So the first honeymoon recap is going to be picture heavy and probably make you drool. Consider yourself warned. I know I mentioned that I would do my exercises and activities first, but I am too excited about the food to delay!
I have only been to Europe 3 times (2 times that I remember) but man-oh-man I ALWAYS love my experiences with European food culture, everything about it. I mean come on, basically everything is served with french fries, and the bread is GREAT.
I don’t even know where to begin with this one, except to say that I almost wish I had taken MORE pictures. I think I took about 100 photos all said and done through out the 2 week vacation, but I could have taken 1000. I tried to live in the moment and not really concern myself if I forgot to photograph something. Including the grub. So — with that said, let’s tackle my first honeymoon recap!
The Food
I know this is kind of an odd place to begin — but Zach and I were surprised with an upgrade to business class for our flight over to London (one good thing about Zach’s travels). That meant for our 8 hour flight, we would be served two meals AND have access to lounges. Hello, awesome.
That meant the travel started in champagne style. Free champagne and espresso to be enjoyed in the first of 3 lounges we’d visit through our day of travels.
We also ordered a chicken sandwich to split (yes it was breakfast, I was hungry) and then snacked again in the Dallas airport lounge. The lounges in the states included a bunch of free snacks, like you see on the right, but you could order full meals like our sandwich at cost.
Where it REALLY got cool was on the plane, business style.
As we were seated we were given a menu that looked straight out of a 5 star restaurant.
Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but come on, this is dinner on a plane!
You were given 2-3 choices for each course for a 4 course meal. Yup, that’s right. Three courses.
I started with a simple green salad course and an heirloom tomato and buffalo mozzarella starter.
The salad was actually not too simple, and included roasted veggies and parm shavings.
The starter was also really good, the pesto dressing made it. My only complaint was the cheese didn’t have too much flavor, but I say that often with moz cheese.
For my entree I went with scallops, which was a risky choice on my part but I wasn’t too hungry after eating all day (basically), and knew I wouldn’t overeat the scallops.
I shared my entree with Zach but was impressed. The scallops weren’t overly fishy at all and the potatoes were delish!
And no meal is complete without dessert, even in the air!
A DELICIOUS pumpkin cheesecake that left me overly full but was totally worth it. To be honest this was probably the best treat I had all 2 weeks (Europe didn’t impress me with their sweets I guess, but that’s OK. They made up for it).
After that huge meal Zach and I laid back and relaxed with some movies and reading.
Ahhh flying in style.
Breakfast was simple, croissants and bacon sandwiches offered. I went with the fruit. . .
And a mini croissant that was eaten before finding a camera. Zach and I also tried one of the bacon sandwiches, but it was basically just a piece of ham on stale-ish bread. Nothing to write home about.
Overall, I was EXTREMELY impressed with the food while traveling, but on my way TO Europe and back home. I may never be able to travel coach again!
Ok — moving on now that we are actually in Europa :). Let’s start with breakfasts.
While it may not seem exciting, our breakfasts each morning were pretty much the same and in house. There was a bakery in St. Anton that would deliver directly to our apartment, so we had fresh baked bread any morning we had it. Hello, awesome. Zach’s favorite was this wheat bread that was light and seedy.
So every morning was some kind of bread, with fruit (cantaloupe and blueberry normally). The cantaloupe from the local grocer was amazing. I think we went through at least 4 during our two weeks.
I also enjoyed yogurt and or nuts many mornings as well to get in that protein. Their yogurt was a bit higher in fat than what I’m used to here in the States, but that just reminded me how much we rely on low fat or low calorie, even when we don’t realize it! The yogurt was delicious, fair priced, and never bothered by stomach being full cream.
I LOVED the fresh baked goodies every morning for breakfast, it is always a highlight when I’m in Europe. Some mornings we would indulge in chocolate croissants or donuts, let’s be honest. But somehow I must have always eaten them before they found a camera. Upps.
Lunches
Most of our lunches were really on mountain, apres ski snacks.
Let me tell ya how good a big plate of pomme frittes (french fries) and/or sausages were after a good day of skiing.
Oh…and beer. Lots of beer after skiing.
We did find one spot downtown St. Anton that was outdoors, and had heaters. Hello. We went there a couple times (you know it’s good when it’s a repeat on vacation) and always ordered the same snack.
An anti-pasti platter that I always enjoyed with a white or rose wine. Ahh this was delish.
It was so cool to be able to just sit outside on the patios and enjoy after working so hard on the slopes. These were some of my favorite moments of the trip — and the food never dissapointed. Think good bar food :). Always a good cold light beer and heavy food — good balance 🙂
Dinners
Dinners are where we liked to switch it up the most. Some of the best nights I’ve had in a long time were us just hanging out and enjoying each others company at a new to us restaurant. There was one bar that we went to multiple times before dinner and after skiing. We loved their potato wedges and beer, they had awesome American live music, and the staff was super friendly. Those were my favorite nights I think :).
The perfect way to warm our tummies up for dinner. Some nights we’d go to the bar and then cook in. Salads or anti-pastis normally.
And then of course, we had our evenings where we just went out on the town. This is where it got special :).
Our first night on the town was at a little tapas spot named Bodega. Like many restaurants in St. Anton, it was really tiny but had so much character. I only got a picture of our drinks and first dish, but know that it was great.
Bacon wrapped dates and mushrooms. I was surprised by how prevalent mushrooms were in St. Anton, maybe because I had just read Omnivore’s Delimma and Pollan discusses them in depth, but man they were good.
We also went to a fancy Italian spot one night on accident (after the bar). . . not bad, but this was the meal I actually got sick after. I don’t think it had anything to do with the food, I think it was coming…
The pizza had artichoke hearts, olives and mushrooms on a very light and thin crust. VERY good. I was also surprised by how prevalent Italian spots were all over Austria . . . who knew!
The day we traveled over to Lech/Overlech was actually another one of our favorite (Italian) meals. This was the day after my stomach bug issue, so I was just happy to tackle real food. I started the day with cantaloupe, then hiked a bit and shared a savory crepe (corn, peas, ham and tomato sauce. Awesome) with Zach. Man I was excited to tackle food.
We randomly were recommended a cute Italian spot a little off the beaten path and enjoyed a 2 hour meal starting with bruchetta and ending with pasta for both of us. I don’t know if it was because I was feeling better or what, but this pasta was amazing.
We also took a day trip over to Munich in the middle of our honeymoon and enjoyed some legit Bevarian fair.
An onion and bacon “tart”
And amazing homemade raviolli.
And of course, no trip to Munich would be complete without a stop at the HB.
That was a lotta beer. . .
My absolute favorite meal of the trip deserves an entire post in itself, and I will definitely give it that. But here is a preview of our final night in Austria.
We treated ourselves to a very nice Valentine’s dinner of Austrian fondue.
Words cannot describe.
Ahhh I miss Austrian food.
As I mentioned, there wasn’t too much in the way of sweets on this trip (minus the morning pastries). We enjoyed a lot of peanut M&M’s and some chocolate bars. . .and one tart that we picked up at the grocery store. But overall, I could tell dessert isn’t huge in the culture. Wine and good chocolate…that’s fine by me!
And that, my friends, were the highlights of my eats during the honeymoon. I want to write another post on the differences in food culture that I experienced while there. . . so keep posted!
Chocolate Covered Race Medals 