My trip to Europe is dwindling down to the final 3 weeks, and while I haven’t done nearly as much sightseeing this time due to work, I’ve had a chance to experience a lot more unusual food than I’ve done in the past on the road. In fact, I feel like I’ve just been lapsing from one food coma to the next since being here. I’m starting to believe, regardless of one’s culture or background, food is humanity’s common denominator. When we’re not eating, we’re talking about eating. And that’s usually about planning our next meal.

Last week I was invited to dinner and we ate stingray wings, very simply broiled then seasoned with a typically Belgian butter sauce with capers. Frites and haricot de mer (pickled seaweed) made the perfect accompaniments. I really wish I had remembered to bring my camera on this one outing because just the way you lift the bones was an experience to remember.

But I do have pictures of a few other regional meals, including this salmon and scallop tartare…

and an apple pastry called the rombosse:

But of course whenever I’m in this part of the world, I’m plenty happy with the moules frites:

So, what’s up with that first photo? It was taken during one of my lucid moments between the food comas at a bowling alley. Now as you can see from that score card, I’ve only bowled maybe once or twice in my life and the last time was probably nearly 20 years ago. So obviously there’s zero technique in my game…

but in my defense, I only dropped the ball backwards once toward another player this time. The ball missed his toe, so no harm, no foul. But hey, I did pick up another curse word in French!