Food, Glorious (Trip) Food

It should come as no surprise that food is an integral part of my travel experience and even though I wrote a fair amount about some memorable culinary delights, there was still a lot I left out. The foods mentioned here (broken down by city) shaped my trip as much as strolling along the Seine or climbing to the top of Saint Paul's. 

London

As you may know, I started off my trip housesitting in North London for a great family with the most wonderful dog ever. Before the fam left I was invited to dinner where I was exposed to British-style oven roasted potatoes. 

This sounds so stupid because, I mean, I've definitely had oven roasted potatoes many times here in the states, but these were different. Thanks to a dusting of cornstarch and some good fat these crispy potatoes come closer in taste and texture to french fries. I knew from the first bite that I wanted to make my own when I got home and I found a great recipe here on BBC Good Food. I subbed grapeseed oil for the goose fat instead of olive oil because it has a higher smoking point. (That basically means that grapeseed can withstand a higher temperature than olive oil.) It worked like a charm when I made these with a roast chicken last month and they are by far the best potatoes I've ever made.

Paris

I've already talked about the croissants and the duck confit and the rotisserie chicken so I'm just gonna plug the pastries here. What kind? Doesn't matter. Try them alllll. Laduree's famous macarons were amazing as were the tarts from Eric Keyser, although I'm sure anything from either of these two places is divine. Check out this pistachio-apricot tart: 

So pretty! 

It's worth a trip to Laduree just to see the store (I got scolded for taking this photo). We bought eight macarons and they were gone within an embarrassingly short amount of time. Rose petal, violet, and orange blossom were my favorites just because they were so different, but the more traditional flavors like pistachio and caramel were equally delicious and intense. 

Munich

I'll admit: I wasn't expecting a whole lot food-wise from Oktoberfest aside from giant beers, sausages and strudel but I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of things:

Cheesy Spatzle, which is the egg-noodle-meets-gnocchi dish pictured on the right (also notice the half-chicken. I finally had one!) and knodel, grated potato dumplings served in the most delicious dark beer sauce were revelations:

Unfortunately, both of these dishes involve a maddening level of steps and require tools (ricer, spatzle-maker) I don't have so I won't be recreating either of these any time soon. However, James and I plan on checking out the Munich Haus in Chicopee, MA at some point and if they have even passable versions of these dishes you'll be the first to know. 

Prague

Like Munich, Prague is a part of the Bohemian region and thus shares many of the same foods (meat, potatoes, bread, repeat). For our first meal we wanted something authentic so we checked out local favorite Hastalsky dedek. I had the (crazy cheap) duck which came with two different kinds of weird dumplings (think canned bread) and some absolutely delicious red cabbage. I'd eat a bowl of it if I could. In addition, the menu's English translations were...interesting. 

I came for the red cabbage, but stayed for the pig-slaughtering bread. And of course, a trip to Prague would not be complete without this: 

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE.

Vienna

We're still in the land of meat and potatoes, people, but now we have Austrian coffee. Viennese coffeehouse culture is a huge part of Vienna and is even listed as a UNESCO Intangible Heritage so yeah, it's a pretty big deal. 

I chose the Ubersturzter Neumann, or Upside down Neumann, partially for the name and mostly for the whipped cream, which is put into an empty coffee cup while a double mocha is poured over it. 

Many Austrian coffees have very specific instructions for their preparation and presentation, which can seem a little overwhelming at first but is all part of the fun.

During our visit to the famous Cafe Sperl our waitress gave us a little booklet called the ABC of Coffee which helped explain the extensive offerings while making Starbucks look like McDonald's dollar menu. 

Budapest

Confession: I had a pretty bad cold during our two days in Budapest so I didn't really experience much in the way of Hungarian cuisine. I did make sure to have goulash for dinner on our first night and, from what I could taste, it was good and spicy. But my appetite was rather wain for most of the trip. However, we spent a nice afternoon at 1000 Teas, a cozy tea room with the largest tea menu I have ever seen. I had a pot of elderberry tea which was supposed to help with colds and I was good as new within a few days.

