Cooking in Europe!

Some of you may be wondering, "What has Ryan been doing for food? Has he been eating out at restaurants every night, cooking a lot, eating lots and lots of cereal?" Well, two out of the three of those are true.

• I am eating a lot of cereal (my breakfast consists of cereal most mornings, because that is the breakfast that most hostels provide). I buy yogurt at the supermarket (every morning I will take a walk to get it, or if the hostel has a refrigerator in the kitchen, I will get two - three days worth at a time)
• During the afternoon, I tend to eat fruit (bananas, apples, peaches or pears, and sometimes an occasional orange or clementine). I still have some granola bars and cliff bars left that I brought from home to go with my fruit. This hostel in particular has lots of bread in the morning, so I bought "Mortadella" at the supermarket and made cheap sandwiches for lunch.
• At night, I always cook. I rarely dine out in Europe (only once or twice since I have been here due to being on a tight budget). Tasting the local food is certainly part of the cultural experience, and I have been trying to do that in each country as I go. For instance, I tried incorporating sausage into all of my dinners while staying in Germany, and in Spain, I would cook Spanish style rice with beans and vege´s (we made Sangria´s to drink). Tomorrow I will buy some fish and potatoes for a Portuguese style meal.

I am extremely sick of spaghetti (or any type of pasta at this point) and even more sick of tomato sauce! It has basically been my cheap and safe meal during this trip, and now I cannot imagine eating it for weeks to come. This week I have been living off of frijoles and salad. Lots and lots of greens (lettuce, cucumber, zuccini, with some onion, garlic, and tomato mixed in) with some bean and potato or rice all mixed together.

This blog post is dedicated to you, Mom, who wanted to know where I am eating, what the kitchens are like in my hostels, and how I am living my daily life here. The pictures below are from Seville, Spain. They show a few of us cooking a big pasta and chilli meal. It consisted of minced meat, beans, tomato, peppers, onion, garlic, and sauce, accompanied by two bottles of cheap Spanish vino tinto (red wine).


On the left is Travis. He is a 26 year old teacher from Portland, Oregon and has travelled around Europe twice, both times by himself.


Preparation for the meal...


All of us cooking in the kitchen of Oasis, Seville (the kitchen was on the top floor, and going out the door you step foot onto the rooftop terrace, which had a pool!) Left to right: Travis, myself, Caitlin from Pittsburgh who goes to school at Boston University, and Joe from Australia. Most of the people I have met are not Americans, but on this particular night there happened to be 3 Americans eating dinner with 2 Australians.

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This is an older picture, taken by James from England. Adam (left), me, and James enjoyed a pasta with mushroom and chicken dinner at Old Prague Hostel (obviously located in Prague, Czech Republic).


Same night as above. Not the greatest picture of me.


I felt this blog needed a little bit of immaturity. Most of my entries have shown a mature side of me, and this picture certainly shows the opposite. Bon Appetite!