Time to Eat! International Foods

So, first of all, it's been months. Four, actually. I've been back at school for nearly another semester and the comparisons are INSANE. But basically, this entry is about foreign food. Why now? Why not, I don't know, four months ago? Mainly because I'm taking a folk culture class here at BU, and our last unit is food. The past few classes we've discussed foods from different cultures, and I remembered that I neurotically take photos of food that I eat, so why not share those? So, this is about food. Mm. Delicious.

Meat pie, sauce and chips, Gloucester Arms Pub

Bangers and mash, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

Fish cakes and chips, Greenwich

One of the big things I heard about when I was traveling to London was that British food is terrible. It's a stereotype, and a persistent one. I work with a bunch of people from varying cultures, and they almost all said the same thing. "British food is terrible!" they'd tell me. "You'll lose so much weight because you won't eat in Britain!" Well, firstly, that's crap. There is no "British" food, but there is English, Scottish and Irish food. Secondly, it was all delicious. Everything is cooked with fresher ingredients at lower prices; fish is dirt cheap, potatoes are plentiful and everything has some sort of brown gravy. But it was all delicious.

Crabs, from Burrow Market

 You see that? An entire crab for £6.90, roughly $9-10 dollars. And those are big, meaty-ass crabs. That thing could have taken my head, had it been anywhere near living.

This fish was delicious, btw - from Oxford

This fish to the right was ordered by a classmate while we were traveling in Oxford, and was perhaps the first encounter we had with the way the British handle their food. When an American orders a piece of fish, it comes faceless, tailless, pretty much identity-less. The English want you to get to know your food, and thus give you everything except for a handful of bones.






I traveled to Belgium, Ireland, Scotland, and Germany while studying abroad, and experienced foods in all of these places... except Ireland. Sorry, while I was studying in Ireland I was super broke so we ate out of a super market all weekend. But I have food from other places!

I don't actually know what this was. It was from a restaurant

Or this, actually.

While we were in Belgium, we had waffles and gelato and everything was smooth and delicious. And filled with cream, fresh whipped from whole cow milk right outside the city. We were in Ieper, which wasn't exactly a big city, and everything was in Dutch, so I'm not 100% on anything we ate. That pasta dish up there was pasta, cream, and maybe.... 4 types of cheese? I don't know, the menu was in Dutch. But when we went to the farmer's market, we saw so many fresh pastry stands we HAD to buy some.... aka this lovely delight. No idea what it was, but it was half a Euro and as big as my hand. DELISH.

Haggis, neeps and tatties, Conan Doyle Pub in Edinburgh, Scotland

That, ladies and gentlemen, is haggis. Yes, boiled sheep intestines in a sheep's stomach, chopped and sauteed to perfection with sweet potato mash and regular mash. And a tub of gravy, of course. It was tender and delicious and doesn't actually look like what it is. And when I say it was delicious, it was delicious. It's so soft and sweet and melt-in-your-mouth and apparently fairly good for you, if prepared far less succulently, I'm sure. Augh, Scotland, so delicious. This is probably the most traditional meal I had there.

Currywurst and frietes, from Berlin, Germany's national food

Wurst, technically photo not from Germany, but the wurst was imported (Katie's hand is Czech American)

Germany was effing delicious. We ate wurst in probably every single meal, because it was €3 everywhere we went and we are fat Americans who love phallic foods that we have bastardized. Literally, we ate wurst and apples all weekend in Berlin. Every single Christmas market had at least three or four wurst stands with large men yelling in German at each other (and us) and we'd just point at something and suddenly, there was a foot-long sausage in my possession. Incredibly juicy and wonderful. And of course, this thing:

We actually had no idea what it was. We saw them and Molly and I split one out of curiosity. It was basically whatever fortune cookies are made from with chocolate or something on it. Sweet and impossible to eat without getting it everywhere. Still have no idea what it was. That was pretty much the theme of Germany; what is this, and can I eat it?

Guys, Europe makes me so fat.

Also, if I had cherry beer in the States more accessibly, I'd be an alcoholic. Thanks, Belgium!