Other Goodies I've Tried And Liked
- Australia
- Kangaroo - in all its various forms: kangaroo burgers, smoked kangaroo, and even kangaroo lasagne.
- Smoked emu.
- Meat pies - in all their various forms.
- Loganberry pie - with loganberry sauce, whipped cream, and ice-cream - at the Taste of Tasmania Festival.
- Grub worms - and no, I didn't eat whole, live grub worms - it was a grub worm paté and was so good I went back for seconds.
- Krispy Kreme doughnuts!
- Austria
- Sausage (with spicy mustard) and Kaiser rolls - with ice-cold beer, of course.
- The pork medley on a Kaiser (that I don't know the actual name of) - also with cold beer.
- Fresh-off-the-tree apricots and all the varied apricot desserts at the Apricot Festival in Krems.
- Mozart chocolate.
- Smoked ham, with some wonderful cheeses.
- Belgium
- Chocolate!
- Belgian waffles dipped in, what else?... chocolate!
- Cambodia
- Prawn curry in coconut - not just in coconut milk - it's actually served in the coconut.
- Glass noodle chicken soup.
- China
- Egypt
- Om Ali - quite indescribable, but I'll try... cooked pieces of puff pastry combined with nuts, raisins and coconut, covered in hot sweetened milk and cream. Yummy!
- France
- Cheese!
- All those yummy pastries and desserts.
- Germany
- Sausage (with spicy mustard) - even better than in Austria.
- Beer! - with over 1300 breweries and more than 5000 different beers, Germany is a beer tasters paradise. And everywhere I went, I sampled very local brews. My favorite:
- Greece
- Gyros and Souvlaki - meat of choice (usually pork but I also liked chicken when I could get it) and other goodies wrapped in pita bread.
- Cheese pie - for breakfast.
- Saganaki (fried) cheese.
- Chocolate croissants (also for breakfast).
- Naxos sausage.
- Baklava dipped in chocolate.
- Many other sweets that I don't know the names of.
- India
- Vegetable samosa - battered and deep fried, served with a spicy sauce.
- Puri bhaji (for breakfast) - potato chunks served in a thick, rich, spicy sauce - doesn't really sound that great for breakfast, does it?
- Various sweets at the Chokhu Moku Joshi Sweet shop in Bikaner, India - the names of which I can't recall and ingredients I couldn't begin to identify.
- Italy
- Gelato - everyday - especially in Sicily, where I had a "gelato burger" - an ice-cream filled bread roll...
- All the various focaccia breads in Cinque Terre.
- Pesto pizza.
- Japan
- Okonomiyaki - indescribable, but delicious.
- The freshest sushi I've had anywhere in the world.
- Just about anything from the many pastry shops (they're everywhere).
- Kumiko's curry rice.
- MOS Burger - completely different from McDonald's.
- Korea
- Bibimbap - various vegetables (and a raw egg!) on a bed of rice served in a hot stone pot (which, thankfully, cooks the egg).
- Kimchi - pickled cabbage in a spicy sauce - I know it doesn't sound all that great, and most foreigners don't care for it, but I quite liked it.
- Hotteok - a doughnut-without-the-hole, filled with a mixture of cinnamon and honey - yum!
- Several other traditional Korean dishes (and desserts!), the names of which I can't recall, that were served at the Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving) party I was fortunate enough to be invited to.
- Laos
- The VERY spicy tham mak hung (papaya salad) that set my mouth on fire.
- Ok, are you ready for this?... Crickets!
...and they weren't all that bad.
- Malaysia
- Coconut milk straight from the coconut - scraping the soft white flesh from the insides.
- The freshest, sweetest pineapple I've ever tasted - from a street vendor in Penang.
- Norway
- Heidi's grilled salmon - so fresh.
- Reindeer - very tender.
- Spain
- In a word: Tapas - small (almost bite-sized) appetizers of every imaginable variety. As the locals do, I simply had a sampling of tapas for my meal. My favorite place specialized in seafood tapas.
- Sweden
- Helen's chocolate cake. Yum!
- Curt's mushroom sandwiches (with mushrooms we picked ourselves).
- Helen's chicken and veggie pie.
- Curt's oriental pasta.
- Switzerland
- Chocolate!
- Cheese fondue (with bread).
- Chocolate fondue (with fruits and sweet breads).
- Taiwan
- Ishi nabe(sp?) - meat, seafood, and veggies cooked at the table.
- Thailand
- Banana shakes at the Koh Tao Tropicana Restaurant.
- Noname - a fried snack with a spicy dipping sauce at the Koh Tao Tropicana Restaurant.
- Fresh, chilled mango on the beach in Koh Samui.
- Phat Thai noodles all over Thailand.
- Tuna pizza on the small island just north of Koh Tao.
- Mango/banana/coconut smoothies at the Hill Tribe Hemp Cafe in Chaing Mai.
- Chicken and lemon grass in coconut milk at the Riverside Restaurant in Chaing Mai.
- Turkey
- Turkish Delight (of course) - so sweet and yummy!
- Baklava - I actually liked this better than Turkish Delight; locals call it "Turkish Viagra" - hehe.
- The Turkish breakfast I had at a restaurant on the river in Eskesehir - complete with hand-whipped butter and local honey to go on the fresh bread.
- Borek - like an over-sized cinamon roll filled with cheese or potatoes; a great traveling snack for all those long bus rides.
- Peach Cappy... a canned fruit drink; I was addicted from the very first one. ;-)