Food Special!!!

For my 2nd to last post, I will count down my favorite food of the journey. I'll split it up into 4 different sections: Germany, England, Switzerland, and Italy. The food was good through out the trip, but of course some countries excelled more than others. I've been mostly happy with the meals and snacks here in Europe, almost all of the meals have been good, with a few lacking really good quality. 

#4: ENGLAND. The food in England starts off good, but you can get tired of it very quickly. The tourists all want the meat pies, fish and chips, and other English treats. In London these are very easy to get. The only problem is, after the first day, they all start tasting the same and well, it just gets bad. Espicially food in the Cotswolds. Although we actually had one of our best meals im Stow, most of the food there was bland too. Spices and seasoning are hard to find. English Tea and Deserts were very good though. Espicially the macaroons and scones. Also I am just reviewing English food, not food as a whole in England. There are great Italian, Indian, and other culture food restaurants there. PROS:Great at 1st, lots of places to get that "real English food", lots of Indian places with actual flavor, and tea and snacks are very good. CONS:The food gets very very bland after a while, it mostly repeats its self, and no color in dishes

#3: SWITZERLAND. Switzerland was a little different. It was because we didn't eat "Swiss" food. Instead my moms friend cooked for us. Different types of food with some Swiss ingredients. It could be said that Switzerland would be unrankable because we didn't have the nations food. Oh well. First of all, maybe because I hated Switzerland, it put a dampening on the food. PROS: Friend had excellent cooking, great chocolate CONS: didn't get to try real Swiss food, hated Switzerland 

#2: GERMANY. The food we consumed in Germany was the kind of food you think a tourist would eat and sometimes even the locals. You know, the schnitzel,the sausage, the sour kraut, and so on. It might have helped that we just came from England and needed some real flavor. We ate mostly German "authentic" food through out Munich and Füssen, I never really got tired of it. I'm sure that after a while I would have. The sausages are so much better in Germany then they are in the USA! But the best meal was at a place where you probably think the food would suck. The Houfbrohause (I'm pretty sure I just got that totally wrong). Being a big tourist attraction the food is expected to be bad. But no!!!! This was not the case. The venison I had there was super delicious and the sauce was fantastic. The pork knuckle was one of the biggest surprises on the whole trip. Crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. I may like German food more than anyone else, but you should give it a try! Of course in Germany beer is great. Now I never tried any, but mom and dad said it was great! I advise you not to get the Currywurst. A sausage with curry powder and ketchup smothering the meat. The amount of ketchup is just way to sweet. I think they should use just curry powder. PROS: Lots of meat, pretty good flavor, gives you lots of fries American style, and for you older people good beer CONS: Currywurst sucks, bread and pretzels not my favorite, probably would get tired of the food like England, might not have as many ethnic choices as England did

#1: ITALY!!!!! The food in Italy was amazing. Pasta's, meats, sea food, pizzas, and so on. The options here were by far the most amount. I mean London probably had a lot too but not in terms of English food and same in Munich. For just culture-like food, Italy was the best. Every meal we have had has had pretty high quality. Most places here all the food is made from scratch and the ingredients are fresh! That's very different from America where most things are mostly premade. Of course I still like food in America though. Here the pasta is expertly cooked. The meat almost all tastes good and there's a wide variety including boar and hare! The desserts here rival those of England. I still think England may edge out in the end though. There are tons of different flavors in the dishes here, which was a great improvement from Germany and England. If you get tired of regular meat, you have seafood or vegetables. Italians eat many courses throughout a meal. Appetizers, first course, second course, and maybe even more eventually getting to desert. So you can tell food is a big part of the culture, leading to more options. PROS: mostly fresh ingredients all locally grown, many flavors, many options overall, and a few things I mentioned above CONS: things can get a bit too fishy for me, I hate truffles

Thanks for reading this special edition! In just a few hours I will post the final blog post of "Food and Football: a europe journey". I hope you come back and read!