Sarah's Foodie and Agriculture Travels

The food served on the cruise was always displayed very beautifully and always tasted so incredible. Each day, the menu had all kinds of new dishes from crab cakes to lobster to baba ganoush to lamb. It was wonderful to be able to eat such fancy cuisine and experience many different flavors. However, towards the end, I did notice I felt like I was missing out on freshness and seasonal produce. But I’m sure it’d be quite difficult to have totally fresh produce on a cruise ship.

Pictured below was one of Ari’s dinners. He started off with a smoked salmon and potato au gratin appetizer.

Then he had the special of the night, grilled duck paté with a salad, The sauces here were delicious, especially from the onions which I got to try!

For dessert, he had a chocolate mousse cake which was heavenly.

I wanted more of a fresh dessert so I had the poached pear with almonds. It was sweet and light and fresh. I appreciated that they preserved so much of the original pear shape and I just really enjoyed eating it.

The cruise had really decadent food, but sometimes I found myself missing more comfort foods, though I am not complaining about the wonderful dishes we were lucky enough to try.

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After the cruise, we stayed one night in Holland and then headed home. Our flight had a 22 hour layover in Dublin which we were planning on really making the most of. We ended up being quite tired so we decided to have an Irish beer, dinner, and a movie instead.

We went for some locally brewed beers, a Carlsberg and a cider. Both were very delicious and not overwhelming. We ended up grabbing a few Carlsbergs in the airport on the way out again because it was really good.

For breakfast the next morning, we enjoyed a complimentary hotel breakfast and it was really interesting to see what they offered. Everything was delicious nonetheless, it was just nice to see differences. I thought pickles were a funny breakfast choice because I didn’t think that many people enjoyed pickles that early in the morning.

I enjoy them whenever though so I had to try them.

 

In the airport, with our beers, we also grabbed some chips that became quite interesting to read about.

The chips were from Ireland-grown potatoes, hand processed, and were even freshly flavored with Irish vinegar. The family farm’s inspiration was explained on the back and I loved how much care they seemed to have for their product. It didn’t feel like I was just eating another Lays, it felt personal and appreciated. The freshness and care was also apparent in the unique but fresh flavor that I have never tasted from a chip before.

They even label each bag with the variety of potato, the field where the potatoes came from, and who made this batch which I thought was really honorable and transparent of them to do so.

 

The last snippet here is the meal from the plane, just to show the differences in an Irish traditional plane meal and what we might normally see here in the states.

It was vegetarian chili, brown bread, a salad, and a fruit mix.

But… I had never seen milk in a tube before so this was really funny to me.

Anyway, that’s all the wonderful food I got to experience on my trip to Europe this year. I’m really thankful to have been able to open my palette to new foods from all over the world. It’s such a great way to experience others’ normalities and humble my own perspective of my normalities. It was kind of fun to try and search out connections to agriculture or cultural foods to be able to relate my schoolwork to my travels.

Our last stop was in St. Petersburg. We traveled with a group and toured the city a bit, and even outside the city to some palaces. We made a stop for lunch at a banquet hall across the way from Putin’s Palace. We we served a pre-arranged traditional Russian four course meal.

To start we had these beautifully plated chicken and egg salad with peas, carrots, and potatoes. It was alright and I really appreciated the use of different vegetables.

Next was a pickled red cabbage soup and I loved it. It was super vinegary but worked well with the sweetness of the cabbage.

For the main entree, we had mashed potatoes with beef and gravy and a side of pickles which were very yummy. The mashed potatoes were pretty good and I tried a bit of the meat but was not the biggest fan.

In between the main dish and dessert we had coffee and tea time. I tried a lime flavored green tea which was very refreshing and very unique. I don’t think I’ve seen a lime tea before.

Next up we had dessert and it was delicious! A huge slice of cranberry and cream cake. It was super rich and had such unique flavors. I’m not a big cake person, but this was very tasty. Besides cranberries, the cake also had some smaller red berries, which I think were the same berries we had in Paris, honeysuckle berries.

