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.

The Grand Tour Part 1: Oktoberfest, Prague, and Vienna

Nothing can be more unpresuming than this little volume. It contains the account of some desultory visits by a party of young people to scenes which are now so familiar to our countrymen, that few facts relating to them can be expected to have escaped the many more experienced and exact observers, who have sent their journals to the press--The Shelleys, History of a Six Weeks Tour

The Grand Tour has its roots in the 1600s, when wealthy young Englishmen recently graduated from Oxbridge would travel though Europe to get a cultural education in classical antiquity and the Renaissance. It also attracted artists and writers who sought to learn from the Old Masters in both arts and letters. With the invention of the steam engine in 1825, the practice extended to the middle class and by the end of the century it was even common for young women to make the trek. The traditional itinerary varied a bit depending on which countries were in style, but one always began in England and ended in Rome. Of course, I am neither rich nor a gentle(wo)man but even still, I figured I could use a little cultural polish. I had been to England, sure, but before this trip I hadn't traveled much in Europe aside from a weekend in Belgium. The great thing about traveling the world is that you can finally see what everyone has been talking about through your own lens. Some wonders will disappoint, while others will move you in unexpected ways, but in the end it is an experience that belongs solely to you.   

My personal journey began in London and then it was on to Paris followed by Munich where I was joined by two of my cousins for a train ride through the rest of Europe. Over the course of 21 days we travelled from Munich to Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Dubrovnik, and Rome. We each bought a Eurail Global pass, which is good for 10 days of travel within two months and includes 24 countries. It is also expensive and if you are over 26 you have to buy a first class ticket.  We bought this ticket because of the flexibility, but if you have a set itinery it is worth your time to price out the individual tickets to see if you'll actually save money.

Something else to consider: not all trains are equal. Our train from Vienna to Budapest was lovely--wide leather seats, complimentary wifi, snacks, etc--however, this was also our shortest journey by a lot (2 1/2 hours). The rest of the trains we took weren't anything special and often not that much different from second class. However, on most trains (except Italy)  a first class ticket gaurantees you a seat on the train even if you don't have a reservation. So, again, this ticket gave us maximum flexibility. It was one less thing for us to worry about while on the road. 

A first class ticket also meant we could hang out in this schmancy lounge for a couple hours in Vienna and have as many lattes and glass-bottled orange juices as we wanted. Additionally, all Eurail pass carriers get discounts on various activities and some times even free public transportation in certain cities, like Munich and Vienna. In Rome we were even able to use one of our travel days on the express train to the airport, so I suppose it really was worth it in the end. 

As for the actual traveling, yes it's nice to take the train, but only when you are literally in the act of travel--that is, sitting in your seat enjoying a glass of wine (the wine is necessary). Otherwise, it still involves all the  other bits that make travel a nightmare. Yet, because you don't have to go through security it has retained more of an air of romance than, say, the airplane. Because of our itinerary there were times when we were traveling all day (and night) so even though our journey was roughly three weeks, it still felt like we were whizzing through countries at an impossibly fast clip. It was just a taste, really. 

So, in keeping with that here are some moments from the first part of the Grand Tour:

Munich, or more specifically Oktoberfest, was a sea of beer, lederhosen, and dirndls. Seriously, this is not an exaggeration. Everyone wears them. Luckily, they sell them at the train station so you can pick one up if you want to fit in. I wore my dirndl again when I got home for Halloween, so I think I got my money's worth.

We went to Oktoberfest twice during our four days in Munich. During our first visit we got there at 10:30 am on a weekday but by that time all of the tents were full. The outside tables were mostly empty though so we sat down and ordered a round of 'Lemonade', which is beer mixed with Sprite. It's pretty gross but you can have a couple and not get completely hammered. An hour later even the outside was packed but we made some German friends and learned from them that in order to make it inside, you have to get there very early and wait in line. Reserving a table inside can cost thousands of dollars but it is free to sit there during the day.

