Intermania food crawl

On Sunday the 2nd of April, the intermania went on a tour around the world. To get to know each country a little bit better, we ordered their local dishes and beverages to get a taste of the culture. To give you, our lovely reader, a little taste of our journey, we wrote this article to give you the highlights of each country together with a detailed food review. Bon appetit!

The first country we visited was located all the way in the far east of the world, Xi jingping’s China. Walking through the streets of this beautiful country we noticed an abundance of dumpling restaurants, our first stop became the ‘House of Dumplings’. The concept of a dumpling is fairly simple, it is a piece of dough filled with some stuffing which is then boiled, fried or steamed. The first dumpling ever was already consumed around 200 BCE during the Han Dynasty. During our fine dining experience in the ‘House of dumplings’ we were actually not served Chinese dumplings but rather imported Indian and Afghan dumplings. We were surprised by this but after doing some research it turned out that although the dumpling originated from China, these adjacent countries adopted the tradition and gave it a twist of their own using local spices. Both types were really delicious but our favourite was the Indian dumpling; at first glance looking simple, without a lot of hotchpotch, but during the chewing phase there was an explosion of taste. The combination of Indian spices and Chinese tradition gave a very pleasant surprise to our first stop.  

Having the delicious taste of India still on our taste buds we wanted more, so we travelled a bit more south and walked into the magical country of India. Here we took a hike through dangerous jungles, narrow crevices and scorching deserts to locate the best restaurant in India; the Krishna Villas. This restaurant offers traditional Indian vegetarian food and drinks for a very reasonable price. We ordered the following dishes from the menu; mini idlis (with cocos chutney), masala dosa (with sambar, mint chutney, cocos chutney) and garlic naans. Especially the masala dosa was thoroughly enjoyed by the Intermania so we will tell you a little bit more about it. The dish looks like a flattened pancake that is made by soaking rice and lentils overnight in water which is then grinded into a batter. This batter is then fermented overnight after which it gets pan-roasted until crispy. When served you should rip pieces off the pancake and dip into the provided chutneys and curries beside it. We really liked it because it is meant to be shared with each other which brings the table together. Besides this, we also ordered sweetened and salted lassi which are yoghurt-based drinks. To give you a quick review about them; sweetened lassi tastes like a nice milkshake and salted lassi makes you feel like you accidentally swallowed some seawater.  

For the next country on our list, we went to the other side of the world and landed in mexicooooooooo. At this moment in time, we were really hungry from all the travelling so we immediately ordered everything Mexico had to offer from a nice restaurant called ‘Tortillas’. Luckily this country has invented something that perfectly fits our cravings; tapasssss. These are a combination of small Spanish dishes, giving us a nice selection of what the Mexican cuisine has to offer. This included nachos, quesadillas, fried peppers and many more. This history behind tapas is not what you would expect. Tapas came into existence when King Alfonso X was ill and came up with a genius way to recover from his illness. He theorised that drinking wine with small variations of dishes in between would improve his health considerately and against all odds it worked! After regaining his health, the king ordered that taverns would not be allowed to serve wine to customers unless it was accompanied by a small snack or ‘tapa’, giving rise to the tapas tradition. Instead of wine, our dining company decided instead to drink some different classical Mexican drinks, tequila shots. To quote the bartender that brought us the tequila; ‘I would say cheers, but it’s not really nice is it’. And correct the man was.  

To end our world journey we went back to Europe and first visited the boot-shaped country called Italy. Because we were already chock-full from the previous stops we only visited this country to get a small desert in the form of real Italian ice cream. Luckily for us on every corner of every street, an ice cream parlour can be found in Italy. We picked one at random called ‘Bastani’. After some discussion about whether ice cream in a cone or cup is better (of course, a cone is the better choice) we all ordered a different flavour of ice cream. Review time; what do you expect? It’s ice cream, it was delicious.  

Are you still not done travelling? We also recommend taking a quick stop in the leprechaun-worshipping country of Ireland. Here you can find an abundance of pubs, like O'Sheas, to get a quick digestif. We enjoyed a big pint of Guinness, together with an Irish coffee. Well enjoyed… most of us made a face like a leprechaun after each sip because it was a bit too strong. So if you like a strong drink, definitely take a stop at this pub. 

Did you get hungry (and thirsty) after reading this article? Go make a world tour in Eindhoven! It is a perfect way to get to know both the cultures of different countries and Eindhoven a little bit better. We are curious about what you thought about our route!