Pizza and Gelato, Please!

As you can tell from the title, this post is going to be all about the wonderful and delicious food of Italy, and it will be long, because I spent a lot of time researching and trying out the best cheap eats in this culinary capital. Since I consider myself a budget traveller, I always scout out the best places at the lowest prices. Rome has a lot of great, inexpensive eats! Though we didn't engage in any traditional Italian fine dining, with multiple courses and exquisite wine, I would say we definitely were able to eat our way through Rome!

I'll start with pizza, which are the ultimate affordable and filling quick bite in Italy. Pizza is to Italy what Souvlaki is to Greece, in my opinion.

Most neighborhoods will have small nondescript pizza shops, which still offer pizza that is quite superior to your average American pizza. The pizza is all laid out in a counter, in rectangular shapes, and you buy the pizza by the gram. There are a lot of different types of pizza, some without cheese, and with lots of vegetable options like potatoes, onions, and broccoli.

After you tell the person working behind the counter how much you want, they heat the slice up for you so that your pizza is warm and toasty. You can get a decently healthy meal (like this pizza below with tomatoes and bell peppers) for about $5 USD. 

When we were in a hurry we would usually go to the nearest small pizza place, but of course I also wanted to try the best that Rome has to offer. I found that generally the difference between the top pizza shops and the average shops is that the ingredients are more fresh and higher quality, the crust is crispy and light, and the people are friendly and more adept at helping tourists.

We went to several shops that were rated highly on Tripadvisor. One of the first that we tried is called Zizi's Pizza. It is a decent family-owned joint, with a great variety of pizzas. We tried one with fresh mozzarella and prosciutto, and one with broccoli and spinach. I noticed that in Italy, cheese is merely one type of topping on pizza, unlike in the United States, where pizza is nearly always smothered in melted cheese.

The best pizza, hands down, is at Pinsere, a few blocks from the main train station. When I was there, it was rated #2 on Tripadvisor out of about 9,000 restaurants in Rome, which is incredible! If you are in Rome, you've gotta gotta gotta go here! It fully lives up to it's hype.

The place is tiny, and there is only a bit of counter space inside and outside where you can stand and eat. Don't let that deter you - the pizza here is out of this world delicious. The pizza comes in all sorts of creative varieties, in personal pan sizes. The pizza on the counter is partially cooked, and then after you order it is heated in a big oven. On the side, through glass, you can see the workers busily working with fresh dough.

There are all sorts of options, with fresh sliced meats and cheese, vegetables, and even one with nuts and pears. I believe there is a vegan option as well. Each pizza easily feeds one person and is $5-6. 

Below is the two pizzas we chose to split - a potato and onion one, and a ham and cheese one. After it's done baking to perfection, it is drizzled lightly with truffle oil. Yum! After all this talk, you probably won't believe that I'm actually not a huge pizza fan in my normal life, but I will never forget the pizza from Pinsere. Trust me, it's worth a slight detour from your itinerary.

Another way to save money is to cook a few meals yourself if you have kitchen access. I bought and cooked most breakfasts. Usually, I would make some time to run to a local fruit mart or grocery and buy some eggs, cheese, and tomatoes. It's affordable, quick, and healthy!

You can use the money you save on breakfast to buy coffee...and gelato of course! I had gelato almost every afternoon. When in Rome... right? I couldn't help it - there are so many quality, artisanal gelato shops with delectable flavors (Nutella, yogurt, pistachio, rum and raisin....the list goes on).

One famous institution is called Giolliti, and it has been open since 1890. I read somewhere that it is Italy's oldest ice cream shop. It was insanely crowded, packed with tourist groups and school kids, but we managed to fight through to get our gelato! There are dozens of flavors projected on screens above on the walls.

Gelato is deliciously rich and creamy. I found that the chocolate flavors were usually solid, whereas some of the others were too sweet. The sign of good gelato is when the colors are muted and rich, rather than bright and artificial. It shows that the shop does not add additional colorings to the mix.

Lastly, another dessert that I enjoyed immensely is tiramisu. It's light, creamy, with a dusty of coffee - what's not to like? It usually comes in several flavors like original, pistachio, and hazelnut. 

A popular shop in Rome is called Pompi. It seems to mostly cater towards tourists, but I found it to be very light and tasty. You get a little box for about $4. 

Pistachio tiramisu is also delicious! This one below is from a great little shop in Venice called I Tre Mercanti. They make their tiramisu everyday in the shop, and also sell other specialty local products, like pastas, chocolates, and oils.

