Adventure 11 - Eat a new ethnic food every month December 9, 2010 and December 15, 2010

December 9, 2010 Malia and I set out after her classes finshed and took a train to Morges to investigate a Christmas market.  The Switerland tourism site recommended this Christmas market and it was a short train ride from Geneva.  Lesson learned - Never assume based on a title. "Christmas market" to both Malia and myself meant that there would be booths selling Christmas items.  Not so!  It was a glorified craft show and flee market and there were very few traditional Swiss items.

However there was traditional Swiss food being served.  Malia was not sure what some of the food items were either so she talked to a couple about the sausage and cabbage dish that they were eating.  She told the couple that I was looking to try some traditional foods so the woman cut off a bite of her sausage and added some cabbage and gave it to me to try.  It was pretty good.  So Malia and I each ordered one.  We, really Malia, talked with the couple in French.  Then the gentleman brought over 2 wine glasses and they shared their wine with us. In reality for me, it was a very gracious and generous form of hospitality given by this couple to welcome us to Switzerland.   (Now the not so fun part was that sausages are often so high in fat that they disagree with my gut and I was in the bathroom within the hour!)

December 15, 2010 Prague

In prague, I had the opportunity to eat many different traditional foods which was very fun.  Two of the restaurants spoke English so this was helpful.  One of the restaurants was in Rick Steve's book on Prague and was recommended by one of Janna's co-teachers.  In addition, I was able to eat lunch with Mark and I had fun watching him enjoy his favorite Czech dish from one of his favorite Czech restaurants in Old Town Square.  The last evening provided the most fun with food!  For my last evening in Prague, Janna and I went to the local tavern for some traditional Czech food.  Our waitress did not speak english and no english menu was available, lending itself to a very fun food adventure!  So I decided to just pick an item off the menu and try it.  I tried to use common sense to figure out some of the words and my limited Russian vocabulary for food items from my job in St Louis.  So I ordered an item using my best Czech pronounciation possible and actually got a thumbs up from the waitress.  What arrived, you may wonder?  It was a surprise to me too.  I ended up with red peppers filled with a melted salty cheese of some kind.  The peppers were good and I eventually just scraped off the cheese.  It was fun however just to order.