Virtual Traveling Through Cuisine

Claudia Sails

FYI, I've been adding recipes inspired by our Tauck tours and in the order that we went on them. Yesterday's was a bit of a blend between our ESW tour and Ireland. And while I love desserts, my next favorite food is potatoes. Where better can you get potato dishes than Ireland. We arrived in Dublin 2 days before the tour so we had the chance to book a Viator trip to Boyne valley. After a full day trudging ancient sites we had reservations for dinner at Gallaghers Boxty house in Temple Bar. Excellent choice. Boxty is an irish potato pancake - boiled, baked or fried. That night I had a very thin boxty (like a crepe) wrapped around tender beef with mushroom cream sauce paired with an excellent Irish beer. Great way to end the day. I recently found a recipe for their boxty on another website - The Culinary Travel Guide. Definitely going to try.

https://theculinarytravelguide.com/irish-boxty-recipe/

Smiling Sam

Just saying potatoes puts on weight. 😀🍟🥔

British

I have actually lost a few pounds. We are eating healthy but consuming more alcohol. The biggest difference is we are not on any Tauck tours, where we always gain weight! The Year my husband retired we took six tours, that was lethal for weight gain. Maybe lack of travel is a good thing for us!

Smiling Sam

Carbohydrates are weight gains devil. I’ve lost 40 pounds since last July by limiting carbohydrates and increasing exercise.

Claudia Sails

Our most recent completed trip was the Budapest to Amsterdam river cruise we took last summer. Lots of adventures on that ( I wrote a long post about it). I don't have any recipes from it but here are two photos.

The first is the infamous Rüdesheimer Kaffee. Quite the experience and one that has travelers debating whether they have room in their luggage for the special cups. Fyi, if you want to buy we found the cheapest prices in the stores closest to the river.

Photo 2 is from the Albert Cuyp market in Amsterdam and features Poffertjes. Tiny puffed pancakes served got and dusted with powdered sugar. Yum!

Claudia Sails

I'm out of recipes based on past trips and now looking forward to when we can take our Switzerland Crown Jewels trip. If not this year, I may have to track down fuel for our 70s fondue pot and try makings it myself.

Conde Nast Traveler's newsletter today has a list of international recipes. Link below. I hope you've all enjoyed this thread. Bon Voyage and Bon appetite!

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/editors-favorite-international-recipes?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=cnt&utm_mailing=CNT_Daily_PM_051020&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5cb4d9b92ddf9c2f6a0d2ef3&cndid=42873568&hasha=20a59b3f48000665ca66aa2c0bef5b4c&hashb=716840613749076a85f97d632c56c8169f781f8f&hashc=3b2e05db40f0f342b7af14c504b971a424b1b9bfa3afc600f13f538c9fb4fe7f&esrc=cnidTVLundefined&utm_term=CNT_Daily

Kathy M

When you go on the Switzerland:Crown Jewels trip, you'll enjoy your lunch in Gruyeres. While they have fondue we found the raclette to be even more enjoyable. Raclette is a block of cheese about the size of a brick. It is placed under a heating element which melts it. You scrape some of it off the block and spread it on bread. It's thicker than fondue and the cheese has a consistency more like you find in grilled cheese.

The attached picture is taken behind the restaurant overlooking the church and the mountains. We were there when the church bells rang across the valley. It was beautiful.

Smiling Sam

Not food, but a menu from the going away dinner in the Salt Mines on the last night of the Berlin, Danube, and Krakow tour.

Claudia Sails

Kathy, we're such cheese fans were happy to try in most any form. Lovely picture. I'm also looking forward to rosti - no surprise given my love of potatoes.

Sam, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who takes photos of menus. On our last river cruise I took a photo every day of the menus and the daily schedule. And some of the food. Cheap souvenirs.

MCD

I enjoyed this appetizer at dinner at guest house at home of former Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in Ho Chi Minh City

I did not attempt to eat these fried tarantulas in Cambodia, though some members of our group did.

BKMD

Tastes like chicken?

British

Mr. B ate the tarantula and said it tasted like chicken. One of our favorite tours, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos.

Smiling Sam

Those tarantulas are the types of things that you see on a stick/skewer in Chinese street food.

Bob Burch

I loved the Tauck trip from Krakow to Berliln. I particularly like the smoked sheep cheese (grilled oscypek) over the open fire at one of the stops going to Zakopane.

Bob Burch

On the same trip from Krakow to Berlin, we had a nice dinner at the Lake District in Linz.

Bob Burch

Anyone for a true banana split from Straubing, Germany?

SandyB

We just returned from Savoring France. While all of the food was very good, I was most impressed by the soups. Both the cream based soups and the broths were wonderful. Does anyone have recipes for any? I especially liked the cream of fennel soup and the beef broth. Sure wish I had asked for recipes onboard.

kfnknfzk

I agree, SandyB, that the riverboat soups were excellent. I would frequently just have soup for supper since virtually every day off the boat included fabulous lunches. Sadly, I do not have recipes from that tour.

Did you enjoy the excursions? I could easily do that tour again!

British

Google is your friend for recipes

Kathy M

I agree that French soups are wonderful! My college roommate's mother made the best vegetable soups. They were pureed regardless of whether they were pea soups or carrot soups or bean soups. Her grandparents were from France and her mother studied at the Sorbonne before returning to the US to teach French in college. Her cooking was really good with all of the French influences.

Claudia Sails

SandyB, do you remember the chef's name? We had a female chef on the MS Inspire several years ago whose soups were amazing. They were served in elongated bowls with a sort of bridge piece over that contained something that you dumped in just before eating. The desserts on that cruise were mostly disappointing but the soups never.

I have gotten recipes from Scylla but can't remember how. You might try emailing the company directly and asking. https://scylla.ch/en/contact

kfnknfzk

It's the addition of heavy cream and/or European butter that make the soups so decadent! And the baguettes!