First of all: Happy Canada Day! It's July 1, and up here in Canada, it's our equivalent of the 4th of July for Americans.
From the time when Canada was officially born in 1867, the country was referred to as the Dominion of Canada. After WWII, Canada started to wean itself gradually from the United Kingdom, while still remaining a Commonwealth member. The term Dominion was used less and less, and was formally dropped in the Canada Act of 1982. And thus, what used to be called Dominion Day, became Canada Day.
As Charlie Farquharson (a character of Canadian actor Don Harron, who appeared on the 1970's/1980's TV series Hee Haw) put it, "... because we're not supposed to be dumb minions anymore".
Oh, you came here for food porn, not Canada Day celebrations? Alrighty then.
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Please join me below the orange croissant for more.
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So. My partner and I were recently in the Mediterranean, on a 2-week cruise from Barcelona to Venice, and quite a few points in between. We arrived in Barcelona 2 days ahead, to spend some time there, having visited briefly a few years ago. Our hotel was situated just steps off La Rambla, a popular tourist street in the city with a wide pedestrian boulevard. Shopping, eats, drinks, entertainment, all happening right there.
Many, but not all, of our meals during the entire vacation were captured on one camera or another, and sometimes on a cell phone. The photos that follow are hosted on flickr; you can click on each one to view a higher-resolution image.
Pre-Cruise
From the previous visit, we had good memories of sangria served in a very large mug, at a table right on the bustling boulevard. So, we returned to a restaurant on La Rambla at approximately the same location, for this:
It was less boozy, and more sugary, than we remembered. But enjoyable nonetheless, sitting there watching the crowds go by on a very pleasant (warm, but not hot) afternoon. For dinner that evening, we found our way to the Boqueria Market, about 2 blocks from the hotel. We shared a traditional Spanish dish, paella:
I also had a salad of local fresh tomatoes, with the simplest possible extra virgin olive oil dressing, lightly seasoned, and so delicious. Back home, in a blind tasting between tomatoes and cardboard, it is difficult to tell the difference. This is quite a treat. Partner enjoyed a seafood platter as well. I nibbled on the shrimp, but I'm less into seafood than he is. It's best not to enquire what they charged for that platter.
The following morning, we headed back to the Boqueria Market for breakfast. In addition to restaurants, the market includes many many individual stalls for fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, seafood, and of course tapas style eateries.
This one, "El Quim", served up the best damn coffee either of us have had in quite a long while. We shared a dish of potatoes with spicy sauce. A good way to kick-start your heart in the morning. Partner also had baby squid served over two fried eggs. I'm not a squid fan, so I had seared foie gras over my fried eggs:
I can't show you all the fresh foods available at the market (I could, actually, I have gigabytes of photos...), but here's a sampling. Notice how they don't just dump button mushrooms randomly into a bin; everything is nicely displayed for maximum pleasure.
This market isn't just for tourists with cameras, of course. Immediately adjacent you will see where real people live, and come here to shop for their daily cooking.
That evening, we happened to walk by a shop selling a wide variety of Spanish hams, known as Jamon or Serrano. Although similar to Italian proscuitto, the Spanish ones have a different taste and texture (different pig breeds, feeding, curing processes, etc.). We took with us some cuttings from three hams, of different qualities and price ranges. Here is the man making our cuttings:
Embarkation Day
The actual cruise began on Sunday, and the Boqueria Market is closed that day. For a light breakfast, we went into a small pastry shop for Cappucino and pastries. Very nice. It happened to also be the same pastry shop that we had visited on our previous visit to Barcelona, though we didn't recognize it from the outside.
On board the ship at 11:00AM, we did our usual embarkation day ritual: head for the buffet. Not to pig out, but to find a nice table at the back of the ship, for a light lunch snack. On this particular ship, part of the buffet seating area is on the far aft deck, outside. Absolutely perfect.
The food on this ship, generally speaking, is OK. In the early days of cruising, there was a main dining room (MDR), often spanning 2 or even 3 decks, with a large open space in the center. The grand staircase and all that. You booked either the early seating (6:30-ish), or late seating (8:30-ish), and had the same table, the same waiter, at the same time each evening for dinner. In recent years, ships have added "specialty" dining rooms, smaller venues than MDR, but with a theme, and often a cover charge. On this ship (Celebrity Equinox), there is Tuscan Grille (steak house), Silk Harvest (Asian), and Murano (fine dining). All are extra cost, $50 per person in the case of Murano. In addition, a portion of the MDR is set aside for what is essentially "any time" dining, for those who don't want to be locked into the same dining time every night when there are lots of things going on.