Overall the food in Russia was fairly tasty and it was interesting to see what a traditional meal includes, as far as fresh produce and different ways to cook the same food. I really enjoyed St. Petersburg and liked being able to see this little bit of the world.

Estonia is a place I never thought I would make it to, but what a cute city Tallinn was. It was well preserved in its old-village-ness and everyone was so very nice.

When we first walked into the city, market stands and local shops lined the street. Shown below was one of the many flower shops we passed. Their arrangements were very beautiful and very reasonably priced.

 

In the main square were a few restaurants set up with small planters hanging from the railing of the restaurant space.

Most had curly kale, parsley, chives or other herbs, nasturtiums and other small flowers, and I even saw a few small individual squashes. I’m not sure if they were simply for display or if the restaurants actually used what was growing, but I thought this was a great use of space and interesting design for urban restaurant agriculture.

 

After walking around the city for a  bit, we decided to stop for lunch and came across this local place.

The menus were really cool–they were written in the style of a newspaper with each quadrant in a different language.

The menu was mostly meat heavy and fairly simple but it all seemed to incorporate fresh and unique flavors.

 

This display was really interesting–each table had a solid block of wood that had the shape of utensils cut out of the top. There was space for salt and pepper and sugar too. This was just a unique design that I appreciated from this restaurant.

The beer in the background of the picture above and the first beers on the list in the picture below was a local beer and it was delicious. Flavorful, crisp, smooth, and tasty. It was nice to be able to try an Estonian beer.

For lunch we ordered an assorted pickle plate, an assorted meats plate, and an assorted seafood plate to split between Ari, my mom, and myself.

The pickles were homemade in house and were tasty, crunchy, very fresh, and very vinegary. They were paired with a side of mustard jelly sauce and a creamy sauce. I’m not sure exactly what was in the sauces but they were delicious, especially paired with the pickles.

This was the meat plate we ordered. It contained slices of salted lard, veal (baby calf) tongue, duck breast, and a meat paté. It was also served with a tomato and baby greens salad, a mushroom dill salad, bread, and more house pickles. I loved how fresh everything was and how they used a lot of natural ingredients.

 

I did try a little bit of each item and while some tastier than others, I’m comfortable with not eating all of this, especially some of the meats on my daily basis. The seafood though, I could eat that more often.

The waiter explained that these plates are very typical of what people would go out and order, like as an appetizer or late night food or so. So it was interesting to see the difference in common cultural foods. I think it’s important to note and I appreciate the absence of highly processed foods in a traditional plate. The food was very natural based, and I would be interested to look more into Estonia’s agricultural system and their food imports/exports.

The seafood plate was beautifully displayed. Containing fresh salted salmon, smoked herring, trout roe, herring roe, and a tuna cream served with rounded crackers. It was all so incredibly delicious and fresh, my mouth is watering now thinking about it.

This plate was also served with a tomato salad, slices of toast, and more house pickles!

 

Tallinn was a really welcoming city, from the people to the activities to the stores. I really enjoyed my time there and seeing the various ways to connect agriculture  all the way over in Estonia.

Copenhagen was my favorite city that we visited. It was so peaceful and quaint, but artsy and open to adventure. Everyone was very friendly and it was a very clean and small city.

 

I noticed right away these bags surrounding many of the tree bases.

As we got closer, we noticed it was to help with regular watering during the warmer months. You zip open the bag and fill it with water and it allows a steady flow of water to be released for a few hours, it claims. I think it might last even longer.

 

Anyway, as we toured around, we took a bus that dropped us off at this outdoor food vendor market right on the water. The different food smelled incredible and each stand was very unique, creatively designed, and smelled like the most incredible food I have ever smelled. It was a wonderful experience and I wish I could go here everyday for lunch.

I got these AMAZING tacos from a stand that also had hand-pressed blue corn tortillas. Ari told me that blue corn is typically an heirloom variety and very authentic to Mexican cooking. The hand pressed aspect is very rare to find and shows how much effort they put into their tacos.

They had a vegan taco, a vegetarian taco, and a meat taco. I tried the vegan and vegetarians tacos and they were both phenomenal. The authenticity in their cooking was very apparent, and the flavors were absolutely incredible.