We also had some pretty great Thai food on our last night night, which was a welcomed break from the meat-and-potatoes express.

Dubrovnik

I've already rhapsodized about the wine, bread, and cheese so now I'm going to talk about the ham. Specifically, Dalmatian ham:

A thick-cut, smoked ham reminiscent of prosciutto, Dalmatian ham is a Croatian specialty and was featured on nearly every menu we saw. 

Dubrovnik also has a great selection of high end restaurants (many of which were out of our price range) but we had a particularly memorable meal at Lucin Kantun, a Mediterranean tapas-style restaurant that included a delicious stuffed squid and beef carpaccio. 

For our last meal in the walled city we decided to try something different and checked out Taj Mahal, a misleadingly named Bosnian restaurant. The food was a bit of a mix between Turkish and Greek--lots of spiced mets, phyllo, and yogurt. Katie ordered the sausages pictured above, which were a highlight, along with the teeny baked potatoes topped with thick yogurt.  

Rome

Oh Rome, I could write about your food forever. Instead, I'm  limiting myself to only three things:

We stopped at a random cafe for breakfast on our way to the Colosseum and happened upon the best breakfast pastry of the trip: coronetto (little horn) alla marmellata--a sort of Italian version of the croissant filled, in this case, with some kind of red jam or jelly. I'm not exactly sure what it was, actually. Marmellata can refer to what we think of as orange marmalade along with jam and conserves, but it didn't distinctly taste like raspberry or strawberry. If anything, it was some kind of mysterious red stuff. And man was it good. My cousin and I each had one and then we each got another before we left because well, when in Rome! 

We had the BEST meal at Nipotino del Solitario, a tiny traditional family-run restaurant in the Esquiline neighborhood. Everything was fresh, home-cooked authentic Italian food at a very reasonable price, but the carbonara was outstanding. So, so good. I still dream about this dish. I'll be dreaming about it for the rest of my life. In fact, I need to go make some carbonara right now....

(Twenty minutes later)

Nope. Not as good.

We had our second best meal at Piccolo Arancio an inventive and reasonably priced restaurant near the Trevi fountain, an area that can be a bit of a tourist trap. I had lasagna with saffron and zucchini flowers (a long-standing obsession) which was light and flavorful. 

Despite all this indulgence, I actually lost weight on this trip thanks to the hours of daily walking. But even if I hadn't it still would have been totally worth it.

London As a Tourist: Tips, Tricks, and What I Would Do Differently

After seven weeks away from home, much of it spent traveling solo, I was ready for some company--especially of the James variety. We have done a fair amount of traveling during our time together but London was always a "dream" destination for us. When I left for England at the end of July, the exact length and time of James' visit was still up in the air. All we knew for sure was that we had to be in Munich for Oktoberfest by October 2nd. But I was beyond thrilled when James actually managed to get three weeks off from work and immediately began plotting everything down to the last detail.

I'll admit, I found the prospect of writing a post about our London visit rather overwhelming. One does not just write about "London." It can't be done. No overview will do it justice. Similarly, this was the issue I ran into when plotting James' visit--my familiarity was also my downfall. In short, I wanted James to know London the way I know London--impossible in only 9 days.

When I was a teenager I'd go down to NYC to visit with my uncle who would then take me on what he lovingly referred to as 'death marches' through the city. I can remember one October day when we literally walked from Brooklyn up to Soho. For a suburban kid from Connecticut, this was an unimaginable amount of walking. For him, it was just a Saturday. I was reminded of this during one of our marathon days where we visited the Tower, took a Thames river cruise, walked through St. James Park to Buckingham Palace, and then ended the evening with a literary-themed pub walk.

