Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » Off Topic: Food and Travel

November 26, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Off Topic: Food and Travel

TAGS: Random

I caught some link off of gapingvoid the other day where someone was saying that great bloggers do it for their readers, not for themselves. Not sure if I agree but maybe thats the difference between being a "blogger" and a "writer". I have always been a writer, the blog is just a mechanism to churn out content. Ultimately, it's good practice for when you have real work to do. That said, I have had a lot of real work to do and have been uninspired in my writing. Some of that is based on the fact that I have a lot of other stuff going on and some is based on the fact that I am loopy on cold medicine.

For my cold I am currently taking Rhinofebral, which I bought at some pharmacy in Paris. Truth be told I am not really sure what it does or if it's working, but I can absolutely tell you I am addicted.

Speaking of Paris; it's great. I was fully prepared to be treated like the American dog I am, but instead everyone was shockingly nice, the pastries and coffee were unbelievably delicious and overall the city is far better than a lot of other places I have been to. While I was in London it felt like I was forever in the tube or in a cab whereas Paris felt much more open.

The main thing I realized about international travel is that I seem to always base my review on the food. Which means that London will come out on the bottom pretty much every time--though we did manage to have a few good meals and the food has generally gotten much better.

In NYC I ate at Una Pizza Napoletana which is run by friend Anthony, who makes literally the best pizza in the world, and in Paris we ate at Taillevent. In London we did eat at Fifteen (the Jamie Oliver restaurant) and a place called Cicada (kind of a more expensive(!) Slanted Door) but other than that the city is overrun by sandwiches. Even Ross, a native Londoner was on an anti-sandwich rampage. The other weird thing is that the selection of beverages in convenience stores is terrible. I was jonesing for a Vitamin Water by the 3rd day.

Back to Paris...
Every few blocks is a boulangerie (bread/bakery) where I could feed my big fat self. There was one near our hotel where every morning I would run out and get a variety of croissants and this delicious cold pizza. And they voluntarily spoke english--I think mainly to move the line along, but who cares. It was bliss.

My next big trip is Japan in January. Having been there before I know I will get some good noodles and lots of weird beverages.

Posted by Dave Rosenberg on November 26, 2006 09:45 AM

RATE THIS ARTICLE: