking hand-in-hand around the fountains of Piazza Castello with a handsome, young diplomat?
No, it was a dream that may or may not have happened 60 years ago…
Piazza Castello on a quiet morning
And before diabetes, there was always Café Al Bicerin to look forward to.
The iconic Café Al Bicerin
Most kids remember the first sip of wine their parents allowed them to take. But you know that doesn’t compare to the experience of one’s first Il Bicerin.
The iconic cafe’s signature drink – Il Bicerin
A warm, rich glass layered with coffee, hot chocolate, and cream, only made more heavenly with a side of biscotti. Such a treat now would have to be timed well to avoid a sugar-induced coma!
You see Cappuccino is starting to get antsy. A walk outside is now mandatory, but if not at one of the piazzas, then where? Deciding where to go ends up becoming a walk in itself, but then you realize you are in the vicinity of the Palatine Towers, a strapping Roman age relic that has stood well against the test of time.
You were never one for history, always daydreaming about the future and escaping to a modern Italy. But after years of chasing that illusion, it’s felt less exhausting to retreat back to what is familiar and appreciate la dolce vita whenever possible.
Humor in Torino
And of course that means food and drinks and amici, but it’s been years since you’ve attended weeks upon weeks of gatherings.
Plaza across from the Palace Parliament
In fact, wasn’t it just last week that another dear friend was put to rest? Time seems to have let you be, winning the title among your group of childhood friends for longest-living ragazza was never the plan.
Palace Parliament
Despite the looming, bleak outcome life seems to have in store, redirecting oneself back to daily distractions seems to help. Especially if Mole Antonelliana is that distraction.
Mole, a building of monumental proportions…Alessandro Antonelli got that right.
When it comes to distractions, crossing the Po River to see Torino from the top used to be a magnificent escape.
Crossing the Po River, amongst the backdrop of Torino pride 🚩
Leg pain and fatigue get in the way from making the steep climb nowadays, but it’s something you would have urged your kids and grandkids to do if they had ever graced this planet.
A feisty, furball like Cappuccino on the other hand? Good luck chasing her stubby legs up a vertiginous incline!
Borgo Medievale seems more approachable right now, although another long walk through the park doesn’t sound appetizing to a grumbling stomach.
It’s nothing like Disneyland—a teenage dream that even your world-faring parents couldn’t help you fulfill—but at least you take pride in its authenticity.
Borgo Medievale
Fontana di Nettuno is nearby and always stirs a chuckle…as a fiery Leo, you find Agosto to be a tad timid, while Settembre and her Virgo charm seem to be asking for a friendly competition…
Settembre and Agosto personified!
Alright, it’s been an incredibly long walk, but before collapsing onto the bed at home for a lusciously, long afternoon nap, una coppeta of gelato seems much deserved! Diabetes should let a few spoonfuls pass on through without a fuss😉
Gelato from La Romana
Sweet caramel and pistacchio—flavors that always wrap you with comfort. Gelato—Italy’s gift to the world that despite the unknowns and uncontrollable outcomes of life, life is still a sweet adventure.
An adventure that Torino genuinely fulfills in a quiet,reflective manner.
It’s been seven months of living in Milan, and I think I’ve had plenty of pasta and pizza to satisfy my authentic Italian cuisine checklist.
What I truly miss are foods that are “sacrilegious” here, like pineapple pizza or bagel breakfast sandwiches made with eggs and cheese.
Not exactly my vegan favorites, but man do I miss the plethora of vegan options that were in Los Angeles...
Back when I ran a food-focused, lifestyle blog (Will Study for Food), I made it a priority to check out restaurants and write full reviews on them. It was something I truly enjoyed, and while I never got to an extreme level of “food influencer”, I was able to connect with local restaurants from time-to-time to participate in tastings, or review products from food companies that got in contact with me.
But I soon grew tired of constantly posting about food. My blog post format was starting to get repetitive because seriously, there’s only so many ways you can be creative when it comes to writing food reviews 🤷🏽♀️.
