Tasting Wine When Traveling

On July 19, 2023July 19, 2023 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Travel Tips7 Comments

Regardless of where we travel to, we always taste local wines during our time in the country. Sometimes we go on an actual wine tasting tour where we visit several vineyards and taste several of the varieties that they offer. Other times we seek out wine bars that specialize in serving local wines and then try a couple of different wines. Even if we don’t go to anyplace that specializes in wine, we’ll still ask the local restaurants about any wines that they would recommend from the region. We often find that the people that live there are extremely proud of their country’s wine traditions.

Wine Purchased from a Wine Tasting in Strasbourg, France

There are certain obvious places like France, Italy, Spain, and California in the US that not only offer wine tastings and tours, but often target tourists specifically to visit for their wine. However, we have been to many other countries that are not necessarily known for their wine and found that they have a wonderful wine tradition. Places like Peru, Panama, Egypt, Romania, Turkey, Vietnam, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic all had wonderful selections. Obviously, Germany has many wonderful wines as well.

Grape Vines at Lorimar Vineyard in California

Another place where we did a wine tasting was in Budapest where we enjoyed a wonderful charcuterie board as well as sampling a variety of wines. The region that we heard the most about for producing excellent wine was Eger, which grows both red and white varieties of wine. As far as red wine from Eger, the Bull’s Blood or Egri Bikaver was really good and came with an interesting back-story. Legend has it that in 1552 a small group of soldiers were drinking wine in preparation for the upcoming siege of Eger and bull’s blood was added to the wine to give them extra strength and stamina. The group was able to successfully beat the larger group of Turks and the legend was born.

Many Varieties of Local Wine in Budapest

What was your favorite location to enjoy a wine tasting?

Cooking Lamb for Dinner, an Easter Tradition

On April 6, 2023April 6, 2023 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Recipes1 Comment

One of our traditions is to cook lamb for dinner on Easter Sunday. Typically, we will cook either a leg of lamb or a rack of lamb, but sometimes we enjoy lamb chops instead. Lamb has a very distinct flavor and it can certainly stand up to robust seasonings. Below are some of our favorite recipes that we have shared previously and that are some of our go-to recipes.

Roasted Leg of Lamb – There is something about having lamb that is very emblematic of the coming of spring to us and we look forward to this meal every year. Oven roasted red potatoes is definitely our favorite starch to serve with lamb and sautéing spinach made for a light and refreshing vegetable.

Lamb Chops with Roasted Red Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts

Lamb Chops Marinated with Dijon Mustard and Herbs – Some people find lamb to be a little “gamey”, but we enjoy the robust flavor and it can stand up to a variety of spices. This is a simple recipe and yet it is quite delicious. The key to lamb is to ensure that you get the temperature right because if it is over-cooked, it can become dry, but if it isn’t cooked to mid-rare it can be chewy. You can substitute dry herbs for the fresh herbs, but use fresh herbs if at all possible as it will taste much brighter.

Rack of Lamb – Lamb is one those ingredients that is quite common around the world and can be used in a variety of dishes. Rack of lamb makes for an elegant presentation and is very tasty if cooked properly. Having an instant-read thermometer handy is a key to making sure that you cook the lamb to a medium temperature with a pink interior.

Eating Our Way Through Istanbul, Turkey

On February 16, 2023February 16, 2023 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Turkey5 Comments

We enjoyed several wonderful meals during our time in Istanbul and even took a food tour where we ate food in both the European and Asian sections of Istanbul. In addition to the food, we also had a local drink called Raki as well as several local beers and wines. One of the most popular dinner choices are the dinners cooked in clay pots over an extremely hot, open fire. They bring the fire pit next to your table and put on quite an extravagant show as they cook your meal and then crack the pot open and pour the contents onto a plate for you to enjoy.

Dinner and a Show

Coffee and tea is also quite popular and we even tried an orange tea made with fresh orange rinds. We love taking food tours as they provide you the opportunity to try many different varieties of dishes, but it is also way more food than the two of us could possibly eat. We started our tour with breakfast, which is not something that we normally eat, but it was a really enjoyable way to start our day. We ended our tour in the shopping district of Istanbul and then took the ferry back to the area near our hotel.

Orange Tea

You will find street carts with stuffed mussels near many of the attractions and in shopping areas and it is definitely worth trying as they are very tasty. Overall, we couldn’t say that one meal was better than another as we found each of them to be completely interesting with unique tastes. What we can say is that the staff at every restaurant where we ate were extremely friendly and very proud of the cuisine that they had to offer. At some point we’ll try to replicate some of the meals that we had, but obviously we’re not going to be cooking in a clay pot over an open flame.