Road trips, mountain walks and holidays

As usually in all our trips, Dalmatia was no exception. Enjoying local food and drinks was an essential part of the trip. We did this both ways by preparing at home products we bought on the market, sea urchins caught by ourselves in the sea, and also by visiting restaurants, cafes and vineyards. Testament drink producers It sounds strange – to go to Croatia to visit a business run by Scandinavians. But as it turned out later, the drink we had bought there ended up being the best on the trip. Testament winery is located about 3 kilometres from the main road of the region D8, the nearest town is Zaboric. The basic idea of the winery is to combine technology with the knowhow of the best winemakers to create rich and complex drink from the Dalmatian region. We had written down their address before travelling, just in case, but we did not plan to visit it; the tasting of three drinks costs more than 13 euros, which is not that little money at all. However, it happened to be the only chanc...

There are some occasions when the fridge is almost empty, and you need to start using food from the freezer. These can be delicacies stored for special occasions or some other food. This recipe would prevent you from doing that in case you still have something left in your fridge, which may be any sort of thing; this recipe may suit in such case. An easy and quick way to prepare vegetable salad with crab sticks Ingredients 2 to 3 crab sticks; maybe more Half of a sweet red pepper 100 – 150 grams of a leek A couple of chopped onion slices 2 tablespoons of sour cream Half a tablespoon of Provencal mayonnaise Half a teaspoon of mustard A pinch of salt Preparation Crab sticks and peppers are cut into pieces, the leek is cut first into four parts along the length (it must be washed), and then cut into thin slices. Cut a few slices from the onion and chop. Add sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, and a pinch of salt to all this in a bowl and mix. The salad is quite spicy, if you wish something l...

It may happen that you had an early lunch but there still is plenty of time to wait until dinner. What to do? You can prepare a light afternoon meal as a vegetable salad. Ingredients Half of a red pepper, about 75 grams Cucumber, about 100 grams Leeks, about 100 grams Two tablespoons of 12-18% sour cream, about 50 grams Tablespoon of Provencal mayonnaise, about 20 grams A pinch of salt If you like to count, it’s a total of about 315 calories (Kcal). Preparation Cut the leek lengthwise into four parts and then into slices. Do the same with cucumber, then clean peppers and cut into mid-sized cubes. After that everything goes into a salad bowl, add on top soured cream, mayonnaise and salt. Mix it and taste if any seasoning is needed. You can eat this with rye bread; butter on the bread isn’t even necessary because the salad is juicy enough. Leeks Leeks are one of my favourite vegetables, so a little about those here. Leeks can be bought in grocery shops all year round. It is often called ...

Good food in Rome – it is just the title of this blog. In fact, this blog is about excellent and even fantastic food in Rome you may get there. Rome is a very busy tourist city and you may often get average-quality food for a high price. We were lucky to find quite a few excellent places; this is an experience I write about here. Earlier we had a trip to Rome which included Italian cooking classes in Rome; this time it was only about consuming food not preparing. All this was experienced during our trip to Rome in the autumn of 2021. This was a short stay in Italy’s capital during mid-October weekend; the main aim of the trip was to visit Rome’s historic centre once again, although to experience of eating nice food in Rome was an important component of the whole trip. So, this blog is entirely about where to find good places to eat in Rome. A place for a good breakfast Close to Termini station, we found a nice breakfast place – restaurant NOI Roma located on the corner of Via Gaeta an...

Swiss chocolate This post is related to our trip to Switzerland in early spring. Who hasn’t dreamed of being in a chocolate factory? The Swiss chocolate industry is similar to fashion houses in Italy or champagne houses in France – there are chocolate houses in Switzerland. Our Swiss chocolate tour was booked at Cailler Chocolate House (Maison Cailler). This brand has been owned by the Nestle Group for a while now, however, it has managed to preserve its historical values and traditions. Like many interesting sights, the chocolate factory is a bit off the main road. The Cailler factory, which produces Swiss chocolate (one of many), is in a town called Broc. During the visit, it was possible to get acquainted with the history of making chocolate, which, as it turns out, is not so old, as well as to taste a variety of Swiss chocolate. Just to note that, although you can eat chocolate in huge quantities, it is not recommended to eat chocolate too for the benefit of your health. The exact...

A terrine is a loaf of prepared food, similar to a pate; it is cooked in a pottery of a certain form. As knowledgeable people say, all pates are terrines, but not all terrines are pates. The main difference between pates and terrines is that pates are easier to make, although to make a terrine some understanding of food preparation and experience are necessary. It may be any kind of meat used for cooking depending on your preferences. Terrines are more widely used to prepare meats, however, seafood may be used too and smoked salmon terrine is widely known and very popular. On this page is one of the recipes you can use to prepare salmon terrine. The quantity of ingredients in this recipe will make up a full medium size baking dish. Ingredients 500 grams of skinless salmon fillets salt and ground pepper 2 tablespoons lime juice 10 grams of butter for spreading of the baking form 200 grams of sliced dried salmon 1 egg 250 grams of soured cream 250 grams of double cream 1 tablespoon diced...

