BODY - 4 of 4 JOHN'S RECOLLECTIONS OF THE TRIP.

If travel broadens the mind so it should the palate (as well as the waist line).

                                  

                     

Although I am known to eat just about anything (except celery!) I had some very set views about my likes and dislikes about food and beverages. Was the chance to experience so much new and beautiful taste sensations wasted on me?  Let's see.

FOOD. Food in terms of travel can be categorised in different ways. Firstly, travel can give you a chance to taste the authentic stuff in the regions that it is associated with. l have had genuine cassoulet in France,

real paella in Spain, and traditional black pudding in London. Secondly, in terms of travel food can be categoried as food you have never liked, or tried before. 

For example, it has taken me two trips to Spain to get to like tapas. This was because, before the journey, I looked like a plate of food to look like one. Such as a big plate of pizza, or meat and three veg.Tapas didn't look like this. My dislike of tapas also probably came from the fact that before, we had only had poor quality ones. They looked like small, fried, overpriced, overooked finger food. But with Julie's determined "food safari," to find the really good ones, I have now been converted.  Also, I have never been a soup fan. 

Although I eat them, the only ones I've really liked, are the ones Julie, Emma, or Michael cook. If you had told me before going to Stockholm that I would choose soup, especially one made out of fish?!  I wouldn't have believed you. But I tried it, and liked it.

German/Berlin food. Was a new style of cooking to me. I discovered that meal sizes come in three different sizes, big, bigger, and industrial! You have to be really hungry to finish a German serve.

 I was talking to a young Berlin woman who believed that in Berlin there are only two vegetables, cabbage and potatoes. I still don't like sourkraut, (German cabbage) but what Berliners can do with a basic "boiled spud" is unbelievable. Beautiful! All good hearty and appetising food and LOTS of it!

Beer. 

Thanks to our Belin visit I have started to really like beer again. My favourite is a light Pilsner beer called Berliner. German beer comes with a big foaming frothy head. I asked for a small beer, and got one a glass the size of a small vase.

                            

So, that's what I learnt about food, and my changing likes and dislikes having been on the Magical Mystery Tour. Now that it has just clicked over into Happy Hour here in Melbourne, it might be a good time to close this final entry in our Magical Mystery Tour blog.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our special overseas adventure. Many thanks for your interest and comments relating to the blog. Most of all I really hope that every now and again, you felt as if you were actually standing beside Julie and I sharing the wonder of it all.

Cheers, 

John, the "other" J.