I've already mentioned that you don't
have to be rich to be a foodie.
Being a foodie doesn't have to be
expensive so I want to talk a little bit
about some of your cheap eating options
when you're traveling around Europe.
The most basic cheap eats you can get it in Europe are street food.
If you're on a budget, just become a connoisseur of street food.
That's a great way to get through Europe and have
some really truly local dishes at a very low price.
For example, if you're in the Netherlands, you can have herring.
If you're in Germany, you can try a whole world of sausages.
Now, when we think about German sausages, we just
think there's bratwurst and then there's bratwurst.
[laughter]
For Germans, they know there is a whole world
of different regional varieties of sausages.
If you go to Nürnberg in Germany, you'll see that it's these little
skinny spicy sausages that they serve lined up three to a bun.
That's a very typical Nürnberger sausage.
If you go to Berlin, you'll see that they slather their
bratwurst with delicious sort of curry ketchup sauce.
It's called currywurst.
Again, become an afficionado of the local specialties
where you go, even if it's just street food.
If you want to go to the Netherlands
or Belgium, you're going to want to try some
French fries, or as they call them, Flemish fries.
Not only do the fries taste a little different, they brag that they
actually fry them twice so they have a little bit more bite to them.
If you go to a little Belgian fry shop, they have a whole
interesting variety of sauces that you can put on top.
You can ask for some help from the clerk and find a
really nice sauce that goes well with your fries.
When I'm in Great Britain, my favorite
thing to grab on the go when I'm at
a train station and I just need a lunch
on the train is a Cornish pasty.
These are this beautiful savory pastry from Cornwall,
which is at the Southwestern tip of England.
This was actually invented for tin miners in Cornwall.
This is where you can start thinking about the
history of these foods that you see everywhere.
Why would this be for the tin miners?
Well, they worked all day down in the dark mines of Cornwall and their
hands would be filthy with soots and tin deposits that
would be really dangerous if they were to eat them.
That's why a pasty has a really thick outer crust.
This allowed the miners to grab onto the crust and to eat the
filling on the inside and when they were finished, they could just
drop their crust into the mine shaft for the Tommyknockers, the
little mystical beings who lived down in the mine shafts to eat.
[laughter]
I love learning about the histories of these little
foods and at every train station in England,
it seems like you're going to find us a place to
grab a Cornish pasty before you get on the train.
If you really want to find a world of really interesting
street food options, look for a street food market.
A lot of, especially big cities, that have a foodie scene, you're going
to find a place where a lot of interesting vendors all set up shop.
This is my favorite market in London.
It's called The Ropewalks Market.
It's buried under a railroad trestle
on the South Bank of the River Thames.
I went here once with my wife.
I think it's probably the best lunch I've ever had in London.
We just wandered from stall to stall.
You could have a little bit of Scottish salmon and then
there was a stand that was serving up grilled cheese with
English cheddar cheese, of course, all different variety of
Scotch eggs with interesting creative fillings, brownies.
These are all kind of foods that you'll see everywhere
in Britain, but it was fun to go to a street
food market where they were being done at a very
elevated, very foodie, forward kind of way.
In fact, a lot of cities in Europe increasingly have a food
truck culture, like we have in a lot of American cities.
Of course, this can change from year to year.
It's a parking lot one year and it's got five or six really
interesting food trucks the next year, so be sure to ask
around if you're going to some of these
cities, are there any food trucks?
Where can I go check out the local scene?
Another good way to eat affordably is to eat what you might
call ethnic food or international food or immigrant food.
For example, a doner kebab is what this is, and all over
Europe, from Spain to France to Germany to Italy to Norway,
this is what local people go if they want to just grab a
quick nourishing, flavorful meal on the go, and very cheap.
It's like going to a taco truck if you're in the United States.
What's interesting about immigrant food or
international food is that, like the United States, a
lot of countries have a large immigrant population
that have really influenced their cuisine.
In the United States, if we want a break from
American food, we might go for a Mexican restaurant.
In Britain, there's a lot of Indian restaurants
because India and Bangladesh were former colonies
overseas from the United Kingdom, and so you find
that there's a lot of great Indian food in Britain.
This applies to a lot of countries in Germany.
People eat Turkish food, that's kind of their immigrant cuisine.
