You’ll recall that a few days ago, I posted about the doughnut I ate at Aungier Danger, which had a bizarrely crispy exterior. I wondered: was that supposed to be crispy? Was the oil just at the wrong temperature? Or do Irish people like their doughnuts crispy?
Clearly, this could be my Watergate moment. Are Irish doughnuts crispy? The world needs to know about this. I’ve gotta blow the lid off of this thing.
So I went and ate a couple more doughnuts, obviously.
There’s a fairly well regarded doughnut joint in Dublin called Aungier Danger, and the doughnuts there aren’t quite like any other doughnut I’ve had — they’re crispy.
Shortbread was invented in Scotland, so you’d think there’d be a bunch of bakeries in Edinburgh specializing in the stuff; that’s sadly not the case. But with a bakery called Pinnies and Poppyseeds weaving their magic, that’s really all you need. I mean, you’ve read the title of this post. You know what’s up. They’re the best ever.
Though I would have liked to go eat at St. John — a restaurant that’s pretty famous for helping to popularize nose-to-tail eating in London (and the world) — it’s a bit out of my price range. You know what is in my price range? A restaurant called Hereford Road that was opened by a chef who worked at St. John.
Hey, when you’re on a budget, you take what you can get.
I was trying to go to a bistro called Le Comptoir du Relais; it was completely full (it almost never occurs to me to make reservations, so this actually happens a lot). They do, however, have a small take-out window with sandwiches and pastries. I figured this was a pretty good opportunity to try a ham and butter sandwich, which is supposedly the second most popular sandwich in France.
(The first? Burgers. Everyone loves burgers.)
If there’s one thing Ikea is known for (aside from vaguely flimsy but very affordable furniture), it’s the Swedish meatballs. They’re cheap, satisfying, and pretty tasty.
I’m in Sweden now, so obviously meatballs were very high on my to-do list.
So the McRib is just on the regular menu at McDonald’s in Germany, and it has been for a while. Here we are in North America waiting for it to come back once every few years like chumps, and the Germans can just mosey into a McDonald’s and order it whenever they want. Like kings.
Obviously that’s what I got.
Hey, you know the pancakes that you grew up loving? Yeah, they’re trash. The Austrians have perfected the pancake; we all need to get with the program and follow their lead.
Cannolis aren’t exactly a Roman thing, but there was no possible way I was going to leave Italy without eating at least one. A quick “best cannoli in Rome” search led to a very conclusive answer: everyone seems to be in agreement that a Sicilian bakery called Ciuri Ciuri has the tastiest cannoli in the city.
I mentioned, in an earlier post, that I had some gelato from a place called Fantasia Gelati and that it might have been the best gelato I’ve ever had. I’ve been there a couple more times since then and I feel much more confident making that pronouncement.