MORE FOODS

                                                    More Experiences

Lentil Soup

Every noon for fifteen days I consumed lentil soup for lunch. Why? While traveling in Scotland, we found ourselves each day in a castle, fort or museum at noontime.

Suddenly I’d look at my watch and tell my traveling buddy, “We only have fifteen minutes left.”

We’d then hurry to the ever-present café. Lentil soup was always ready, hot, and quick to serve. More than once I added an ice cube to my steaming soup to quickly cool it to eating temperature. The lentil soup and a crusty roll hit the spot.

The soup varied a bit, but was always tasty and good. We enjoyed the quick service, and always joined the others on time.

Yak Burger and Milk

In Tibet I ate a yak burger at the hotel and found it quite tasty, very similar to a beefburger. I ate a yak steak at a local restaurant, complete with entertainment. It was a fun-filled evening and I was even kissed by a yak. The yak milk was good although quite different. Sweet, it was drunk warm.

Borsch

Borsch is a traditional Russian soup. The main ingredients are beets and cabbage. Borsch can be pink to deep red depending on the amount of beets used. It can be thin or thick like a stew. Other available vegetable chunks and or sausage may be added. I had the best borsch in Kiev, Ukraine, and the worst at the Moscow hotel. I like borsch and enjoyed very good ones in between those two.

Bugs anyone?

In Oaxaca, Mexico, people eat chapulines, fried grasshoppers, like we eat candy. There often was a small bowl of them on the restaurant table. There were huge baskets full of chapulines in all the local markets.

Most natives pull off the legs before popping the crisp critters in their mouth. I was game to try them, but they are not a favorite treat.

I brought home a commercially sealed jar of them that could pass through airport agriculture. It was fun watching people’s reactions as I shared them.

Porridge

Porridge (oatmeal) is always included in a Scottish breakfast. The country is well known for its good oats. Porridge is never lumpy, is served piping hot and never with sugar, but a bit of milk is permissible.

Tortes

Tortes are a common dessert, and perhaps the most famous one is Vienna’s Sacher Torte. The multi layered chocolate cake with apricot filling between each layer is a long time specialty of the Sacher Hotel. When in Vienna one must put this treat on their agenda.

Hokey Pokey

We were told that New Zealand’s favorite i.e. national ice cream is hokey pokey. Of course this ice creamaholic had to try it. We might call it butter pecan or butter crunch. It was good.

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND

                                   A Charming Victorian City

        Christchurch stretches from the ocean to the foothills of the mountains and is completely flat. Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand in 1642, Captain Cook sailed there a hundred years later. In 1850 the Canterbury Company, a group of leading British churchmen, sent six ships with 1200 settlers (Canterbury Pilgrims) to Christchurch. Four ships sailed, with the other two following a month later. Property was selling for 6 pounds an acre.

      Christchurch is located in the Cantabury Plain, the flattest area in the country. The Canterbury Region also includes the Southern Alps which are the highest peaks in the country.

       The River Avon runs through the very English city. Christchurch is the largest city on the South Island,  and the third largest city in New Zealand, after Auckland and Wellington. The streets all carry English names.  Churches were the focal point of the whole community, and the center city is dominated by church spires.  The present city is compact and easy to explore, and very walkable. The streets were wide and the city had free center-city tram and bus service

      Our van driver took us up 700 meters over a switch-back paved road  into the mountains. At the summit, we had an excellent view of Port  Littleton, a deep-water, active commerical harbor located in a volcano crator;  on the other side of the road Christchurch stretched to the sea. Seeing many felled trees it was explained that a recent storm blew through the area doing a lot of damage. The road was open again after weeks of closure. Slowly clean up was taking place. The city council protected much of the mountain land. Both New Zealanders and Australians are very outdoor and sports oriented and from the summit we could see many hiking trails. They seemed to be everywhere!

      After a punt ride on the River Avon, with large mansions on each side of the river, we enjoyed a very

‘girlie’ lunch at the Mona Vale mansion. Afterward we wandered the beautiful gardens of the mansion. The weather was warm and quite comfortable.

      Everywhere we went we noted children in school uniforms. This is the norm for all public schools. The children also wear hats, many of them with neck flaps to guard against the sun. People are very sun conscious.

      As we rode and walked the charming city we saw Victorian homes and their lovely English Gardens.  We learned of the country’s favorite ice cream---hokey pokey, and of course we had to try it.    It reminded my buddy of butter brickle, me of pecan crunch without the nuts. Of course we are two ice creamaholics so there was little doubt that we would enjoy the ice cream. Being from opposite parts of the country  accounted for our slight variation on the name, but we both liked  hokey pokey.

     Later in the afternoon we walked about town visiting the Arts Center, museum, arts and crafts center, the Cathedral and the Bridge of Remembrance.

     The Bridge of Remembrance linking Oxford and Cambridge Terraces over the River Avon at Cashel Street opened on Armistice Day, 11 November 1924. It became a pedestrian area in 1977.  The Bridge and its Arch of Remembrance serve as a memorial to servicemen and women of two World Wars and subsequent conflicts in Korea, Malaya, Borneo, and Vietnam. It replaces an earlier bridge over which many thousands of soldiers marched en route from the barracks to the railway station to overseas service. The Bridge of Remembrance was structurally damaged in the February 2011 earthquake. Inspections suggested it was stable and a decision was made to permanently repair the bridge.