Help me eat my way thru Europe! :)

Old Mar 21st, 2014, 06:49 PM
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Help me eat my way thru Europe! :)

Thanks to the awesome travelers on this forum, I've created a great itinerary for my European adventure coming up in July and August. Now I'd love to get everyone's opinion on the best places to eat. We are adventurous, non-fussy eaters who love it all. I'd love to know:

1) the best moderate sit-down place or "street" food that's a real gem for lunch and/or dinner

2) the one "fancy-schmancy" restaurant we should definitely try

3) misc "must-have" foods of any particular city -- whether it be a pastry, gelato, a sandwich, candy, etc...

4) No kids are traveling with us, so no worries about fussy eaters or crying

Here's the travel plan:

SPAIN
Madrid (one month)
Barcelona (weekend trip)
Seville (weekend trip)

PRAGUE (3 days)
City center

DRESDEN (2 days)
City center

SCOTLAND (staying with friends)
Glasgow (5 days)
Edinburgh (day trip)

AMSTERDAM (3 days)
city center

BRUGES (1 day/night)

PARIS (4 days)
city center (2nd arr)

All we need now is great food. Many thanks.
gobarbgo is offline  
Old Mar 21st, 2014, 06:56 PM
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"the best moderate sit-down place or "street" food"? Spain is the culinary capital of the world, street food doesn't actually fit into this mix of eating your way through Europe.
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Old Mar 21st, 2014, 07:36 PM
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Spain is not the culinary capital of the world. They have long way to go on bread, desserts, beef, and vegetable dishes. And the work of Ferran Adria has not reached many of the precincts.

That said, the best food in Spain is San Sebastain/Donostia and the the food in Barcelona is better than that in Madrid and much more interesting city.

As for the other cities, either have not been there in a long time or have not visited them. We will visit Amsterdam soon and it does not appear to overwhelming cuisine.

We recently visited Scotland and tried many places and many types of cuisines and that too does not rank as a culinary highlight.
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Old Mar 21st, 2014, 07:46 PM
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"Spain is not the culinary capital of the world." I see you haven't been around much the last few years, especially in the Basque country (País Vasco and Basque Navarra), not to mention a few hundred other places in Spain. You really need to get out a bit more often.

And no, Scotland is not high on the culinary scale unless you happen to like haggis.
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Old Mar 21st, 2014, 07:53 PM
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That is why I said the best food in Spain is in Donostia.

Has has the bread, desserts, veggie dishes, and beef dishes improved that much over the country to demand the title of culinary capital of the world? The recent conversation here indicates that one must be very, very selective about where to eat meat. And the best bread was in Galicia, has that changed? And has the desserts improved that much to compete with France, Italy and the US?

There there have great leaps in Spanish cuisine but they still lag behind in many areas.
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Old Mar 21st, 2014, 08:04 PM
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By the way Robert, aren't you a travel professional who has an economic interest in people going to Spain?

Your right I have not been in Spain in 4 years but have been going there for over 40 years and I am constant contact with friends are relatives who have nothing to do with the travel business.

And I did recently help a cousin with parts of the English translation of doctorate on the Golden Age of Spanish Theater. My wife has walked the Camino, my FIL was born in Galicia, and we have spent more than a year of lives in Spain, not on business or in school. So I know a little about the country.
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Old Mar 21st, 2014, 08:08 PM
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Why a month in Madrid? In the middle of summer, too. I agree that you should be heading for the north coast, for the food, the scenery and the climate.
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Old Mar 21st, 2014, 08:49 PM
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I suggest you look at Chowhound.com for info on food. It's the best there is.
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Old Mar 21st, 2014, 08:55 PM
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For fancy shmancy in Prague, try La Degustation. Lokal, across the street, is great for beer and updated-trad Czech food.

Paris-- my list is way too long.

