Food is such a huge part of traveling. A lot of the activities I did in the European countries I visited lately were tastings or local dinners, although most of them were alcohol rather than food! I tried a lot of good food in the last week and I thought I’d share some of that with you. Yes, a lot of the food I ate wasn’t necessarily local due to the main food containing meat, but I still feel like it was a good part of my experience.

Amsterdam

First meal in Amsterdam (besides the vegetarian English breakfast I had on the ferry!) was actually an Indonesian curry which was free included at the hostel. We were told that Indonesian food is actually really popular in the Netherlands, as Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands for hundreds of years.

But then, the real fun started. Cheese tasting in Edam. I was living my best life trying the various different types of cheese included some that was smoked, some goats cheese and some very old cheese. My favourite was a close call between smoked goats cheese and old Gouda. We were shown how the cheese was made before being given a demonstration on how they also make clogs. The leftover shavings from making clogs are actually used for smoking cheese!

Later that day, I had an “Old Amsterdam Healthy” sandwich which was basically a lot of egg, but the cheese was good. In the evening, we had a canal cruise and then an included dinner. I wasn’t that keen on the food at dinner, because I had to opt for the Cod dish. But I was very keen on free wine of which had about 6 glasses and the dessert was amazing. It’s a cheesecake made from these Dutch biscuits called Specilous, but my picture is so blurry because I was drunk. That evening, I also had 10 shots of tequila so I didn’t feel like eating much the next day.

Berlin

After throwing up on the bus from Amsterdam to Berlin, I actually felt much better. Although it was maybe the longest bus journey of my life. It then started the rule which I would (mostly) stick to for the rest of the trip: no shots. Anyway, I had the best red velvet muffin I’ve ever had in a service station in Germany somewhere. I don’t have a photo of dinner but I had vegetarian Schnitzel, potato salad, and some veggies, which I was pretty happy with.

On our walking tour of Berlin, I learned a lot of the really tragic history of the city and country. It was so interesting standing in sites that hosted such tragic events such as the No Man’s Land between the Berlin Wall and the place where the Nazi Book Burning took place. I tried vegetarian currywurst to give myself the energy for all that walking and it was great!

We also visited a German chocolate shop and I still have loads of leftovers to enjoy. We were given a discount voucher for the shop’s cafe, so we headed upstairs to sample a delicious white chocolate hazelnut cake. Although our dinner, that evening wasn’t very German. I had gnocchi and some cocktails with my friends. I had a pretzel in the evening though while I was drinking wine. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier as when they came out with a giant basket of pretzels. I was too drunk to take photos. I did more tequila in the club that night, breaking the no shots rule.

Sidenote: I noticed that all the veggie burgers I’ve had lately have just been vegetables in a bun with no attempt at a patty or anything. Slightly disappointing, although one of the burgers had amazing guacamole in it. I had this burger during our stop in Dresden.

Prague

You may or may not know that I have lived in Prague since October. So, I’ve already tried most Czech food that is vegetarian. It’s mostly potatoes. It’s good, but nothing really that exciting. Also, the chimney cakes that they sell aren’t even Czech. The Trdelnik I had was really great though, even if I was super emotional while I was eating it (the story for that is over in this post).

I went on a beer tasting which was really cool. I’ve been drinking Pilsner the whole time I’ve been here because I know I like it, so it was interesting to try some different ones. Pilsner was still my favourite and I’m not a massive fan of dark beer, but it was still super fun. The best part was playing a drinking game called Pivo which we were all very bad at. You had to say numbers, but every time there was a number with a 7 in it or a multiple of 7 you had to say Pivo instead. We got as high as 49 one time!

The traditional Czech dinner was really cool. The food included 4 courses which was so much and there were unlimited drinks so I had about 5 beers and 3 wines! The starter was a cheese pastry, then a mushroom soup and then the vegetarian meal was interesting. It was spinach dumplings, potatoes and loads of vegetables in a tomato sauce, but there was so much food I was struggling by the time the dessert came out!

Vienna

Vienna was where I ate the veggie burger with the good Guacamole. The only actual traditional Austrian food I ate was a Sacher Torte from the Original Sacher Torte place. It was amazing but super expensive so we shared. The actual place where we got the cakes was so nice, I felt so fancy sitting on the velvet sofas surrounded by chandeliers. Later, that day we went to the Schnapps museum and I sampled a lot of alcohol. I was having a great time, my favourite was a Apricot Whiskey. They also had absinthe flavoured chocolates.

Have you tried any of these foods? What’s your favourite food you’ve had while travelling in any of these countries? Let me know in the comments. Here’s a picture of me holding 3 slices of pizza that I got when I ordered 1 in Vienna and being very happy about it.