Ari is almost fluent in Spanish so he was able to talk with the people working the booth and found out they are from Chile and worked their way over to northern Europe. They were really welcoming people and explained in detail how they make everything from their sauces to their tacos. It was really cool to be able to connect with people from South America in Denmark and relate our foreign feelings.

 

While I was getting tacos, Ari was captured by the smell of grilled herring that we passed while exploring the different stations. It was locally caught fish and the freshness was apparent in the flavor.

It came with potatoes and sauces and one I was astounded by was this rhubarb ketchup sauce. It was such a unique was to prepare rhubarb and it inspired me. When we had rhubarb growing, I was stumped by creative ways to prepare it so this was really unique to see.

 

Copenhagen was a really cool experience and I hope I can go back at some point. On one of our tours, we passed by an area that was sectioned off to be gardens with tiny homes. The people are not really supposed to live there full time ever but most live there during the summer.

These gardens are rented out to the people who live in the city but miss having a garden in a quiet, relaxing area. There’s a long waiting list to rent out these plots and I could see why. Each plot and house is so unique and beautiful; people are really able to express themselves.

Along with these city garden sanctuaries, Copenhagen is doing a lot to improve environmental conditions and their environmental impact. I would love to learn how they make such decisions and get their people to care about them. I just really loved Copenhagen.

My opa happens to live walking distance to the largest cucumber farm in Holland! As their climate is similar to that of Olympia, they use greenhouses to create their own seasons. This farm is organic and has been recognized on a very high level as far as production goes.

We chatted with the woman who owns and works it and she was very welcoming and proud of her farm.

Though we were not allowed in the actual farm part, we were able to see their packing area, where they inspect, organize, and package their produce.

They host guests often, so they provide cucumber samplings, pickles, and even a recipe book that they wrote themselves.

It’s funny how their location just blends in with a neighborhood.

More of the pickling and cucumbers for sale below.

They have lots of different boxes and I can only imagine trying to keep them separate.

Though we didn’t ask what this big green thing is above, I imagine it’s a way to capture energy and heat their greenhouses.

Neighborhood watch at the end of their street.

Though we weren’t actually allowed in the see the cucumbers and their growing practices, it was still really interesting to see how a farm is just hiding among houses and pastures. I wish they had had pictures at least of how their greenhouses look!

This is the recycling and garbage system in Holland. It is very efficient and very organized. Though it requires extra effort on the individual’s part, it works because people care about the environmental sustainability of our planet there and the system is easy.

There are separate bins for trash, glass, plastic, paper, clothes, and electronics. Most neighborhoods have these systems in front of grocery stores or so, and the different locations are not spread out too far. A person comes to drop off their waste by using a card. They swipe for the bin to open and the card will charge them a small fee for their waste. Certain bins, such as clothing (shown below) do not need to be paid for.

 

Pictured below is the bin for glass. Each circle represents the color of the glass that can go in the separate holes.

Below the street level, there are huge bins underground that collect the waste. Every so often, a big truck come to remove the waste from these bins. It pulls these chutes off by using the 3 steel loops on top and lifts the underground bin. This decreases the smell, appearance, and bin size limitations.

I think this system is very smart and it’s cool that it actually works.

After Paris, we went to meet my family in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. My mom is from here and the rest of her family still lives over here. The first thing we did was visit her home city and get a traditional Dutch food.

This is a kroket. It’s a fried cylinder of yummy savory goodness inside. I’m not quite sure what the filling is exactly, but I think it’s something like potatoes and shredded meat with spices. I remember eating this a lot as a child when we would visit and I always loved it, so I had to get one.

It’s often served with mustard and bread to make an open-faced sandwich. On the side we had a really yummy cabbage salad.

Here they are served with mayo and mustard and they are dipped rather than smeared. They are a popular bar or late night snack food.

After grabbing a bite, we visited my aunt’s flower shop (pictured below).

Later that night, we met up with the rest of my family at my grandpa’, or opa’s, house. We had a “grille” night. Everyone kabobs what they want and puts them on the hot plate. This is a popular way in the summer to have dinner. A great and easy way to provide food while entertaining guests.

