Mr Sticky and I had an amazing time on our recent trip to Europe. So much food, wine, and sightseeing. What’s not to love?
We went to London, Paris, Nice, Cannes, Monaco, Venice, Florence, Tuscany and Scotland in a whirlwind three week trip.
We didn’t eat in any particularly fancy, well-known or gastronomically acclaimed restaurants. We just ate were we saw a crowd of locals and 90% of the time we were rewarded with pretty fabulous food at very reasonable prices. So this isn’t a very comprehensive “where to eat” type of post. It’s just a collection of our full-belly happy snaps.
Jamie’s Italian in London was a so much better than the Jamie’s in Sydney. The polenta chips in Sydney are great, the polenta chips in London were sensational!
Mr Sticky had never had a crepe before we went to Paris (I know, my mind couldn’t process this fact either) so I made sure we had one at every opportunity. We fell into a very pleasing routine of getting a nutella crepe on our way home from dinner from a little take-away van near our hotel. The crepe were out of this world, but came with a bonus of surly attitude from an angry Frenchman who hated Mr Sticky and loved me. The Crepe-Nazi knew his thang about crepes though so we took our dessert with a side of insults and/or affection.
You can’t go to Paris without trying a macaron! I stumbled across Pierre Herme at Gallaries Lafayette and it was the best macaron I have ever tried and will probably ever have again. I stuck with a classic salted caramel and my enthusiasm won me a free chocolate sample.
Purely for research purposes I sampled the macarons at Laduree in Cannes. They were good but not on the same level as Pierre Herme.
Giant nutella and giant popcorn – a match made in heaven? I didn’t take one of these babies home, although it was tempting!
Galaries Lafayette in Paris had a spectacular food hall that had everything from giant nutella to mounds of spices to blocks of the finest French butter to Atlantic salmon. A food lover’s dream.
At the top of Galaries Lafayette is Angelina a gorgeous tea room that’s famous for their hot chocolate. It’s thick, rich and pure chocolate. You spoon dollops of cream into the hot chocolate in a vain attempt to dull the richness. It’s like drinking a vat of ganache icing. It’s amazing. We were defeated after less than two shallow cups each and then buzzed around Paris on a chocolate high.
Our rule of “eating where the locals eat” took us to a small little bistro in the back streets of Paris where we had the best Croque Monsieur we’ve ever eaten. It pays to walk away from the tourist attractions and get lost within the city.
Gelato was our best friend when it was above 30 degrees for 10 days straight in the south of France and northern Italy. I talked about our favourite gelato in Italy in my recent post The Best Gelato in Italy. In Nice we found a small gelato store that had a huge range of classic flavours but my favourite was the lemon meringue pie with lemon curd and little pieces of meringue.
In the south of France, Florence and Venice we managed to eat ALL the carbs with 10 straight days of nothing but pizza and pasta. I have no regrets. Mr Sticky and I tried to split all our meals so we had lots of variety.
I loved this butcher’s window in Venice – pigs made of pork… it’s genius!
Mr Sticky drinking coke like a boss! This goblet of soft drink was a princely sum of 9euros but it made him feel like royalty.
It was so much fun jus wandering the streets of Florence and coming across local market stores bustling with Nonas doing their shopping.
We had so many great meals and often I would be half way through a dish and realise I hadn’t taken any photos! Bad foodblogger! Although, holidays are for experiencing new cultures not for recording moments.
Have you been to Europe? What was the best meal you had?