As you can, I definitely had my share of terrific eats in Italy (and this is not even mentioning the pastas and panini). These daily indulgences were balanced out by miles and miles of walking. I'm not sure I can ever fully enjoy pizza and ice cream here in the states again.

Greek Eats

I have finally finished my one month travels in Europe, and there is so much to share. First, I traveled to Athens, the beautiful capital of Greece. Food-wise, I was pleasantly surprised that though I was a budget traveller, I was able to eat quite well in this country.

The most affordable, filling "fast food," is souvlaki. Souvlaki is basically roasted or grilled meat wrapped up in a warm, soft pita. There is pork, lamb, and chicken varieties. Other fillings include tomatoes, lettuce, yogurt sauce, and sometimes herbs. Souvlaki commonly costs around 2 euros, and the quality can vary vastly.

The souvlaki in the photo below had french fries added into the mix!

The best souvlaki that we tried was at a small family establishment called "O Kostas." This hole-in-the-wall is a out of the way from the Acropolis area, and it looks quite plain from the outside, but looks are deceiving in this case. This shop exclusively makes souvlaki, and have done so for about 50 years. Inside is a tiny room with a counter, a small grill and toppings bar, and two bar stools.

This souvlaki was the best! The pita bread was soft and warm, the meat was tender, the tomatoes so fresh, and the fresh herbs added a nice flavor punch. The price is comparable to any other shop, 2.20 euros for one. We went back again just to experience this amazing food. The owners were really friendly, and we could see how successful the little shop was, with the continuous line of locals throughout the whole lunch period.

Another cheap eat we saw everywhere was a sesame bagel/pretzel crossover called koulouri in Greek. These are deliciously chewy and seedy - they make a nice snack with some tea or coffee. 

Most of the meals that we had involved some form of grilled meat, bread or potatoes, and salad. Greek food is simple, wholesome, and relatively healthy. There is plenty of olives, feta, lemon, and olive oil - all part of a healthy Mediterranean diet.  

The small plates of meat skewers are pretty cheap. At many restaurants, even in the tourist areas, they were 1.5-2 euros for a meat skewer and some bread on the side. Two of these could be a light meal for a person.

At local neighborhood sit-down restaurant, dishes cost between 4 and 9 euros. Most prices include tax, and some restaurants charge for water while others provide it for free. 

I had to try a Greek salad, and here they use way more feta cheese than I've ever seen. The salads commonly come with huge slabs of salty, savory feta. The salads usually cost around 5 euros, and they were certainly large, meant to serve as a side for multiple people. 

I also ate copious amounts of Greek yogurt, obviously. I love that creamy, rich yogurt, and in Greece I found that dairy and fresh-baked bread was much cheaper than in the U.S., and certainly than in Asia. Overall, the food is surprisingly affordable for Europe, especially if you buy food from grocery stores to make your own breakfast.

Noryangjin Fisheries Market

There is a huge fisheries market in Seoul called Noryangjin Wholesale Fisheries Market. In this enormous indoor space, hundreds of small vendors sell fresh fish and other seafood, and there are restaurants lining the sides of the market that can cook up the food you buy, on the spot. 

Noryangjin is open all year and apparently 24 hours a day. The market is fairly easy to get to. It's in the southern part of Seoul, at a subway station conveniently named Noryangjin. Once you exit the station, you cross an overpass bridge which leads you to the market. 

You can peek over the railing on the second floor and see an overwhelming array of fresh seafood being sold.

There are all sorts of shellfish and mollusks...

...huge crabs and lobsters...

Salmon, tuna, and all other sorts of fish, freshly caught from the ocean. 

I'm not sure what this below creature is - some sort of stingray?

There are aisles upon aisles of fish. Be sure not to wear nice shoes to this market, as the ground is wet and slippery, and vendors butcher fish right on the spot.

As you walk down the aisles, you can start scouting out your next meal. Vendors sell fresh whole fish, prepared fish, as well as sashimi. There was so much delicious looking sashimi. 

The prices were very reasonable. A platter of sashimi like the ones pictured below were between $10-15 USD.

The best part of the experience is that you can buy some fresh fish from the market and bring it to one of the restaurants at the side of the market. Usually the restaurants will charge a cooking fee and a "table" fee. The cooking fee depends on what you want cooked, and what type of cooking style you want (steamed, BBQ'd, soup). The table fee is between $3-5 USD per person. 

