Scottish Samplings

Some places we go I have a definite food agenda. For Scotland that was haggis.

It's their national dish made of sheep’s liver, heart, and lungs all mixed with spices, oats, onion and a little suet for good measure then usually boiled inside the sheep’s stomach. Doesn’t sound appealing? Well, if I’ve learned anything about eating around the world it’s that when a dish is loved by a nation- chances are it’s going to be delicious.

We had lunch at the Crag and Tail and I insisted we get an appetizer of haggis.

Fried balls of haggis served with the traditional tatties…



It was so good I regretted not ordering it for an entree. The spices were so on point they masked any overt organ flavor. I’m not crazy about the irony taste that comes from organ meat, but just the slightest hint that shone through really added a rich depth to the dish.

If you come to Scotland it is a must-eat!

Oh and if you see this Scottish beer anywhere- get it.



As promised by the label it has hints of vanilla and toffee making it one perfect fall brew.

Beyond the Goulash

The streets in Budapest are crowded with sandwich boards outside restaurants touting goulash. After our encounter with goulash in Prague I was a little worried about dinner. Thankfully, outside of goulash (which our awesome guide had told us was the most commercialized and poorly prepared food in the city) Hungarian food is quite good.

We found a quiet little restaurant down the street from our hotel in the Castle District of Buda. Wrapped snuggly in blankets to ward off the slight chill in the air, we enjoyed a perfectly romantic meal over candlelight on their terrace.

After a deliciously simple tomato and onion salad, I went with a trio of pork. Hiding in that pile is a small grilled medallion, a rib and a piece of house made sausage…



I just need to stop saying I don’t like sausage because it was my favorite part of the meal, except maybe the mash with spring onions. I do love a potato.

Julie out-ordered me by going with the beef medallions…



We had a bottle of wonderful Hungarian wine, but sadly the candlelight was not conducive for label shots.

Julie ordered a Hungarian beer, Dreher Bak, after dinner and made the claim it was better than Guinness. I, accordingly, took her out into the streets of Dublin upon our return and had her stoned. Kidding, kidding…but no beer is better than Guinness, although it wasn’t bad…



It was a great meal until sadly I decided to give strudel just one last chance for dessert…



Even with the addition of a berry variety, my lowly opinion did not change.

The thing that stood out most to me about Hungarian cuisine is how heavy handed they are with the paprika. I've always used it sparingly, but I have to say that may change when I get back into the kitchen because everything was really delicious.

Thanks, Budapest for a lovely meal with my Wife. It's nights like these that make me so sad to leave Europe.

Toucan Sam-ing it in Budapest

Aside from recommendations, one of the best ways to score good food when in a strange city is to follow your nose. Hopefully this will not lead to a bowl of Fruit Loops…although I love Fruit Loops and could actually really go for a bowl right now. I digress.

If it smells good, chances are it tastes good too. Wandering around the Castle District in Budapest our nasal passages were suddenly filled with a gloriously sweet smell of...well, something sweet. After nosing around (pun obviously intended) we finally found the source…



Seems that Hungarians are pretty literal people as it was a “funnel” cake…




We went with the cinnamon sugar variety of the piping hot treat. It wasn't fried so it was in no way like our funnel cakes. This had a delicate, but crispy crust and an incredibly light doughy interior. I loved it.

Jules made the mistake of wanting it to taste like her Gran’s cinnamon sticks and was of course disappointed since it didn’t have a pound of butter inside.

The lady was kind of mean and told me no pictures, but I had already snapped a few while waiting in line. You'll need to be a little quicker next time mean funnel cake maker’s wife...



The dough was wrapped around a metal cylinder and then popped into a special oven where it was left until golden brown.

De. Lish.

Moon Festival

The wife’s Chinese teammate was kind enough to go into Dublin’s Chinatown and bought us all mooncakes for the recent Moon Festival. This is a harvest festival in China that falls on the autumn equinox and these cakes are shared between family and friends.

So last Wednesday we had this little treat in celebration of the big beautiful moon…



C said they came in a huge variety of flavors, both sweet and savory. She bought us a sweet version and inside was a slightly sweet and very dense mixture of lotus seed paste with a yellow “moon” in the center.

One of the things I love most about being on the road is the myriad of holidays we get exposed to, either from the locals we’re living amongst or from other people on the team. I have every intention of adopting more than a few of these so get ready for some random parties when we move home.

most guilt-ridden meal of 2010?

wow, i have no idea how i forgot to do this post. maybe subconsciously i was trying to hide the fact that we ate one of the world's cutest birds...




it was smoked puffin and if you don't know what puffin is then don't worry about it. i don't want you to think less of us.

i really wanted something authentically icelandic and no way was i eating horse, whale, seared sheep's head, boiled lamb testicles or putrefied shark meat.

see? it really was our only option.

the taste was similar to duck and i thought it was plated perfectly with red onions and a light mustard sauce. jules didn't really care for it and even laid this out on the bed the next morning for me to find after my shower...




oh. the. guilt.

the rest of our meal was really great and far less guilt-ridden since it consisted of some not-so-cute halibut and the actually quite ugly monkfish...

what goes great with dessert?

you guessed it.

although you can't tell from the photo, i have decided after having it twice that banofee pie is just a bit too sweet for my taste.

if you're really into sweet sweets click here for a recipe.

i heart ireland

if i was asked to live off of one food item and one drink item for the rest of my life i'm seriously not kidding when i say it would be potatoes and guinness.

ireland is my food heaven.

steak & guinness pie with my two faves...



god help me, i'm going to need to spend at least a bajillion hours a week in the gym to combat these temptations.

aka- the "winkler"

when we were in goa, india for julie’s 30th last year a dear german friend of ours (whom we privately named the drink after) introduced us to the radler. the perfect summer drink- roughly 2/3 beer, 1/3 sprite…



if you’re american, i can imagine your thoughts are the same as mine when i first heard the ingredients, but seriously give it a try. they’re lighter than beer and a really refreshing drink for the summer heat!

better use for strudel pastry

so vienna is famous for 2 desserts. one is a chocolate cake from the sacher hotel, the sacher torte and their apple strudel or apfelstrudel. i had one and it made me think very little of their dessert opinions so i skipped even trying the second.

behold the (in)famous apfelstrudel...



it was just not good. like so not good i didn't even finish it and i'm not one to leave desserts unfinished. maybe the sacher torte is amazing, but i doubt it.

the one thing i did enjoy were the seasoned mashed potatoes wrapped in strudel pastry that i had with my roast beef. that was a keeper...

schnitzel

it’s usually pork and it is always fried. whether in vienna or germany you can find it on practically any menu, even if you're at a thai restaurant.



not my fave, but the wife took a liking to it and i suppose we are still trying to get our pork percentage up for the year.