mrjeffmccarthy.com

 As my faithful readers know all to well, I love to eat.  My recent trip to Europe was a whirlwind of raw milk cheese, artisinal beer, deliciously fresh produce, excellent (and cheap) wine, amazing chocolate and pastries, and many, many, good eats.  Kate of course, was right there with me.  Having said that,  I learned one very important thing:  You can get crappy food in any country.  For some reason I thought in Europe, the age-old birth place of deliciousness, you could throw a rock with your eyes closed and hit a good plate of food.  Not true.  In fact, when you throw that rock, you should throw it hard, and hope you hit the cook.  While I’m not the type of diner that nit-picks every little thing and sets out to not like things, I truly enjoy food and eating. But man there was some serious SHIT.  Also, why can’t you get a fucking coffee to go?  They simply do not offer paper cups in European countries.  Okay maybe they do, but we didn’t see them or know how to ask for them.  No, they want you to sit down, and if you do, the’re going to charge you do so.  Not until Paris did we find a Starbucks, which just felt wierd.  Oh, and I did go to McDonalds, and I did get the Royal with Cheese.  And a beer!  But only because we were tired and desperate.  Anyway, we had mostly good meals, and some things that I’ve never tried before.  We had some really incredible meals as well.   We ate chocolate in Switzerland, and waffles in Belgium.  We ate spaetzle in Germany, and gnocci in Italy.  I ate veal sweetbreads on the Champs Elysees.   Over the next few months, or however long it takes, I will at random intervals be posting about my culinary adventures abroad.  I predict you will enjoy thoroughly.