My cousin and uncle are pictured flipping the meats.

 

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The next night, we went out for pannekoeken, or pancakes in Dutch. Near my opa’s house is a Pannekoekenhuis, which just means pancake house. Fancier than an IHOP, these are quite a popular going-out-for-dinner restaurant over there.

You typically order one pancake because it is a lot bigger than the ones we’re used to. The pancakes, savory or sweet, are filled with delicious combinations of mushroom and onion, ham and cheese, cheese and mushroom, and many more. Or for a sweeter meal, they serve apple and pineapple with cinnamon and sugar (pictured directly below) or cherry and apple that catches fire around the edge (pictured 4 down).

I split a sweet one and a savory one with my mom. One pancake is usually filling, though it seems it wouldn’t be. But paired with a Heineken, this makes for a great Dutch dinner.

 

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One of the days we were there, we took a day trip to Amsterdam. We toured the city and stopped by the floating flower markets on the water. They weren’t as impressive as I was hoping, but they all sold beautiful plants, and many different seeds and garden accessories. A lot even had tulip bulbs for sale that were pre-packaged and Customs approved.

These are some nice pictures of pretty flowers drying and covering the ceiling .

 

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We also toured a few grocery stores. Shown below is a pharmacy convenient store. I took a picture of this shelf because at the bottom of it are bottles of CBD capsules, creams, and tinctures. I was just surprised to see this form of medicine so openly available there, while in the US, that plant is still associated with federally criminal offenses. How funny the difference in our perspectives is all.

These next pictures are from the grocery store. This was a display of their produce. Seems similar to what we’re used to, maybe a little more rawness–bins showing, unbagged grapes and beans.

Here’s the refrigerated section. They optimize the glass space on their doors, which is nice. Here they have bagged and pre-cut produce, which isn’t always available as an option by itself. To me, the grocery stores seem to use a lot of only plastic for packing items. Just an interesting observation.

Here we have the fish, cut and prepared many different ways. I do like how many of the packages and fully clear without obnoxious logos. It makes it easier to see what you’re buying.

Next were packaged meats. They have mostly the same cuts as we’re used to, but there are a few differences. One common Dutch meat I enjoy is called fillet americain. It’s a ground up version of steak tartare and spread over bread or crackers.

Moving on, this is all the hummus, olives, tomatoes, some cheese squares–hors d’oevres kind of food. Again, simple and clean packaging–it seems to make it easier to make decisions because you just buy what you need and don’t worry about this brand or that brand.

Of course, lots and lots of cheese, and many different kinds of it.

More cuts of meat.

And also of course, lots of beer. This was only the one brand’s display. There was lots more.

 

 

I love all the foods I’m used to in Holland and it’ such a treat when I do get to have them. It was fun to think about them from an agricultural lens and especially to visit the grocery stores with more behind-the-scenes experience in produce.

As we did not have access to a kitchen, we ate out most nights, or made use of the complimentary breakfast, or ran to the grocery store for a quick snack. The foods all differed from one another and there were restaurants for every kind of food all within walking distance.

While the foods themselves were not that much different that what we’re used to,  the menus seemed to mostly be limited to a large meat entree, sandwiches, a salad, or something with fish. I cannot imagine how vegans would go out and find something. Though I am a vegetarian, I made exceptions for this trip because of convenience and because even though I don’t want to eat meat, I still like eating meat. So I did when I wanted to.

Our complimentary breakfast. They had fruits, yogurts, applesauce, pastries, mini pancakes, crepes and nutella, hard boiled eggs, cereal, and sliced meats. Coffee was everywhere, and good coffee too. They also had OJ, milk, water (which tasted off everywhere we went), and cranberry juices. Most places had these and even more juices too which was very exciting.

I’m going to mention here the sodas over there tasted different than our US sodas. I think it’s because they use stevia forms of sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup to sweeten their drinks. While healthier, a cold stevia sprite on a hot day was not nearly as satisfying as drinking one with corn syrup.

