This video is an excerpt from a much
longer European Travel Skills Talk. To view other topics, or to watch my Travel
Skills Talk in its entirety, visit ricksteves.com, or check out my Rick
Steves YouTube channel. Thanks. Thank you for joining us, right now I want to
talk about eating your way through Europe, and one of the joys of European
travel is food, right, how many of you are looking forward to eating in Europe? Nice.
Well I certainly am, and you don't need to be wealthy to eat while in Europe, and
you want to just eat with the culture, you want to eat with the seasons, and you want to know how to find a
good value. The main thing is, you don't want to be attracted to the big sign in
English on the most expensive square in town, that says no frozen food. That's a
tourist trap, just like that. They're paying way too much rent, they're just trying
to snare naive, green, rich tourists. And you see here, four different
languages, a printed menu offering every menu item you could imagine. Everything
about it is wrong. You want to find the local mom and pop place that is serving
local specialties, with the season. They say in much of Europe, eaters can
identify the region and the month by what's on the menu, and I think that
worth thinking about, because a good traveler will eat what's good with the
region, and what is good with the season. In this little restaurant here, you can
see it's a small, humble mom-and-pop place, it's got paper tablecloth, you can see
a couple of tourists joining the local crowd and they're eating very simply.
They've got a bowl of pasta, a bottle of water, and a carafe of house wine.
That's not gonna break the bank, that's going to be a great experience.
Even though for Italians that would just be a start, for us, that's the meal. That's a big bowl of
pasta, and a great scene. All over Europe you got trendy new restaurants, fun food, great
food, innovative food, that is affordable. You don't need any pretense, you don't need
any Michelin stars, you don't need any, you know, big crowd-sourcing website to
tell you what's hot, you don't need to wait in a long line. You can just be tuned into
where the locals are eating, and order in a smart place. I like to go to a fancy
restaurant, and I like to have the fancy clientele, and the beautifully presented
food, but I don't like to have to dress up and $100 for a meal. You don't need to
do that. You can find plenty of classy restaurants, with classy clientele, and
I always say-- I would say eat in these kind of restaurants, but when you do, if you're on
a budget, order sparingly. Order each person a first
course, split the main course, split the dessert, and have a carafe of house wine
instead of a bottle of fine wine. They're glad you're there. And then, you're gonna
walk out of that place, not feeling like you just ate a horse, like a lot of
Americans seem to brag about, but that you ate smartly. You're not stuffed, and you were surrounded by local elegance. I would rather pay $25 for a pasta,
sitting with local politicians and big shots and having all that elegance, than
$15 for that same bowl of pasta down the street. If I'm in the mood for a fancy
restaurant, the key is you don't need to go broke if you order low on the menu,
and you share. Ask for the dessert, but ask for four spoons with it. That
used to be bad, but I'll tell you, these days they're just glad you're there, they
really are. Even better than that, you'll find lots of sort of funky more
mom-and-pop kind of places that are really ramping it up with quality.
"Gastropubs," pubs, serving gastronomic food. Gastronomic tapas bars, a Enoteca, in
Italy, serving fine wine by the glass and beautifully paired food, that's what I
like. And that's what I recommended in my books. This would be in an Enoteca, or
in a gastronomic pub anywhere in Europe. Now, you want a memorable experience, and
if you're going to go to a popular place, I'm telling you, in Europe you gotta make
reservations. It's really important to make reservations. For years I just thought,
"no as a tourist that's not really appropriate." You're just the same as a
local person when you get on the phone and say, "table for four people, we're
coming at eight o'clock, thank you, my name? Ricardo," okay. You do that,
and you'll have a table waiting for you. Otherwise, you're gonna be roaming around,
and every place is gonna be full and it's going to be very frustrating. Super popular
restaurant sometimes have two settings. In this place, everybody goes there when
they're in this little town in Tuscany, there's a seven o'clock seating. and
there's a nine o'clock seating. When you do go out and about, remember, at the early seating it's going
to be more tourists, and at the late seating. it's going to be more locals. In my
research, I've learned if I go to a place at 7:30, it's going to seem like a
tourist trap. If I come back at 10, it's gonna seem like a local favorite. One's not
better than the other, just remember, you eat early you're eating with
tourists, you eat late you're eating with locals. This particular steakhouse, wow.
