Thursday's Child: Adventures in Food

Thursday, October 16, 2014
Haggis, neeps and tatties: surprisingly good!
I’m a blogger who writes about food and travel. So what's more natural than writing about meals we’ve eaten on holidays? Here are some of my favourite food memories from around the world:


We don’t often eat better than we did on our recent trip to Krakow. We decided to eat Polish food whenever possible, and we did brilliantly, enjoying beet soup, cabbage rolls, pierogies, dumplings and potato pancakes. You’ll be relieved to hear that this wasn’t all at one meal, and that we spent ample time walking off all that Polish food.


Local food we’ve eaten in restaurants around the world includes haggis in Scotland (excellent), llama kebabs in Chile (not bad, as long as you didn’t think about this) and cod tongues in Newfoundland (never again).


The most fun I’ve ever had recreating a historical moment was eating this jelly doughnut in Berlin. (“Ich bin ein berliner” … never mind, I guess you had to be there.)


One Sunday night in Venice, we had trouble finding a restaurant that was open for dinner. I checked my guidebook, and it recommended a nearby pizza place. It was described as a little upscale,  and we were dressed casually because of the heat, but we checked it out anyhow.

When we arrived, they told us men weren’t permitted to wear shorts. We were about to turn away when the manager told Andrew he could borrow a pair of pants. The girls were famished, and so Andrew acquiesced, changing from his tan chino shorts into a pair of white drawstring pants that could only be described as voluminous. They also would have been voluminous on Andre the Giant. And they were white. The girls spent the meal snickering and making John Travolta jokes.

It was the worst pizza I’ve ever eaten.



11 comments:

nancy at good food matters said...

Funny, funny. These are great moments in food-travel, Beth. I too have had one of the worst meals ever in Venice! It was supposed to be a wonderful seafood stew that was thin, briny and the color of dishwater. Even the waiter was embarrassed serving it.There, more than some cities, you run the risk of being at the mercy of a tourist trap restaurant with sub-par food.

Joanne said...

Love the pants story. It's so fun to hear about your culinary adventures (or misadventures) around the world!

Valerie Gamine said...

hmm...maybe I'll give haggis a chance (I trust your taste in food!). :D
A bad pizza in Venice!! I guess anything is possible.

Juliana said...

Beth, thanks for sharing your food and travel experiences...I cannot believe about the incident in Venice...
Have a great day :D

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

Llama kebabs? Cod tongues? Bill would go running if either of these ever got near his plate :) But so fun to experience food in so many countries. And you'll never forget that trip to Venice, will you? Too funny!

Beth said...

Ha! I think everything except the pizza - and maybe the jelly doughnut - would send Bill running!
Believe it or not, it was my oldest daughter who ordered the cod tongues, and I merely sampled them. She's pretty adventurous, but she happily split half my meal that day.

Monica said...

What a fun post! And what a hysterical story about the place in Venice! Traveling certainly makes great memories and you and your family are living such a rich life with all these experiences and good eats (mostly good eats...)! : )

amy (fearless homemaker) said...

BAHAHA! I am laughing SO hard over the drawstring pants - I can absolutely imagine how hilarious that must've been. Your travel stories are great. =)

Barbara said...

Great post, Beth. I think the walking works off the calories when traveling. Fortunately. :)
Funny story about the pants. We have found several delish restaurants in Venice...I'm lucky to have a well traveled foodie as a daughter!

Inger @ Art of Natural Living said...

I guess all our food travel experiences can't be good ;-)

Claudia said...

Haggis still scares me. But love the white pants story! Especially the bad pizza. Funny that the places with the most rules often have inferior food! Fun posting!

Post a Comment