Food Blogger in Training

I was worried that my niece -- a rather picky eater -- would have a hard time dealing with German cooking. Luckily, she'll eat just about an type of meat, so we didn't have a problem at all. Also, I found it ironic that she -- the same person who told me to stop writing about food on my other blog -- took a picture of every single thing she ate during her week abroad. Here is a collection of some of the highlights:

Dutch pancakes with chocolate at Pancake! in Amsterdam.

A pork steak sandwich at the Christmas market in Cologne.

A chocolate-covered apple qualifies as a fruit one day.

German Christmas cookies in Cochen couldn't be passed up.

Who doesn't love fries?

Czech Food

Not one of the world's most famous cuisines, traditional Czech food consists of a lot of braised beef and pork dishes.
One of the most interesting -- and delicious -- things that we ate was a dish called "pork stump." We're still not sure what part of the pig the "stump" is.
Another popular menu item was goulash, which I had twice during our visit. Often the meal was served with some sort of dumpling, bread, red cabbage, and sauerkraut. (That's right cabbage and sauerkraut.)
Another standout meal was something that translated as "Czech Pie." We were expecting something like a potpie, with pastry filled with a stew. Instead we received a pizza made with potato flour dough.

Normany: More Then Calvados

Note: This post is an excerpt from my post, "A Day in Normandy" on Uberall.

Normandy is a major apple-producing region, and is known for its apple brandy, Calvados.
It’s available from farmers throughout the region: you just need to know what to look for. Small signs on the main road announce where to turn for local products. However, this is a mission that, especially for the non-French speaking traveler, must be taken on with a sense of adventure. Sometimes, when you find your way to the farm, there is no one home. Other times, you simply can't find the farm at all.

But when you do find a farm store, you are almost always rewarded for your efforts. We were.

Greeted by one of the owners of the orchard, we were invited into the farm's tasting room. Here we were given samples of four bottles of Calvados, each produced on site and aged for different lengths of time. Side by side tasters were able to discern differences as the liquor developed. We were also invited to taste the farm's cider and Pommeau.

Some claim that Pommeau is Normandy's best-kept secret. It is unfermented apple juice, fortified with Calvados (apple brandy) and aged in a barrel. It is kind of like an apple wine, with hints of pear and vanilla that is served in place of more common dessert wine, such as port.

Federweißer and Zwiebelkucken

Want to learn more about these Rhine-region delicacies? Check out my post, "Moselle, Rhine, and Ahr: WIne Festivals," on Uberall.

An Awful Lot of Offal

Kidney, hearts, and brains, oh my. It seemed like every market and butcher shop in Paris offered a bounty of offal in their perfectly pristine display cases. Offal is generally defined as all organs, and may also include an animal's head, feet, and tongue. Really the only part of the animal not on the offal list are the muscles and bones.

After my recent trip to Paris I really wish that I were a more adventurous eater. I loved to watch well-healed ladies discussing with the butcher the exact organ that they were selecting for their Friday night feasts. But, I just can't get over the fact that you are eating lungs, stomachs, and intestines. Sure, sweetbreads sound delicious, but remember that they are actually a thymus, a hormone-producing organ located in the chest. I know a lot of people who enjoy liver and onions, but I'm not one of them.

My husband, one the other hand, may be becoming an offal convert. In Austria he had not one, but two helpings of braised tongue. I recently had a bite of his foie gras. But rich creamy meat spread on toast just kind of grosses me out.

Even Paris Can't Keep Me Out of the Kitchen

With so many amazing outdoor markets, gourmet food shops, and grocery stores I was very happy that in Paris I stayed in an apartment with a kitchen rather then in a standard hotel room. Before arriving I imagined eating breakfast up there -- baguettes and chocolate croissants of course -- but in the end it didn't work out that way. Once I was up and out in the morning it was easier to get something at one of our local bakeries.

Instead, what happened was, after a few long days of seeing the sights, I was happy to return to the apartment and fix dinner there instead. Sometimes, even with the best restaurants in the world at our doorstep, you are simply too tired to appreciate them. (Besides, if you saw the lunches I was eating I hardly feel like I was depriving myself of anything.)

Both nights that I ate in the apartment I made a wonderful composed salad simply dressed with olive oil and salt. Bread, cheese, and sausages purchased in our travels accompanied the meal. It took no time to prepare, and was a great way to take in the city, without having to get out of the house.

Why Is French Food So Darn Good?

