An unforgettable part of any European adventure is extending your (and the kids') palates by trying local delicacies that you can't find back home.
Here is a rundown of some of the more exotic eats to seek out in various places when you are traveling in Europe with kids.
And remember...one bite won't kill you.
Super fresh mussels
Mussels aren't really that exotic, but on the French Riviera, you know they are fresh because you might get a little extra surprise. This happened to me when dining at a seaside cafe in Nice, France. I was going to town on a large bowl full of them when I bit into something hard. Just a little grit I figured. Three mussels later I chomped a similar hard piece of something. I pulled it out of my mouth and was suddenly staring at a baby crab. It was only half the size of a pinky nail, but it has six little legs, two claws and eyes staring right back up at me. I was a little freaked out and mentioned it to the waiter. "It just means it's fresh. It didn't have time to digest its last meal," he said with a slightly annoyed shrug.
Foie gras
The Grand Dame of elegant and (to many Americans) weird French food, foie gras is a fan favorite in our house. The near literal translation of foie gras is "liver fat" and well, that is exactly what you are eating...the fatty liver of a duck or goose. While raising birds for foie gras may not be pleasant, I look at it this way: geese and ducks are birds. Birds were dinosaurs. They ruled their earth for 150 million years. It's a mammalian world now, baby.
But I digress. Foie gras is typically served in small portions as an appetizer with toast points, and you spread the foie like butter. And oh man, does is spread like butter, like a perfectly melty butter that is just a little bit warm and has a beefy, nutty taste.
I have a recurring dream where I'm in medieval Brittany...that part of France that is French but also pretty British and all the ladies are named for pretentious Gen-Z girls...and I am a knight--of course. Stopping at a tavern a random other knight shouts when I walk in, "Friend of Foie?" and I replay "Foie, Mai Ouis!" and much carousing ensues.
Clearly, I'm all in for foie and it is something that you should try in France...if nothing else than just to say that you did. When it comes to the kiddos, just tell them that it is "French butter." They will probably like it just like our toddler did.
Steak Tartar
Another not-so-unknown dish from France, steak tartar is one that should be tried. You can't get more classic Parisian than a plate of steak tartar with a side of frites at a cozy little bistro. The dish itself is raw steak minced with a little onion, mustard, capers and a raw egg. It usually comes with toast, but with a side of frites is tres manifique for me.
Pickled herring
This wonderful oddity can be found throughout Germany and the Nordic countries. As the name applies, it is pickled fish. Herring is the most common, but the Norse people will pickle just about any fish they can fit into a jar.
While your first reaction may be a hard pass, there are so many different ways to prepare it that the actual taste of pickled fish can range from delicately delicious to truly revolting.
When prepared fresh from high quality fish, pickled herring will taste like a nice silky white fish prepared with a the perfect dash of dill.
I've had pickled herring in Europe a handful of times and the general rule of thumb that I've found is to give it a whiff. Whatever the smell, the taste will be 3x as fishy, briny and pickley. This may be a no-go but I'm sure some of you have enjoyed a swig of pickle juice, so don't let this be any different.
Tripe
Oh, what a fickle mistress are thee, Lady Tripe. Never have I had something that smells so amazing and taste so weird. Not bad...but weird.
My tripe moment occurred after a morning spent hardcore museum hopping across Florence, when we went to the Boboli Gardens to chill out for the afternoon. Near the entrance was a food truck with a line 20 deep and a wafting smell that was enchanting. My olfactory memory can still recall the pleasantly beefy breeze--like that of a perfectly seasoned ribeye steak on the grill.
You know in old school cartoons, when a character smells something delicious and suddenly they are levitating by their nose towards the source? That was me, floating by nose magnet to the food truck.
I waited in line for more than 30 minutes (because Italy) and when I finally got to the front, I just pointed to what everyone else was getting.
The super-cute food truck lady handed me a hamburger bun dripping in meat juice and asked for two Euro. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but when a cute woman hands you amazing-smelling drippy meat for the cost of pocket change, you relish that moment...and I did--until I took a bite.
It was a bun full of tripe -- in this case, cow stomach. Now don't get me wrong. Tripe tastes pretty much like it smells but the texture is game over for me. You know when you get a nice piece of beef that has a quarter inch of fat on the end? Imagine that the entire piece is fat with nary an eighth of an inch of chewable meat. It's like eating an entire ice skate of fat with the smallest edge of the blade having actual meat.
I tried so hard to love you, Lady Tripe, but I just couldn't do it.
Moose & Reindeer
Scandinavian cuisine is a wonderful celebration of local flora and fauna from tiny delicate mushrooms to the majestic horned ungulates. While certainly not a primary protein, moose and reindeer is frequently found on menus across Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. The meat of both tastes like venison and can be found in steaks, roasts and stews. In Sweden, you'll find moose and reindeer meatballs which can be an easy entry point and Meatballs For The People in Stockholm is perhaps the world's best meatball focused restaurant featuring more than a dozen different animals in meatball form. Just don't mention Rudolph when the plate is put down in front of you.
Whole fried fish from Finland to Greece
Ordering fish anywhere in Europe can be a crap shoot because our pescetarian palates in the U.S. are limited to pretty much white fish and salmon. However, in Europe, fish of just about any size, shape and flavor can be found across the Continent and luckily, most any of it is fried. On one particular trip, I made a point of wanting to try as many different fish dishes as possible and not worry what I was actually ordering -- which ended up with more than a few scrunched up faces from the wife and kids.
In Greece this meant ordering the random fish of the day -- big suckers about 9 seven inches long and fried whole, scales fins and all. A full pound of these golden brown creatures yielded about three ounces of actual meet so it was whole fish or hungry dinner for me.
Helsinki was the other end of the Continent and another whole fried fish encounter. Market Square is a seaside district where you can stroll along a wharf, shop for fun souvenirs and grab a snack at a wide variety of food stalls. One particularly friendly shop was offering up samples of some unknown fried goodness. At first, I thought it was french fries, so I eagerly grabbed a bite, only to realize it was goldfish sized and shaped whole fried fish called vendance. Not wanting to be rude, I popped a whole one into my mouth and oh man -- it was amazing. I bought two Euro worth and made the boys try it. Reluctantly they did, but would not admit how tasty these little swimmers actually were.
Making adventurous eaters
Live by the adage that one bite won't kill you and you only live once to make some grand memories of Europe with your kids. Yes, we've had to argue with the kids to try even some of the most basic foods on vacation. And yes, some of these weird foods are things that I would never eat again. However, if you try something truly revolting, you will have a memory to last a lifetime.
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