Of course, I really have no one but myself to blame. When I asked James what he wanted to to before he came he shrugged. "I dunno, go to pubs and see castles?" Somehow this translated into visiting the above mentioned places along with Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Hampstead Heath, Regent's Park, Trafalgar Square, Parliament and Big Ben, Oxford Street, Baker Street, Soho, Hampstead, Shoreditch, Brick Lane, St. Paul's, Westminister Abbey, the British museum, the John Soanes museum, Portobello Road market, Borough market, Spitalfields market, Camden Lock market, Brick Lane's Sunday Up market, Stonehenge, and Salisbury cathedral, along with lots of walking in many, many neighborhoods.  

                                         

And don't worry, we visited plenty pubs too. I'm pretty sure that was James' favorite part. I'd list all of them here, but then you might think I have a drinking problem. I will say though that the best one we visited was the first one I took him to: The Churchill Arms in Notting Hill. I went there a few times during my first stay in London and it was exactly as I remembered, right down to the tasty Thai restaurant in the back.

During our time in London, I was consumed with showing James everything I wanted him to see while also feeling exhausted and stressed by my own non-stop itinerary. Now, over a month later, I'm really glad we forged ahead but it's also worth noting that  some of the best things we did were decided on a whim and new for both of us--climbing to the Golden Gallery at St. Paul's, visiting Churchill's War Rooms, and conducting a thorough investigation into which Brick Lane bagel place was best (the Beigel Shop got my vote, but James liked Beigel Bake's salami stuffed beigel).

It should also be noted that even with 9 full days and a packed schedule we still didn't manage to do everything we wanted: Hampton Court, Oxford, seeing a West End show, a concert at St Martin-in-the-fields. Perhaps that can wait for our next, more relaxed visit. 

And even though I stated earlier that no overview of London can do it justice, I do have a few suggestions if you plan on visiting the greatest city in the world...

Rent An Apartment
I had originally wanted to rent an apartment on Airbnb but in a moment of frugality-driven confusion I decided to lowball Priceline. I got a slightly cheaper hotel room in central London about a ten minute walk from Hyde Park. The location was great, but I still think an apartment further out would have been a better choice. London has excellent public transportation so even if you're staying in zone 2 as long as you're near a tube stop it's fast and easy to get to the city's most popular sites. Furthermore, any money I saved was immediately offset by the money I wasted by not having access to a kitchen. Now, no one wants to spend their precious vacation time cooking up meals but because eating out is just so expensive British grocery stores offer lots of surprisingly tasty 'ready meals' or takeaways. The quality is much higher than the American standard for heat and serve meals. You can have a nice dinner for two for around ten GBP--whereas the same meal in a pub or restaurant could cost twice that. I really regret that we couldn't take advantage of that during our trip. Similarly...

Eat Cheap
After accommodation, our biggest expense was food. London is an expensive city to eat out in even for Londoners who don't have the added problem of a weak exchange rate. After a few heady days spending 30 GBP just on dinner alone, James and I started eating meals in the park. We both became partial to the Co-op's lunch deal of a sandwich, bag of chips, and a drink for 5 GBP. Given that the weather was nice, this was perfectly fine, but I was still kicking myself over how much money we initially wasted for the rest of the trip. London street food is also plentiful and cheap. Markets like Borough and Brick Lane attract a variety of particularly tasty and original food vendors, making it easy to have a great meal for about 5 GBP. You can also conduct your own bagel taste test at Beigel Bake and the Beigel Shop for some of London's cheapest and most filling eats. 

Get a Travelcard  
Public transportation in London may be horribly expensive, but it is also the most efficient I've ever encountered (I'm looking at you, nonsensical Boston T). We each bought a 7 day travelcard and made every pence count. Skip the overpriced bus tours and hop on the No. 73. This bus will take you past a number of the city's most famous sites and is included in the travelcard.
                                                           

Consider the London Pass
I balked at this because it meant cramming sites like St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey into one day, but if you're only in London for a short time or on a tight budget, the London Pass is probably your best bet. With proper planning and some fast walking it's certainly possible to see two or three of London's greatest attractions in a day, especially if you throw in a Thames River cruise--as must do, if you ask me.

