"" Writer's Wanderings: Fattening Foods From Around The World

Friday, June 26, 2015

Fattening Foods From Around The World

In light of the US government clamping down on the use of trans fats all together and the fact that I've been trying to diet, Smarter Travel's article on fattening foods around the world caught my eye. A couple of times on our world cruise the chefs served churros which, after having them in Barcelona, Spain, were a great disappointment. In Spain, the deep fried treat coated in sugar and cinnamon is served fresh and with the richest hot chocolate ever put in a cup. You dip the churros in it and drink any chocolate that's left. I need to move on. I'm drooling. In the cash box of calories though--cha ching!

While crepes in France are often served with a variety of other ingredients the most popular for us chocolate lovers is the Nutella crepe. Chocolate being made from hazelnuts may sound healthy but just two tablespoons has 200 calories and then there's the crepe, a sweet thin pancake rolled with the Nutella filling and sprinkled with powdered sugar. They aren't small and they are oh, so good!

While the pizzas in Italy look nothing like the ones at home in the US, the calzones are a different story. The first time we had a pizza in Rome I was surprised to find that it was cracker thin (not fun for a carb lover) and with just a few vegetables with only the slightest hint of any sauce. If there was cheese, it was lightly sprinkled and hard to find. We never had a calzone in Italy but I read that they contain as much dough as in a full pizza and of course are filled with all sorts of tomatoes, cheese, etc. that make it a meal and a half. The calzone originated in the Campania region of Italy and our travels have not touched that area. We'll have to fix that.

The last one in the Smarter Travel list of foods surprised me. Ramen from Japan. I didn't think there was much in Japanese food stuffs that was really fattening. We've been to the Cup Noodle museum in Yokohama but I didn't pay attention to any calorie counts. Apparently the ramen the article talks about is a traditional Japanese dish of soup with noodles and topped with meats, eggs and vegetables. The problem comes in that the soup base is often made of beef, lard, and oil. Kudos to my daughter-in-law though. I've never seen her cook with that.

The one thing that wasn't mentioned is the thing we love to get when visiting other countries. French fries! They are cooked in that really bad stuff that makes them really crispy and really good. Ah, well. Guess I save my calories for the next trip.




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