Back from Europe

We’re home from Europe, and we had such an amazing time! Aside from all of the fantastic sites that we saw and memories that we made, we ate some seriously amazing food!

In Munich, we found a serious love for hefe-weiss beer (I’m pretty certain that it will always, always be our favorite), and we tried so many incredible foods. We enjoyed this gigantic, bigger-than-a-dinner-plate pretzel at the beer garden in the Englischer Garten one night, and throughout the whole stay we certainly had our share of pretzels, all different kinds of sausages, all different kinds of sauerkraut (which was so delicious and tasted nothing, nothing like the sauerkraut that I’ve had here), and of course beer. There was an amazing and unusual beer there called a radler, which was beer mixed with lemonade. It was so suprisingly great and refreshing! Some of our other meal highlights included leg of lamb, weiner schnitzel, and some seriously amazing spaetzle dishes (one that was cheese and crispy onions, and one that was spinach, cream sauce, and mushroom). We also had the most amazing dark chocolate gelato that was actually rich enough and chocolatey enough to please even me :)

In Innsbruck, Austria, the food was just as great. We had a wild game stew there that had the most amazing, cinnamony sauce that I’ve ever tasted (and I’ll remember it as one of the best foods I’ve had).  Another night, B ordered a steak in a bacon-crispy onion sauce that was absolutely to die for. We tried spinach dumplings, Tyrolean-style fritters and ravioli, sauerkraut, potato pancakes, and a few bowls of absolutely incredible, super comforting goulash soup that was great for the rainy days that we had. Our stay in Austria was short, but everything that we ate there was unbelievable.

And of course, I’ll always remember the food in Paris, too. We had pastries for breakfast every morning (real, amazing croissants, and the most fantastic chocolate eclair…), and the lunch/dinner food was so rich and fantastic. We tried four different croque sandwiches (croque madame, a croque with tomato and goat cheese, a croque with tomato, and a croque with chicken and tomato), and they were easily the best sandwiches that I’ve ever had. B and I were so amazed that the cheese that they used on everything in Paris was just SO.GOOD. We also tried duck confit, which was the most tender and incredible meat that I’ve ever had, grilled steak and salmon with bearnaise sauce, and we went to a fromagerie one night and picked up some fresh goat cheeses and a baguette for supper with a couple bottles of wine.

It really was the most amazing time, and we made sure to sample as many different foods as we could while we were there. I’m know that I’m forgetting to mention many, but I have a list that’s a mile long of foods that I want to try to replicate at home. I’m definitely more than excited to get back to cooking again :)