Double Your Budget
Whatever it is you think you'll spend, I gaurantee you will spend much more. Even though the exchange rate is better than it was during my last visit in 2006, London is still shockingly expensive.  However, the city is incredibly tourist-friendly--more so than any other place I visited--and makes an effort to cater to visitors from all over the world. I didn't realize how good it was until we left. Paris may have been cheaper, but there are very few signs directing people to even the most famous sites--and you can bet they won't be in English.

Take Advantage of Free London
Despite some steep price tags, there are still plenty of free things to do. Here are some of my top picks:

 --Visit one of the many free museums the city has to offer. My favorites include the National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum, and the John Soanes Museum.

--Walk along the Thames and get some great photos of London's top landmarks.

--Browse London's street markets. Borough Market is a must for foodies, Spitalfield's has great fashion, and Portobello Road is famous for antiques.

--Explore the East End and Brick Lane. Look for street art by the elusive Banksy.

--Relax in one of London's numerous parks. Regent's Park, St. James Park, Hyde Park, and Hampstead Heath are my favorites. 

Postcard From London: Highgate, The Brontes, and Saying Goodbye

I've been abroad for about a month now, though it feels like so much longer. The housesitting gig ended last week but I have been hiding away in the attic stealing wifi and subsisting on dust bunnies and the soothing sounds of Channel 4--just kidding. The family I house sat for were kind enough to let me stay on a bit longer, but as nice as its been, its time to move on. I head up to the Peak District village of Eyam on Monday and from there I'll go to Haworth, home of the Brontes.

As preparation, I covertly snapped this picture in the National Portrait Gallery. Afterwards, I learned that it is ok to take pictures and that they have security cameras in every room that the guards monitor 24/7. This can only mean that there is CCTV footage of me very obviously looking around, sneakily taking this photograph, and then pretending to read my phone like nothing was going on. 

After that, it's on to York for a few days before returning to London where I'll meet up with James and start EUROTRIP: PHASE TWO. We'll spend ten days exploring London,  along with a few day trips farther afield, and then it's off to Paris for six. I am beyond excited for so many things: Seeing James of course, turning 29 in the city of lights, checking out Glastonbury Tor, exploring Amelie's Monmarte--the list goes on and on and on. It's funny, though. I'm excited for James to come, but I also don't want this to end. I want time to move forward and back all at once. But before all that I have to say goodbye. 

I've really enjoyed my housesitting experience--the only downside is leaving Chilli, the wonderful dog I took care of. I lucked out with this one and it almost makes me a little wary of doing it again. The bar has been set pretty high. 

It has also been great getting to know a new part of London and marveling at just how big and varied this place is. Today I visited Highgate, another lovely village close by that borders the heath. I went for the cemetery (which is the final resting place of George Eliot and Karl Marx, among many others) but the village is, like Hampstead, very quaint and beautiful. You can wander around the East cemetery for 4 pounds or take a guided tour of the West for 12. Guess which one I did? For 4 pounds you get a map that points out the notable graves, so there's that. I was pretty shocked at just how crowded the place was, and not by the living. Headstones were literally falling on each other. Apparently, plots at Highgate were in such high demand the East cemetery was opened in 1860 and is still in operation today.  Then again, I guess it shouldn't be so surprising of one of the world's oldest 'mega cities'. 

Almost walked by George Eliot's grave. Then I shook my fist and said 'Ughhh Casaubon!'

However, it's hard to miss this one. Workers of the world unite for a more tasteful headstone?

Many stones were completely covered in ivy. Beautiful, but it also says so much about the brevity of life and the enduring nature of death, no? Maybe I'm reading too much into it...I bet George Eliot could riff on that for a few pages though.

Sadly, I'm not sure what my WiFi situation will be like up north so I might not do a blog post for awhile. I'll definitely be updating the Facebook page and Instagram so check those out for Peaks and Yorkshire goodness. And give them a "like" while you're stopping by!