Brassarie, pastisserie, creperie, boulangerie, rôtisserie, bistro, and cafe: We visited them all. My elastic-waist-band jeans are starting to feel a bit tight. I wish I could attribute all of my weight gain to the growing baby bump, but I think the chocolate corissants had something to do with it as well.

So much was consumed during my week-long festival of food that it may take me more then one post to cover it all. Today I'll give some of the highlights.

• La Rôtisserie du Beaujolais (19, quai de la Tournelle, tel: 01 43 54 17 47), which is open on Sunday, was suggested by David Lebovitz on his blog. While he recommends the rotisserie items – I had the chicken, which was perfect – the real stand out of the meal was my father-in-laws coq au vin.

• We had crepes twice, but I could have eaten them again and again. Both times the savory crepes were made of buckwheat, which are actually called galettes. The buckwheat has a lovely nutty flavor that accentuates the cheese and the meat. And of course, I had to try a sweet crepe as well. Poached pears, chocolate sauce, almonds, and vanilla ice cream. Yum, yum, yum! (The addresses for these creperies will be posted shortly.)

• In addition to the dessert crepe described above, I had a few other amazing endings to my meals. The pistachio napoleon-type thing at La Rôtisserie du Beaujolais, a chocolate molten cake with pistachio ice cream at the beach in Normandy, the pear Berthillon ice cream served at Ma Bourgogne (19, place des Vosges): They all tasted so good.

My Mediterranean Diet

The food in Greece was amazing! Here are some highlights.

Greek Salad

Everyday I had at least one salad. Since I'm a "when in Rome" kind of girl, I mostly I ate Greek salads. These were so perfect though; I wasn't disappointed with a single one. The salad was composed of tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, green peppers, olives, and feta. Sometimes the feta came crumbled as in this photo, but more often then not it was sliced and placed on top of the veggies with a drizzle of olive oil. The dressing usually included lots of olive oil, a little red wine vinegar, and a sprinkling of oregano.

Fava Bean Puree

Sometimes things coincide so perfectly that it's almost crazy to call it a coincidence.

On the way to Greece I started reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. In one of the first few chapters she discusses the Slow Food movement and its impact on certain products. One example she mentions was the Santorini fava bean. Later that night, on Santorini, it was Kevin's turn to order an appetizer for us to share. His pick: fava bean puree, using local beans of course.

Unlike the fava beans that I am used to, the favas here are white. When cooked and pureed with olive oil, garlic, and salt they are delicious. This puree was served in a mold, but the waiter explained that it tasted best when spread out and topped with olive oil and lemon. Around the favas are slow roasted tomatoes cooked with capers.

After our first taste we ordered at least one portion of the stuff everyday. I even brought a few bags of dried beans to bring home with me. Watch out for a post about my experience trying to recreate this treat at home in the coming weeks.

Eggplant

I had eggplant three different ways while in Greece. Once sliced and fried; once cut in half and stuffed with tomatoes, capers, onions, and baked with cheese; and once smoked and mashed. Each version was superb. The eggplant was sweet, with not a trace of bitterness. I didn't photograph any of the eggplant dishes I ate on this trip, but noticed that each time white- or pale-purple-skinned plants were used and the flesh was also very light in color.

Grilled Fish

Red snapper or sea bream seemed to be the fish of choice this weekend. I loved getting the fish whole with the skin grilled to a crisp. After Kevin and I were finished, only the head and bones remained.

One night (for Kevin's birthday) we decided to split a grilled lobster. The night we ordered the lobster, the power went out. The waiter told us that this happens couple of times each summer, often when it's a little cloudy. Though he didn't know what one had to do with the other (he didn't even know what the power source in Santorini was) we didn't mind at all. We were on a rooftop in Oia and ate by the light of the full moon. It was very pleasant, but it made it hard to see what we were eating. I took this picture of our meal so that we know what was on our plate before digging in.

Crazy Juices

Greeks must really like their juice. Adult-sized juice boxes were sold everywhere. The flavors are way more exciting the standard apple, orange, and grapefruit. In addition to those, you are also able to get cherry, peach, or banana. My favorite was pineapple coconut. By the end of the trip I would have one of those bad boys while other people were enjoying a cocktail. I was basically like drinking a virgin pina colada.

Cooking on the Water

Many of the tiny harbors that we saw were lined with restaurants. Here seafood is the obvious choice. The octopus, for example, were literally pulled directly out of the water, cooked on one of the outdoor grills, and served.