This man comes around with big hunks of steak, he asks you do you want this one or
that one, tells you the cost, you say yes, he takes it back and cooks it, and every few minutes you hear a "whack," and there's like a quarter of a cow sitting on a gurney, and
there goes another slice of him. It's into the oven at seven minutes on
this side, seven minutes on that side, 15 minutes later it's on your table. This is
not a good place if you're a vegetarian. This traveler is not a vegetarian, and
she had a lifelong memory. So, there are wonderful experiences waiting for you,
there are wonderful ways to eat outdoors. Here in this setting, this is Madrid, there
used to be nothing but traffic and parking on this street, but now its
underground, it's kept out, its in tunnels, and they've turned their parking lots
into beautiful spaces. Lots of delightful places to eat out. One of my favorite
chores in my research, and I'm in Europe researching for-- I'm in Europe for 120 days a year, 40 days is filming my TV shows, and 80 days is on my own,
just researching my guidebooks, and I just love it, and I'm just working all
day long, and all evening, checking things. This is one of my nights, and I don't
know where I was there, but you can see I have my long list of things I need to do. On
the back of the restaurant cards I've written all my details, and I go home, into the hotel and pump all that new
information into the next edition of the book. One of the keys for, me as I
mentioned, is to find those local places in low-rent spots a few blocks off the
famous squares where you have a small menu, in one language, handwritten. Small,
because they're just going to cook up what they can sell out and and do profitably for the
day. One language because they're targeting local return customers, rather
than tourists, they'd love you to be there, but their priority is local people. And,
handwritten because it shaped by whatever's fresh in the market this morning.
It's really important to eat with the season. If you're in Paris, hell bent on
having french onion soup in the summer, only a tourist trap is going to serve
that to you. Another restaurant wouldn't serve french onion soup, 'cause that's a winter
thing. If you really want your porcini mushrooms and you're traveling in May, you're there in the wrong time of year. You better tune into the white asparagus, and come
back in the fall. Go with the seasonal specials, that's
what the daily specials are all about, that's what locals order, that's what they're
happier if you order, and you'll get a better value and taste to your food. That
handwritten menu indicates a good local favorite. Understand just the basic
language. You've got your "plat Du jour," you've got, in this case you've got your choice of veal with "riz pilaf," or you've got your Menu
Express, which is a choice of ham or chicken with a green salad and french
fries. Certainly no prize winning meal there, but it's ten or twelve dollars, and
you can eat in restaurants with the local people for ten or twelve dollars,
if you like. The phrase book, very important, because then you know what the
options are. There are a lot of good phrasebooks, we work very hard on our phrasebooks to cover all your options, so you can order smartly. One thing I like
to do, is eat where local office workers eat. At lunch time, I don't want an
earth-shaking meal. I've got lots to do, I know it's cheaper at lunch than at dinner,
but I just want to have an expedient lunch. And I ask for local-- I lineup
where the local office workers lineup. They eat out every day, and they know
where the good values are. All over Europe you can find
government-subsidized cafeterias. Here's the cafeteria in Oslo at the City Hall, it's
called a "Mensa," where you can eat with the local workers at a no profit price. And
remember, you got your quick businessman's lunch and your pre-theater dinners,
where you get two courses for ten or fifteen dollars, and that's a great value.
Here's a meal for under $15, where you got a plate, and a salad, and bread, and a drink, in
Stockholm, a notoriously expensive city. You can find very fine and affordable
lunches anywhere in Europe. A nice salad and a glass of wine in France, A beautiful salad, this is the go-to
salad in Greece, the Greek salad. All over Europe I like a "salad nicoise." This is in
Nice particularly right here, but you'll find a "salad nicoise" is a good, healthy,
inexpensive, go-to plate, anywhere in Europe. Eat with the local cultures, in
Italy you've got an "antipasto spread," its like a salad bar, but all this "antipasto"
stuff. In Spain, you've got the wonderful "tapas." One of the challenges for us we
go to Spain, is local people really late. Unless you want lunch at three and
dinner at ten, you're gonna have to roll with the punches there, and if you sit
down at a restaurant at noon or seven, you're gonna be eating with the staff-- in Europe that's--
you're just not very welcome. What you wanna do is go to a bar. And
they've got good food in their tapas bars all day long in Spain, and that's
part of the cuisine scene. As I mentioned, people are sharing. Here are Germans sharing a "wurst" and "sauerkraut,"
even sharing their beer. That would never have happened in earlier days, but now
they've had their economic challenges, and again, they're just happy that you're
there. I love cultures where they have family style eating, and anywhere in
Europe I opt for the family style of eating, and remember, a lot of Americans
think it's kind of bad style to be sharing their plates, and so on. But you're
curious, you're beginners, you step on the learning curve, and a chef loves it, even
if it's not sophisticated, if you make a habit to order different things and then
sample them around. You just want to eat your way through the menu, it's, fun it's
part of the culture. In Greece you have the "meze," and you get to order these
little plates. In Spain, of course, you've got the "tapas," in Venice you've got the
"cicchetti," all over Europe. In Italy, I find the "antipasto," or the appetizer spread, is
really the most interesting thing on the menu. If you have dietary concerns, and a
lot of people do, whether they're gluten-free, or vegan, or you have a very bad reaction to nuts, or
whatever you, need to write it down on a piece of paper, and then have a local
person translate it, so you can show that to the waiter and not have any risk of
getting what you don't want. You have to be very explicit, because a lot of waiters just go, "yeah, yeah, yeah," and then they ignore you. so be careful about that. A lot of people
wonder about the tipping, and the service, and so on, I want to remind you, service and taxes are included. So if you
look at a $30 meal in Europe that says service and tax included, that's like a
$22 meal here, where we'd add on tax and add on service. It's there already, so
discount the price in your mind when you're wondering, "what is the value here."
