I have just returned from a two-week holiday in Italy and France - two of my favourite countries for food. Before I left, a friend asked how many Michelin-starred restaurants I'd be visiting. To my surprise - and that of many of my foodie friends - it turned out to be none.
When I'm on my own, I plan my holidays around where to eat. But when I'm travelling with others, I take their own needs or wants into consideration, realising that they might not be obsessed with fine dining.
Eating at top restaurants doesn't take just money - it also takes time; you can't rush through it (I've never had a meal in a Michelin-starred restaurant that took less than three hours). And for once, I wasn't willing to make that time commitment. It was my first time in Venice and Porto Ceresio (on the Italian side of Lake Lugano), and Epernay, in France. The weather was warm and sunny, I was in a relaxed, holiday mood and I wanted to be outside, enjoying the sights, rather than inside in a formal dining room.
That's not to say we didn't eat well. The best of our meals were impromptu. In Epernay, a restaurant we wanted to try was closed, so we ate at home instead, feasting on steamed artichokes with home-made mayonnaise, pasta with fresh chanterelles, porcini frittata and tiny, sweet Mirabelle plums.
At the weekly Bastille market in Paris, we stopped at a stand specialising in products from Brittany. We decided to share a galette (buckwheat cr?pe) stuffed with egg, cheese and cured andouille (a sausage stuffed with intestines). We happily munched on it while other tourists ate more standard cr?pes, such as one filled with Nutella.
Even before we'd finished our substantial, filling 'snack', a friend observed we were within walking distance of one of our favourite bistros, A la Biche au Bois, so after calling to check that it was open, we headed over for a lunch of veal kidney, salad, cheese and ?les flottantes (poached meringue with cr?me anglaise).