While Greg loved the sightseeing experience, my main goal was to become a mini Anthony Bourdain protege and eat my way through the continent. In the process, we inadvertently stumbled upon a great new purpose for our travel buddy which someone appropriately suggested we name “Manja!” Guess what country we were eating in when this came about?
A complete photoset of every single thing we ate and drank from beginning to end is also available on Flickr, with an appearance by our gluttoness-looking friend in every pic. Here are some highlights and tips on good eats and ways to save on food.
England: Fish and Chips stand by the Tower of London sold all this (sans hedgehog) for 5 pounds. This was our cheapest meal in England and we split it.
England: Chicken Curry, according to Frommers, is London’s official dish, off the record. Brick Lane is my proudest find. Both sides of the street, wall-to-wall Indian restaurants with a person at every door trying to bribe you to come in with discounts, free wine and appetizers. Greg and I HAGGLED FOR OUR SUPPER, and ended up with naan, rice, two appetizers, two main courses and a whole bottle of wine for less than 18 pounds total. Considered a lower-end restaurant, it was the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten. And butter chicken is a must in London. I’ve never had anything like it here.
Amsterdam: Pickled herring is the specialty. They had pre-cut my fish, so I didn’t quite swallow the whole thing the way you are supposed to eat it. Turned out to be pretty good!’
Munich: This dish (called Jaegrschnitzel) and London’s finest Indian are tied for the two best meals that I had. Pork, bacon, noodles and coated in mushroom cream sauce. Naughty!
Rottenburg: Schneeballen is a ball made of pieces of dough, stuffed with various things (peanut butter, carmel, chocolate) coated in various things (chocolate, peanut butter, etc.) drizzled with various things (chocolate, nuts, caramel). The original schneeballen looked like it was plain powdered sugar and dough and resembled a heart attack.
Italy: The gelato and cappucino (duh) were the standouts for me.
France: Apparently, good French food is just as expensive in France as it is here. That surprised me a bit. Nonetheless, Monmarte was a great place to find affordable French delicacies (fois gras and pate pictured here) on a pre-fixe menu. The street vendors were the best deal. This crepe is stuffed with nutella and bananas and was only 2 or 3 euros. I made a point to look for the vendors that were making the crepes from a batter, and not warming ones up from a stack. Croque Monsier was another great street vendor specialty.
Our two golden tips: Greg and I made a Costco run the weekend before and bought tons of snacks that we packed in our suitcases. As we walked around all day, eating snacks kept us from getting “hangry” and gave us the energy to get to a place we really wanted to eat at, or really find something good and reasonable. As the space for snacks in our suitcases opened up, souvenirs took its place.
Find grocery stores. We bought water whenever we found a grocery store and it was cheap, then filled our small sports bottles to take with us wherever we went. This was a lifesaver because it saved us from buying drinks at every meal, which would easily have cost around 14 US dollars per meal for the two of us. Grocery stores were also a great source for souvenirs. At Coop City in Switerzland, we found some really cheap chocolate. And wine and beer are the same price, if not cheaper, than soda and drinks at the restaurants.
We had some food fun, and actually some fun with our new food mascot too. We leave you with this: Where’s the hedgehog?
Are those meats in the last photo?
Sounds yummy. I’ve heard London has the best curry. And Butter Chicken is a favorite.
There’s a pretty jaegerschnitzel at Cafe Berlin on Cap. hill.
That last photo is some sort of vegetable. There was a bucket of them at one of the stores. I have no idea what it is. I imagine, some sort of tuber.
I had fantastic Indian food in London, too. I can’t remember exactly where, but I think somewhere near the Angel tube station. It’s been 13 years since I visited German, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. I remember falling in love with the German sausages that we get now at Cafe Berlin. And i hated authentic goulash, the national dish of Hungary (or close to it). But there was a chilled strawberry soup in Budapest that I still remember fondly.
Only because my half-Italian side (though you wouldn’t know it) is screaming at me right now, and because I guess if you’re actually going to give the hedgehog this name, you may care a little more… you probably want to spell it, “Mangia!” (And, yes- I agree the exclamation mark is essential : )
Are you Italian the way the Robleto kids are Nicaraguan? My apologies to the ancestors.
I had no idea how to spell it.
We are Nicaraguan. I swear, it’s on the family tree. BTW, I just misspelled Manja the same way in an email to the family. Oops, I just misspelled it again there, maybe that’s the way his name will be spelled – Manja.
Haha- no, I am actually a full 50% of Italian descent : P It’s more than my Irish, but I guess I’m the epitome of recessive traits!
Greg, you spell it how you like- it’s your hedgehog. Just standing up for my heritage! I’m sure you crazy Irish-Nicaraguans understand : )