I read an article on one of the cruise pages recently about food on a cruise, either on a ship or in port and it got me thinking about the whole experience of food and travel

I discovered Tinto de Verano quite by chance when I did a solo trip to Madrid a few years ago, I met a friend in the Grand Plaza and it’s now a tradition that if either of us is on the Spanish mainland or islands we send each other a pic of our favourite drink in the sun

Another friend, who lived in Spain for several years introduced me to the true delights of Tapas and one of my favourite things now when in Spain, is to enjoy some Tapas y Tinto de Verano

It’s the whole experience, sitting in the sun, trying to speak Spanish and trying to order something with a real local flavour. And when you have breakfast on board and know there’s a fabulous dinner to come later, a couple of Tapas are just enough to keep you going

I’ve 2 meals that rank as my favourite travel meals, well there’s close competition from several, but one truly memorable one was the Mushroom Dumplings in Jumbo, the floating restaurant in Hong Kong’s Aberdeen. I asked the waitress for help, with no meat or fish, she closed the menu, lifted the offers sheet which was in Chinese with a very tiny English translation and said that and that. So I ended up with these amazing mushroom dumplings and this sort of eggy pancake thing, she took one look at me and said ‘I’ll get you a knife and fork’ lol, but I really did appreciate it, plus the entire meal and fabulous experience cost me about £7. I’m not even going to tell you how much my friend who knew what she was doing spent 😂😂

My other favourite meal was the one above, we met another friend for lunch in Tenerife and this is where she took us. Christopher Columbus is said to have stood at the bar here. The guacamole came as ingredients, I had to make my own, and those blue nachos were just amazing, I searched everywhere to buy some, and good old M&S have recently started doing them at home. The goats cheese and balsamic onion creation was just heavenly as well, all of course washed down with Tinto de Verano!

I’m told you can buy great ones in Lidl or in the Freezer at Tesco, but nothing quite equals the experience of a Pastel de Nata in Portugal

Wether it’s sitting outside at a coffee kiosk in Lisbon, or with a glass of port on a vintage tram, or even from a bakery in Porto as a reward for walking up and down all those hills, it’s something you just want to experience yourself and a real cruise favourite. I can’t wait to sample these again in Portugal or Madeira on a Canaries Cruise. Of course if you want to sample the original you’ll have to make it to Pasteis de Belem in Lisbon – that’s on my list

Another fabulous foodie cruise experience was the few days we did pre cruise in a Freezing New York one January! The pigeons got more of the giant pretzel than we ate, but these things have to be tried. We checked out Time Outs best pizza in New York and squashed into the tiniest booth to munch these delicious concoctions, even if Rebecca’s at the back was a bit unusual. We think it was called Don Antonio, near the theatre district anyway. Other memorable pizza was near Termini Station in Rome, sure who needs an English menu, and in Valletta, where they just couldn’t quite get it right, the guy sitting beside us ate half my friends pizza but every mishap was just greeted with more limoncello

And finally, because I’ve rambled on a lot here, I have to mention the strangest afternoon tea ever in St Petersburg. Cabbage Tart anyone?

Well you have to try these things when you travel!

Australia and New Zealand will get their own post some day, but I was a little addicted to those salad wraps