Friday, September 08, 2006

The Need to Eat and Going Local

As keen and more or less adventurous eaters we decided to try as many local specialties as we could on this trip, to really get a sense of the food culture in each country that we visit.

But what do you do when the local specialty happens to be blood sausage or you don't want to eat herring for breakfast a second day in a row? Is it awful to long for more familiar and tried things?

So far we have managed to try some new and interesting dishes, and we have tried to go to local restaurants rather than fancy looking ones. When you are sitting in the old town of some place surrounded by tourists it can be questionable if you are really going local, and what you are eating might be a fancy version of what people actually eat.

I have to admit though that on a few occasions we have gone more international rather than local...

In Norway we went for pizza (if Nick got his way we would be on a pizza tasting trip around Europe, but I put up a good fight), and I guess even on that occasion there was a local twist. The pizzas were on a very thin base and we got served a 'pizza salad' before the meal which is a very Scandinavian thing, it's like coleslaw but in a vinaigrette dressing.


In both Tallinn and Warsaw we've been for sushi. I guess you could try and argue that the fish might be local....


In Vilnius we felt like eating steak and ended up in Zoe's American Bar and Grill. That was very international, the chef turned out to be Swedish and the steaks were definitely European in size.


We are now in Warsaw staying with Nick's aunt and also visiting my aunt and uncle. You can't really eat more local than we are doing now, we get spoiled with some great food, and plenty of it as is the local custom. It's also great to eat those 'exotic' home cooked dishes that I've been longing for.

So bar from a few glitches (and avoiding the blood sausages) I guess you could say we are going local all the way.


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