Award and reward
HELP choose this year’s travel Oscar winners and you could win a dream holiday. The ballot for the 2017 BritishTravel Awards is open until September 30 and everyone who takes part is entered into a draw. Prizes include cruises, a tropical tour, a £2,000 travel voucher and more. You can vote at britishtravelawards.com. TRAVEL always broadened the mind – now it broadens the body too, with a big slice of our trips given over to epicurean exploits. But hey, you’re on holiday, so tickle ye tastebuds while ye may… The mother lode of haute cuisine still has twice as many Michelin stars as any other nation, with great regional variety – from the wine-rich stews of Burgundy to the choucroute of Alsace.
Fortunately you don’t need to go far to hit pay dirt. Two of the closest holiday spots to the UK, Normandy and Brittany, have top quality seafood – particularly oysters, mussels and prawns – and top cheeses camembert and brie.
Normandy’s orchards produce crisp cider and pungent calvados, and the seaweed-fertilised fields of Brittany add quality vegetables.
Meanwhile the region’s famous crepes have universal appeal. TOP TIP: The local markets are still a big deal in rural France. There will be produce here you won’t see in the supermarkets, and you will be buying wonderful fruit and veg straight from the horse’s mouth – metaphorically. This is the home of much-loved pizza and pasta, found everywhere in the world. However, as in France, regional cuisine is very varied.
In the Dolomites to the north, it is mushrooms and polenta, along the sea coasts it is squid and tuna. Menus can be a bit confusing too, with primi piatti being pasta, risotto, soup or stew, and secondi piatti, the main meat dish.
Tuscany is a favourite for many, if only because of the painterly landscape with cypress trees and ancient hilltop villages. Its specialities range from wild boar ragu to simple bruschetta – grilled bread with tomato and garlic.
Tuscans are great bean-eaters and they love wild asparagus, so these two feature frequently in fish dishes and stews. TOP TIP: You can’t go wrong with pizza, pasta and Italian ice cream. The kids will love it. Most people know paella, the saffron rice dish with seafood, and possibly duck or rabbit.
Also good to seek out are chilled soups such as gazpacho, and meat dishes such as roast suckling pig.
The Spanish are very keen on fish, which is far more competitively priced here than in most of Europe. In the north, look out for pulpo – octopus – and bacalao, salt cod, which is the base of several recipes.
For visitors to the sunny south, the emphasis is on peasant dishes such as tortilla made with potato, air-dried jamon, or serrano ham, sheep’s cheese queso manchega, and patatas bravas – potatoes in a spicy sauce).
Limber up first with a crisp fino sherry made by one of the many bodegas in Jerez. TOP TIP: Tapas – small taster plates – make it possible to try many varieties of Spanish cuisine without having to commit to an expensive sit-down meal. Food here is a mix of French and Flemish influences, which means mussels in wine on the one hand, and waffles and monastery-brewed beer on the other. Then there’s chocolate and SwedishSw cuisine is light, fresh and aromatic. IdealId for slim blondes. Seafood is first class, particularlypa all the varieties of marinaded