Greece and London: A Tale of Two Foods

If you looked at the average American and the average European, you would immediately notice a drastic difference. Not the hair color or the eye color, as nearly any red haired, fair skinned person gets labeled as Irish and any blond haired blue eyed person gets labeled as German. Nor is it their teeth and smile. But it is their size that is a drastic difference. Not stature, but weight. After 21 years in America and visiting four other countries, I, and any person that has visited multiple countries, realized that America has not only a portion problem, but a caloric, sugar, salt, etc. intake problem. I visited a McDonald's in London and, wanting to see what a large was, upgraded my meal. To my surprise, a large drink there would have been the equivalent to a small here in America. You don't even need to look at or taste the food to notice the difference, simply look at the drinks! At every restaurant we visited, there were no free refills. If you ordered a coke, you received either a 300 or a 550 ml beverage and each additional drink cost you the same as the first. Stores didn't carry 2 or 3 liters, it was either a 300 ml can, a 550 ml bottle, or a 1 liter bottle. This in and of itself just further showed the problem American's, knowing or unknowingly, face daily - our portions are out of control. Not only that, but we put so much more into our food. Greece's food definitely had a Mediterranean air about it, with lots of lemon. London's, on the other end of the spectrum, was somewhat bland. That being said, I hardly felt full on the trip, I never felt bogged down, or groggy, heavy, and greasy. I felt healthy - besides the stomach issues that I typically have as it is. All in all, I mostly enjoyed the food, but I am glad to be back to what I am used to. But I won't leave before sharing what I had, so here goes!

The first night we didn't eat until pretty late, having arrived in around 6 and not getting settled until around 7. We began our first adventure in Greece by wandering aimlessly, eventually coming across a relatively well priced restaurant that seemed very Greek - but what did we know then? Though the menu did have English, I had no clue what over half of the stuff was. When the waiter returned to take our orders, most of us were clueless. Lucky for us we weren't the first so the waiter had a picture menu. When he came to me, I asked him what gyros were (pronouncing it Guy-Rows) and a look of utter confusion passed his face. For once, when ordering, I didn't point at what I was ordering, so after I said it again and pointed, he said "Ohhhh," almost as if he was sighing and pointed to a picture of it. I ordered and after he left Garrett kindly (he was being completely sarcastic) told me he thought it was pronounced Eur-Os, like the currency. Welp first night in and I already completely embarrassed myself; wouldn't be the last time either.

After our first Greek food adventure, we found an ice cream shop on the way home. I went with the safe bet and got Mint Chocolate Chip and one with a weird name that started with a 'P'. They were both delicious. The ice cream was probably some of the best ice cream I have ever had, and that is saying something. I have never been a Blue Bell girl, can't really tell the difference between Blue Bunny's Mint Chocolate Chip and Blue Bell's. But this ice cream? It was delicious. Creamy, cold, but not too cold.

The second night we ate at a place called Beer Bar (I think) and I ordered a pizza that had bacon and ham, my favorite toppings. When ordering the pizza, I assumed it would be the typical 10 inch pizza you get when you order a pizza at a restaurant in America. But nope. It was about the size of a medium. I also ordered some kind of blackberry beer, my first in Greece. It was delicious. Afterwards we got dessert at a cute little bakery; Garrett bought mine in return for hurting my ankle. I never got the name but it was some kind of chocolate mousse pudding thing with a Nutella type topping. It was delicious, but pretty strong. Everything was so much stronger here, I had trouble eating all of it, which usually isn't a problem. But oh this one was so good, I wish I could have it every day or every other day, it was so good. The top was the perfect amount of smooth but solid, the main part was fluffy, light, but filling. This was one of my favorite desserts on the trip. Actually, next to crepes from Crepa Crepa, it was my favorite.

The next evening we came across a fun food place, Crepa Crepa. I've only had crepes once before this trip, so I don't have much crepe experience, but these were the best crepes I have ever eaten. Probably better than the best sandwich, best burger, best pizza - well, maybe not pizza, but it was great. One was BBQ Bacon and the other Fillati - no idea what that means. The one on the left was Fillati and the one below BBQ Bacon. The Fillati had cream cheese, bell peppers, and meat. BBQ Bacon, well I'm sure you can imagine.

On our last day in Greece, we stopped by a two story restaurant. I ordered spaghetti because I didn't feel very hungry. It was pretty good spaghetti, definitely better than the cafeteria could ever offer.

The spaghetti was better than I thought it would be, calmed my stomach, and I was able to eat more of it than I thought I would. It was a nice last meal, but I wouldn't have turned down one more crepe from Crepa Crepa. The last crepe I got from there was called Louisa. It had brown sugar, strawberries, ice cream, and whipped cream. Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture.

London's food scene was very different than Greece. Before we got there someone told us it would basically be Fish and Asian. They were so right ... except there was also fast food, which was what Garrett, Elena, DJ and I ate for our first meal in the London. We got Burger King - we were going to get McDonald's, but they were closed.

The beef in London is nothing like good ole' Texas beef. I definitely missed Texas beef a lot. The meat was kind of bland, not very flavorful. But the fries were really good, maybe not as salty as I'd like, but America is very unhealthy, so that's to be expected. While in London, Garrett and I also tried McDonald's and Subway. On the other end of the spectrum, we went to a very expensive Asian place, it was very delicious, but maybe not delicious enough to spend around $23 after the Pounds to US conversion. I wasn't sure what to order so I got what DJ and Garrett got, sweet and sour pork with egg fried rice. It filled us all up and Elena scarfed hers down so fast we all were blown away, but it was delicious all the same. Definitely better than anything you can find in Canyon, America.

On our second to last night we went to see Doctor Faustus. Before the show we wandered around looking for some cheap food for dinner. We found a very hipster looking healthy wrap place. I ordered a Mighty Mexican Wrap, no corn. It was well priced, super healthy, and surprisingly yummy for something so healthy.

I couldn't tell you what most of the stuff on it was, but I knew if my sister could see me eating that (she is a health nut and worries about my diet) she would be very proud of me. I would probably order it again, surprisingly. The last food item I am writing about is a very American item. It wasn't my last meal, but it is the last one I have a picture of, in London anyways (I took a picture of my first meal at home, it was beef fried rice and crab cheese wontons, yum!). It was a chocolate malt with french fries and you can bet your bottom dollar (or pound) that I dipped my fries in the malt and you can bet even more that it was delicious. I felt very American and I felt very content. This was actually right after Doctor Faustus, so if my sister could see me then, her hope probably would have crumpled a little, going from healthy wrap at the top to scraping the chocolate malt with a fry on the bottom of the health spectrum.

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the food in these two foreign countries. Yeah it was sometimes a little bland, or so spicy I couldn't taste anything for hours, but it was a new experience. I got to taste first hand another culture, and most of the time it tasted pretty good. I loved the food, sometimes it didn't always agree with me, but that won't keep me from going back someday.

Abby Out.