Green Tea Drink - Luxembourg (by @NLi10)

I’d never been to Luxembourg 🇱🇺 in fact all I knew about the place was that my well travelled friends advised me not to stay long, and that they used to do unusually well on the TV show Going For Gold. My trip was designed to visit places I’d not really considered for a longer holiday as part of my snack-based Social Tourism (SocTour?)

Here I am underground in their natural history museum (they appear to have don an excavation as part of the building work and incorporated it in an amazing way into the museum.

Why are we talking about this though? They have a cafe!

Before I went out to brave the pretty warm streets I treated myself to a Matcha tea from a range that I thought was all Kumbucha drinks. Alas - this one is just tea. But it’s still pretty darn good.

It’s got all kinds of stuff in it, and I assumed I’d never see these again - until I noticed that it was made in Austria - where I am headed on my trip! Maybe I will get to try the range after all. 

Stone IPA Beer (Asda) By @SpectreUK

Stone IPA is a West Coast style India Pale Ale. A 'West Coast style IPA' concentrates mainly on citrus and tropical flavoured hops, rather than the malts. Stone IPA was brewed in Berlin. I've never been there personally, but have seen it in various states in documentaries, travel programmes and movies. I have been to Germany and toured some of its lovely cities in the past though. Stone IPA has an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 6.9%. That seems remarkably strong for an IPA. I don't think I've ever tried an IPA with such a high ABV before. Too many of these and I expect I'd be 'Stone drunk'!

On opening the can there was the expected heavy smell of citrus and tropical hops. Breaking it down at a push I'd say this aroma was akin to mainly orange mandarin, a touch of bitter lemon and a little mango for afters. On taste the mango flavour in the hops explodes forth initially. Then there's the heavy lifting mandarin orange flavoured hops that lasts awhile, which is then followed by a shear knife edge bitterness from the lemon hops. The sweet malts of pale and possibly crystal kick in for a lighter spell into the aftertaste. This is a very tasty complex beer. Enjoy one or two yourself. "Prost!" or "Cheers!" if you prefer it. ;-)

Proper Corn Microwavable Cinnamon Popcorn (Asda) By @Cinabar

I haven’t made microwave popcorn for many years, the last time I tried the bag caught fire. The “incident” may have been some years ago but it meant I had to really think about whether I went down the route of even buying another bag of microwavable popcorn, the cinnamon swayed me. I love cinnamon, it is my favourite spice so Proper Corn Microwavable Cinnamon Popcorn seemed worth it!

I was however very careful to follow the instructions on this pack, although I’m pretty sure I did last time.
Inside the box are three flat sachets which you pop it in the microwave, with the x side down and then cook it for 2 - 3 minutes, significantly stopping when the popping slows to every 3 seconds. This took 2 minutes 20 seconds in my microwave, and thank fully I had a fully puffed up bag and no burning. Phew.

Despite a good shake before opening the popcorn was unevenly seasoned, this meant that some pieces were very plain.

I didn’t mind this, but I can see that they are not the best bits. The seasoning is also a little odd, sweet cinnamon yes but with a hint of something herby I couldn’t quite place. Part of me thinks it is over cooked cinnamon? The important part was I liked the taste anyway, I found it quite moreish and pleasing to munch on. It was not the best flavour, but there was enough cinnamon to keep me happy. The popcorn pieces were large and fluffy and had a nice crunch. There was only a few unpopped kernels so I think I timed it well too. I found myself reaching for a second helping, so all in all it was a success.

Proper Belgian Steak (burger) by @NLi10

I’m on the mainland and trying to eat local cuisine so went for a Belgian Blue Steak. Typically they had run out of that days stock so I went for the equivalent burger.

I also had a Belgian beer in a Belgian glass.

And here is the burger, it took a while to come but that’s because they ground the beef and shaped it just for me!

It looks good on the outside

And slightly pink on the inside - which is scary for BBQ but not so for a restaurant. The beef was fabulously crumbly and had a great flavour. All of the bits inside were great although the cheese was not British cheese and was more like the texture of pepper! I enjoyed it and shall try to keep eating my way across Europe.