European Food Review

I know, it's taken forever to get to this. Jet lag killed me. Then I caught the "plane cold" which just today turned into a sinus infection. Fun times.

That said, without further ado, here is my review of the fabulous food Kati and I scarfed in Europe! Click on the names below to see pictures of each dish. 

Germany

There was pretty much nothing that I didn't love in Germany. Of course, I grew up on it, so how could I go wrong? Some of my favorite dishes:

Schnitzel (pounded veal that is breaded, fried and you squeeze lemon on)

Kaesspazten (a doughy noodle that is covered in cheese and onions)

Apfelstrudel (a delicious dessert that is an apple filled pastrey)

Rouladen (beef wrapped around pickles)

Pretzels (just like Oma used to make them - way better than Auntie Annie's!)

And, of course, there was beer. It was delicious. Never as cold as we tend to drink it here in the US, which I actually like better. My favorite beer was the last night... I had a delicious hefewieizen that was to die for. Kati fell in love with what they call the "Radler" beer. Basically, it's beer that's flavored with Zitronenlimonade, or lemon lime soda. If you're not a mjor beer fan, it's a good way to go.

France

Crepes (they come in a wide range of flavors... I loved the ones with the dark chocolate in them)

Chocolate Croissants (these were awesome in France... I ate more than one every day!)

Roasted Chicken (this seemed to be a big French thing... we had a lot of chicken)

French Champagne (we had this at the mMoulin Rouge. DELICIOUS!)

Baguettes (I have never tasted French bread this delicious before)

Apple Beignets (these had an apple filled center that was like a pureed apple sauce)

We also had some fantastic wine while we were in France... in Saint Emilion I had a glass of merlot at this little sidewalk cafe... it didn't taste like alcohol at all!

Italy

Spaghetti (I discovered that tomato sauce in Italy tastes much better... it's much less sweet and more like real tomatoes)

Canolli (I had one of these as soon as we got off the plane in Italy... it was to die for!)

Gelato (I fell in love with the chocolate)

The first day that we were there Kati and I shared this amazing salami sandwich... rather than having mustard and mayo, they used this spiced, olive oiled bread... it was so flavorful! We also had this wonderful, but simple, pasta dish on the ferry. It was linguine pasta, with bell peppers, all with a little bit of olive oil. Simple yet incredible delicious - one of the best pasta dishes we had!

Greece

Greek salad (I'm not a huge fan, but this was delicious. I even ate the feta cheese!)

Kati had this fantastic pastry (that I can't remember the name of) which had a creamy custardy center with a phyllo dough outside. Sometimes it was even vanilla cream. Yum! We weren't there very long and were still craving pasta, so we ended up eating spaghetti while we were there (I know...). It was really good!

Diet Coke is also different in Europe. Besides the fact that they never serve it with ice (we had an Italian waitress tell us it was because Italian women teach their sons that it will hurt their tummy), it had a different taste. Less Splenda and more natural sweet. I sort of liked it! We also had a really hard time getting water that wasn't carbonated (or "with gas" as they said). I felt like I was ordering toilet water when I asked for tap water!

Well, that's it for the review. Enjoy!