A day later we forced ourselves to get up at 6 am to try to get inside. We reached the fairgrounds close to 7:30 but by then every tent already had a huge line. Even still, we managed to make it into the Augustiner-Festhalle tent, which looked like a set from "A Very Hobbit Christmas". I later learned that this tent is known for being the friendliest. Indeed it was, though I suppose everyone gets a little friendly after a few liters of beer.

I booked a lovely apartment in the suburb of Gilching through Airbnb. It was about 30 minutes from the Oktoberfest grounds but proved to be a peaceful oasis away from the crowds.

Between all the singing, cheering, drinking, and pork products I felt like I needed a vacation after Oktoberfest. I'm glad I went, but I'm not sure I ever need to go again.

In Prague we stayed in an apartment about five minutes walking distance from the main square, which is an architectural delight in a city full of them. We walked to the top of the Old Town Hall, which also houses the famous Astronomical Clock, to take in this marvelous view.

A trip to Prague wouldn't be complete without a stroll (or five) across the Charles bridge, which features artists, vendors, musicians, and street performers along with 30 statues of saints and patron saints.

We also learned about the history of the city during a visit to Prague Castle, situated on a hill above the city. It was the home of the kings of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Emperors. Good King Wencesclas, the subject of everyone's favorite Christmas carol, and Maria Therese, the grandmother of Europe, both lived there (during different centuries, of course).

In keeping with my earlier tradition in London and Paris, we took a sunset river cruise along the Vitava. I may have been with family, but not gonna lie. It was pretty romantic.

After we got our fill of Old Bohemia we were off to Vienna, 'the wedding cake of Europe', named for its many beautiful white buildings.

It is also known as the City of Music because prodigies like Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Strauss (among many others) all lived and worked here. Indeed, you can hear music everywhere. One of the highlights was walking through St. Stephen's Cathedral while an orchestra and choir performed Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem, one of my all-time favorites.

We stayed in a pension, a step between a hostel and a hotel, on a lovely street in the city center.  There weren't very many cars about and most people seemed to be either on foot or on bikes, which gave the streets a more relaxing feel. Not much of the same kind of hustle and bustle you get in other cities.

Vienna is famous for its cafes and our trip to the beautiful Cafe Central was a highlight. We were waited on by the most formal/bordering on snooty manchild I have ever seen. He was tall and skinny with the face of a 14-year-old, yet he was the most graceful and impeccable waiter I've ever had.

While there I had this chocolate raspberry deliciousness and a cappuccino which, at that point in my life, was the best I had ever had. But that was before Italy.

You can't go to Vienna and not visit one of the Hapsburg palaces. We chose Schonbrunn, the summer residence, because the palace and gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage site. There's also a labyrinth:

Labyrinths sound cool until you're wandering around one on a cold, rainy fall day with the beginnings of a fever. Then they are definitely NOT COOL.

We also made the trek to Beethoven's grave in the city's Central Cemetery and finally found it after looking for an hour.  Fellow composers Brahms, Schubert, and Strauss are also buried in the area known as Composer's Corner.

My dedication to food markets has been well documented on this blog, so it should come as no surprise that we spent an afternoon wandering around the Naschmarkt, the city's most popular market.

I was expecting Vienna to be pricey but really, nothing seemed that expensive after London. It's not cheap, for sure, but everything seemed to be pretty reasonable. Prague, however, was not as cheap as I was expecting. My cousin Katie had been there seven years earlier and said that the place was definitely more expensive than she remembered, and a bit more upmarket too. Again, it's still cheap for  Europe and in terms of value, it's high since the city is beautiful and remarkably well-preserved. I'm not sure if I'll ever return to any of these places unless it's in combination with some other destination. As part of the Grand Tour, certainly. I'm glad I went and enjoyed my time there but I can't really see myself getting on a plane and spending a week in just Prague or Vienna any time soon. Not when there's still so many other places to explore.

Part Two will pick up in Budapest!