Germany: Düsseldorf again is a favourite, schweinshaxe (roast pork knuckle), flame kutchen (sort of thin pizza) and liver noodle soup, as well as the usual sausages. Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne, Hannover and Baden-Baden are also great, Berlin a bit soulless but I think it was because a lot of it is newly rebuild fake-old. German beer is fantastic, especially as in may bars, the waiters walk around with trays and swap your empty for a full and put a tick on your beer mat to be totted up at the end, very civilised :)
America (USA): Love Palm Springs, Washington, San Francisco, Napa, Boston, New York, Chicago, did Vegas for a couple of weekends and definitely enough. American food is always good, big, but often a bit heavy and samey. You cannot go wrong with wings, burger, ribs etc, but sometimes I struggle in the second week of a holiday to have something different. Domestic wine is expensive, beer used to be terrible, but has now exploded into fantastic crafty, hoppy cornucopia. This isn't to say USA does not have a huge number of divergent foods and I've had great Indian, Vietnamese, Mexican etc, maybe I just like to go to pubs to watch sport and drink beer and that is when the food is similar....
Australia: As it happens am in Oz for a couple of weeks, Sydney this week, like America, food is always quality, good Indian, Thai, Chinese (always love an afternoon's Yum Cha, although not a big fan of Chinese in general). BYO in lots of places, which helps with the cost of living here, as does lots of good weather and public BBQs, so cook a lot here. Sunshine Coast and Port Douglas are highlights, Brisbane, Melbourne and Cairns great cities for weekend breaks, was not a big fan of Gold Coast, too much Vegas / spring break.
Other Countries:
Italy, visited Rome a few times and worked in Bari and went to Rimini (bit touristy, but there with my then, teenage son, so fine), food and wine are obviously brilliant, pizza, particularly blanco, gnochi, bucatoni, truffles, sausages and hams all great. When I worked in Bari, even the works canteen food was stunning.
Hungary, went twice, first just after communism fell to work near Ukraine, food great, plenty and fairly plain, drink incredibly cheap and drinking in the factory! I went back in mid 2000's holiday in Budapest, food still good, I love spice and meat so goulash is a winner and still cheap.
Austria, Germany with better wine, so great
Belgium, Food good, beer obviously, Magritte museum bit disappointing, Bruges gorgeous, chips best – factoid: from original recipe, chips should be cooked in half beef and half horse lard :)
Holland, only been to Amsterdam, food OK,tourists not, not a fan of drug and prostitute tourism, bit of a shame should be lovely. Want to go to Rotterdam Market, looks fab
New Zealand, went to Aukland for a weekend, great having pints after schooners in Oz, at the time the exchange rate made it cheap against €, had some good food, especially Italian seafood, one odd thing, all waiting staff do some kind of memory trick and never ever write any orders down and always get it right.
Egypt, worked at a refinery in the desert, sadly I can't remember exactly where, but will update if it comes back to me. No alcohol, other than duty free I took with me, food was good, difficulty was if I asked “what was it” I was often told, “there is no English word for this”. Breakfast in the control room was a tablecloth made of sort of big wraps or roti with bunches of greens, cheeses, fruit, beans etc shared by the lads on shift
Spain:
particularly Madrid, love tapas, not too struck on pintxos, too much
bread, so Bilboa and Donostia are not my favourites, though great in
small doses and went to many great bars. Malaga, often maligned as
just the airport for Northern European tourists is a fantastic city
with the two co-owed (in my opinion) best restaurants I've ever
eaten in. (http://www.eltapeodecervantes.com).
Nerja, about an hour on bus from Malaga, is were we will retire to
in a couple of years from now, lots of great tapas bars. Could eat
jamon in Seville every day of my life
Germany:
Düsseldorf again is a favourite, schweinshaxe (roast pork knuckle),
flame kutchen (sort of thin pizza) and liver noodle soup, as well as
the usual sausages. Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne, Hannover and
Baden-Baden are also great, Berlin a bit soulless but I think it was
because a lot of it is newly rebuild fake-old. German beer is
fantastic, especially as in may bars, the waiters walk around with
trays and swap your empty for a full and put a tick on your beer mat
to be totted up at the end, very civilised :)
America: Love
Palm Springs, Washington,
San Francisco, Napa, Boston,
New York, Chicago, did Vegas for a couple of weekends and definitely
enough. American food is always good, big, but often a bit heavy and
samey. You cannot go wrong with wings, burger, ribs etc, but
sometimes I struggle in the second week of a holiday to have
something different. Domestic wine is expensive, beer used to be
terrible, but has now exploded into fantastic crafty, hoppy
cornucopia. This isn't to
say USA does not have a huge number of divergent foods and I've had
great Indian, Vietnamese, Mexican etc, maybe I just like to go to
pubs to watch sport and drink beer and that is when the food is
similar....
Australia: As
it happens am in Oz for a couple of weeks, Sydney this week, like
America, food is always quality, good Indian, Thai, Chinese (always
love an afternoon's Yum Cha, although not a big fan of Chinese in
general). BYO in lots of places, which helps with the cost of living
here, as does lots of good weather and public BBQs, so cook a lot
here. Sunshine Coast and Port Douglas are highlights,
Brisbane, Melbourne and
Cairns great cities for weekend breaks, was not a big fan of Gold
Coast, too much Vegas / spring break.
Other Countries:
Italy,
visited Rome a few times and worked in Bari and went to Rimini (bit
touristy, but there with my then, teenage son, so fine), food and
wine are obviously brilliant, pizza, particularly blanco, gnochi,
bucatoni, truffles, sausages and hams all great. When I worked in
Bari, even the works canteen food was stunning.
Hungary,
went twice, first just after communism fell to work near Ukraine,
food great, plenty and fairly plain, drink incredibly cheap and
drinking in the factory! I went back in mid 2000's holiday in
Budapest, food still good, I love spice and meat so goulash is a
winner and still cheap.
Austria,
Germany with better wine, so great
Belgium,
Food good, beer obviously, Magritte museum bit disappointing, Bruges
gorgeous, chips best – factoid: from original recipe, chips should
be cooked in half beef and half horse lard :)
Holland,
only been to Amsterdam, food OK,tourists not, not a fan of drug and
prostitute tourism, bit of a shame should be lovely. Want to go to
Rotterdam Market, looks fab
New Zealand,
went to Aukland for a weekend, great having pints after schooners in
Oz, at the time the exchange rate made it cheap against €, had some
good food, especially Italian seafood, one odd thing, all waiting
staff do some kind of memory trick and never ever write any orders
down and always get it right.
Egypt,
worked at a refinery in the desert, sadly I can't remember exactly
where, but will update if it comes back to me. No alcohol, other
than duty free I took with me, food was good, difficulty was if I
asked “what was it” I was often told, “there is no English word
for this”. Breakfast in the control room was a tablecloth made of
sort of big wraps or roti
with bunches of greens, cheeses, fruit, beans etc shared by the
lads on shift
Portugal,
I liked the food, boney fish, chips, seafood, salty chicken and
chips, though no vegetables, my missus did not, red wine was
generally freezing, so not great
UK, Ireland,
lived in both for years, good top end, if expensive, and had numerous
good meals at all levels, but too many mediocre meals over the
decades, service rarely as good as Continent. May come back to these
countries.
Colombia, few days in Bogota, great time but nothing memorable
Senegal,
somewhere else I worked, for an Italian company, Afro-Italian fusion,
will come back to this
Been
to a few other countries, but these are my highlights
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