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!

Happy Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten-- Holidays Abroad

So I know I've been home for about a week now (and I'll be addressing that in a moment) (and by a moment I mean... in a while) but I had been meaning to write this since the holiday season began abroad.

Basically, Christmas? Huuuuuuuuge deal in Europe, apparently. At the very least, the people there have a love affair with decorating. right after Halloween lights went up on trees in Hyde Park, rides and mulled wine and Christmas markets galore.

Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park!

Of course, for us it was a bit jarring because there are more holidays between Halloween and Christmas, right?! Like Thanksgiving and what, Veterans Day or something?

The most American of holidays

But really, the decorations are to die for. Everything has lights, everything has baubles and colors and is all about being safe and cheerful all over the city. On my way to Sainsbury's I'd see lights on the casino across the street and it wasn't just generic casino lights, either, but like legit Christmas lights. Sooooooo pretty. 

Just so you know, these pictures of the Christmas fair were taken the day after Thanksgiving. Yep. It was already up and in full swing by the end of November. I was taking a walk one night when I happened upon it, and by "happened upon it" I mean I saw the Ferris wheel through some trees and went "WTF is that?" and thus inspected it. Every street has something hanging from buildings and lighting up with little trees and lots of flowers and whatnot.

I'm pretty sure even Americans find this tacky.

This is all in Ireland, btw

But the place that really goes all-out for Christmas has to be Germany, hands-freaking-down. We landed in Berlin two weeks before Christmas and you'd think Christmas was a two-month affair. I mean, I guess it makes sense because we stole a lot of our Christmas traditions from German traditions but I've never seen a nation so in love with a holiday. To be fair, I had no idea that they'd be so into the last hundred years of their own history, either, so there's that. But I digress. Decorations and traditions in Germany definitely trump everything I've seen.

Christmas Markets selling decorations that go on for miles

Gigantic Christmas trees in political centers

Uh.... an international Christmas tree, I guess

Sweet stands selling gingerbread hearts that say things

Singing folk songs and carols inside said Christmas markets

Seriously, Christmas markets everywhere. We went to five of them.

One day I'll fully celebrate the holidays abroad, because it'd be amazing. I'm so curious as to what they have in northern Europe and in places like Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Sweden, places that have big Christmas markets and whatnot. And really like celebrating? I don't know what I'm talking about. I know Italy's real big  on Christmas, I'd love to see that. Spain, too, maybe France, and er, I don't know, Switzerland? I feel like they must have Christmas celebrations of some sort because everyone goes skiing there. Who am I kidding I don't know anything about Christmas in other places except for right freaking here. But that's alright because I'm learning, right? Right.

Deutschland? Deutschland!

Germany. Deutschland. When I was accepted into this study abroad program, my first thought was “I’m going to Germany”. I can’t really explain why; I’ve never been particularly interested in Germany before. Even when I started learning about WWII I was always more interested in places like Britain, Poland, Russia, even Austria. Italy I always wanted to go to but I got that done with forever ago. But... Germany?

Well, I finally got to go. I didn’t think I was going to get there, but I really wanted to, and I mentioned it to Katie and the next thing I knew we were booking a flight. The flight was a bit pricey and I really wasn’t sure if I could afford to be there for three days, but we did it. I turned in my dissertation and then woke at the crack of dawn and left for Germany.

And it was so, so worth it.

We landed early in the morning and after a bus and a train checked into our hostel, where we kind of fell asleep on the couch in the lounge. But then we checked into our room and napped forever... and then explored.

One things I always wondered about Germany is how they approach their own history of the last 100 years. I always kinda assumed it was all hush hush, look at all our pretty buildings and let’s pretend we weren’t two cities for forty years. Oh, I was so wrong.

The only thing these guys could say was "photo" we're pretty sure

So, so wrong.

Berlin kind of has a love affair with its own history. There were tons of people wandering around in WWII-era and Soviet-era uniforms posing for pictures with flags, handing out passport stamps and postcards.

I now have a visa to live in East Berlin for 14 days!

 But really. It’s all over the place. Everything in Berlin was either WWII, Soviet Union or Christmas.

Christmas at Brandenburg!

