Dutch Food We Tried

We knew little of Dutch cuisine before coming to the Netherlands, except for poffertjes (mini pancakes or pannekoeken) which are regulars at Australian markets. The most simple form is served sprinkled with icing sugar and maybe cream, but where we tried them you could top them with whatever you want, ice-cream, fruit, nuts, Smarties, Nutella, …

Haarlem: A Mini Amsterdam

When we mentioned we were travelling to the Netherlands, we had a suggestion from a fellow traveller to stay a little out off the city of Amsterdam, in the town of Haarlem. It turned out to be an excellent idea, thanks Thomas. We stayed for six nights in Haarlem. Coming directly from our visit to Morocco …

The Good and the Bad of Morocco

For a long time we have been wanting to visit Morocco, hence we planned our European route with Morocco as a must see (even though it is not part of Europe!). We had high expectations of Morocco, and in some ways it lived up to them, but it was not all great with a few disappointing …

Beyond the Tagine in Morocco

For our week long stay in Morocco, we are staying in hotels, which is a change from the self-catering of Airbnbs. So for the first time in two months we are “forced” to eat out and sample the wonderful Moroccan cuisine. Moroccan food has had many influences, similar to its cultural diversity. Southern Spain, Arabia, France, and the traditional …

Where’s Ketut? The Real Ronda

It may be a long way from Bali, but coming to the town of Ronda in southern Spain and all we can think of is the Australian TV ad featuring the love story of Ronda and her Balinese friend Ketut. In reality, we couldn’t be further away from Bali, with the only similarity being the …

No Nando’s In Portugal? What?

Before coming to Portugal, our knowledge of Portuguese cuisine was solely based on visiting Nando’s a few times. What little did we know. During our stay in Portugal, we expected to find Portuguese roast chicken in abundance, but alas the roast chicken we found was only lightly spiced and not chilli hot at all. It …

Portugal Beach Break

For the Portugal leg of our European tour, we flew into Lisbon, but instead of staying in the capital, we went 30 minutes up the coast to the seaside town of Cascais. After having completed more than half of our trip we welcomed the chance to slow down just a little and spend a few …

Sampling Swiss Specialties

My Swiss friend Tanja had promised me cheese fondue when we arrived in Switzerland. I couldn’t wait to try it, but other than this I didn’t have much of an idea about other Swiss foods, except for Swiss cheese and Swiss roll! Cheese Fondue Tanja, who is a local, loves cheese fondue herself and was …