What a meal …..

When we were in Cesky Krumlov (remember the place where we stayed with Jen and Suzanne) we were supposed to go out to a restaurant one night. My friend and I were sitting in the beautiful garden, sipping wine, when J & S arrived and told us that they did not have money to go out … “how much do you have?” I asked. “No more than 15 euros for both of us.”  I told her to give me the money and to follow me. I contributed 15 euros for my traveling companion and I, and we went grocery shopping … now, I HATE shopping, except grocery shopping in Europe. We had a blast. We bought so much stuff, you could not believe it. Yeah, you guessed it , we bought a lot of wine and beer too.

Once we got home, I opened another bottle of wine and got into the kitchen. I cooked the spaghetti (I like mine soft, not el dente) for about 12 – 15 minutes. While the spaghetti was cooking, I grated some cheese, and ham (yes one CAN grate ham). I mixed the grated cheese and ham with a little bit of heavy whipping cream (yoghurt will work too, if you can’t get cream) and once the spaghetti was ready, I drained the water, and mixed in the cheese, ham and cream mixture, and kept on stirring until the cheese melted.  After I dished up for each of us, I sprinkled some more grated cheese over the food. Add to that the wonderful freshly-baked bread that we bought and, voila, we had a wonderful, though inexpensive, meal. The wine complemented the meal.

For dessert we had chocolates and incredible cookies. For our 30 euros, we bought all of this, plus the wine, beer and some more goodies for breakfast the next day. Food is cheap in Europe, much cheaper than what we pay and if one knows the basics of cooking, there is NO excuse why one should not eat like a king at a pauper’s price!

P.S.the best meal I have ever had, was in Italy in a village on Lago Garda. Spaghetti Carbonara. I shall never forget it as long as I live!