TRAVEL MUSINGS
Missing Travels… and Travel-Food During the Pandemic
And the best desserts I miss
Last night I was in my room when suddenly a thought crosses my mind: when can I eat baklava again?
It was so random that I needed to take a mental double-take to really ask myself if it was really baklava that I miss or maybe it’s something else. And the answer was: I miss traveling. And since hmm… food has always been a big part of my traveling experiences, my mind connected them just like that.
Yes, I miss traveling. The feeling of being somewhere new, of exploring things, and of course of getting lost in almost every city I visited. That’s just my specialty. Even with paper maps or Google Maps, you can bet that at some point I would still get lost.
But sometimes getting lost is not always bad, right? I often find interesting things and sometimes delicious food when I’m lost. Especially desserts. For this one thing, I dare say that it seems like I have a fully working internal GPS. Finding the best-tasting desserts has never been difficult for me.
Don’t believe me? Okay, let me give you a few examples.
1. Struklji
The strukjli I tasted in Ljubljana is a great example. I didn’t even know what strukjli was, but once I saw Moji Strukjli, a small café/restaurant near the main square of the city, I was sold.
The dark chocolate-orange strukjli I ordered was really really good. Fluffy and delicious, with the right mix of sweetness and acidity.
Little did I know that Moji Strukjli is actually quite famous. Good thing I got there quite early in the morning.
If you happen to visit Ljubljana, I would strongly suggest strukjli. There is the savory version also, I prefer the sweet ones. The strukjli I ate was steamed — at first I thought it was baked — first before it was served, so it was really hot but super delicious.
2. Baklava
And don’t forget about baklava. My favorite is pistachio baklava. I fell for this dessert at a formal dinner during a fellowship welcoming event.
I enjoyed it so much that I wanted my family and friends back home to taste it. So bravely I went to Grand Bazaar on my own on the last day of the fellowship — not realizing how big the Grand Bazaar was. But I made it and bought a big box of baklava while secretly hoping that the 12-hour flight home would not ruin it.
3. Best gelato ever!
But Pellegrino Artigiana is the best evidence of my internal GPS’ ability. The small gelato place is located in one of Bologna’s narrower streets. It wasn’t even on the main road, you have to take turns several times and hope you don’t get lost inside the maze of cobbled streets.
I swear you won’t find a better gelato in Bologna. Yes, I tried other gelato places, even those that are more famous and listed in the guide books. But so far, none could top Pellegrino for me. And I won’t mind trying out other stalls… when I can come back to Bologna.
Missing travels
With the world’s current condition, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people would wonder the same thing. You just need to change the word “baklava”, and many would relate. And yes, food is just one aspect of the whole traveling experience that we all miss nowadays.
I guess I was just in a nostalgic mood last night. The nostalgic mood surely is just a grain of sand in all the problems we have right now with the pandemic. Yup, the pandemic that made many countries had to close their borders for travelers.
But there’s so much to be missed from traveling, right? Let’s hope everything will get better soon. Stay safe and healthy everyone, till we can all eat baklava (you can change this word, of course) again.
