places I've been.....and enjoyed being......

Many years ago, when we were young (!) and travelled....we had a formula. If you want to see a place, really see a place, enjoy it as well, then when you're walking around, always look for restaurant signs, and go look!  Not only do you see the town, but you get amused - for  free......... and you have to eat anyway! This works basically anywhere in the world....more or less, just be careful where you are - could be true...
In general, there are so many types of menus that it becomes difficult to find what you want....but it's out there - somewhere....
Otherwise, just stay with the places you know or have heard of!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zmprVVOfe3k

Bolton, Lancashire UK - fish market

I'll start with this place because I enjoyed going here regularly to get our breakfast kippers and smoked halibut and other 'fishy' things. It was also possible to get things like oysters and mussels, fresh - things not readily available in the UK......the fresh Scottish salmon really was fresh and Scottish!
Right next door, linked with a door, was an enormous fruit and vegetable market, with cheese, butter and the other things one needs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDOhtOwP3EM
 It was a regular Saturday morning pleasure, followed by a weekend of feasting!

Billingsgate fish market

In London we found those well known places (at the time) like 'Smithfields' market..... an enormous food temple, particularly for meat so fresh it beggared description and Billingsgate really a professional's fish market with any type of fish and then some......!
London had a lot to offer, but only when we arrived in West Berlin did we see the extent of what we had been missing, and France was still to come!
West Berlin was, at the time, mainly subsidised by the West to show the East what we had that the East didn't have! The 'in place' was called 'KADEWE' shortened from 'Kaufhaus de Westen' (meaning the Western Supermarket or the West Supermarket, and they had EVERYTHING.....! Even French Baguettes flown in every morning from Paris http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KaDeWe   On the 6th floor is a sort of 'shrine' to food! Food of all sorts (I even saw bearmeat on sale once) all arranged in sort of little 'islands/bars' depending on the type. All could be tasted, all could be bought to eat  either in the store, or were sold to take home with you!
For me personally, the rest of the store had nothing to offer....perfumes, woman stuff and so on, but useful to 'depose' the wife and get myself up to the 6th floor! In general, German stores (foodstuff stores) have a very similar offer, but KADEWE is something exceptional....if you get the chance - GO!
Belgium is on my list as well. For a country which produces no mussels at all (it imports all of them) strange that the national dish is generally 'Moules- Frites....' (Mussels and chips) ....but together with fresh bread   I can suffer....!
I recall eating, in a small restaurant in Calais, a fresh lobster which was delicious. I recall wondering why this was not the national dish until I got the bill!

Of course....go on 'walk about' things are waiting for you out there....

Related articles

• Kaufhaus des Westens (or KaDeWe)(changehere.wordpress.com)

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• KaDeWe Does Christmas Right(chrisabraham.com)

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• Last of the Billingsgate fish porters - audio slideshow(guardian.co.uk)

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• Kippers - by post!(healthehelen.wordpress.com)

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• Seafood of the Week - Kipper(beatcancer2010.wordpress.com)

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• Restaurant review: Loch Fyne, Reading(getreading.co.uk)

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• been a long time.....!(gourmandisedemrlemarquis.blogspot.com)

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