Food and Drinks in Europe

Let's be honest, Armenian wine is not among the best - not even in the region. Nevertheless, it is still interesting to taste some Armenian cherry wine, apricot wine, peach wine, pomegranate wine, and variations of red and white wines. And with a bottle price of about 6 USD, it is okay to try a few to see which one gives you the least hangovers. Their cognac though is another story, reputed to have been a favourite of Winston Churchill, who, by personal request, received several dozen cases from Stalin.

Kvas is a local (almost) non-alcoholic beverage made from fermenting rye bread and other good stuff. It can be home-made, but mostly industrially brewed and sold in bottles like any other soft drink. Try it, it's very... hmm, interesting.

Abbaye de Rocs, Affligem Blond, Banana Chapeau, Barbar, Biere de Miel, Black Ghost, Boon Faro, Bosteels Kwak, Bush, Celis, Celtic Angel, Ciney, Cochonette, Cookie beer, Dupont Vieille Biere, Duval, Fantome, Felix, Finiboldhus, Fruli Strawberry, Gambrinus, Grimbergen, Grottenbier brune, Gulden Drak, Hercule Stout, Hoegaarden, Judas, Jupiler, Karibik, La Guillotine, Leffe Radieuse, Lucifer, Newton Apple Beer, Orval, Palm, Petrus, Piraat, Rodenbach, Sara, Satan Gold, Saxo, Scotch Silly, Stella Artois, Stille Nacht, Strawberry, Timmermans, Titje, Tongerlo, Ultramour, Verboden Vrucht, Westmalle.

Nørrebrogade is plasted with shawarma/kebab shops. Coming from the city centre and travelling out, the closer you get Nørrebros Runddel the higher the density becomes until it reach a level where pretty much every shop is a shawarma joint. It is one of the cheapest places to eat in Copenhagen, but some shops are definitely better than others - try you way down.

Food in Georgia is surprisingly yummy. A lot of salads and beans, bread, hard cheese, yogurt, honey and stew with meat so tender it falls from the bones. All vegetables are homegrown, fresh and natural with a lot of flavour. For real food lovers, each province has their own specialties. Homestays normally offer meals and it is impressive how many different dishes they can manage to serve, even for breakfast. Expect the table to be covered in plates, sometimes even in multiple levels – and there are always more where it comes from.

If you don't know what to do with an otherwise uneatable part of an animal, serve it to beer. In the Baltic region, the number one beer snack is pig ear. Just skin and cartilage - pickled, sliced and served with strong mustard. And it's actually not too bad.

Very few seem to know this, but Moldova is actually semi-famous for its wine. You will however notice this right away when arriving to the country for every hill and every field seem to be covered in long rows of grapevines. The two biggest wineries are Milestii Mici and Cricova, both can be visited on a winery tour. They are both located underground in limestone mines and are very large, as in largest in the world. The wine collection at Milestii Mici alone contains more than 1.5 million bottles, which makes it the largest collection in the world. The underground network at Milestii Mici is more than 200 km long (Cricova is "only" 120 km in length), though only 55 km of those are used for storage, and every underground street has a catchy wine-name like Sauvignon street. Any wine tour ends of course with some wine sampling, which in our case was more about quantity than quality. Keep in mind that bookings are necessary with these not-so-foreign-tourist-friendly wineries.

Francesinha means 'little French girl' in Portuguese and is the Portuguese version of the croque-monsieur, the French interpretation of a ham and cheese sandwich. The story goes that a Portuguese man who lived in France returned to his hometown Porto and came up with this new concept, Francesinha. So a Francesinha is a ham and cheese sandwich with lots of additional meat, like sausage and roast meat, doused in (and here comes the secret ingredient) special tomato-beer sauce. This healthy mix is often topped off with an egg and covered in french fries. There is a lot of ritual and tradition involved in eating a Francesinha, but the golden rule is to never drink water with it.

Maybe due to the proximity to Italy, the Slovenian people eat an insane amount of pizza. Nevertheless, the country is well positioned in the meat-potato-beer belt of Europe, where a healthy meal consists of meat and potatoes, all washed down with a proper sized local beer.

Going to London and not visit some pubs, is... well, not something that should happen. Pubs are just such a big part of British culture and history, that they have to be experienced thoroughly. Some of these drinking holes have been around for 400 years, though the building might have burned down a couple of times throughout history. Take for example the pub on the picture, Lamb & Flag on Rose Street in Covent Garden. It was first licensed in 1625, but probably goes back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I (end of 16th-century). Rumour has it that Charles Dickens was a regular here. Can it become more Londonish?