 

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A meal we sat down for after visiting the Arc de Triomphe.

I had a mushroom and cheese crepe. It came with a deliciously fresh side salad and of course baguette pieces. Everywhere restaurant we went to served a large bowl of bread before the meal. I also had a sparkling lemonade that was clear, not yellow.

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These next few were from dinner at an Italian restaurant–different pastas with bread and cheese.

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We stopped by this place on the way to the Jardins du Luxembourg.

I had a cheese platter with bleu cheese, brie, goat cheese, and cheddar.

They were so delicious and rich, full of flavor and texture. There was really a whole other standard of cheeses in France.

Ari had the French onion soup which was also fantastic. They loaded it up with cheese and bread but it was still incredibly flavorful.

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After the gardens, we passed by the most amazing charcuterie. I had been searching for one the whole trip and found this one by random. It was run by a young man from the south of France who sourced his meats and cheeses from local, small-scale farms. The animals were raised and butchered with so much care, and the taste was proof enough.

As soon as we walked in the store, he offered us samples of various cheeses and wine pairings. We tried a walnut wine, a peach wine, grappa wine, manchego, chèvre, sheep cheese, a tomato basil gouda, jamon iberico, a French prosciutto, two types of paté, and French salami. He also had jams and cheap but high quality champagnes.

He made his own bread below the store and gave us a baguette of fig and honey. It was so fresh and sweet.

This man was extremely kind to us and explained where he got all his products from and how the flavors go together of the different cheeses, wine, meat, jam, and bread. The freshness and creative flavors of all the different foods was unbelievable and delicious.

^the peach wine

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We ordered sushi one night because it was the only place open on a Sunday night. The sushi was really good but I was more fascinated with the differences in condiment take out containers. The soy sauce came in a squeeze resealable bottle and plastic trays for the sauce were next to the chopsticks. The wasabi and ginger came in packets like the soy sauce over here normally comes in.

I just really admired the new containers for take out from this sushi restaurant.

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A block away from where we were staying was this incredible looking pastry shop. We went in one day and I ordered 3 mini macarons, one vanilla and two raspberry. Also I said it in French and I thought that was cool because she didn’t just speak English back to me like most people would do when they could tell we weren’t French.

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Near the Eiffel Tower we had a nice lunch on a street corner. We both ordered a French onion soup as our throats were feeling a little scratchy. We also split a plate of fried calamari and it was the best I’ve ever had I think. It came with a delicious mustard sauce to complement it.

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On the last night, we treated ourselves to a fancy dinner at a fancy restaurant. It was maybe too fancy to feel comfortable and parts of the etiquette were unfamiliar to me. But we had the most amazing meal and the most expensive one for sure. The dishes were like a work of art, each one so delicately designed and the flavors to complement just perfectly.

We started off with cocktails and I chose “La Favorite.”

It had a bowl made of ice cubes of the rim of the glass and had cherries inside. So once the bowl melted some, the ice boat and cherries would fall in. The drink was very tasty and very sweet, but fresh.

 

This beautiful platter was brought out to start us off. The samples included cream cheese with salmon roe, a goat cheese filled wonton pastry topped with hummus,  a cracker with beet root and soft brie, and a wonky-airy-light-type of cracker with a sauce. They were indescribable but so wonderful.

Next, we had this tiny but incredibly flavorful dish. It was veggies on the bottom with this potato cream that disappeared like air on the tongue.

For the main course, I ordered baby goat with zucchini prepared three different ways: grilled, raw, and with the flower fried. It had plant tops covering it and from the tendrils and leaf shape, I could identify it was in the pea family.

Ari ordered the lamb brain covered in fried parsley. I tried a bite of this because of what a rare opportunity it was for me, and enjoyed it. Though, I don’t think I could get past the eating brain part in my head.

Before dessert we had a pre-dessert plate which consisted of a type of sugar coated marshmallow, a tiny lemon tart with dried fruit, and a chocolate bon bon with edible gold on top. It was accompanied by an elderflower-pear water of sorts. This juice water was the most refreshing, tasty, and unique drink I’ve tried.

