I have spent the past month with my husband Nathan travelling (and eating) my way through central Europe. On the agenda was: Prague, Berlin, Munich, Salzburg, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Budapest and Vienna. And we had a blast! Before I left I was warned about the food by several people: "You'll put on heaps of weight", "there is nothing to eat but meat and potatoes in central Europe", "there is nothing healthy to eat over there" and "the food is awful". I didn't care, I knew I would find something to eat and optimistically was planning try and sample a different type of sausage everyday. The sausage thing didn't really work out since I found I am not so keen on sausages but I did discover two things:
1. There is so much more than meat and potatoes to eat; and
2. I love meat and potatoes!!!
To make your taste buds water this is a summary of the best meals Nath and I ate on our trip:
1. Goulash!! We ate goulash so many times. I think it is the favourite winter dish in Czech Republic, Germany, Austria and Hungary! There are several different types and differences in flavour between the countries. You can get beef, veal and venison goulash (maybe more - but that is all we had) and you can get it as a stew or as a soup. It is basically a rich beef stew with paprika as the required ingredient! In Prague the goulash was not as strong - which was my preference. There is also a special kind of goulash there that is served with whipped cream... I did not try it.... In Hungary there is much more paprika in the goulash and German goulash is somewhere in between. The best goulash I ate was in Ljubljana and it was venison goulash served with cranberries, pear and dumplings. Divine!
2. Dumplings - well this isn't really a meal but every goulash (and many other meals) come with dumplings. There are many, many varieties of these as well: bread, potato and cheese dumplings are what I tried. And they taste different at each restaurant you go to. I found the ones in Prague generally to be really stodgy and much would have preferred a bread roll to mop up my meat juices. But everywhere else the dumplings were yum.
3. Sweet dumplings!! Absolutely amazing. Prague may not be able to do savoury dumplings well but sweet they have got down to a tee!!! These are steamed, sweet bready delights filled with fruit e.g., blueberries or plums. My favourite were blueberry served with blueberry sauce and other berries and whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce!!
4. Currywurst mit pommes (curry sausage with french fries). This way far and away the best sausage I ate whilst I was over there. Germany does this particularly well. Currywurst is traditional for Berlin and it tastes better there than anywhere else. In fact it tastes best from the carts on the side of the road - the first time I have ever eaten food from a cart on the side of the road!! And I should mention that you absolutely have to have tomato sauce and mayonnaise on your fries! I know this sounds weird but I did try it after much prompting from our friend Tehani who was with us in Berlin. All the Germans do it - and guess what? They are absolutely right! I am never having french fries without mayonnaise as well as my tomato sauce again! I can not believe that it tastes so good, I don't even like mayonnaise. But I do like this. I highly recommend you all try it!
...So I have just realised that if I keep typing there will be a ridiculously long essay on all the food I ate and no one will want to read it. So I have decided to split it into several parts renamed my post and will finish with a photo of goulash.... omigod! How could I possibly have eaten so much goulash and not taken a single photo??? No currywurst photos either! You will have to settle for a pic of this amazing ice cream sundae I ate in Berlin at a cute restaurant underneath a metro line :)
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| mmm Movenpick Berry Enchanted Dream sundae! |
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