Since starting Second Gen Desi and moving abroad, I have started to miss my food blogging days, but here in Milan, I wasn’t in the mood to take pictures of every caffè or brioche I stumbled upon.
But since coming here, I realized it would be fun to at least try foods from local restaurants that I could group into a “category” for a later blog posts.
I thought that it could perhaps provide some fun during these dreary times, and especially help restaurants survive via the delivery services I started to use on the daily 😅
So with this in mind, I scoured the land for whatever vegan restaurants I could find. One I had the chance to dine-in at, twice, in the summer before everything went COVID-crazy again.
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So if you are vegan in Milan and are struggling with options, or you’re somewhere else in the world and find it unbelievable that the land of formaggio and proscuitto even has vegan options, scroll on down to see what I ended up finding 👇🏽!
1 ) Flower Burger (dine-in, Porta Venezia location)
I knew of Flower Burger even before coming to Italy, when I still participated in the food blogging-charade and stumbled across someone’s IG post featuring a plate of colorful vegan burgers. I remember saving the post under a file where I archived any intriguing restaurants outside of the US—in case I ever happened to travel to a particular country, I was ready with my “where-to-chow-down” list.
Porta Venezia on a good day 😝
It’s amusing that I ended up eventually visiting Flower Burger, twice!
Flower Burger, Porta Venezia
My second visit was in early September, on a weekday evening after work. I came prepared to order in Italian and not use my Bank of America credit card (not that using that particular card was a bad thing, but it was a dead-giveaway to the cashier that I was not an Italian native and a give-away that I was not a native Italian speaker…)
In this visit, I was successful in ordering an Ocean Burger—their special edition burger outfitted in a bright teal bun, sandwiching some good fixin’s including lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole, a thick quinoa patty, and a mayo-type sauce called “beach sauce”.
The burger came paired with patate savory (potato wedges), but I didn’t think to ask for an extra order of sauce.
This is something I’ve realized about Italians—they skimp when it comes to saucing their carbs!
Besides the “dry” potato situation, Flower Burger’s burgers were, in my mind, the go-to for vegan burgers in all of Milano.
That is, until lockdowns happened again in late October, and I discovered a new guy in town…
2) Black Out Burgers by Avo Brothers
I was scrolling through Deliveroo, an app that has gotten me through Italy’s oscillating restrictions, in early November when I first spotted BOB.
Unlike Flower Burger, they didn’t seem to have a brick-and-mortar store nor was their entire menu vegan-friendly. What made some of their selections vegan-friendly was using Beyond Burger in their “normal” dishes, but it was something else that made my eyes pop:
Britney’s No Chicken Burger
I was able to save a *bit* of money by making it a meal, getting some sweet potato fries on the side, TWO sauce cups, and a can of ice cold acqua frizzante.
The bag it came in helped me figure out why my burger was Britney’s (like, Britney Spears?)
Wowwww, oh wow—this meal was demanding to compete with what Flower Burger had to offer. The fries were incredibly sweet and earthy, and I made a wise choice by getting BBQ sauce and paprika mayo on the side for dipping. I was also able to request plant-based cheddar for the burger, the patty of which was incredibly crispy.
Anyone who says they can’t stand veggie/vegan burgers because they taste awful, and that they prefer the “real thing”, needs to try this. And be proved wrong.
From that point on, I ordered least one meal from BOB each week, usually on Monday nights since it served as a good pick-me-up for having to start a new work week.
I even raved about BOB on a vegan and vegetarian’s group chat I’m a part of with other expat women in the city 😂:
I gave BOB excellent reviews for quite a while after my first order, but when they made an egregious error regarding the last order I placed with them, that tampered with my trust.
Due to an order mix-up, I opened my bag to find a lovely beefy burger, and I decided to call it quits. Thankfully I caught it, but I was put-off from their lack of integrity and awareness for the customer.
I guess itwas good while it lasted.