I've had good food in Amsterdam, but it's been a few years. Amsterdam is a delight. Very relaxed.
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Old Mar 21st, 2014, 09:53 PM
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thursdayssd, I'm in Madrid for a month for a study abroad course I'm taking in Spanish through my local college. The location is not optional.

By "eating my way through Europe" I'm looking for all price points, hence my request for moderate places or even great street food. I just can't afford to eat like a king, much as I'd like to.

And I'm not just looking for food in Spain...hoping to get some ideas for the other countries, too.

Leely2, if you could give me a name or two from your long list of fav restaurants in Paris, that'd be great. And thanks, Bamaman, for the Chowhound link.
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Old Mar 22nd, 2014, 01:35 AM
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IMDonehere, I thought you were done here.

Your comments on food in Scotland are hopelessly behind the times and haven't been true in 25 years.
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Old Mar 22nd, 2014, 04:19 AM
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in Spain, the obvious choice is tapas - there are hundreds of tapas bars in Madrid and in a month you can probably eat your way through quite a few of them. it's difficult to find a bad tapas bar, IME, and some are fantastic. I suggest that you look at Maribel's guide to Madrid for a few suggestions to get you started. After that, as others have said, a real foodie would head north to the Basque country, both for the food and the weather.

Elsewhere, the best fancy place I've ever eaten at is Le Cinq which is the restaurant of the Georges V in Paris. "only" 2 Michelin stars but I have no idea what they would have to do to get the third star as our meal [a set price lunch for about €90] was as near perfect as I can imagine.

For other recommendations you might try searching this forum - there is a recent thread making what look like good recommendations for Amsterdam and Dresden.

There is good food in Scotland, it's not all haggis, [which is quite nice in its own way] but you might have to work a bit harder than you would in Barcelona to find it.
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Old Mar 22nd, 2014, 06:16 AM
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Some of the inexpensive "must haves" in each location...

Bruges- frites w mayonnaise (street food); Belgian beer; mussels; waffles
Dresden- Dresdener cake
Prague- beer, sausages, pork/ dumplings
Amsterdam- stroopwaffels (kind of like a cookie); rijstaffel (Indonesian meal)
Spain- tapas, frittata
Paris- crepes, frites

I'm sure others can chime in with many more ideas. Be sure also to sample the coffee, beer, and wine in each country. You will notice great differences, yet they are each wonderful in their own way. Happy eating!
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Old Mar 22nd, 2014, 06:43 AM
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Your comments on food in Scotland are hopelessly behind the times and haven't been true in 25 years.

We were there last year.
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Old Mar 22nd, 2014, 06:54 AM
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If you are adventurous non-fussy eaters I see no reason you can't just be adventurous and find your own food. The problem with asking for specific reccos for simple food on a message board is that inevitably you're going to arrive someplace, be hungry, and ignore whatever notes you've taken on simple street food anyway. I can see if you're staying in Madrid for a month you might want to sample a few recommended places (though I've found food in Madrid to be uninspiring to begin with), but the other places? Wander around, look at menus and what locals are eating, and take a chance. That's how most of us who aren't demanding gourmands discovered the places we recommend, and you can do it too.
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Old Mar 22nd, 2014, 07:32 AM
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Please note that in Spain a frittata is called a tortilla espanola.

The word tapas has been bastardized in the US. Here is an explanation.

Tapas are unique to Spain and there is no American equivalency. The Spanish have a large lunch and a very late dinner maybe 10, 11 PM. Thus they get need some refreshment in-between. Tapas are usually eaten between 5-7 PM. In larger cities they go tasca hopping. People often go from one tasca or tapas bar to another sampling what they offer usually with a glass of wine. Some tascas have specialties while others offer a variety. And it is a social occasion where families including children will be gather to eat, drink, and have fun. Supposedly the small dishes encourage people to talk as opposed to be distracted by a meal. (Not that ever stopped a Spaniard from talking.) People usually stand and the custom is to throw the used paper napkin on the floor.