Postcard From London: An Afternoon In Kensington

The way I decide what to do with my days is a combination of touristy stuff and life stuff, i.e. "I should go see ___ but I also need to buy milk." Today I decided to go to Kensington because they have a Whole Foods and I wanted some 'green' shampoo. I also thought I could walk around Kensington Palace and maybe see that exhibit about famous royal dresses. 

On a whim, or more truthfully because I got on the wrong train, I ended up in my old neighborhood and was shocked at how very little had changed: There was the KFC I never went to and the cafe where my mom insulted a waiter by asking if she was going to get mad cow disease from eating the ribeye. And, rather shockingly, there was the very same homeless man panhandling in the very same spot outside Barclay's. His hair was mostly grey now and his dog was different but hey, I had changed too. 

As I walked down the street, I realized that as much as I had always told myself (and other people) that I would return to London one day, there really had been no guarantee. Yet, here I was, seven years older and twenty pounds heavier, walking down the very same street in the very same neighborhood I had lived in. What a gift, I thought to myself. How lucky that I was able to do this. It very easily could never have happened. 

I didn't make it to the Fashion Rules exhibit because I wasn't about to shell out 15 pounds to the monarchy. Pssh. They should pay for their own exhibit about themselves, I reasoned. Then I paid the equivalent of $12 for a bottle of shampoo, but at least it will last a while and actually do something.

Anyways, I returned home later to yet another rejection email from a literary journal and despite where I was and what I had just experienced, I felt like a total failure. After wallowing for a few minutes and tweeting about my wallowing to my 37 followers, I realized that the way I was defining success was making me miserable. I could literally be walking around my favorite city on a beautiful summer day, having an actual life experience--but not getting a story published in a journal that probably very few people read, other than those who have been published in it themselves, could ruin everything. I could see myself willing to trade this whole day or even this whole trip for a published story. And for what? What, exactly, would it do for my life? Could it really make me any happier or more satisfied than I am right now? I'm not sure anymore. I do know that I need to change my way of thinking--easier said than done, of course, but necessary.  

Postcard From London: Hampstead, The Heath, and Feeling Guilty

For the past several weeks I've been settling in and exploring the area--along with caring for a very sweet dog named Chilli. After my first whirlwind week in London it has been nice to slow down a bit. And with a backyard like this, who can blame me? 

Luckily, Hampstead Heath is close by so I've been taking Chilli on some good long walks nearly every day, though more recently those walks haven't been quite as long. I strained my hip muscle at some point during the last few weeks because my lazy American body isn't used to all this walking. Though in fairness, before I left I was doing this squatting workout from something I saw on Pinterest, which was probably just setting me up for this injury. Lesson learned: do not engage in an exercise regime that is superimposed over a picture of someone's butt.   

To make things more complicated, Hampstead itself sits on a hilly area above London. However, the amazing views manage to make up for the pain:

What I like most about this area is that if you squint a bit, and ignore the cars and the McDonald's, you can almost trick yourself into thinking you'd gone back in time. Last Saturday I did a wonderful walking tour of Hampstead with London Walks and learned all about its history. Not surprisingly, it has long been a popular neighborhood for writers, artists, and actor types. H.G. Wells, John Keats, Daphne Du Maurier, and John Constable all lived here. More recent residents include Ridley Scott, Ricky Gervais, Judi Dench, Jeremy Irons, and Liz Taylor (among many others). With a history like that it's hard not to feel inspired just by walking around. 

The Romantic poet John Keats spent the last years of his life in Hampstead and here is where he wrote some of his best known poems, often inspired by his walks on the heath nearby.

Here is a replica of Keats' death mask, because I'm creepy. Apparently the original disappeared shortly after he died in Rome.

And this the Admiral's house which served as the inspiration for Admiral Boom in Hampstead resident P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins.

Get a peak at that sky--Constable painted it numerous times and I can see why. Every sunset has caught my eye and I'm not even at the top of the hill. 

And yet, as lovely as this all is I can't wait for James to be by my side so we can experience it together. He will love Hampstead and I'm looking forward to showing him around. Traveling alone definitely has its perks and I'm really glad I'm doing this, but there are some things that are just better with another person. 

