Food: The Good, the Bad, and the Inedible. (Connor)

Since we are half way through our trip already, and since we have eaten some pretty good food (and, spoiler alert!) some pretty bad food, I decided that I wanted to write about, well, food! The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Let’s start with the good news: We have eaten so much great food, including some delicious chicken tikka masala from India, some seriously good gyros in Greece, and mouth-watering pizza in Italy. I am also looking forward to sushi in Japan.

India’s food was not too bad, but since we were all sick, just the thought of saag paneer made me gag. But before all that stomach trouble, the first couple of meals I thought were pretty good! Mostly because we weren’t all throwing up, but also the fact that we weren’t tired of Indian food helped me warm up to the fried spinach, which was actually pretty tasty! After that, once we were all sick, not even Bukhara (reportedly, the best restaurant in India) could get us out of bed. Dad didn’t eat for nearly a week when he was sick, and when he finally managed to force something into his mouth, he only ate plain yogurt, bread, and plain white rice. So yeah. India was not our best stop when it came to food.

But this was only the beginning. Nepal was even worse.

Even though we were all recovering from the heath issue, and actually felt pretty good, we still thought Nepal’s food was disappointing. Nepal is known for a food called momo. Pretty much dumplings. Good momo is delicious, but bad momo is terrible. You can probably guess what we ended up having. Oh, but that’s not all. My lunch during the Annapurna Trek consisted of the following: 2 bags of peanuts (expired in 2010), some soup (spinach and squash), and finally the sorriest excuse for a pizza I have ever seen. On it were canned tomatoes, canned green pepper, some old yak cheese, tomato sauce, and this is the worst part: presumably expired canned corn. Who puts corn on their pizza, anyway?

A little oasis from the Nepal food surroundings was our awesome hotel in Kathmandu called Dwarika’s. There, we had a great casual tavern meal, a yummy Japanese dinner, and finally the best steak I have eaten in a long time. So, yeah. Nepal had some ups and downs. We all pulled through in the end, though.

After Nepal, and after all of the physical activity of trekking, we were just dying for some good food to replenish our bodies. Luckily, the next stop was Greece: gyro central. I didn’t have one bad meal in the entirety of Greece, and I don’t think that anyone else in the family had one either. Mom and dad were all over the Greek salad, I was snarfing down two gyros a meal, and Elliot was eating everything in sight. The gyros consisted of shredded pork, tomato, onion, and french fries all slathered with a generous helping of tzatziki sauce. Heaven. A lot of people in the U.S.A. think that the Greeks eat their gyros with lamb. Not true. The Greeks put pork or chicken on theirs.

Once we departed Greece, we made it to Italy, where its pizzas would (hopefully) top the pizza we had in Nepal. They did. All of that delicious mozzarella, fresh tomato sauce, and crispy crust. Yum.

But that is not all of the food we had in Italy. In Siena, on dad’s birthday, we went to this amazing restaurant called Casa Tartufo. Or, the House of Truffles. There, we had an incredible 9 course dining experience. 9 courses! Can you believe it? And all of it was crazy good. F.Y.I. All of the courses that we had all came with fresh truffle shavings. If that is not enough, the place came out with a white chocolate mouse with sweet raspberry jam for dad’s birthday. So yeah. That might have been my favorite meal of all time.

One regret about the food in Italy is the bruschetta. You ask for the bruschetta al pomodoro (tomato bruschetta) and you are picturing toasted bread, fresh tomatoes diced carefully, a little garlic, a pinch of salt, olive oil, and a sprig of basil. Remember, this dish costs a dollar to make, and they are selling it for 10 bucks a pop. But, at some places, the waiter comes out with barely-toasted bread, 2 slices of hurriedly-cut tomato, and a splash of olive oil. Lame.  Of course, sometimes, though, the place comes through, and it’s fresh, well-seasoned, and delicious.

Also on the bright side, we are going to Japan soon, where sushi awaits. Can’t wait!