A group of us consulted the English menu at a sidewalk taverna here in Athens on Saturday, and ended up ordering olives, tsatsiki, “spicy feta from the oven”, and bread. Lindsay said, “You’re just ordering ingredients!” but it was a perfect combination of flavors, and just the right amount of food.
Her comment reminded me of an article I read last week in the San Francisco Chronicle. Noted travel writer Arthur Frommer detailed "12 tips to get the most out of your worldwide travels,” and item 6 is “take one meal a day picnic-style”. He adds, “I now make one meal a day out of the simple, cold ingredients purchased in a foreign grocery or delicatessen. In this manner, I not only eat sensibly, healthfully and cheaply, but I eat better, enjoying the local specialties in cold food that every country offers.”
The other great benefit to picnicking is the adventure of finding a place to eat. I’ve “done it” on the edge of the Grand Canyon, in a car during a rainstorm, near the zoo in Stanley Park in Vancouver, on a ferry on the Hudson River, in a bustling square in Salzberg, on the balcony of a hotel room overlooking Monterey Bay. Next week, I hope to spend a lot of time in Tuscan markets, gathering picnic supplies for meals "al fresco".
1 Comments:
Julia! This is my favorite traveling meal too. My favorite place to do this is in Paris, cuz there are ten billion kinds of cheese and everyone drinks wine on the street (it's not illegal or anything). Even the construction workers open their lunch pails and open a bottle of wine and break a baguette. I'm not kidding!
In Paris, we had urban picnics comprised of bites of things almost every day. My favorite experience was the cold, sunny November day at the Pere Lachaise cemetary where we drank red wine out of paper cups and stopped every so often at crumbling stone benches for some bread and cheese. Oh, and we had bought a little box of tiny, perfect petit fours which never sound good but somehow in Paris are magnificent.
My second favorite time was when we bought supplies on the little Isle St. Louis on the Seine and then took one of those boats down the Seine and back. That sure didn't suck.
The only problem is that if you don't have a fridge in your hotel room and have leftovers you end up with a very smelly cheese room. Not that we ever did this.
Miss you, hope your trip is lovely!
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