Tuesday Tea: What's the most memorable food you ever tried while traveling?
Have tastebuds. Will travel.
If you’ve listened to our show or read our blog, you know that the food is a big part of our travel plans. When someone asks us, How did you enjoy [insert destination]?, our answer almost always starts with something we ate —followed by bookshops we visited, and then whatever art or monument or whatever we saw. Sure, sure, looking at a Vermeer is a transformative experience, but have you ever eaten a stroopwafel in the midst of an Amsterdam street market on a perfect sunny day?
Dave’s says…
The rice pudding at L'Ami Jean in Paris. It might be worth going to Paris just to eat this rice pudding. (Although, I continue to believe that Paris is always a good idea.) The rice is plump and tender, and it’s super creamy. Then they just take it up a notch with chocolate-covered pistachios and a side of caramel whipped cream.
Mel says…
One of my favorite experiences from our trip to Spain in 2023 is tiny neighborhood bar in a narrow Barcelona alley — Cafe Bar Andouriña (no online presence (!), but the address is Carrer de la Fruita, 3, Ciutat Vella). It was early afternoon, hot and humid. Our energy was flagging, and, if I’m being honest, I was verging on dangerously cranky. We almost didn't stop at the cozy tables outside, but good sense prevailed when we realized we could rest, play cards, and sip a vermouth. We shared a sandwich that was so simple and devastatingly yummy. It was a thin ham omelet cooked in a metric tonne of good olive oil, then piled onto a baguette with a garlicky tomato spread. Perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper — greasy and salty and chewy and crispy. That whole memory is locked in and glorious. (You can hear me talk about another similar sandwich we ate in Tarragona, Spain, in this podcast episode.) Sadly, there’s no photo of the sandwich, but this is the bar that stole my heart:
The best fried fish sandwich with the best tartar sauce I’ve ever had after a harrowing circumnavigation around Loch Ness. We started in Inverness, then drove south on the western side of the loch (on an A road) and then back up north on the eastern side (on a B road — unpaved, single lane, no guard rail), and it was a JOURNEY (with a stick shift, no less!). We stopped at the Dores Inn for fish and chips at the top of the loch, and it was the best meal I’d ever had, but maybe I was just glad to be alive 😅
I like this question a lot. I was in Taiwan almost 30 years ago. It was a super cold gray day and we weren't dressed for it. There was a man who had some kind of oven contraption on a cart on the back of his bicycle in which he was baking sweet potatoes. They were huge whole plain sweet potatoes wrapped in foil, steaming from the oven. We stood on the side of the busy street to eat them. I think about that sweet potato a lot and to this day haven't eaten a sweet potato that tasted as good as that one did!