“‘Tis the season for wrap-up blog posts, fa la la la la, la la la la!” Haha I sure hope you sang that in your head, because it’s that time of year again! The time where I get to sit down and try to sort through the files in my brain to tell you all about my top food experiences of 2022.
It’s always fun to look back, hopefully with a full stomach, and realize that culinary adventures can happen anywhere. These are all personalized experiences, be they the actual food, the ambience, or a combination of a lot of factors all culminating into one epic adventure of the tastebuds!
Check out last year’s post here!
So here we go again, in no particular order!
PROVISIONING FOR SAILING SCHOOL
Back in March of this year, I went to sailing school. It was one of those pivotal, life-changing experiences that I’m fortunate to have had. One of the things I was looking forward to the most was provisioning at the start of school.
Provisioning is the act of meal planning, purchasing and stocking food items for a voyage. This is something that I’d seen multiple times on sailing YouTube channels that I follow, and I was ready to have a go at it.
When we first got onto the boat, we had a meeting and went over the meals we wanted to have. Honestly, the 4 of us students were a little at a loss because this was our first time living aboard a catamaran. So, Captain Alexandra walked us through some of her go-to meals and we finally made our menu.
One of the questions I got asked a lot about sailing school was “what did you eat on the boat?”
Bottom line – we ate really well. I did the majority of the cooking along with Jack, and we had everything from BBQ chicken, fish tacos, seafood pasta, burgers, and tons of snacks. Full bellies = happy sailors.
After creating our menu, we hopped into 2 Ubers and headed to Aldi to pick up the food and water. I was nostalgic being back in Aldi (my main grocery store when I studied abroad in Germany), and with 3 shopping carts laden with provisions, we again stuffed ourselves into 3(!) Ubers to head back to the boat. I couldn’t stop smiling.
TRYING AUTHENTIC CUBAN FOOD IN FT. LAUDERDALE
I love experiencing new-to-me cuisines, and even more so when they’re in the actual geographic region. There’s just something to be said about your first deep-dish pizza experience in Chicago, your first poke in Hawaii, or hand-made pasta in Italy.
So although I wasn’t actually IN Cuba, I was as close as I could get when I was in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I heard about this family-owned restaurant called Padrino’s close to where I was staying and couldn’t resist. After sailing school, I paid them a visit.
Cuban food doesn’t always look sexy, but similar to Indian food, it’s the taste that counts. I ordered the ropa vieja with black beans, rice, and plantains, and then flan for dessert. Ropa vieja translates to “old clothing,” and has something to do with the way that it looks. Regardless, it was delicious and some day I’ll be able to compare it when I visit Cuba.
EATING MY FIRST PASSION FRUIT IN LUDWIGSBURG
I spent the first part of December in Germany, and am still trying to process all of the delicious adventures my friend and I had. One of which included trying my first actual passion fruit in the town of Ludwigsburg.
Wait, passion fruit in Germany?
I know, it doesn’t make any sense. I always figured I’d try passion fruit for the first time in a tropical setting, but there it is.
To be clear, I’ve had passion fruit flavorings, juice, and puree before. Shoot, I even buy frozen passion fruit juice chunks for my morning smoothies. I love the tart flavor! But I’d never had the actual fruit before.
In my town, passion fruits are about $4 each, and they look all shriveled and old. I don’t know if that really translates to old fruit, but dropping $4 for an oversized prune-looking thing was never an option for me.
Until I dragged Elise to an Aldi in Ludwigsburg, you know, just to look around before we headed to the Christmas market. Lo and behold, passion fruit was only 75 cents apiece. WHAT?
Oh yeah, I bought one. Since I didn’t have a knife, I had to bit open the fruit and then use my tongue and finger to scoop loose the seeds. If you’ve never seen the inside of a passion fruit before, Google it and then ask yourself – who was the first person to try this?
MACARONING IN THE PARIS AIRPORT
In December, my friend Elise and I had a layover in the Paris airport en-route to Germany. While walking to our gate, we passed by a posh-looking macaron counter. Um, I had to stop. And buy macarons.
Because even though I was just in the airport, there was something romantic about eating fancy macarons in Paris that I just couldn’t get out of my head.
Flavors I got included: raspberry, lemon, orange blossom, pistachio, fir pine, and Marie Antoinette Tea. Yes, the fir pine tasted like a pine tree. But I just had to. You’ve always got to try the interesting flavors. If you don’t like them, it’s at least a good story, right?
HARRY POTTER COOKING CLASS WITH MY NIECE
The local specialty grocery stores in my area have a cooking school, and I’ve been fortunate to take a few classes: macarons and Peruvian celebration. I fell in love. So this time, I decided to take my 13-year old niece to a Harry Potter Birthday Celebration themed class.
We made Hagrid’s birthday cake, exploding cauldrons, cockroach clusters, and drank butterbeer. It was a blast to watch my niece, who was easily the youngest in the class, really take to our chef and flex her little baking skills. Definitely scored some cool auntie points with this one.
FOLLOWING MY NOSE IN SAN FRANCISCO
In October, I took my mom to San Francisco. We stayed at a cute boutique hotel in Little Italy, just under the shadow of Coit Tower. One evening, after a long day of adventuring, we got off the bus and this glorious smell filled our nostrils. Imagine cinnamon, sugar, and caramel all having a baby together.
We must have looked ridiculous, but who cares? We turned our noses to the sky and inhaled deeply, walking towards the source of the heavenly wafting. Of course it was a small bakery selling the most delectable pastries. I honestly don’t even remember what we got, but the memory of following our noses in San Francisco was one for the books!
CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE
Rounding out this list of my top food experiences of 2022 is my first time eating roasted chestnuts. Oh. My. Gosh! Every Christmas market we went to in Germany, it seemed like there were vendors roasting chestnuts. On open fires! Using a fire-retardant glove to roll them around.
I knew that before I left Germany, I was going to have one. Oh, what a glorious day!
Woohoo, what a fun year! So many fun experiences, and so many more that I just didn’t have time to add to my top food experiences in 2022, which isn’t exactly a bad thing! Here’s to more exciting food experiences in 2023!
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