Unfortunately, we bought a huge platter of salmon head and fillet that no restaurant seemed to want to deal with. The portion was just too big! We thought we had gotten a great deal ($10 USD for four to five pounds of fresh salmon), but we were waved away by most of the restaurants.

We wandered desperately among the restaurants, until we came across a hole-in-the-wall place on the first floor. This restaurant was decidedly less fancy than the others, but the nice owner agreed to cook our enormous portion of salmon for only $10 USD, and there was no table fee either.  

While our fresh salmon was being grilled in the kitchen, we enjoyed some nice pickled side dishes - some sort of greens and a mushroom dish.

In a short amount of time, our massive plate of salmon arrived. The cook apologetically told us that the fish head was still cooking, but we were just so happy to see our food on the table.

The fish was terrific - fresh, flakey, and lightly charred from the grill. It really did not need any extra seasoning.

Then the best part of the meal, the fish head, arrived. The massive head was split in half. The meat near the head is actually the best part, tender and juicy. I definitely got my fill of omega-3s at this meal.

Though we tried valiantly, we could not finish the huge portion. There was an old Korean couple next to us who took interest in us as tourists. They showed us an interesting dish that they were eating. The table had a hotpot, and we saw them take a live octopus that they had bought from the market, and put it directly into the boiling broth.

It was a little terrifying to see the wriggling legs of the octopus as it sank into the hot soup. The Korean lady was very insistent that we try this traditional dish, so she promptly cut up some of the octopus leg for us to try. It was quite chewy, but otherwise not bad! Since they were so gracious to share part of their meal with us, we offered them some of our salmon fillets. 

This was one of the best and most memorable meals I had in Seoul. Next time I will know not to buy such a big and unwieldy portion of salmon if I want to have an easier time getting my food cooked. 

Ziqiang Night Market and Ye Xiang Dumplings

Like all Taiwanese cities, Hualien has a few night markets. I got a recommendation to go to Ziqiang Night Market, located in the middle of the city on Ziqiang Street. It's relatively small, but has a few lanes of densely packed food vendors.

As I was coming from the long bike ride, I was really thirsty and wanted something hydrating. Thankfully there are three or four highly affordable fruit juice vendors in the market. I asked for a fresh carrot juice with nothing else added. I saw the man juicing up five enormous carrots just for one small cup of sweet juice. It was only 40 TWD, a little more than $1 USD.  

There were some other interesting stands, such as this one selling marshmallow toast. We also saw a pizza place with a real brick oven!

The market is most famous for its BBQ, and there are numerous stalls selling the same product. A variety of foods (chicken, beef, tofu, vegetables) are all skewered on long sticks. You pick what you want, and then put it into a container to take to the checkout. Then all the food gets grilled in the back, and smothered in a thick and sweet sauce. The wait time is incredible - up to two hours, I've heard, for the most popular stall. We had to wait forty minutes. Fortunately, there is an updated queue sign which flashes the number of the order when it is ready.

Sorry for the terrible lighting in these photos! There was a bright red glow over the food from the lights overhead. As you can see, all the prices are clearly marked on each food. I got a stick of beef strips wrapped around green onion, and a skewer of green bell peppers. The sauce was way too thick and sweet - I don't think it's worth it to wait for so long!

Hualien is also famous for its wontons. We went to one of the oldest and most famous establishments called Ye Xiang Dumplings, open for sixty years. Like many restaurants that are famous for one thing, they only serve one item on the menu, and they are fast and efficient.

You order at the front counter, right across from where the experts wrap up the wontons. It's an easy process to order - there is no choice. The only menu item is a bowl of pork wontons. You specify how many bowls you want, and each bowl is $65 TWD (about $2 USD). Then you wait until the server brings it over to your table.

There were plenty of locals and tourists at this restaurant! These people were probably wondering why I was taking a photo of them. Even though a lot of people come here, the turnover rate is so fast that there seemed to be plenty of seating on a weekend lunch.

The wontons arrive in a matter of minutes. My bowl had nine plump wontons. They are so delicious! The meat is tender and flavorful, and lacks those fatty and chewy bits that some dumplings have. The wonton skin is smooth, silky, and really thin. Ye Xiang really has perfected their process over six decades.

We wanted to try their competitor shop, but unfortunately we ran out of time on this trip. Next time! I am still thinking about those wontons. You must try them if you go to Hualien.