Learning To Travel

Teaching you how far you can travel!

Food and Drink

Dutch Baby Recipe

Food and Drink

Early in our pandemic quarantine, Daryle discovered a recipe for a Dutch Baby online and decided to try it out. We’ve been making them regularly ever since – at least twice a week. Originally, we thought maybe we were making something foreign and authentically Dutch, but that turns out not to be the case. The Dutch Baby, also known as a German pancake, is actually a U.S. invention, although which state gets the credit is a bit fuzzy. Regardless, the Dutch Baby is a delicious breakfast treat and we wanted to share our new find with our friends. It looks fancy, but is incredibly easy and requires very simple ingredients – and its much lighter than a typical pancake, so there’s not even any guilt. This is a great choice to serve at brunch, to breakfast guests or really any time at all. Enjoy!

Dutch Baby Recipe
Ingredients:
3 eggs
½- cup flour
½-cup milk – we used whole
1T granulated sugar
Pinch nutmeg
¼-cup unsalted butter, to melt in the pan

Preheat the oven to 425. Combine the first 5 ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth, stopping along the way to scrape down the sides. Put the butter into a 10-inch round straight-sided baking dish or cast iron skillet and put into the oven to melt. Once the butter is melted, give it a swirl to make sure the pan is well-coated and then pour in the batter. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then turn off the oven and leave the Dutch Baby in there for 5 more minutes. Then take it out, add toppings and serve immediately. Our favorite toppings so far are blueberries, powdered sugar and all-natural Vermont maple syrup. Yummy! We’d love to hear what variations you create and which toppings win in your household!

Is It Safe To Eat Street Food?

Food and Drink, Travel Tips

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ border_style=”solid”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”no” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=””][fusion_text]

Is It Safe To Eat Street Food?

This is the first episode in a new video series I am experimenting with that currently has the working title of “The Learning To Travel Show.”

[/fusion_text][fusion_youtube id=”hyZyy_a6YDI” autoplay=”false” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” /][fusion_text]

Our goal here at Learning To Travel is to help you get closer to you dream vacation by constantly offering travel knowledge and inspiration. It is clear that video is fast becoming one of the best ways to share information on the internet and so we’ve decided to start producing video content in order to reach a larger audience. This is very much a work in progress and we hope you’ll join us in our new YouTube Channel journey.

In this first episode of The Learning To Travel Show I share a bit of trivia about Monaco. (http://nowheremag.com/2013/06/strange-laws-monaco)

Mention the new State Department travel advisory for North Korea. (https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/north-korea-travel-warning.html)

Share that Memorial Day Weekend Travel is expected to break records. (http://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/2016/05/19/DC03415)

As well as answer the question of “Is It Safe To Eat Street Food?”

Also I  share a little bit about The Caledonian Sleeper Train which has routes from London to major cities in Scotland. (https://www.sleeper.scot)

And the show ends with the quote:

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”
~Anonymous

 

[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Eat Cheap In Italy With The Tradition Of Aperitivo

Food and Drink, Travel Tips

Eat cheap in Italy by learning about this great Italian tradition.

eat cheap in italy

Eat Cheap In Italy

Oddly enough it was while we were in Scotland that we discovered Prosecco, a sparkling wine similar to Champagne, but it was while we were in Rome that we discovered it is sometimes served with free food. You order a glass of Prosecco and it shows up with a few plates of food as well at no extra cost.

We found this curious but the bar we frequented during our time in Rome spoke zero English so we could not get any details as to what was going on.

Turns out what we experienced was the Italian tradition of apericena or aperitivo depending on the type of food being served with your beverage. I learned this when I came across A beginner’s guide to aperitivo in Italy over at TheLocal.it.

The article introduces the aperitivo like this:

They are long leisurely affairs to be undertaken with friends in early or late evening, the food is usually more than decent and they are affordable even on the most meagre of budgets. All you need to do is buy a drink and your food is free.

And goes on to clarify the difference between aperitivo and apericena:

A standard pre-dinner drink becomes an aperitivo when it is accompanied by more than just nuts or crisps. Maybe a small starter of goats cheese, olives, or something like that.

You can be sure you’re at an apericena however, when your drink is accompanied by dinner in the form of an all-you-can-eat buffet. Confusingly, the word aperitivo is often used to describe this too, which will probably annoy the traditionalists but hey-ho, we didn’t make the rules.

Now that that’s out the way we’re ready to get going. All you need to do is order a drink.

Click here to read the whole article, and eat cheap in Italy!

So you can see how this is a great way to enjoy yourself in Italy even when on a budget.

Thank you Michela Simoncini for the photo used in the title image.

Irish Drinks

Food and Drink, Our Travel Stories

Guinness and Jameson
Guiness Jameson Collage

The Irish love their drink. Two in particular – Guinness and Jameson.

Knowing we were going to be in Ireland, we had been looking forward to visiting the home of Guinness and having the opportunity to pour our very own “perfect pint” for a while. It was exciting to finally have our chance.

Guiness Pouring Collage

We even got to enjoy that pint with a nighttime view of the Dublin skyline from the top floor of the Guinness Storehouse.

Jameson on the other hand would require a bit more work to find a form I appreciated. Although I tried it straight and it wasn’t horrible. I still can’t say I enjoy sipping whiskey.

However, I did find a version that is perfect for me and nearly as possible. Irish Coffee!

Irish Coffee

At the Granville Hotel in Waterford, where we had a delicious dinner and a great night’s sleep, we were also treated to a quick after-dinner lesson on making the perfect Irish coffee.

Irish Coffee Collage

Step 1: Heat up the glass with hot water (not pictured).

Step 2: Add sugar (also not pictured).

Step 3: Add the coffee.

Step 4: Add the whiskey.

Step 5: Stir and then add hot water.

Step 6: Add real whipped cream, “half-whipped” is best (ie. not liquid, but not too stiff).

Step 7 (added in my world): Add more real whipped cream.

Quantities of all ingredients are pretty much up to the drinker and in the end a perfect Irish coffee should end up looking a lot like a perfect Guinness.

There was however, one tiny inconsistency that stood out to us that I need to mention. Apparently the quality of the whiskey is quite important but the quality of the coffee, not so much. We were instructed very specifically to use only the best whiskey, but then were provided with instant coffee. I guess you can see which ingredient takes precedence here.

Pineapple Anyone? (Photo Post)

Food and Drink, Travel Photos

Bananas and pineapples have been plentiful, cheap and delicious for a good part of our trip so far. Not so much now that we’re in Europe. I suppose the loss of such a variety of very fresh fruit is one of the things to miss about moving away from the equator.

Fresh fruit for sale – Belize, May 2013

Pineapple anyone?

Avocados – a local crop

Food and Drink, Travel Photos

Avocados
avocados

This is a photo of a salad I was served at a restaurant in Guatemala. I just want to share it with everyone, because it came with 4 ENTIRE AVOCADOS! Even at my best, I have only ever been able to consume one whole avocado in a single sitting. (Note in the interest of accurate reporting that before this photo was taken I traded one full avocado with my dining companions in exchange for the chicken, potato and garlic bread that are also shown on the plate.)

This was the house salad. There was also an Avocado Salad on the menu and I have to wonder what that looks like…