 I mean, it was okay with us because that’s all that we did. We did the Berlin Mauer Museum, the DDR Museum, the Holocaust memorial, and every Christmas market we could find.

It was all wonderful, of course. We spent a lot of time wandering where the wall used to be, and playing around with its old boundaries. So ridiculous.

This probably happened.

I have to say, there’s still a bit of a physical difference between the East and the West. When we went to the East End Gallery, there was just... something different about the area we were in. It was clearly cleaned up but it was noticeably different. I know a lot of the city has been fixed but still. The East End Gallery was gorgeous, btw.

Germany was beautiful and incredibly friendly. The Christmas markets were really fun and had SO MUCH JOY. And the Christmas decorations were just... to DIE for.

Germany knows how to do Christmas. It’s absolutely amazing. And even if we couldn’t understand something (which was most of the time) they ALWAYS spoke English. Hooray for us! Except for one time Katie was trying to order wurst, and the man just spoke in German to her, counted at her and laughed. She was intimidated. ‘Twas hilarious.

But everything was just amazing. Our hostel was gorgeous, everything was cheap and my inner history freak was satiated.

Germany, Germany, Germany is a really really nice place~♫

The Art of History in London

So. This is a post I've been meaning to write for a while, but as I sit here alternating between my paper on WWII and my paper on the Great Exhibition, fresh off a viewing of The King's Speech, I felt compelled to write it now.


I came to London, specifically this semester, for several reasons, however there being one central one: The BU London History Programme. Two core classes, one a seminar and one general history of London from 1666, doubled with a 5,000-6,000 word thesis due in less than three weeks' time. It's London, it's old, it's historical, so it makes sense, right?

Pictured: How I pictured 99% of Europe

In the past semester, I've learned more about Britain, the British Isles, Europe, and the world in general than I ever have before. Since I declared a history major at BU I've been slowly and steadily branching out beyond my scope of general American knowledge  and into a world that's filled with the most amazing, incredible things. Learning history in this country, a country that's, what, five times the age of the United States, is so different from studying it anywhere else. It's living history. It's one thing to look at an old painting and think about a house or an alleyway that may have existed at some point in time; it's another to look at said painting, pack up your things, walk three blocks and see it yourself. Everything from grandiose castles and mansions to something as simple as the winding corridors of the East End, still surviving after years of war, Blitz and fire, still seething with dark caverns of mystery and buried under a layer of historical detail.


And don't even get me started on the World Wars. I've always found the World Wars to be interesting, of course; what history person isn't interested in at least one aspect of those glorious, bloody wars? But, obviously, the United States wasn't really involved in the struggle as much as it was over here. Over here being, well, northern Europe. Just a hop skip and a jump from where the bulk of both wars were fought. I'm of the opinion that they're minorly obsessed with the Wars here but, to be fair, they did have a big effect on Great Britain. Going to Belgium and seeing the vast fields of green where thousands of bodies still lay, and seeing the trench first-hand, walking around, smelling it's horrendous stench, looking at the rabbit hole they called a door into a dark, dank corridor beneath the ground... uncertain if they were to ever come out.

Imperial War Museum

The Imperial War Museum has to be my favorite place, in addition to all this nonsense. Just the way it walks you through the problems of the 20th century, starting with the Home Front in WWI and slowly adding in more and more nations until it's 1989 and half the world is waiting for the Berlin Wall to fall. And the Churchill War Rooms... that's just amazing. To walk the same hallways that Churchill did, and his generals, and his staff, and running to and fro during air raid sirens to check their maps and try to figure out just what they could do to stop the Third Reich from swallowing Europe whole.

It's just... ugh. Good Lord. I first saw "The King's Speech" in either June or July, randomly watching it with my mother on a rare evening off. I enjoyed it, but I couldn't say I was completely in love with it. I enjoy Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter as much as the next person but I didn't have this... investment in it. I just re-watched it while trying to simultaneously write a paper (I don't know why I always think I'm good at that kind of thing) and... I just felt so much more about it. I understood the context of the time; I've been to the places featured; I've seen instances of the fear, the confusion, and the crumbling facade of the British Empire. It's astounding to just think of all that Britain was going through in the late twenties and early thirties-- hell, my thesis is about that time. It's incredibly terrifying and exhilarating and I spent the entire movie yelling at the screen.


