Sunday, January 10, 2010

Where's Andrea (eating now)?

One thing I love about planning a trip is doing the reading and research for the trip. This is dreaming for me. Planning where to eat, what to eat is probably more important than planning what sights to see or things to do. Everyone will tell you "have to go" to the Trevi fountain in Rome, or walk the steps Montmartre to Sacre Coeur in Paris. No one goes Agra, India without seeing the Taj Mahal. Deciding "the sights" to see while you're traveling is the easy part. One of the main components of what makes a wonderful trip, though, is whether or not you've had good food to eat.

Learning the importance of what to eat, where and how it affected what I thought about a city came from wandering the Venetian canals on rainy, cold nights looking for a decent meal during my first trip with Dave. There's some pretty awful food in La Serenissima and it seemed we kept on finding those restaurants. It spoiled the evenings, made them uncomfortable and frustrating. The second time we went, I was armed with Sandra Gustafson's "Cheap Eats In Italy". We made walking tours around her book, looking for the places to eat and enjoying the food. I found that I could live with a ratty hotel room, but I think my trip ruined without a good meal.

Unfortunately, there's few travelogues like hers. However, since Al Gore invented the internet (har), I've enjoy reading the foodie blogs. Right now we're working on itineraries in Bangkok & Taipei around the places we want to eat. We've done this in several cities and found it to be a wonderful "get lost in the city" experience. We take our maps & references & start out first thing in the morning. The destination is often times a market or a patesserie.

we have found a foodie website about Taipei. A Hungry Girl's Guide to Taipei and one for Bangkok.

I've updated my Southeast Asia map with our hotel locations in Bangkok, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh & Taipei. I'm putting together addresses & a map for the "must eat" locations in the cities. Here's the challenge, you submit ideas of food places for us to visit and things to eat & we'll add them to our itinerary. We'll mention it in one of our blog entries if we actually visit & let you know how it went (woo-hoo, you'll be famous)

I use the airport abbreviation for the city: Bangkok = BKK, REP = Siem Reap, PNH = Phnom Penh, TPE = Taipei.

Bangkok - BKK
Polo Fried Chicken
one of the Chao Phraya river cruises, I think I'm going to book something on the Manohra line.


Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) REP

Phnom Penh - PNH
K'nyay

Taipei - TPE


Here's pictures of other markets & outside eating. Dave's only now beginning to focus on taking pictures of food.


Market in Paris near Place de la Madelain (2004)




Dinner served on the street Corso Andrea Palladio in Vicenza. It was part of a harvest celebration.




We were in the mountains of northern Italy on September 11, 2001. We were sitting down to eat fresh pressed cheese & the homemade salame.




After lunch picture, the Island of Cres in Croatia - 2006 trip.




Market in Hanoi


Bun cha & chickens on a street in the old quarter of Hanoi. See the chicken under the table?


Outdoor market in Hanoi


Cutting sugarcane for us to eat in one of the outdoor markets in Hanoi, Vietnam


Food place at one of the indoor markets in Hanoi