Good Food, Good Mood

Me

In my twenty-one years of life, I had the opportunity to travel to so many countries: France, Dominican Republic, United Kingdom, Portugal… All these places have great monuments, churches and museums, but there was really only one thing which was the highlight of each day: food.

I’ve always been a food lover, somehow, food is always there in our daily routines. This is why, as well as learning to cook, I enjoy trying the traditional food of each country or city that I visit.

In this post I’m going to be talking about the best foods I’ve tried on my latest trips.

 

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

As this could not be any other way, I would like to start with the Dominican Republic, the beach paradise. I visited this country 3 years ago. The thing I remember the most is the markets. There were thousands of people coming and going, arguing, selling and buying. I remember the aroma of strange foods, too. Everywhere there were stalls with items and food for sale.

In this country I tried so many types of food: salty, spicy, sweet… but more than a specific dish, I’m going to talk about the most popular drink there: coffee. This is probably the first thing that comes to mind when I think about the Caribbean. There the coffee is different, its flavour is more sour and you can find mountains full of coffee trees. It was an amazing country to visit!

Coconut and piña colada stands were everywhere too. They both are sweet and refreshing drinks which are always welcome in such a hot country like this.

 

UNITED KINGDOM

I visited the UK when I was 13 years old. This country is well known for its traditional food called fish & chips, which is a hot dish consisting of fried fish in batter, served with chips.

        I’d never heard about this plate before, but when the waiter brought me the dish, I remember that I liked it. In my opinion it is a delicious food, but too oily for my liking. 

Furthermore, locals seem to enjoy this dish so much that you can find it everywhere: specialised restaurants, street stalls or mobile stands, among others.

 

FRANCE

All of us have heard about Eiffel Tour, the Louvre Museum and the Notre Dame Church. However, when I think of France, I think about the delicious food that I tried when I was there.

 

It was in this country where the most appetizing crêpe came to my table. There were a lot of restaurants and cafes which offered a huge variety of crêpes: sweet, salty, stuffed… I ordered one of them with chocolate and strawberries. It was delicious!

 

PORTUGAL

Last but not least… Portugal. This country is known for its excellent food. In my opinion, the most delicious and traditional one is the codfish. It is perhaps one of the most famous parts of Portuguese cuisine. You can find a lot of varieties: fried, baked, with chips, salted, and even with mayonnaise.

It is typically dried and salted and people usually eat it with fried chips. The Portuguese often serve it with other typical dishes like, codfish puffs, crab salad and white rice.

This is one of my favourite cuisines in the world!

Edinburgh, an inspiring city

 

I would like to share with you the best travel I have ever made. I decided to go in a summer program in 2019 to Edinburgh where I stayed at a student residence and went to a language school for three weeks. 

When I arrived there, I noticed some changes in contrast to Spanish culture: Scottish people have lunch earlier, they drive on the left, the weather changes regularly in a day, the stores close at 6 p.m., there aren’t window blinds… Despite the fact that I had been to the United Kingdom for the last years (Brighton in 2017 and Cork in 2018 with the same program), something that really shocked me was the accent and expressions frequently used there. Eventually, I learnt some of them thanks to my teacher, such as: Fit like? Foo ur ye aye daein? (which means: How are you?) or Nice tae meit ye! (which means: Nice to meet you!).

                         

Truth to be told, I wasn’t expecting to find people wearing kilts. In fact, the person you can see on the left scared me to hell… It is a hilarious story, I promise. One morning, I was walking through the street to take the bus so as to go to the school and I was quite sleepy (Scottish people get up very early), so when I heard a deep voice just behind me talking in a very weird language I couldn’t identify, I turned around really scared… And I discovered this man in a hurry wearing this outfit while he was having a conversation on the phone in Scottish loudly. I just tried to act natural and the man kept walking. Then I took a photo of him to remember this anecdote in the future. On the other hand, on the right there is a musician playing the bagpipe.

                                        

There is music everywhere. I was lucky enough to attend two festivals: Festival Village and Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival. The first one took place in an outdoor bar where everyone could listen to some musicians singing on the tiny stage. The second festival required me to buy an entry, but it was worth it! I went with some friends and we enjoyed the time we spent together!

                                        

In every street there is a statue of a guy wearing different costumes, so I asked my teacher what that meant and I discovered that he is a character very popular from a Scottish comic. His name is Oor Wullie and I even had the opportunity to read some comic strips. Another curious fact related to food is the haggis, a very well-known dish.

                                         

I have a big announcement to those classmates who are Potterhead. If you are a truly fan of Harry Potter, I highly recommend you to go to this city! There are a lot of references about it. For example, the building you can see in the picture of Festival Village is the hotel (known as Balmoral Hotel) where J. K. Rowling finished her last book of the saga. Moreover, in a Harry Potter’s tour I visited the graveyard where the author inspired herself to name the main villain, You-Know-Who. The tomb shown in the picture is Tom Riddle's and as you can see I am wearing the Ravenclaw scarf. In Victoria St, the second image, there is a store called The Boy Wizard where you can buy T-shirts, scarfs, wands… everything related to Harry Potter.

        

By and large, this experience was incredibly awesome. I have made great friends from several countries (Scottish, Italian, Russian, Polish) and I also met a lot of Spanish people there. Furthermore, I have learnt a lot about this culture and I have improved my English language skills.

Edinburgh has overwhelming views. I wouldn’t mind repeating the same destination! I wish we could travel soon to discover more curious spots in the United Kingdom!