Europe - The Food!
Jan 24 '00
I ate at restaurants which ranged from fancy to
the basic, to having food from the street
vendors. As with prices for other items, the
prices of food and restaurants generally
became more expensive as you moved from
south to north. The exception to this was food in
Eastern Europe, which was incredibly cheap.
Most restaurants charged you for every little
item. The only thing I don't think I was charged
for was for a glass of tap water. This is the
cheapest way to get fluid at restaurants. All the
restaurants charged you for the bread, and
some charged you for the number of slices that
you ate. Did they think that they were going to
serve the uneaten slices of bread to other
customers? Apparently they did!
By far, I enjoyed the Greek cuisine. The Greek
salads when prepared properly are out of this
world. In a typical Greek Salad you will find on
top of a bed of cucumbers and tomatoes, red
onions, slices of bell pepper, Greek olives, and
dried Greek oregano. There is nothing quite like
the incredible taste of the dried Greek oregano.
It grows wild on many of the Greek islands.
Then all of this is mixed in a dressing of plain
olive oil and vinegar. Many restaurants in other
European countries try to imitate the Greek
salad, but they often do a terrible job.
Food in Greece, Italy, and Eastern Europe was
inexpensive, so I found myself eating at nice
restaurants and cafes. The Greek cuisine was
simple but very tasty. The Italian cuisine was
good as well. I found myself eating at alot of
Italian street side cafes. These cafes serve a
good inexpensive meal. Most carry a wide
range of sandwiches, many may different types
of pizza, and other food as well. If you like tuna
fish, or pizza the Rome cafes are the place for
you. Some cafes would substitute cabbage
instead of lettuce into their sandwiches.
I found many varieties of food, and different
cuisine's in the large cities. If you wanted
Chinese for breakfast, Indian for lunch, or
Spanish for dinner, you could do so.
--------- BrEaKfAsT ---------
Breakfast for me consisted of either a
continental breakfast at the hotel or hostel.
Usually this consisted of toast, coffee or tea,
cereal (either corn flakes or granola), and juice.
This breakfast is the cheapest way to go, and
is also the most convenient. If I did not have a
continental breakfast included through my hotel
I would go to a supermarket. While there I
would pick up some bread items such as
croissants, yogurt, and some fruit. All of this
made a nice breakfast.
------ LuNcH ------
Lunch usually consisted of eating out of the
street side cafes, eating from one of the side
walk vendors, or creating my own sandwich out
of supermarket bread and meat. If I was in an
expensive country, I would purchase my lunch
at the super market in the morning, at the same
time as I was buying breakfast. I would
compliment this with a piece of fruit. I found that
the fruit and vegetables in Europe for the most
part were extremely fresh, even those in the big
cities. In the less expensive countries I would
eat at the street side cafes, or I would get
some food from these cafes and eat on the run.
Sandwiches were the easiest food to eat in this
manner.
------- DiNnEr -------
I would usually get by fairly cheaply on
breakfast and lunch. My dinners tended to be a
bit more expensive as I would always eat out at
a restaurant. Dinner prices ranged from $5 to
$15 per person. For the most part this included
a salad or soup and the main entree. I did not
tip at any of the restaurants. The travelers that I
talked said that they also did not tip. It wasn't a
common practice in Europe.
McDonald's restaurants were located
throughout Europe, in the big cities as well as in
the smaller towns. I admit to have eaten here
several times during the trip. If you want a
familiar flavor and familiar food then McDonalds
is pretty much the same world wide. Some
subtle differences that I noticed was that the
grain size of the salt differed between
restaurants. I like a small salt size grain
because then more surface area is exposed on
the salt and there is a more complete flavor.
Most of the drink sizes were smaller then they
are in the states. If you want ketchup or salt
you will have to pay for each packet. The
cheapest McDonalds I ate at was in Prague
and I paid about $2 US for a number 1 meal. In
Lucerne Switzerland I had my most expensive
McDonalds meal. It was $8.76 US dollars for
the number 1 meal. Most of the McDonalds
restaurants were two stories. I used their
bathroom on several occasions in a pinch. The
bathrooms were always located upstairs.
There were several other fast food restaurants
that I saw several times, but not nearly as much
as the McDonalds restaurants. These others
were KFC, and Dairy Queen.
A good place to start for recommendations
about restaurants is at your hotel. Ask fellow
travelers in the lobby for recommendations. Ask
your receptionist also, as they are usually local
to the area. If people do not give you a specific
restaurant location ask them for an area of
town that is known for restaurants and good
food.
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davidt
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Location: California
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Monthly Travel Author - www.davestravelcorner.com
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