(Aside: Royal Caribbean is now building a new class of ships, known as Quantum, which does away with the traditional MDR completely. There is no main dining room at all, but a larger set of smaller specialty restaurants, some free, and some at extra charge. The first Quantum class ship will be inaugurated this coming November).
We found the food on the Equinox MDR to be not terrible, considering it is mass produced. One evening, they served prime rib, which was very nicely done. The Silk Harvest was not to our liking at all. Partner is Asian, and I have quite handy Asian cooking skills; the food at this restaurant was rather crappy, to be quite honest. Tuscan Grille was OK, nothing special. Murano was nice, and the only one of the upcharge restaurants worth the extra money.
At our various port stops, the ship would typically arrive somewhere around 6AM to 7AM, and we would be on our way again before dinner time. With tour schedules and whatnot, we generally ate breakfast on board at the buffet, and dinner also on board, at the various venues and restaurants. We ate a typically healthy breakfast of fresh fruits, perhaps a muffin or bagel, yogurt, and occasionally eggs cooked to order. Not bad.
Mediterranean Lunch
Several of our scheduled tours included a set lunch as part of the excursion. On other days, we were on our own to find a local restaurant. It worked out rather well.
Monaco
In Monaco, we found a nice place to sit down in the shade, and started with a bottle of Riesling. I had a Salad Niçoise. Partner had seafood soup. Very nice, and relaxing during free time from our excursion.
Tuscany
Our tour into the Tuscany region included a lunch stop at a small family owned winery for a set lunch and wine tasting. Here, we had samples of cold cuts, cheeses, olives, bread, extra virgin olive oil, and several of the in-house wines.
Rome
Our tour of Rome took us to many of the obvious sight-seeing venues, including of course the Vatican. Here, just a couple of minutes walk from St. Peter's Basilica, we sat streetside at a restaurant for wine and pizza.
Santorini
We found a nice restaurant at the top of Santorini, overlooking the harbour where our ship was at anchor. My lunch this day was a simple, but very tasty, Greek salad. Partner had grilled fish, which he described as very good.
Athens
Just as it started to rain during our free time in Athens, we slid into our covered streetside seats at a restaurant not far from the ruins of the Temple of Zeus. The rain lasted only a few minutes, but we lingered at our table, a prime spot for viewing the passing crowds. Our table was adjacent to an open window that looked right into the kitchen. Partner had a beef and vegetable soup, grilled octopus, and grilled sardines. I had grilled cheese (not a sandwich, just the grilled cheese itself), and a pork souvlaki. I followed up with a slice of baklava. All good.
The only thing spoiling this meal was a very loud and obnoxious woman sitting at a table behind my back. She went all the way to Greece to make sure everybody knew she was anti-Obama, and, very likely, a Faux News viewer. Enough about her.
Mykonos
Our lunch on this day was at a seaside restaurant, under the canopy, with a fantastic view of the sea, our ship, and a gentle breeze blowing on a hot day. We started with a litre of beer to share, in what the menu described as a Tower of Beer, which you could have with one, two, or three litres of beer. A center core filled with ice keeps the beverage cold without diluting it as you work your way down. Frosted mugs come with it, and you can refill them from your personal Tower.
I had a grilled cheese and peppers concoction. The waiter brought me a variation that wasn't quite what I thought I ordered, but it looked so good that I didn't complain, and was more than happy with it. I also had chicken gyros, which was disappointing. It lacked much flavor of any kind, and the presentation wasn't so great. But did I mention the Tower of Beer? Partner had chicken soup, listed as "Rooster soup", and another grilled fish. Both were, I hear, delicious. In the last of the photos at this location, our ship can be seen in the background.
Croatia
Our tour of Dubrovnik/Dalmation Coastline/Croatia brought us to another family-owned operation for a set lunch. Salad, ham, cheese, bread, olives, olive oil, and locally produced wines were on the menu for us. Simple food, well prepared, and of course delicious.
Artichokes and other produce grow in this sunny climate, within viewing distance of the Mediterranean.
At another stop on this day, we saw beds of salt water being dehydrated, to collect the sea salt.
Venice
Our final stop on the vacation was Venice. On this very sunny and hot day, we stopped along the way for a beer at an outdoor restaurant. Later on, we caught up with new friends we had met during the cruise. The four of us sat down at another restaurant, outside, for a couple of bottles of wine, pizza, and pasta with lobster. Our friends nibbled on the pizza, as they had already eaten elsewhere before we joined them. This was our last dinner of the vacation, and a great way to cap things off.
Homeward Bound
But airplane food just isn't the same, you know?
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