Pictures of Food I Ate in Europe

There's no trickety-trick to this post. This month marks my anniversary of that time in college that I went to Europe, and I decided to celebrate by writing a post that literally is just pictures of food that I ate when I was there.

This is spaetzle, also known as the first food I ate in Europe. This plate of spaetzle (on the right) with the meaty gravy saucy thing (on the left) was consumed at Hofbrauhaus, Munich's famous 400+-year-old beer house/restaurant.

Non-food bonus picture: When the Nazis were in power, they painted swastikas all over the ceiling at Hofbrauhaus. But instead of repainting the ceiling after the war, the management just turned the swastikas into friendly picnic blanket-print swastikas. 

This delicious plate of food also came from Munich. I don't remember the German name, but it consisted of lamb, vegetables, and rice.

Here we have sauerkraut and bratwurst, as eaten in the village near Neuschwanstein Castle in the Bavarian region. I did not care for the sauerkraut, the bratwurst, or the mashed potatoes that were clearly not made from real potatoes and had the approximate consistency of buttercream frosting.

Non-food bonus picture: A picture I snapped of Neuschwanstein Castle, better known as the castle from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and one of the inspirations for Cinderella's castle in Disney World. I much preferred the castle to the food near the castle.

I'd heard the term schnitzel before, but I had no idea that schnitzel was veal. This poorly lit picture is of a plate of schnitzel, mushrooms, and a sort of potato pancake eaten at the outdoor seating of a restaurant in Innsbruck.

Before this trip, I said that I didn't like spaghetti. But what I actually meant was that I don't like American spaghetti, because, as I discovered, real European spaghetti is delicious. Here we have a plateful of spaghetti: spaghetti Bolognese (with the red sauce), spaghetti carbonara (with the white sauce), and spaghetti with Gorgonzola cheese (whose Italian name I don't remember). If memory serves, this repast was eaten in Steinach am Brenner near the Austrian-Italian border.

I do believe this is the last meal I ate in Austria. 'Twas a most excellent mushroom ravioli.

Here's a pizza that I ate somewhere in Italy. I tried to order a normal pepperoni pizza. I did not realize that in Italian, "pepperoni" means "peppers." In any case, I didn't find the pizza to be terribly impressive, and I stuck to pasta the rest of the trip.

Salmon risotto!

Just looking at this picture practically makes my face break out. This is cheese ravioli covered in nothing but more cheese, bacon, and butter. It was delicious/disgusting.

This baby actually came from an Italian McDonald's. The trip to Mickey D's was actually worth it simply because they had such different items on the menu. This hamburger included a focaccia bun, mozzarella, and a creamy tomato sauce.

This is my favorite kind of spaghetti by far, spaghetti al cartoccio. It's spaghetti that's baked in tin foil with a little oil and seafood. The seafood in this spaghetti was nice and fresh, as I purchased it in Rio Maggiore on the coast of Italy.

Non-food bonus picture: This is Rio Maggiore, one of the five towns collectively known as the Cinque Terre. It's what I think of whenever someone says, "paradise."

Non-food bonus picture: The cross isn't really an emblem in my branch of Christianity, but I still really liked this cliffside bench and cross in Rio Maggiore. It seemed like a quiet place to commune with God.

This picture was taken in a trendy restaurant with odd lighting in Genoa. This entree consisted of noodles and cheese squished into a tiny ball that was then breaded, fried, and garnished with some kind of green leaf and a side of pesto sauce. It was tasty, but not terribly filling.

Also, when I was in Europe I ate gelato every day. I've never been sorry.