Eric has done quite a few Eastern European assignments, but it had been a while. He started his research on Wikipedia, then went searching for recipes, both online and in our Wooden Spoon Wanderer library. Latvian menus typically feature a lot of meat, and for our pescatarian…
Category: Europe
Assignment 112: Luxembourg
On a warm June day (not so many days ago at the time of writing this), Eric and I ducked our heads as we entered an ancient limestone sea cave. A painted sign on the rock proclaimed it to be called Hohllay. We were in Berdorf, a region…
Assignment 111: Germany
In an unprecedented turn of events, Eric and I swapped assignments. I had drawn Luxembourg and he had gotten Germany, but he was insistent that I would make better pretzels than he would (I’ve made them a couple of times before and since we ate about ten…
Assignment 110: Cyprus
Eric’s foray into Cypriot cuisine was exhaustive. The more he learned about it, the more his menu grew. He relied heavily on the excellent Cyprus Cuisine by Christina Loucas, which he was happy and surprised to find at the Tara (population: 1037) Public Library. Another win for…
Assignment 106: Wales
Eric’s Wales assignment marked our first foray into British cuisine. He went in having heard only of Welsh rarebit — cheese on toast — which he learned was a put-down suggesting that to Welsh people, cheese was as fancy as rabbit. “We will not be having Welsh rarebit,” he…
Assignment 105: Andorra
I had no idea what to expect from Andorran cuisine, and went into this assignment ready to be surprised. In the end, I learned that Andorrans enjoy a sort of French-Spanish fusion (which makes sense, given the tiny country’s location).
Assignment 102: Czechia
Eric followed up my Austria assignment with neighbour Czechia. When he drew Czechia, he immediately thought of kolace pastries, which he enjoyed when he lived in Texas (where they’re known as “kolaches”). Texas boasts the largest number of Czech-Americans of any…
Assignment 101: Austria
It has been over two and a half months since our last wander, and so much has happened. We lost Eric’s father to COVID in April, and the dust is only just starting to settle after all this time. We are spending our first spring in…
Assignment 100: San Marino
We reached our century with San Marino, which shares a lot of their dishes with the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, situated next door. Eric sourced his recipes online. We keep the blog pescatarian, and there was some challenge in translating rabbit- and pork-heavy dishes into our kitchen…
Assignment 92: Sweden
Oh, that Wooden Spoon Wanderer insecurity…that feeling in the middle of an assignment when a little thing goes wrong and derails your whole process. Eric was plagued with it during this assignment. He was working with some ingredients he had never used before, and one of his dishes…
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