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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

if we were rich ...

As always we did our "Valentine's" late. I'm not fussed about a holiday designed around big Romantic Gestures, I more care that he's sweet to me every other day of the year and I love how he'll bring me caffeine in bed, opens the car door for me every time, puts my glasses away at the end of the night and oohs and aaahs over my craft projects even when he doesn't know what he's oohing and aahing over. But hey, who can say no to an excuse to a dinner date out of the house?

We ate at one of our favourite places in town, a Thai restaurant with great decor and (mostly) amazing food. It's kind of confusing because the pad Thai there is patently awful, but everything else is phenomenal. The tom yum soup keeps me coming back, and we've enjoyed every other dish we've had there. This visit we split a divine lemongrass beef stir fry where the beef was unbelievably tender and Sambal noodles that were sneakily spicy and full of flavour with lots of vegetables added in. The meal as a whole was so spicy my nose and eyes watered and I blew my nose so hard in the bathroom I popped my ears.

But that pad Thai thing got us thinking on the way there. How it's really too bad that the best Thai place in town has terrible pad Thai and it's too bad that we can't enjoy that dish there every now and again. Which started the conversation if we were rich what would we do? This is the dreaming we whiled away our Valentine's on.

If we were unbelievably rich we would be able to say "I want pad Thai" and hop on a flight to Thailand. Since we're already there, we'd head over to China for dim sum the next day and then go get some pho in Vietnman for dinner. We'd spend a day in India eating curries and then stop in Japan for a sushi dinner. Oh along the way we'd stop and see all the amazing cultural sights too, so we'd probably spend more than a day or two there but let's be honest we're going for the food. (Or at least that's Bunny's motivation).

If we were rich we'd fly to Spain for paella and tapas and make sure our trip coincides with the Catalunya MotoGP race. We'd pop through France for some authentic bistro food and to eat things covered with divine sauces. We'd grab a cafe au lait at a coffee shop then wander through some museums. We'd head on a train to the Netherlands and have some of those awesome Dutch pastries whose names I can never remember but are almondy and so damn good. We'd jump over to Italy and eat pasta and risotto, stare at the Sistine Chapel and have a morning espresso before heading to Germany for some beer and to grab some sausage and potatoes in Poland. We'd stop by England on the way home for a proper tea with scones, a big breakfast and then some more curry.

Maybe the next week we'd head to Montreal for poutine, then fly to the east coast for lobster. We'd head down south for tacos and stop at million barbeque places on our way up home for Bunny. Stop over in New Orleans for the beignets and pecan pie.

If we were rich we would eat so much.

2 comments:

  1. You had me smiling all along. So much about our love of travel is experiencing the local culture, a fundamental part of which is food.
    Are the Dutch pastries you are referring to maybe "Gevulde (filled) speculaas"? If so, here is a recipe.
    Dates are always an occasion and I am glad you took the chance to go out(though I am with you, the little gestures of everyday life are the ones that show the love). Thai food is super delicious, maybe only beaten by Vietnamese? (But I am biased here, one of our favorite restaurants is a Vietnamese place).

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    1. Food is such a huge part of the culture, which is why I never understand budget travel advice that suggests completely skipping out on the eating out and local cuisine. Yes there are inexpensive ways to enjoy it but skipping the food entirely just misses the point.

      I've had the gevulde speculaas before and they're delightful although not quite what I was thinking of here. The ones on my mind look a little like a cannoli, sort of? Either way, I've never had a Dutch dessert I didn't love and I'm going to be bookmarking that recipe for later play. :)

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