The d’Hobby Wine and Food Society:   We have been trying local food, wine and beers along the way during our travels, so this section pretty much consists of notes of a purely self-indulgence nature.  If you’re not bothered with this (or a touch envious) then you should move on to other chapters.

Note – hover the mouse/cursor on a picture for a description, or click on the image for an enlargement.

Culinary highlights of the trip so far are:

Helsinki  (Finland)

Helsinki has two markets on the waterfront.  The outside flea market has food stalls mixed in amongst those for produce, arts & crafts and souvenirs.  The food offered is either local seafood or ethnic, and is very good value, and interesting eating.

There is also the old covered market further along the wharf which is basically a huge food hall with an amazing variety of food displayed – everything from Asian, Scandinavian and Eastern European specialities, to hamburgers and hot-dogs.  It is only open from early morning until mid-afternoon, and it seems like everyone in Helsinki eats here for lunch.

Porvoo (Finland) – this is a quaint, historic town east of Helsinki along the coast.  We went there on a day excursion on a 100 year old steamer, and had lunch at a unique restaurant in Old Porvoo Town.   Restaurant Timbaali promotes itself as the only restaurant in Finland (and possibly Scandinavia) that serves and specialises in ‘escargots’ (snails), and the creatures figure throughout the premises and décor.

Warsaw (Poland) – for one lunch Jan had local speciality Barszcz (more commonly spelt ‘borscht’) which is warm beetroot soup with ravioli.  Ingredients include red beetroot, onions, garlic, and other vegetables, such as carrots and celery or root parsley.  Mike had Pierogi – dumplings stuffed with cabbage, onion and pork meat, with pork crackling croutons, fried in olive oil.

Cesky Krumlov (Czech Republic) – For lunch here we shared deep fried camembert with a berry sauce, and potato cakes.  Another scrummy lunch we had in Austria was open toasted sandwiches – mozzarella & tomato for Jan, and ham & cheese with bacon on top for Mike – double helpings served on conjoined dishes, and eaten with knife & fork.  Cholesterol free ? – of course!

Montauroux (Provence) – One memorable lunch we had in this hill village in Provence was at a road-side bistro/café where the waitress had to dodge the traffic to cross the road each time to serve our table.  Although the food was simple, it was superbly cooked and presented.  Our entrées were different terrines (one was seafood, the other duck), presented beautifully just turned upside down from a mould, and a piquante olive oil drizzled over, accompanied by fresh baguette (of course).  The mains of salmon for Jan and a 200g fillet steak with Béarnaise sauce for Mike were ‘melt in the mouth’ moments.  All washed down with a chilled local Côte de Provence rosé (of course).

Martigues (Provence) -Lunch at a waterside restaurant was a highlight of our visit here, matched only by the stunning scenery of the town and harbour.  Jan had a plump white fish with pumpkin puree and fresh vegetables, beautifully presented.  Mike had a very tender Weiner Schnitzel, served on a sizzling slate platter, with crunchy potato croquettes, and a baked ratatouille in a separate dish.  Both these dishes were on the Menu du Jour, and included wine and water for €8.50 each !

Aix en Provence – One of our favourite cities in the South of France, with interesting produce and flower markets on different days of the week, and in different squares/places.  We stumbled on a small shop off one of the main squares which specialised in their own brands of confectionery and biscuits.  Not only did they taste good, and we bought  a bundle of stuff, but the shop itself was very photogenic:

Honfleur – The last memorable meals we had out in France were in Normandy, where we decided to sample some of the local specialties. Dinner was by candlelight on the quayside, with ‘marmite de pêcheur’ (thick seafood stew) for Jan, and ‘confit de canard’ for Mike, with mousse chocolat for dessert.  The following day we shared crépes for lunch, again on the waterfront.  First course was a ‘galette’ – a savoury crépe with ham & cheese filling, and second course the traditional dessert crépe with citron & sucré.

On the road, or exploring towns and villages on foot, morning teas tend to be espresso coffee with some hot milk on the side (called a ‘noisette’ in Provence).  Jan has acquired a taste for good espresso, but only has a single shot, while Mike usually gets a double.  Coffee is supplemented with either a cinnamon bun or an almond croissant (shared of course).  In France we made it a bit of a mission to find the best éclair – the chocolate ones here tend to be filled with chocolate mousse and are pretty scrumptious.  So far it’s a tie between the ones we had in Quiberon in Brittany, and Honfleur in Normandy.  A great deal more sampling is needed to give any credibility to this research though.

A favourite home-made lunch on the road is an open shrimp sandwich – a base of lettuce and tomato, then a pile of shrimps, heaped on a crisp-bread or a ½ wholemeal roll, with thousand-island dressing. Yummy.

Spain

We have been enjoying a variety of wines at very reasonable prices in Spain, for example Rioja (tempranillo/granacha blends) from € 1.29 for white label, to €2.05 for black label (Reserva), and some very good Rosés (Rosada) for € 1.79.    (€1.00 = NZ$1.59)

We have also been experimenting with our own Paella recipe from NZ with slightly different ingredients, mainly because we forgot to bring our printed recipe with us, but so far the variations have proved to be very palatable.  It helps of course to have good ingredients like local Spanish chorizo, paella rice, herbs, shell fish, etc. and to cook in a good paella pan on a round BBQ grill.

We have also learned how to make good Tortillas.  We had lessons from the campsite restaurant chef at Elche to cook a variety of these Spanish omelettes with onion and potato and various other fillings and garnishes like chorizo.  We have also been experimenting with Fajitas – stir fried chicken or beef with capsicums, onions etc., and served sizzling hot with tortillas, guacamole and sour cream.

The other unusual thing that Mike has really enjoyed is La Morcilla de Burgos – a special black pudding produced in the Burgos region with rice as a prominent ingredient.  Slices of this fried, and served with blue cheese*, are a great tapas recipe (no cholesterol evident, of course), or with a bacon & egg breakfast.

We have also visited an Iceland store in Fuengirola, who stock mainly British foods – amongst them Melton Mowbray pork pies, along with good English cheddar, and even pickled onions.  As a result Mike has enjoyed a few ploughman’s lunches recently, instead of the standard ham, cheese, tomato & lettuce baguette.  We also found good English marmalades, teas and peanut butters.  However, the one thing we haven’t found anywhere yet is almond butter, which we find very strange in countries such as France and Spain who grow thousands of tons of almonds for export, but don’t seem to crush them at all, and also appear to import all their peanut butters.

Bon appetit !!

*Luscious Cambazola soft blue cheese from Germany is available from our local supermarket deli section.