Europe Fall 2024 - Last Foodie Post

The enjoyment of our apartment in El Campello with its great outfitted kitchen, beautiful views when we ate, and access to the markets, meant we did way more cooking and eating at home than going out. Still, this is a de-I travel adventure and food will always be a major component of the tapestry of our trips.

Chocolate and Churros

This is one of the Spanish classics. Their hot chocolate (when made properly) is like a hot chocolate mousse. The churros are salty crispy fried dough served with granulated sugar. What's not to like? The Valor chocolate company (a really high quality brand in our opinion) has branded restaurants all over Spain offering it. 

Whoa! That's a lot of fried dough

Well it turns out the whole thing was mostly too rich for our taste. Oh well. (BTW we did finish every last churro!)

 Home Cooking

I had a bunch of things left in the fridge and this is what I came up with

The sausage was a chorizo. I did a take on deep frying it to get a really crispy skin (something I'd not tried before). The green beans are a broad type you find all over Europe but almost never in the U.S. They were done in olive oil and garlic. The potatoes were a not quite mashed potato cooked in fat until there was a lot of crispy parts. When your grandchildren eat every last morsel of what you've cooked, you can be happy indeed.

Success Eating in Tourist Land

After our successful assault on Santa Barbara Castle in Alicante, it was time to feed the mercenaries (and their employers). The central part of Alicante along the water is 'tourist central'. You can find a lot of mediocre, over priced food. However, with us being so tired, I was not going to totally fight the realities. However, I did stay off the waterfront itself. We ate a place that was on a Plaza. The menu was pretty standard for the area. However, here is where we had a very pleasant surprise.

We purchased a number of Tapas. There is a lot...A LOT...written that these tourist restaurant dishes are not 'authentic' tapas which are small plates that go along with the long drinks process the Spanish enjoy. Nonetheless, a lot are based on things found in real tapas places. One of the major complaints is you pay way more for these in the tourist restaurant than you do in a real bar serving tapas. However, we did a bit of post eating research by looking at the cost of things on site at various places. What we found was, yes the tourist places charged much more. BUT they also were serving full servings, not small bites. For example, in the meal I will describe below, each portion was the equivalent size of 4 'real tapas' servings. Analyzing the prices accordingly, there was not that big a difference in price.

The VEFS (Viking Expeditionary Force from Sweden) relaxing, eating Spanish tapas in the conquered city of Alicante.

 

 Tempura Shrimp - Hardly a classic of Spanish cuisine but raved on by the three women of our party.

 Fried Brie, also not a classic, but again the women loved it. This place did deep frying exceptionally well.

Well Fries are Fries and the mercenaries loved them

 Now. On to what de-I loved.

Croquettas. These are so often insipid. But this version, you could really taste the ham.

Abondigas/Meatballs - these too are often tasteless. But no, here they were really flavorful

 

 And could a meal like this be complete without Ensalada Rusa? No!

 Honestly, I keep being amazed at the variations on this seemingly simple theme.

Nothing says conquest like a good Helado!

 Hasta Luego Espana

A big part of Spanish culture is taking a drink and just sitting and contemplating the world whether through conversation or just by one's self. We didn't do enough of that. But on our last day in El Campello, I did just that with a coffee as Wife did a last photo shoot.

 

 Unexpected Treat in Amsterdam

Flying back, we overnighted in Amsterdam so as to not totally kill ourselves. Airport hotels are an iffy lot at best. We were not excited at all about eating at the hotel. Fortunately there was a town only 15 minutes walk from the hotel where we found,

A sort of bar/gastropub/restaurant

The menu so intrigued us that we each had a first course while sharing the main. That turned out to be a very good idea.

Wife's whiskey and my dark beer

My first course, a selection of cold fish including tiny shrimp, smoked eel, and cured salmon. For those of us who enjoy such things, it was very delicious. The shrimp in particular were thumbs up because often they are tasteless.

 

 Wife had a French Onion Soup. She said it was a bit more tomato flavored than she usually saw. But she ate every drop. 

 

(An Observation: Wife hates, HATES, wet bread. Any moisture touching her bread product and it becomes taboo. So no dipping bread in sauces, or bread puddings, or anything like that. With ONE exception, the cheese covered bread on French Onion Soup. She scarfs this down like it is the ambrosia of the Gods. I asked for a bite to try it and was told in no uncertain terms, "No Way". Evidently cheese covered soggy bread in French Onion Soup is its own unique food group.)

It was accompanied by a very lovely dark bread.

 The main course we split was a huge wienerschnitzel with bernaise sauce, frites, and salad. We were very glad to have split it.

 UNBELIEVABLE! A really good U.S. Airline Business Class Meal!

If one flies international business class a lot (which I have over the last 15 year), you find there the quality of catering can vary substantially depending on the airline and the city from which it is flying. In general, while the food and service is miles better than in Economy, it is not usually anything to write a blog post about. This is especially true of the major American carriers (United, Delta, & American). So you can imagine how SHOCKED I was when the meal we were served on our flight from Amsterdam to was not just okay, it was excellent. I mean blog worthy.

Let's start with...

 This was one of the wine's offered. How many times before have I seen a Chateauneuf du Pape on an airline? 

0

This particular wine retails for about $50 a bottle.

The first course was a very nice cured salmon (hats off the Netherlands catering?

 Accompanied by nice Dutch dark bread and butter

 The main course was a braised Pork with white beans. It was good enough that I ate very bit.

 All in all a perfectly fine ending to our trip

A Final

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

Badhoevedorp, Netherlands, Capital of Formula One Tow Truck Racing.