Saturday, December 05, 2009

Sometimes writing blogs feels like homework...

...And that has been the reason for my absence this year.

2009 has been a fantastic food year. Many photographs of delicious things have been tucked away on my hard drive, awaiting the dissipation of my laziness and antipathy, awaiting their chance to be shared with the world. And now that life is getting hectic with pre-Christmas nonsense, I finally have the get-up-and-go to start up again with exploring my adoration of food.
So I'll start with something random from 2009. How about...


European Potato Chips!


This spring, we made a little trip out to Europe to celebrate Jeff finishing university. We had a fantastic time visiting family in the Netherlands and in Germany, and a great time exploring southern Spain on our own.
The chips definitely weren't the culinary highlight of the trip or anything, but they kind of signify the best thing about travel for me. You expect to see beautiful old buildings and lovely canals and attractive people on bicycles and bakeries on every street corner and cobblestone. The things that you don't expect are the things you usually take for granted so completely you stop noticing them anymore, and then when they're different,it's kind of a fun surprise. For example, I didn't see one door with a door knob. Bathrooms are also an adventure every time you walk in, considering the wide range of toilets out there. Traffic lights in Spain aren't on the other side of the intersection - they're right next to you. And you'd expect Netherlands TV to have a mix of local programming and dubbed North American shows, but somehow coming across Spongebob Squarepants in Dutch can be very, very surprising.


Obviously, the food of another culture is a big perk of travelling - for the two us it's sometimes the main reason for going somewhere. There'll be more posts on the highlights of our European food experiences, but here are a collection of chips that I found kind of surprising.


German Donair flavoured chips. 'Doner mit alles' - loaded donair.
Donair shops are pretty ubiquitous in the Netherlands and Germany - it's usually the best bet for a cheap but tasty lunch. I expected the shops, but not necessarily the chips. Did they taste like a donair - not at all, but it was an interesting bag.
Spanish 'Jamon' flavoured chips. Ham is BIG in Andalucia - in most bars and restaurants you'll see a whole cured leg (complete with hoof) hanging on a post behind the bar, ready to have a few paper-thin slices cut from the haunch for a tapas. I expected the ham, not necessarily the chips. Interesting note - these kind of tasted like Old Dutch BBQ chips. Kind of bacony. The real jamon was INFINITELY more worthy of snacking.
The surprise favourite of the trip? These Cream of Mushroom flavoured chips purchased in Spain. I've never been a huge fan of cream of mushroom soup, but these chips were really shockingly mushroom flavoured. And creamy. Very subtle, and I think these were a kettle-type chip as well, which is always a bonus for me. The bag was written in Spanish and in Portuguese.
Writing this post now, I find it a little depressing that I spent time eating chips when I could have been snacking on more exciting things, but I must acknowledge that they still have an important place in vacation eating.
(Plus I really love eating chips.)