3) Avo Brothers
During my BOB obsession, I did take a break and order from the OG Avo Brothers.
Their menu had refreshing options like salads, bowls, and (vegan) desserts!
I opted for the Lolita Bowl, which wasn’t exactly vegan due to the halloumi cheese (which could always be taken out), but I went for it as is, keeping it vegetarian with the cheese.
I can see why it’s one of their most popular bowls (it says so on Deliveroo). It’s packed with spinach, avocado, purple cabbage, tomatoes, squash, beet hummus, and sunflower seeds 🤩
As far as the guilt-free brownie though….if I had known it would be so soft, chewy, and flavorful, I would have ordered at least….three? 🤣
4) Soulgreen
Soulgreen seems to be well-known by vegan expats here (at least based on the one chat group I’m in…), but from all of the times I’ve ordered from here, I haven’t been able to get away from the Falafel Wrap.
It’s an unassuming dish, with no fancy fillings, but it’s one of my favorites. Since it comes with potato wedges and ketchup (finally, a place in Milan that understands that some sort of condiment is essential when it comes to potato wedges and the sort 🙌🏽).
I’m used to falafel wraps with thick tahini-based sauces, but I was surprised by how the consistency was much like plain yogurt (very runny, and too runny for my liking).
I also wasn’t able to confirm if the sauce was dairy-free, so this ingredient might make this particular dish vegetarian rather than vegan.
5) MACHAPOKE
I was surprised to learn that sushi is incredibly popular in Milan, and in line with that, poke.
In LA, I always ended up doing a create-your-own type bowl if I ended up at a poke shop, so I could avoid the fish and get more of the other, better stuff 😉.
I was pleased to see that many of the poke shops on food delivery apps like Deliveroo offer vegetarian or even vegan bowls, and MACHAPOKE’s version is one of my favorites.
Their specific Vegan Poke bowl is so eye-catching—with a quinoa base, vegan burger balls (that actually look like falafel), avocado, broccoli, carrot, chickpeas, sunflower seeds, squash, and flaxseeds.
They threw in some chopsticks, soy sauce, and ginger, even though the bowl didn’t need it 😂. It was a struggle trying to get the last bits of quinoa with chopsticks, let me tell ya…
They also offer a vegan cheesecake, but since 75% of it is bland, it’s not worth a re-order. I didn’t expect the matcha layer to be too sweet, but I was hoping the middle layer would have been better in the sweet department (far from it). The bottom graham crust layer was the only part that was decent. Wish there had been more of that and not just like, 25%…
6) Cibo Vegan Food
Ah, Cibo Vegan Food—probably the most bland vegan outlet in all of Milan, and one of the priciest.
Due to a technical error on one weeknight, Deliveroo offered those who tried to place an order that evening a 5 euros off promo code to “make things right again”.
With that in hand, I could “splurge” a little and see if Cibo was worthy any hype.
Their menu was headache-inducing due to the Italian I had to comprehend after a long work day, but I ended up getting their vegan paella, a “cake” slice with pears and ginger, and “arancino di cereali misti”.
When my food arrived, I could tell not much work went into the packaging. I think the assumption that vegan places tend to be environmentally-friendly is an assumption gone awry…
Everything was double-wrapped in plastic
The vegan paella was nothing special—just flavored rice with bite-size pieces of tofu and tempeh mixed in.
The “arancino” reminded me of a bland falafel—not even the “soy” sauce (basically hummus) could help it out of the flavorless black hole!
Oh, and the excuse-for-a-dessert that was the pere e zenzero cake slice. It could have been sweeter is an understatement…it needed to be dipped into a pool of sugar 😂
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Just like it’s possible to live in Los Angeles without a car, it’s possible to eat vegan in Milan, if that’s what you truly want! LA has far more options, but for a city in a traditional country with (ridiculous) food rules, the options that are available in Milan are decent.
Perhaps when these lockdowns ease down 🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽 I’ll be more motivated to see what else I can find…