For dessert, we ordered a sampler of all the desserts and were blown away at how beautiful they looked and then how amazing they tasted.

We started with the chocolate plate. On a chocolate cracker bed were 4 different bon bons, one of them even had pop rocks in it. The flavors were unlike any typical bon bon filling I’ve tried and they were so creative. To top it off, a thin caramel square added that extra rich flavor.

Next we moved to the mixed fruit which was to be paired with a fizzy raspberry foam. It was such a unique sensation of the foam with its incredible flavor compared with the flavors of the fresh fruit.

The next one we tried was a raspberry and pistachio assortment with a tiny cake. As I love raspberry, this was also delicious but I maybe would have toned down the pistachio. But, that’s just me probably.

Finally we had this mix of all things rhubarb. It was incredible. The tartness of the rhubarb was paired so well with just the right amount of sugar. The rhubarb was turned into things of which I don’t even know what to call. The bottom pink layer was a solid jelly form, and then there was rhubarb stalks that had been altered in a way I don’t know. The dish also had a rhubarb sauce-paste on a pink cookie and a marshmallow with more of that jelly on top. It was delicious and inspiring to see all the creative things to do with rhubarb.

All the different foods we tried were absolutely incredible and so creative. It was more than a meal, it was watching artwork in the medium of food be presented in front me. And then I got to eat that artwork and taste the flavor palettes as well. It was an amazing experience.

Near where we were staying was part of the Seine River. On the way down to the river, we walked through these lovely gardens. I was able to try out my plant ID skills on some of the plants, such as yarrow, chives, wisteria, and others. It was a very peaceful part of the city suburb and was a beautiful incorporation of designated plant space and city.

A mimosa plant because we have a small one at home and these were very full and flowering.

 

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On our walk back into the buildings, we passed by this one:

A very “green” building. This vertical urban gardening provides shade, insulation, oxygen, and aesthetic pleasure. These were quite common to see, though more often on a smaller scale. On many of them, lettuces were even grown. I’m not sure if and how they would go about harvesting it, but adding lettuce might just add color and texture for the appeal.

It was inspiring to see their various methods of incorporating plants and gardening into concrete cities.

 

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We also passed through a side street and ran into this building:

To my best knowledge, it is an organization that helps people find jobs in the agricultural field. They provide job and apprenticeship training, as well as help people figure out possible agricultural schools and programs.

Some of the ads for various jobs this organization can help set people up with.

 

It was funny to find how something involved with agriculture was always nearby. I was stopping a lot more frequently than I thought I would to pay attention to the various parts of agriculture business. It made me realize how important the agriculture field is and especially how important justice is within it, because this field affects so many parts of our lives. And affects every person in some way.

I was surprised with how often I found myself taking pictures or notes for this assignment. But I was glad to be extra mindful of noticing the real life implications of industry in general, the food industry specifically, and movements to do the little we can in bettering our human relationship with the planet’s ecosystems.

We saw many markets throughout the city. The first full day of us exploring after three long days of traveling, we walked out onto the street and found the center square to be filled with market stands. The stands had fruits, vegetables, fish and other seafood, meats, breads, sweets, clothes, electronics, jewelry, and cheese. It was more than a farmer’s market. Rather than being unique, farm fresh produce was bought just as conveniently as a new scarf or a case for your phone.

I appreciated the acknowledgment and integration of healthy produce into these peoples’ normal weekend routines. Of course unhealthy food existed there, but it felt less necessary with easily accessible produce.

After writing about this, I’m realizing I didn’t take any pictures of the market itself… But I did take a picture of a nice fruit mix I got which had these cool red berries, which were honeysuckle berries. They were very seedy, but juicy, sweet, and tart.

I found a white plum at one of the stands too:

Another market had French pears that I had never seen before. The tops are so long and skinny.

 

 

Of course we saw some incredible flower markets almost everywhere we went. Many locals would walk around with bouquets of flowers in their hands, more often than you would expect. Bouquets and baguettes.

 

We passed by a few flower/garden shops as well:

It was interesting and exciting to see the different markets in Paris and new produce or new varieties of familiar produce too.