People ask about service, and in Europe, waiters and waitresses are paid a
living wage. You don't have this very strong 10, or 15, or 20 percent tipping
thing that we do in the United States over there. Locals just leave the coins on the table,
rounded up, or often don't tip at all. I would say ask in each country, "what are
the tipping norms?" Don't ask a waiter, ask somebody else, and just find
out what you're comfortable with, but don't lose sleep over walking out of a
restaurant in Europe without tipping. Because, they're paid a living wage, and
it's not expected like it is here. And if you tip American-style in Europe, you're just raising
the bar and messing up the local balance, and it's bad style. A lot of Americans
complain about slow service. In America, time is money, bam, bam, bam, in and out, turning the table. European
restauranteurs don't want to turn the table, I mean, if they get popular in an
American guidebook they have an early setting, because Americans prefer to eat
early, and then the Americans are gone by the time the regular clientele come, but
they're not really designed about turning tables in Europe. You're there
all evening. Respectful, quality good service is slow. Now if you want fast
service, you can get it. Europeans sometimes want fast service, it's
just a matter of effectively communicating and say, "excuse me, I have a
play to go to, I need to be finished by nine o'clock." If you can communicate that,
you'll get fast service, but that is the exception, not the rule. I like music when I'm eating. I like to enjoy a cultural experience
when I'm eating, and all over Europe, you can choose your restaurant with fun
music along with it. Also remember, in Europe, you get fast food on every corner.
You got American chains on every corner these days. That's a real loss if you go
all the way to Europe and eat a lot of fast American food chain food. I would
recommend, if you want fast food, find the delis that have the counters
and the stools, where the local businesspeople go. Here we have a
grocery store, an elegant grocery store that has a deli counter, and if you see in the
back there on the left, a bunch of local business people, sitting on stools, eating
great food at great prices, in a fancy grocery store. Also remember, all over
Europe, there are immigrants doing the hard work that local people don't want
to do, for peasant wages. And these immigrants have very tasty food
traditions, they have very small budgets, and they like to go out and eat. I think
immigrant restaurants are a godsend for tourists, especially up in Scandinavia,
where the food tends to be really expensive and really boring, alright. you
want some spicy Pakistani food, or Lebanese food, or whatever when you're in
Scandinavia. All over Europe, a "doner kebab" is a great go-to meal for
something fast and cheap. Pizza is another good standby, you can find pizza
anywhere for a great price. Street food, lots of fun. Know the street food,
have a sense of adventure, and enjoy that dimension of the culture. Know what the
unique specialties are. This is barnacles. Barnacles, in Portugal, very expensive but
really, really good, they are the best seafood I've ever eaten. It goes with
beer, it's and something we wouldn't know about if we didn't try it. Truffles, in season, a beautiful thing.
Again, know what is in season and eat with the
season. Venture out, try the stinky cheese. if you want to learn more about the food,
remember, a great new thing is food tours. All over Europe you'll find food
stores, you can Google it, you can look on TripAdvisor, in my guidebook, I
recommend the food tours that I've particularly enjoyed. They're not cheap, it'll cost you 80 or $90, but you get four hours, you go to eight places, you
get a big meal out of it, and it's a tour and an education through a very
interesting, characteristic neighborhood at the same time. I really enjoy those
food tours. That one was in Rome, this one is in southern France, in Avignon. Another
popular experience is to go to a cooking school. These are very trendy these days,
just last year I met one of our groups in Florence and I joined them for
the experience. It took a little time, but it was really fun, we prepared the food,
we cooked the food, and of course, when you're done cooking it, you got to eat it.