It is an eating and drinking tradition that stands alone. Tradition says that the etymology of tapa means lid when a dish of food was put on top of a glass of wine to keep the flies out.

There are tapas, raciones, and pintxos. The differences will ignite an argument among Spaniards similar to how many angels can fit on the top a pin.

While there are scores of different tapas and regional differences among the most common tapas are the ubiquitous tortilla española (a potato omelet that is eaten hot and cold), grilled chorizo (spicy Spanish sausage), various cheeses, various olives, regional seafood, garlic shrimp, croquettes of various types, and mushrooms. The best food and the best tapas are in San Sebastian/Donostia.

The word tapas has been bastardized in the US to mean any small dish.
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Old Mar 22nd, 2014, 08:25 AM
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Comment to IMDonehere regarding his post:

"IMDonehere on Mar 21, 14 at 9:04pm

By the way Robert, aren't you a travel professional who has an economic interest in people going to Spain?"


This is an unfair comment. While Robert *is* a travel professional, he is freely providing information and advice. He has no economic interest in people going to Spain — only when people purchases one of his tours (and he is not selling anything here).

This is a forum about people who are passionate about European travel. Everyone is welcome, as long as we don't make commercial posts. We read to learn about others' travel dreams, hear the questions they're asking, and provide relevant information when we can. While I happen to be a travel professional like Robert, that's not a sin. I bet a good number of other Fodors members would love to work in the travel profession too!
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Old Mar 22nd, 2014, 08:36 AM
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Prague: Trdelnik! Street food. Pastry dough wrapped around a metal cylinder, lathered in sugar syrup then rotated over a heat source until golden brown and a bit crispy. It's then rolled in a topping of your choice; more sugar, cinnamon and sugar, nuts, etc. the inside can be left empty or filled with jam, Nutella, cream etc. Amazing!

Paris: Baguette sandwiches. Okay, I know that doesn't seem very adventurous and or exciting. Pre-made sandwiches in the states turn me right off. But in Paris they're lovely, cheap and filling.
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Old Mar 22nd, 2014, 08:39 AM
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In Sevilla we loved Eslava for lunch or dinner

Calle Eslava, 3
41002 Seville
San Lorenzo neighborhood

In Paris, I wouldn't say frites are particular great unless you seek out a spectacular place for them. Crepes are particular good around a street near Montparnasse called Rue du Montparnasse (because the trains from this station go to Brittany where crepes basically originated, so back in the day some folks migrating to Paris started restaurants in that neighborhood-or so the story goes)

Here is a good blog post on it from my favorite English language foodie blog in Paris:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2006/03/the-best-crpes/

All his links pages on food are excellent BTW, so be sure to check them out.

We have lived in Paris part time for 40 years now and I keep saying that the food has been getting better in London over that time and worse in Paris, and I still think that is mostly true. I now feel that I can't just walk into any bakery and be guaranteed to get a great baguette or go to any restaurant and eat well. So IMO, even as someone who has spent many years eating in Paris, I love to be able to follow a dedicated foodie blog.
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Old Mar 22nd, 2014, 09:06 AM
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In Paris, there is plenty to try. We enjoyed Verjus for the tasting menu - creative and delicious and very well priced at 65 euro for 5 courses. Our fancy schmancy fav is L' Atelier de Joel Robuchon on rue Montalambert. We also enjoyed Bistro Belhara in the 7th for more traditional French fare.

I can never resist pain au chocolat for breakfast and recently fell in love with chouquettes- both terrific sweet treats for breakfast. If you are on Isle St Louis, Berthillon is the place to go for ice cream (especially if they have the salted butter caramel)! Many also swear by Amorino.

I would avoid anything right be the famous tourist sites...usually overpriced and underwhelming food. Same goes for menus available in multiple languages and with food photos on the menu or in the window. Keep walking! Patisseries and boulangeries often offer great items for take away lunches. Head to a park and enjoy a picnic...luxembourg Gardens is a great spot for such a lunch.
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