European cuisine dancing in the tounge of an Asian

Let's start with the premise that i'm an eater. I love food, i love to eat. I basically eat all (except eggplant, and too much caviar) forms of cooking.

I see cooking as an art. So let's start talking about the art of cooking in Europe. My sampling is of course subjective (this is after my blog not yours haha) and through my experiences of entering the lands of gold, gospel and glory.. I lived in Europe once, yet maybe at the time my juvenile tounge hasn't got itself comfortable with certain stereotypes of food, which unfortunately for now it has a mind of its own and can decide what's good or not :p

You see me and a mate, Sani (I've mentioned him before) was on this debating tournament in Cork (not cock, mind you!), about a 5 hour trip from Dublin, Ireland (people there pronouce the country as "eirann"). Of course besides the scenery and the lovely caucasian girls that i admire in the winter symphony, one of my adventures was to taste the delicacy of their food once again (debate was simply an added bonus.. i mean torture)

However this time I'd have to say i was neither singing nor dancing having taste the food they have over there. Don't get me wrong, I still think in many ways its still an artistic form of the human creation (then again in art you have those abstract paintings that makes your head tilt and say "hmmmmm" while trying to understand whether the painter meant something or was simply throwing blobs on canvas :Peace:). 

Okay, so let's start with breakfast; while most of the food at breakfast was free, for some of the time i had to spend 10 euros on a single breakfast (coming from a country who 80% of its population eats off less than 1 euro every day, this is drawback numero uno for me). Breakfast is usually plentiful and brawny; the casual eggs and ham, with a side of bread, jam, butter, and orange juice (still puny compared to what US people eat for breakfgast though -hey that country's mentioned again --"). This I find neutral, i guess bulky breakfasts with meat is something i cannot argue. Debating people would call this "truistic" or "non debatable". Nerds.

Moving on to lunch. This is where moi finds most problematics with. I understand that most Europeans are "on-the-go" people, yet i come from a culture that once Europe had, like the Gaelic people who enjoyed good slow times relishing their food until the Romans come and old Obelix has to smash them with his Menhir (okay getting a little outta focus here.. moving on). The lunch is very distinguishable; simple sandwhich with salami, or plain salad (which seems very much like simple chopped vegetables thrwon into one plate for me). So there's this lecturer from another university in Indonesia whom despise we resent very very much, she bought Indonesian chilli sauce! Praise the madam praise the madam smooch smooch.. So that saved our lives. To add to the note, pepper and salt is used by me very much in lunch times, I'mnow thinking of researching the amount of salt and pepper consumption Europeans have for lunch times, triple compared to breakfast I'd imagine.

To end this, we'll go to dinner. This part of the day is most relieving for me. After loosing 3 rounds of debate, a nice warm fat steak is enough to comfort me again. I'd say its still in the plain side of taste, however. But at breakfast i don't long for lunch, and at lunch i crave for dinner. One of the best meals we had at the time was in this boutique Thai restaurant, which was lovely. Actually not too lovely, but combined with 7 days of bitter weather and food complications, this was practically a paradise for our taste buds. Yet, our community back at home would smack us in the arses if they knew how much we'd spent that night for a decent meal.. 80 euros!

You must understand this is not a mockery, but its more of a testimonial of how a lost, impoverished Asian dude finds the everyday meals of a whole different continent from way back home. I still appreciate European food. Yet next time I'll be sure to bring more herbs, stackloads of instant noodles just in case..

There's more stories from Europe, which in later episodes i will name "Tales of the Pathetic Travellers" credits to myself, Sani my mate, and Europe for giving us a blast of an experience! Bravo!