ethanh

I'm going to Europe for the first time next month and I wonder if restaurants are the only place where I can get good food? Is there anything good from the convenience store/street vendors in these cities?

1) London
2) Paris
3) Strasbourg
4) Colmar
5) Amsterdam
6) Haarlem
7) Ghent
8) Brussels
9) Bruges

It'd be great if you can give answers for every city that you know above. Thank you!

bilboburgler

across all of these you need to add markets and bakeries

sandralist

Do a google search for "street food" for all the places you are going. Street food is now a near-universally recognized slang term, and you will find street foods all over Europe. In addition to traditional foods sold from carts and kiosks -- sausages, waffles, fish/chips, etc -- for cities like London and Paris, some of the larger farmer's markets function as food halls, with lots of food vendors selling prepared food as well as fresh foods. The large cities allso have department stores with gourmet food halls where you can get meals "to go" or cafeteria-style.

Also, for Paris, look up the term "l'Épicerie".

manouche

London has great street food - here's a good website with specifics:
http://www.timeout.com/london/shoppi...age_page=68111

Paris doesn't have as much going on in the outdoor food markets as London does, though some of it is interesting, especially the winter dishes like tartiflette, choucroute garnie, saucisses de Toulouse with potatoes, etc. There are always crepe stands with a variety of sweet or savory fillings, and a few ethnic stands selling Creole or North African specialties. Any self-respecting outdoor market will have at least one stand selling rotisserie chickens, whole or by the piece.

"Traiteurs" are the equivalent of delicatessens, and though they can be expensive, are usually very interesting for things like pates, fancy things in aspic, prepared salades and main dishes.

Most boulangeries/patisseries now carry inexpensive baguette sandwiches (some are more disappointing than others, mostly bread and little else), and many do lunch salades, pastas and so forth.

Some people rave about the prepared food you'll find in supermarkets, but since it's probably all made in the same factory, it isn't memorable.

pariswat

No prob in France, Belgium and UK.
Don't know about NL though - people who can eat raw milk and triangle sandwiches...

sandralist

The Netherlands has herring and frites, and also kebabs and roti, sold in street stands.

Paris has falafel and also kebabs and bahn mi. Check out department stores for high end French fare.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014...06623895086854

kerouac

I think you'll do fine. There's a McDonald's or a Starbucks on just about every corner.

WeisserTee

In Brussels, stop by Lienard's poultry store on Rue Washington, just a block or so off the Avenue Louise. Best rotisserie chicken in the city. Also makes wonderful chicken sausages, they sell a limited number of cooked ones in bread for lunchtime sandwiches -- but they go FAST.

Mme Lienard is charming and helpful. She loved our English cocker, Raisin. Every time we stopped by, to pick up a chicken or some cooked sausages, or even sliced chicken for sandwiches, she had a chicken treat ready for Raisin.

Note: if someone gets a rotisserie chicken (to go, of course, you can't eat there), she will give you for free a small jar of drippings if you ask. Wonderful on mashed potatoes.

We really miss Lienard's!

http://fr.yelp.be/biz/maison-lienard-ixelles

dotheboyshall

I would have thought culture in food was a bad idea - except for yoghurt and some cheeses

bilboburgler

If you are going to Belgium you need to show an interest in Beer

carolyn

Some of the tube stations in London have West Cornwall Pasty shops. The pasties are really good.

flanneruk

London's street food at present is possibly the most diverse and omnipresent in the world. And also possibly the priciest.

The Time Out reference above is to the wrong article and doesn't work: you want
http://www.timeout.com/london/restau...st-street-food

But this is very, very changeable. Most summer weekends the best operators are away at some festival somewhere (about 50 of them are at the end of my countryside street this weekend, for example), the article's three months old already, venues' operating hours - and sometimes locations - are forever changing and even when things settle down after summer, most venues operate on very short - and to many visitors, apparently irrational - timetables. Lots of other guides, some more up to date, if you google.

London's popup food scene is even more anarchic. Two listing sites are:
http://www.londonpopups.com/
http://thenudge.com/london-/pop-up-london

London's straightforward street food markets, a dominant food source from the mid nineteenth century to the late twentieth, have mostly now decayed into groupings of traders in cheap consumer tat: the relatively recent self-styled farmers' markets aren't. What call themselves farmer' markets are expensive venues for itinerant traders, small food retailers and niche prepared food manufacturers - but still a cheaper source of ready to eat food than most street food venues. This Time Out URL reviews them, and works:
http://www.timeout.com/london/shoppi...kets-in-london

Conventional convenience store specialists (like 7-11 and ethnic grocers) have mostly now been put out of business by urban versions of professional food retailers, especially Tesco, Sainsbury, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer. All over the place, a great deal cheaper than the "farmers'" markets or street food places, and for ready to eat food often offering better quality.

With all this, there's little need to use the food courts at most terminus railway stations, though they're sometimes OK in a crisis. There is no point whatever in ridiculous bling emporia like Harrods' food hall or the repulsive stench around the Kensington High St brand of Whole Food Markets. Fortnum & Mason, in spite of a recent revamp, is back to being a souvenir stall for the financially profligate. The only serious department store food hall is the basement of John Lewis Oxford St (whose rooftop Summer Retreat popup restaurant is a useful refuge on a fine day, though the view's hideous): its apparent competitor at Selfridges along the street is OK, has a few unusual traders and brands, and is surrounded by a couple of distinctive restaurant concessions.

traveller1959

Don't make it too complicated and don't overplan. In each of the mentioned cities you will find ample options for food and practically everywhere (at least in the city centres). You do not need guidebooks - just walk the streets and see and smell what appeals to you.

You will find grocery stores, bakeries and butchers with many packed and preprepared food items of all kinds, including ready-made sandwiches, ready-made salads, fruit, sausage, ham, cheese, desserts up to full meals. And you will find all kinds of drinks including cool drinks like sodas, beer, white and rosé wines. In Europe, it is perfectly acceptable to have a picnic on a park bench - including alcoholic drinks. Just bring plastic plates, cutlery and a bottle opener and you will enjoy wonderful picnics.

You also find what has been called "street food". This is local style fast food, often with ethnic twists. You buy it from street stands, out of windows or at the bar of tiny places which might, with good will, be called "restaurants". Often these places are very atmospheric. Especially Netherlands and Belgium have a tradition for frites, frikandel, kroketjes, sate skewers and other exotic fast food.

But promise never to enter a MacDonald's when in Europe!

bilboburgler

Surely the big task is never have a hamburger, a chip or a glug of coke...

dwdvagamundo

traveller1959--

We ate at two McDonald's in France last year. Once because we were in Tours after the restaurants closed for the afternoon and once because we were in Versailles without having breakfasted and wanted to get something fast so we could get to the Chateau before nine.

The Tours one was blah, but the breakfast one in Versailles was pretty good--you could get a choice, as I remember, three things for five Euro, and they kept us going until lunchtime.

But don't worry, we're not going to make a habit of it.

Bilbo--we didn't have hamburgers or Coke although we had fries.

dwdvagamundo

On Ethanh's question:

As traveller1959 points out, we've enjoyed picnics wherever we go. Go to a bakery (in France a boulangerie), and get a fresh baguette. Then get some kind of spread for it or cheese and a bottle of wine at a grocery. Carrefour, the big chain, has a very good and inexpensive wine selection: e.g. a 2005 Bordeaux for like 7 Euro that, when I took a chance on it, turned out to be wonderful.

HappyTrvlr

In the Netherlands, buy stroopwaffles from a street vendor.