And when we sat down, this is one of our tour groups, and we ate at meal, it was clear
to us, this was as good as what you might have got at a restaurant, and we had the proud
chef beaming over us and, and we were all right there, making everything from the salad,
and the pasta, to the tiramisu. You can do that, if you want to look into
a cooking school. Picnicking is a European way to go, and you can create a
very atmospheric, inexpensive, and healthy meal, if you choose a good spot to picnic,
and it causes you to go into the market places. I love the marketplaces of Europe, to me they're as important as the museums. This is the grand, industrial age,
marketplace in Budapest, you find them all over Europe. This is the big market
stall courtyard in Nice, and here in the Dordogne of France, in Sarlat, you've got, not a daily market, but a once-a-week market. Know when the
markets are, and make it a point to be there. When you go into the market stalls,
you feel the energy, you'll enjoy the local push-and-shove, you get to test
things, and you put together a wonderful picnic with produce that is probably
tastier than produce that you've ever had here. When you go to a market,
you'll find a lot of good eateries near the market, so you don't necessarily have
to picnic in conjunction with your market visit. Remember, shoppers and
workers know there's fresh produce and very competitive prices, and very
characteristic seasonal food in the little eateries that surround those
markets. The best new place to have lunch in Florence is the "Mercato Centrale." Industrial age marketplace's have had a big struggle in the last
generation, as people are going out of town to the supermarkets, and so on. What
they've done to revitalize them, is keep the farmers market dimension, but spice
it up, by letting it be outlets for fancy restaurants, and outlets for creative
foodies to serve right there. And in Florence, you've got a food court of
fun options in that marketplace ambiance, and I really love the "Mercato Centrale" when you're in Florence. Of course, you've got just modern grocery stores as
well, all over Europe, one way or another, you can put together a beautiful picnic,
and you can eat very, very cheap and healthy if you want to. Whether it's on a
train ride, just a very, very simple meal on a train, but it just costs a couple
bucks in the most expensive corner of Europe. Or, after a long day of
sightseeing, maybe you just want to take off your shoes, stretch out, and have a
simple, cheap meal, while catching up on your YouTube, or your TV watching, or
whatever in the hotel room. You've got that option, and I like to make a pantry
in my hotel. I don't want an earth-shaking dinner every night, every second or third night
I just like to have a picnic in my hotel room. It's relaxing to me, it's healthy,
and it is certainly cheap. In each country in Europe, you've got the local
taste treats. Do your reading, make a point, make room in your budget. When you're in
Belgium if you don't try some beautiful gourmet chocolate, you don't know what
you're missing. And, of course, you've got the gelato scene. I love to not go with
the guidebook, and not go at the crowd-sourcing, but go with local
recommendation. "What is the most popular gelateria in town?" And go there and you'll
feel the energy, as all the kids are there enjoying great gelato. Same with coffee. Wonderful coffee scene. I like to
pay too much to enjoy a cup of coffee the most expensive piece of real
estate in that town, and watch the scene go by. Remember, when you have a cup of
coffee and you sit outside, you pay a little more, but you're not paying for
the coffee, you're paying to be part of the scene, and that is integral to a
quality European experience. Related to that are the the happy hour drinks. I'm
not a cocktail, happy hour, kinda guy here, but when I'm in Europe I like to spend
half an hour or 45 minutes just enjoying a hard drink and some munchies on the
square as everybody's out making the scene. This is the "aperitivo." It's a
big deal in Italy. Here we are in the main square in Siena enjoying spending
$7 for your drink, and it comes with little sandwiches, and pickles, and and chips, and so on. And again, you're
renting a spot to enjoy the show, that's what that's all about. Make the scene. In
the morning, it's a market, in the middle of the day it's just a work-a-day scene, and
at night the little bars spring out and all the students, and all of the
fun-loving people are on the square having their spritz. If you go to that
square and buy a spritz, strike up a conversation, you're gonna have plenty of
friends. That's your challenge, the ball's in your court. They're not gonna come to
you, but you're more than welcome to make that scene, but it's easier to do with the
appropriate drink in hand, at the right time a day. You know, here at home I never
feel like a nice glass of "ouzo," but when I'm in Greece, every night I feel
like watching the sunset with a glass of "ouzo." When I'm in England, I feel like a
spot of tea. I don't drink tea here, I drink tea in England, I'm a cultural
chameleon. When I'm in the Czech Republic, it's a good Pilsner. When I'm in Tuscany, it's good red wine, and so on. Make sure that you are a cultural
chameleon when it comes to the drinks and the food in your travels, and then
you will have a better experience. The food really makes a huge difference, and
if you know how to connect with the culture, you'll find that just as
important as the museums and galleries, is experiencing and enjoying the culture,
through the hearth, through the dining room table, and through the kitchen.
Thank you. If you've enjoyed this video,
you'll find lots more at ricksteves.com, and on my Rick
Steves YouTube channel. Happy travels, and thanks for joining us.
