So for the last week we have been travelling with a friend of ours from Ireland who just so happens to be a meat eater. I make this rather odd reference to her eating habits as it opened up a world of culinary joy to me that I have yet to have indulged in on our trip around Europe so far...the wonderful world of the meat platter in Germany! Over the course of our week together so far my new partner in meaty crime and myself have indulged in 3 different (4 in total but one was repeated) meat feasts and they have all been fabulous in their own wonderful way! Our first such carnivorous delight presented itself to us in Munich and was called the Everest Platter. While this was not exactly a platter of variety it certainly earned it's 'Everest' title. It consisted of a mountain of chips, beautifully crowned with not one, not two, but eight large and perfectly golden pork schnitzels. This platter was advertised on the menu as being suitable for 4, so we ordered it with the genuine intention of consuming the leftovers (in theory two schnitzels each) for lunch the next day. Upon the arrival of the platter I was simultaneous delighted and terrified by the sheer size of each of these incredible looking schnitzels. Under such circumstances I often choose to avoid wasting valuable stomach space with carby boringness and focus solely on the star of the show. This was no exception! We quickly tucked in and served ourselves with a schnitzel each. 2 minutes later and my first one was gone, it was time for number two! A further 5 minutes later and the second one had been swiftly demolished and at this stage nothing had really touched the sides of my stomach. I served and consumed number three, this time at a slightly more socially acceptable pace. By this time I was starting to get pretty full, but it almost felt unfair to just leave one lonely schnitzel sitting all on it's own...so that went down the hatch two. My meat consuming buddy made a valiant attempt with 2 1/2 schnitzels before finally throwing in the towel, but in her defence she did also have a fairly decent go at the chip mountain below the schnitzel goodness. This was a good, if not entirely nutritious start to the enormous plates of meat that were to pave our culinary way around Germany.
Our final and probably most epic tray of animal, landed on our table in Alpirsbach. This particular epicurean treat came with the title of the Balkan Platter and I feel it was named such on account of the fact that it could have very easily fed most of the region! Literally piled high on the plate was sausage, kofta, burgers, schnitzel, steak, bacon and skewered pork medallions, with two hefty heaps of rice and an overly generous portion chips thrown in for good measure (oh and a side salad to make it look like this was not entirely unhealthy)! I'm not going to go into too much detail regarding the almost embarrassing levels of excessive meat consumption that followed, but suffice it to say that neither my right hand man nor I failed to do some serious damage to the baked, fried and breaded farmyard that had befallen us!
So one thing I learned from travelling around Germany with a valiant and gutsy fellow meat eater is that the Germans really know how to do meat, and that doesn't just extend to their almost endless regional varieties of sausage. If meat is wanted in Germany then meat can be got and they don't do it lightly. I can highly recommend one of these meaty madnesses, but I'm not sure any cardiologist would, so consult your GP prior to consumption if you are concerned!
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Welcome to the first ‘Foodie Friday’. This is our place to introduce you all to some of the foods we have sampled from around the world. Sometimes we will give you information about dishes we have loved (or hated), sometimes weird and wonderful foods we have tried and sometimes we will just tell you about a local delicacy. If it’s something we have learned how to cook we might even give a recipe. This is our space to selfishly indulge our inner foodies in the name of ‘blogging’ while sharing some of the culinary joys of our travels with you!
Currently being in Ecuador, prior to going to Colombia and having just left Perù, I am going to start with something a little controversial but definitely a regional speciality in all three…cuy. Those of you who speak Spanish or have visited South America will know what this is…and for those of you who haven’t…can you guess…? It’s guinea pig. Within this region it is highly uncommon to keep these animals as pets. As with all animals used for meat around the world they are farmed and viewed as being functional rather than cute, fluffy, cuddly creatures! For anyone out there looking for a little bit of random trivia, the reason they are called cuy in Spanish is this is an onomatopoeic naming based on the sound that they often make when communicating…“cuy, cuy, cuy”…anyway, I apologise, I digress! In Perù this is a relatively cheap and commonly consumed meat, particularly in the highlands, but it can be found throughout the country. In Ecuador it is actually considered to be a speciality meat and is only really eaten on special occasions. I have tried cuy in both Perù and Ecuador and I can honestly report that it is very tasty. Some have said that it is a pointless meat with very little taste and others…rather uninventively say that it tastes like chicken. I have to say I disagree with both of these statements. I don’t think it is a pointless meat at all. Obviously guinea pigs are quite small so there isn’t a huge amount of meat on them (you do need to eat the majority of an entire guinea pig to feel full) but what meat there is has a very distinctive taste. I would liken it to the taste of a game bird or potentially if we wanted to go down the poultry comparison road the dark meat on a turkey… Most places you will find that it is simply roasted whole and then you are served a portion of it with some rice or potatoes (or both) and some salad. If you come to South America it is well worth trying. I am fully aware and accepting of the fact that the pet association many of us have to these little creatures could be off-putting. I myself am a former (and future) pet guinea pig owner, however, I was not going to let that stand in the way of me trying something new and different and I recommend you do the same. You may need to take a slight mental leap of faith to overcome this unusual culinary hurdle (as previously mentioned they are roasted whole thus making cuy very much an example of ‘food with a face’) but it is worth it! Go forth, be adventurous, bite the bullet…or in this case the guinea pig. Most of you would be judged hard for doing this in your own countries so why not give it a go when it is totally socially acceptable! Enjoy!! |
Follow us on Instagram or send us a messageAbout Foodie FridaysWe love food, as most people do! And when we are on the road this doesn't change. We, like many people, believe that food is one of the best ways to really get to know a culture and it's people, as so much about the way people live their lives around the world is centred around food. This means that when we travel we actively seek out the local foods and delicacies. Sometimes that comes in the form of unusual and exotic produce from markets and sometimes from street food vendors serving an array of barbecued, fried, steamed or entirely indistinguishable goodies. Having tried and tested these goodies for some time now, on our adventures around Asia, Europe, North and South America we have discovered some pretty wonderful treats that we have decided should earn a bit of publicity. So, as the working week drifts away and the weekend winks at you like a naughty temptress we will share with you one of the delights that we have encountered from around the world! We hope you enjoy reading about these as much as we enjoyed eating them! Archives
October 2017
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