July 18th, 2010 § § permalink
Cinque Terre refers to Cinque Terre National Park, five towns on the west coast of Italy. The towns are connected by hiking trails, and there is nothing better than hiking along the Mediterranean coast for a whole day and then dining at an authentic Italian trattoria for some fresh seafood and home-made pasta.
It was in Manarola that we discovered the best food we would have in all of Italy. We randomly walked into this restaurant for lunch – the restaurant was no different from any of the other dozen restaurants along the street, except that it was quite busy – which is usually a good sign.
Service was quick (by European standards) and friendly, and soon we were served with a large deep-fried seafood platter with calamari, prawns, squid, and anchovies.
The seafood could not have been more fresh, the batter was light and did not soak a lot of oil, and everything was fried to perfection. The squid was unreal.
I had a trofie with sea bass in tomato sauce. The trofie was definitely made in-house, perfectly chewy. The sea bass was tender and delicious, and my only complaint was that there wasn’t more of it. The tomato sauce was somewhat uninspired, but this was honest to goodness Italian home-cooking, straight-forward and uncomplicated. » Read the rest of this entry «
July 8th, 2010 § § permalink
Vienna is full of cafes, restaurants, and markets. Naschmarkt was my favourite market in all of Europe, a slice of gastronomic heaven in the middle of a lively city.
Our first night in Vienna was a Sunday night, so most stores and even restaurants were closed. We settled on going to a family-run Chinese restaurant with a very diverse (and questionable) menu that included: Chinese food, Thai food, Malay food, and Japanese food.
The next day, we walked through the oh-so-hip MuseumsQuartier, which had a post-modern installation of hot pink blocks that many young Viennese hipsters were sunbathing in, and decided to stop for coffee at one of its cafes.
I had a specialty Viennese coffee, which really didn’t taste any different from regular coffee.
We tried the Original Sacher Torte at the Sacher hotel restaurant. It looks just like a chocolate cake, but the difference is that there’s a layer of apricot jam in the middle that gives it a tang.
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July 7th, 2010 § § permalink
Avignon is a charming little town in the south of France. At one point, it was an important place to be, as the Pope resided here. Now, it’s a town with cobblestone streets and quaint cafes.
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