This place, I feel as if I've become immersed in wartime Britain. Considering how much of Europe's history is just carved and shaped by war, I'm surprised I'm surprised but... as I said to my roommate this morning, "History has a way of being very, very depressing, doesn't it?"

The Emerald Isle

So, over the last weekend, I went to Ireland. Dublin, to be exact. It was a trip that was planned waaaaaaaay back in September and, to be honest, if we hadn’t planned it then, we probably wouldn’t have gone. It’s smack dab in the middle of the most difficult point of the semester, my 6,000 word paper is due in three weeks, and at the time I had a paper due on Monday. (Let’s not talk about that paper, shall we?)

Anyway, Saiya, Nicole and I all went on separate journeys to all meet together in Dublin, Ireland, on Friday/Saturday. Naturally, I got lost on my way to the hostel, because the directions were juuuuust vague enough that I went in the wrong direction for a little too long. I did get some lovely night views of the city, though.

And an old boat!

Nicole arrived a few hours later and, after checking her in, we randomly were invited to go karaoke with four totally random guys. Now, the thing about these guys is, I can’t remember their names, and I don’t think they ever actually learned ours. They were four friends from four different countries whom had all met because they were travelling around Europe at one point or another, and every so often agreed to meet in the same place in the same hostel. One of the guys wanted his other friend to sing “Love is a Battlefield” by Pat Benitar at karaoke, and suddenly Nicole and I are following these four guys around the Temple Bar area, looking for a karaoke bar.

I was known simply as “Boston”, since I was from Boston; Nicole became “Louisiana” to go with the elaborate alter-ego she’s constructed for dealing with guys whom she doesn’t want to know. The four guys we met were known as Canada, Australia, Scotland and Cambridge. Canada was a wiry little guy with dreadlocks and an affinity for the Dropkick Murphys; Scotland was a big Indian guy with a thick accent who was very, very proud to be Scottish and called everyone ‘Lassie’; Cambridge was short, had glasses and was very white, and apparently sleeps a lot; and Australia was tall, lanky, really drunk and was the one who had to sing Pat Benitar in a falsetto.

So we wandered around with them throughout the throngs of drunken Irish (is there any other kind, really? Badum-ching!) looking for an elusive karaoke bar. Scotland was hitting on everything, although Canada and Cambridge were very thoughtful and talked to us a lot about history and politics. And, because I’m cursed, the World Wars. I don’t know why they always come up with me. This is probably the third or fourth time I’ve met some random people abroad and the World Wars have come up in some way. We were discussing some of the reasons for the outbreak of WWI, if I recall. The conclusion I came to after my WWI/WWII class is true: this continent is obsessed with the World Wars. Well, I guess I would be, too, if it was fought on my continent.

Anyway, Australia broke a glass and Canada was very much drunk, we went back to our hostel around 10 pm and WENT TO SLEEP. The next morning was dedicated to eating, wandering, and locating a lost Saiya.

Once we had found the lost Saiya, we then embarked on our very own man-made tour, which Nicole dubbed the “Two Fs and S Tour” of Dublin.

The most frustrating thing about Dublin was that everything you had to pay to get into, so we spent a lot of time looking at things from a distance.

I see a Saiya!

St. Patrick's Cathedral, from the closest distance I could get.

In the case of St. Patrick’s, a really, really far distance. But everything was truly quite beautiful. We saw a church that had its old foundations right beside it, looking quite old indeed. And, of course, we hard-core gift-shopped, which took more time than we thought but at the same time, didn’t take much time at all.

We wandered around and also got photos of all the Christmas decorations, because Ireland really knows how to celebrate a holiday. And that’s with lots of electric lights everywhere.

Finally we ended the trip at Ireland’s oldest pub, founded in the 12^th century. It was gorgeous inside, small and cramped and with awkward staircases and a weird opening in the front, just like in Belgium and the other old pubs I’ve been to. They really knew how to make awesome pubs back in the day.

The next day we flew home, and I got some shots of the Irish countryside I kind of wish I could have seen up close. If I ever go back to Ireland, I’m definitely going someplace out in the countryside where I can see those rolling hills of green and maybe a potato or two.