During spring, after a short rest in the Baden-Baden baths in Germany, we decided that it would be nice to spend part of Easter in France; we decided to visit one of the most famous cities in the Alsace region , Colmar . Alsace Alsace is the fifth smallest of the 27 regions of France, at the same time one of the most populous – 220 people per square kilometre. By comparison, the population density in Latvia according to 2020 data is less than 30 inhabitants per square kilometre, while in the United Kingdom, it is 270 inhabitants per square kilometre. The Alsace region has historically even had its Alsatian language, which could be a German dialect of French; about a third of the population is still able to communicate in Alsatian. As is common elsewhere in Europe, many settlements have German names alongside French names. Alsace’s largest city is Strasbourg, home to many European Union institutions, including the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the European Court of Huma...

West Dorset About an hour's drive from Bournemouth to the west there is a really beautiful small town West Bay . The trip itself is very nice because West Dorset has amazing scenery; on almost all routes you will drive up and down hills. Sometimes, from the top of the hills, you can see the English Channel and even the coastline. West Bay is a small resort town, located to the south of Bridport, about 15 miles from Weymouth, with its own pier, harbour, marina and tourist attractions for visitors of all ages. There are many guest houses, hotels, self-catering cottages, apartments and camping parks in and around West Bay. The area is part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site; the whole length of the Jurassic Coast coastline is almost 100 miles (154 kilometres). The history of the town started when a railway was extended from Bridport to Bridport Harbour in 1884; the new harbour station was named West Bay. Soon after that, they started building villas and houses to attract tou...

Barbeque burger sauce Without a doubt, sauce is one of the most important components of a meal – either for meat or non-meat dishes. If the sauce is homemade, that would ensure even more satisfaction. There are tons of different recipes available on the internet to be used on various occasions. In this case, below is a recipe for barbeque grill sauce, which you may use for homemade burgers, salads and so on – my little contribution towards making meals a bit different and a bit more tasty, according to everyone’s individual taste preferences. All the ingredients are the most usual you can buy in any supermarket, although the taste of the sauce you can improve completely up to your mood and given situation. For that reason, precise amounts of ingredients are not given – feel free to experiment. Of course, using more honey than ketchup may end up with a bit weird result, although you never know what others would prefer (if you do not use honey, this sauce might even be suitable for veget...

Bakery near Ignalina This is another part of our trip around Lithuania. On the morning of the second day of our trip, after a coffee and light breakfast, we went to Ignalina. Our destination was bakery Romnesa, where Lithuanian desert sakotis (šakotis, šakočiai or raguolis), what is a national delicacy, is produced.   Sakotis is a special muffin in the shape of a tree with a hollow in the middle prepared by monks since the 15th century. A similar kind of muffin is also popular in Germany, Poland, Sweden, Hungary and Japan. However, every country has its own specific traditions of preparing them. Variants of preparation may vary but just for an example here is one sakotis recipe (keep in mind that the same importance as ingredients also is a technology of sakotis preparation). In this case, sakotis was made on open fire. We were also told about the history of sakotis (there is a small museum inside the factory’s premises) as well as made our own. The size of sakotis depends on the a...

This experience was part of our trip to Italian capital city Rome . After returning from our one-day long trip to Vesuvius , we had one more major attraction booked – cooking classes in Italian restaurant. Almost everybody around the world knows Italian food . Italian cuisine has been developing since ancient times and has spread around the world until nowadays. One of the main characteristics of Italian dishes is that it is usually simple to prepare a meal because just a few main ingredients (often two to four) are normally used. However, Italy is large country and the same dish may be very different in different areas of the country. Some very well know ingredients of Italian cuisine are olive oil, pesto, pasta, tomatoes, peppers, olives, garlic, artichokes, eggplants, zucchini, all kinds of meat, fish, seafood and cheese (parmesan, pecorino, ricotta etc.). There is a huge range of pasta used in Italy as well as in other countries around the world – macaroni, spaghetti, linguine, fus...

When visiting other countries, we always try to familiarise ourselves with local cuisine, at least as much as possible. For example, on our own we were buying and preparing seafood in Montenegro . One way of doing this is visiting local restaurants, though it is even more exciting if there is a possibility to prepare food ourselves. It appeared that Morocco offers visitors to enjoy cocking classes; this is both an adventure and getting new useful skills in preparing Moroccan food. Moroccan food In Morocco, we booked a cooking class near Marrakesh – FAIM D’EPICES . The price was approx. EUR 50 per person and that included transportation, lessons in Moroccan food preparation, preparation of meals in practice, drinks and spice workshop (pick-up place usually would be arranged near the place you stay in Marrakesh, which is a norm in Morocco). We learned how to make a complete meal, meaning bread, salad, a tajine and the special Moroccan patties. The main dish on the day we were there was t...

Seafood in Montenegro During our vacation trip to Montenegro , we obviously enjoyed a lot of seafood in Montenegro and local fermented grape juice of course. Especially, we were excited about buying fresh seafood on the shore from fishermen and preparing our (not anymore their) catch at home. In my opinion, there are more tasty oysters in neighbouring Croatia, however, the taste of mussels from the Bay of Kotor outperforms many regions offering similar production. In local warehouses, it was possible to buy different kinds of seafood (and the price was excellent indeed). It was a real celebration of summer every evening in Montenegro all week long. Seafood in Montenegro is a usual thing for locals. Humans have used seafood in their cuisine for thousands of years. For example, mussels can be smoked, boiled, steamed, roasted, barbecued or fried in butter or vegetable oil. As with almost all shellfish, mussels should be checked to ensure they are still alive just before they are cooked. W...