ITALY: makes me want to cry

Florence

Gelateria Vestri

My friend studying in Florence took me to Vestri, her favorite Gelateria in Florence.  This gelato is undoubtedly "produzione propria", or house made.  The flavors are those of a gelato lover's wildest dream, including: pine nut, fig, chili chocolate, and chocolate with Sicilian orange, to name a few.  As they were out of pine nut and fig, I ordered chocolate with Sicilian orange, coffee, and cream with crocantino cookies.   They scooped the gelati out of the hotel pans in the freezer case, and slathered them onto my anticipating waffle cone.  Needless to say, after they handed me my immaculate cone, I was a happy Florentina for a day.  Not a bad afternoon in Florence.  Not bad at all.

Gelateria Vestri - Borgo degli Albizi, 11

Panino: Location temporarily unknown

Panino with salami picante, buffala mozzarella, eggplant, marinated yellow peppers, and salsa picante on salted focaccia bread.  Need I say more?

Il Latini

My friend Willa (our most gracious hostess in Firenze) pouring wine from the bottomless wine jug at Il Latini, a gem of a restaurant.

Florentine steak at Il Latini, charred on the outside and bloody rare in the center, just how I like it ;)

Prosciutto starter, sliced from the ham hocks hanging from the ceiling of the restaurant.  Hands down the best prosciutto I have tasted to this day.  Obviously slathered with the greenest and fruitiest of olive oils.  Most likely sliced with a hand-powered meat slicing machine that looks something like this:

A beaut of a meat slicing machine I saw in the store of a window in Venice.  One day I will own this machine, god's gift to charcuterie.  One day...

Osteria il Pizzaiuolo

Stopped over for Lunch in Bologna

Bresaola with arugula, mushrooms, and parmigiano cheese
Lasagna Bolognese. IN BOLOGNA.  OMG I wish you could taste this.  Unctuous, beefy, creamy, intense, meat sauce layered between velvety handmade noodles.

Venice

VIENNA: A mélange of Schnitzel

Pork Schnitzel at Centimeter (where you pay for your open faced "tartine" by the centimeter!)

One of the most simple, and au même temps one of the most delicious breakfasts I have ever had the pleasure of eating.  Freshly baked bread slathered with milky, sweet, creamy butter, farm fresh eggs over easy, and a mélange (light espresso with steamed, hot milk).

BUDAPEST: Hungary for...thai food?

PRAGUE: Czech out that chai!

Masala chai tea with steamed milk and brown sugar.

Thai Coconut Soup with black sesame seeds

Lehkáhlava (Czech for "Clear Head") - Vegetarian restaurant and tea house in Prague's Old Town.

Borsov 2/280

BERLIN: Ich liebe Hefeweizen!

Freischwimmer

Finding ourselves in the hip borough of Kreuzberg on a sunny Berlin afternoon, we stumbled upon Freischwimmer, next to the River Spree.  Charlotte, my travel partner in crime, found it an appropriate time to order a stein of Schofferhofer Hefeweizen.  Hefeweizen is a top-fermented wheatbeer, sometimes served with a refreshing slice of lemon, like a floating sunny smile in your tall glass brightening up your afternoon.

Marinated sheep's milk cheese.  Salty, milky, marinated in herbs and olive oil, makes for a nice snack with a cool, citrusy beer.

Falafel plater at a Turkish restaurant in Kreuzberg next to the outdoor antique market, mmm.

PARIS: PHOnomenal

Le Bambou, one of the many Vietnamese restaurants in Paris' 13th arrondisement, is one of the best eats Paris has to offer, IMHO.  Everything on the menu sounds enticing, but the pho (beef noodle soup), and the prices, are what keep me coming back.  The broth is rich, meaty, and flavorful.  The rice vermicelli noodles are as tender as the rare beef, juicy and infused with the warm beef stock.  The soup is served with an abundance of thai basil, lemongrass, lemon, chili, and sprouts.  The pho with medium and rare beef (7.50€) is, in a word, phonomenal.  The pho with tripe (cow intestine), raw beef, and beef boulettes (meatballs) is recommended only for the adventurous eater, but wow is it delicious.

Paris

Le Bambou:

13ème arrondisement