An Ode to Baklava

Baklava is definitely my new favourite thing. Sara and I can’t get enough of the stuff at the moment, which abounds in all flavours and colours, so long as it’s walnut or toasted coconut brown, or pistachio green. Mmm pistachios. Honey. And how better to serve baklava than alongside pistachio ice-cream!?

We bought this mixed box at a specialist baklava shop in downtown central Istanbul, it’s good to go in there and look indecisive about what you want to put into it, since the cooks urge you to sample all the flavours first for free :-) Super cheap too, maybe €4 for this more than ample selection (which we promptly scoffed back at the hotel - notice the bites taken before we came to our senses and remembered to take a photo)

Despite all of this decadent dessert consumption, we both seem to be losing the bellies we acquired in western europe. (I’m looking especially at you Portugal) Seems to be down to lots of fresh vegetables and finally some sensible serving sizes.

Eating in Roma

The food in Rome is pretty simple, but it’s honest, and good. If you can find somewhere inconspicuous on a side street off the main drag, it’s probably a better bet; the food will be superior and cheaper and they might charge you only 80c for an espresso instead of a downright insulting €2.50 that many touristy places on main streets felt they could get away with. (We’re talking about single shot espresso here)

Typical cold mezze platter - big on the courgette, and large delicious slabs of fresh mozzarella. This picture was taken at La Forchetta d´Oro, just around the corner from our accommodation.

We had this great snack at a little place we discovered while walking back into town from the Vatican - Officina Biologica an organic cafe. We were lucky enough to get some orders whipped up by a top italian chef who was visiting to train some staff as a favour to the owner - best spagetti pesto ever, fresh organic pasta, tons of parmesan, and some thinly sliced raw salmon in olive oil with pink pepper corns was just what we needed, and reasonably priced too!

I think my favourite thing about the italian pizza is the awesome bases they do on them - the toppings range from just mediocre to okay, and hey, at least this one had artichoke. Another found really near from our hotel, the pub/restaurant Black Falcon di Sili e Natale.

Rome – The beer situation

After a stinking hot day in Rome (high of 34°C today, and in fairness, the stink part does seem to be emanating from our own sandled feet) all you can really think of is a nice cold beer. Unfortunately that’s not quite as easy as it sounds in this expensive city. We found the pint index completely off the charts, with many resturants and cafés charging €8 for 0.4L! (That’s about $12.65 for those of you in NZ)
Despite our thirst, we weren’t willing to part with so much of our cash for only a momentary respite, and resorted to buying our beer at McDonalds because we are just that classy. (OH by incredulous American teenager in line behind us “Oh, you can buy beeeer here?!”)

In case the metaphor isn’t clear, we are the donkey, and the donkeys’ throat is our wallet

Barcelona – What to eat

Disappointingly, none of the Spanish food that we had was amazing. Sadly, the best meals we had were Lebanese and Vietnamese. Don’t get us wrong: Spanish food was not bad but it was pretty basic, and it was quite expensive, even on deals. Tapas and Paella were OK but we’re guessing it is pretty hard to get them wrong in Spain. There are probably quite good places but they would be expensive and we were not searching for those.

Worthy to mention, the service sometimes can be bad, bad, bad - i.e., you will be completely ignored by the waiters. We walked away from two places in the same day because we were just ignored, even after the waiters acknowledged our presence. We seriously recommend walking away, as you’ll find a place were the food is better and the service is good just around the corner.

Lebanese place - Aladdin

We have pictures of the food, but by the time we took them part of it was already gone and it didn’t look amazing anymore. Location here.

Vietnamese place

Sadly we don’t know the name of the restaurant and it is not listed on Google maps, but we know that the location is here. Check out the pics (by the way, the decoration inside was awesome):

Francesinha

Literally translated as “Little French Girl”, thi is a truly ridiculous, epic, creation; and one that sums up perfectly for me the Portuguese obession with meat. Two pieces of bread filled with steak, ham, choriso sausage, and at least two other pork and/or beef-derived products that I can’t readily name, covered in melted cheese, doused with a tomato and beer sauce. Add an optional egg on top for good measure.

In Vila Real, a favourite place to induce one of these heart-attacks is a restaurant called Amadeus, which has the additional benefit of being cliff-side at the top of the gorge that runs through the town, so at least your last view will be a good one.

One of our lunches while in Marrakesh, quite yummi!