I've also been struggling a bit with feeling guilty since I haven't gotten much work done. But, my time here is limited. If I end up spending the day wandering around the heath instead of inside writing, so be it. As Annie Dillard wrote: "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." A chapter of my life spent wandering around London is much more fulfilling than writing inside a house in London. I can get back to my usual routine when I'm home. But for now, this is what I want my days to look like:

Literary London: Barrie, Dickens, and The Bloomsbury Group

Long before I came to London, I had an idea of what it was like thanks to writers like Charles Dickens and J.M. Barrie, whose vivid descriptions have long held a place in our collective imagination. It was a foggy place filled with cobblestoned roads and row houses where colorful characters lived while fairies flew through the night sky and unseen terrors lurked in the shadows. Of course, no real place can ever live up to our imagined expectations, but even still there's a magical quality to the city, perhaps in part enhanced by its rich literary history, which can be found on seemingly every street corner. This is, after all, a place that has dedicated a whole tube station to a fictional character:

The Sherlock Holmes Museum (notably, not the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle museum) is located at 221 Baker Street, naturally:

Even still, there are plenty of real life literary heros who walked these streets. In fact, writers like Dickens, Barrie, and Woolf are so well-known and beloved that they have become characters themselves. I love visiting the places where larger than life authors lived and worked. It's fun and educational but also inspirational. And who couldn't benefit from a little inspiration now and then?

First up was the Dickens Museum. I'm not a huge Dickens fan (a bit wordy for my taste), but his influence on Western literature is undeniable. Even if you've never read a word, you can still probably name at least a few characters: Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Miss Havisham, Oliver Twist. To me, Dickens' greatest legacy is the characters he created. Therefore, the museum, housed in a townhouse he rented for a few years during the beginning of his career, is a real treat for both the casual fan and fervent admirer. Here he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, among others, and it is also a great example of how an upper middle class family lived during the mid-19th century. 

Charles Dickens' kitchen. He was not the only writer in his family, as his wife Catherine wrote a cookbook: What Shall We Have For Dinner?

Um, best wall designs ever?

There's a lovely terrace out back where you can relax with a cup of tea and reflect on the house.

A few blocks and several decades removed is Bloomsbury, where the Bloomsbury group, made up of 20th century artists, intellectuals, and writers, got their name. I didn't know much about them until I took a course on Virginia Woolf in grad school. Though I admire her, Woolf's fiction isn't my cup of tea. However, her diaries are fun, witty, and a fascinating window into the era. 

Gordon Square was home to several prominent members, the economist John Maynard Keynes and sisters Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell all lived at number 46, though at different times. Hey, it's an important distinction to make. This is the Bloomsbury group after all.

Nearby is Tavistock Square, where Virginia Woolf lived with her husband Leonard.

This memorial to Virginia Woolf stands near where they lived.

Interestingly, Dickens also lived in Tavistock square at one time. Ev'rybody wants to be in the stock!

Tavistock Square is also home to this famous statue of Ghandi as well as other memorials to those who have championed peace.

But closest to my heart is Peter Pan, the catalyst for my lifelong obsession with London. When I was a kid I loved Peter Pan so much that I begged my mom to change my name to Wendy. (This is a good example of why children should not be able to name themselves.) Thankfully she said no, but my love affair with the story of The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and the Darling children continued. 

I decided to track down author J.M. Barrie's house near the northern part of Kensington Gardens he met the Llewelyn Davies boys who inspired his greatest creation. In fact, the character of Peter Pan first appears in a section of Barrie's novel The Little White Bird called "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens". 

100 Bayswater Road at Leinster Corner is a private home.   

The only sign is the tell-tale blue plaque that marks many historically significant buildings throughout the city.

Kensington Gardens from 100 Bayswater Road. Perhaps this was where Barrie first encountered George, Jack, and Peter Llewelyn Davies while walking his Saint Bernard dog Porthos.