Even in Russia, which has a very old-fashioned,
starchy, less flavorful cuisine, when
people want a break from their traditional
cuisine, they go to a Georgian restaurant.
This is from one of the former socialist
republics of the Soviet Union.
In the Caucasus, where they have warmer climates, they have
a more flavorful ingredients, they have lots of herbs.
When a Russian is ready for a break from their
traditional food, they'll go to a Georgian
restaurant and they'll get these dumplings
that you dip in a delicious plum sauce.
They have a dish called Khachapuri, which
is a cheesy frybread that you can get.
I really think Georgian food is the great undiscovered cuisine.
Mark my words, it's like poke, for example.
[laughter]
Five years from now there's going to be
Georgian food everywhere in the United States.
It's really delicious.
Always look for these, if you want a break from the local traditional
cuisine, be sure to look at the local immigrant cuisine as well.
Another good tip for budget eating is
to check out Europe's market halls.
There's lots of great traditional market halls
like the Great Market Hall here in Budapest.
Some of them are very famous.
In Spain, in Barcelona, they've got the Boqueria, which
is right on the Ramblas, the main drag of Barcelona.
There's an interesting trend recently
in Europe where old market halls are
being renovated and upgraded and being
given a more contemporary foodie focus.
For example, there's the Mathallen in Oslo, which
was the traditional old brick building that's now
been turned into, basically, a food court of top-end
foodie restaurants with beautiful outdoor seating.
This is a trend I've seen all over Europe.
In London, they have the Borough Market, where you
can go and get delicious fresh breads and cheeses.
In Florence, their Central Market hall, they recently, kept
the traditional fruit and produce and meat and fish vendors
downstairs, but the upstairs attic, which was always abandoned,
they've converted into a top-end Tuscan food showcase.
They've invited top-end Tuscan chefs
to come and open food stands here.
One of my favorites is in Lisbon, the La Ribera Markets, which
again, half of it is still a very traditional old school food
hall of Portuguese classics, the other half has been converted
into a contemporary food court with some really top-end chefs.
By the way, this is a great opportunity sometimes to
try, affordably, the food of really big name chefs.
Here in Lisbon, if you went to the restaurants
of some of the chefs who have little
food stands here, you'd be paying a pretty
penny, but they intentionally designed
the menu that's more affordable and more
accessible for the food hall, so make sure
you check out if there are any of these
contemporary food halls in your travels.
In some cultures, the market is part of their local culture.
It's part of their everyday life.
All over France, communities have
a designated market day, jes du marché, where
all of the different vendors come and they
set up shop right in the city center.
My favorite market day in France is in Sarlat, in the Dordogne region.
Every Saturday and Wednesday they close down the town center and it's
just filled with all sorts of vendors
serving all sorts of things.
This is where people stock up on sausages and big wheels
of mountain cheese and bushels of spices and olives.
This is also a social ritual.
This isn't just about shopping for food.
This is about connecting with your neighbors.
It's about connecting with your friends.
It's about forming a relationship over the years with the producer
that you know is your favorite producer for buying this or that.
One of my favorite aspects of the French market day
culture, once it's all finished and they're closing
up shop, the second that all the stalls start to
close up, all of the outdoor cafes just fill up.
All the people who came out to shop, go and grab a table
with the people that they want to reconnect with,
their long lost friend that they haven't seen in a few
months to settle in and catch up on the day's events.
It's a really beautiful part of the culture in France.
If you're going to France, make sure
you find out when the market day is.
Another way to forage for really good food is just
to stop and do lots of little specialty shops.
Especially if you want a little higher end food, you can go to a
cheese shop, you can go to a cold cut shop, a salumeria in Italy.
You can supplement that with what you buy
at the grocery, and now we are picnicking.
By the way, let me define the word picnicking.
You might think that a picnic is a very romantic situation
with a wicker basket and a red and white checkered tablecloth.
Actually, for me, a picnic is just any kind of practical functional
meal that I can eat on the go that I shop for in a grocery store.
A quick lunch on a train that I bought
at the supermarket and the train
station before I get on a long train trip, that's a great picnic.
That said, if you're really a foodie and you really
want to make a memorable picnic, it is worth seeking
out a nice romantic spot, memorable spot, and really
nice scenic opportunity to have a great picnic.
Sometimes these are actually designated.
You'll look for signs in France, for example, and
they'll say, "A great picnic spot is over this way."