food – Page 2 – Gaia Naomi

FOOD AND DRINK IN PORTO

After (many) hard weeks of studying it was time to hop onto a plane again. This time to Portugal! I was very excited because I had never been before but also because there was finally some sun awaiting me there. As the name Porto already tells, the city I took on was the port wine city. Interesting fact though, the place where are all the wineries are is actually called Gaia and is across the river of Porto. It was quite funny to be in a town called like myself, especially because everywhere you looked it said the name haha. You can imagine I took a lot of pictures with that. But now, what is a trip to Porto without trying port wine? We decided to visit one of the oldest wineries called Calem. We took a short tour around the museum and cellars and were explained the different types and methods of making the wine, quite interesting! At the end we luckily got to try some as well haha, I didn’t know red port wine could actually taste good. Only having tried one winery, I was determined to compare tastes and lucky me I had that opportunity to do this on the plane ride home. It came in the cutest bottle that I ended up taking home…

So much for the wine! The food was also great. One of my favorite lunches was at Cafe do Cais, where I had some AMAZING fries and garlic sautéed shrimp. When at the sea you have to eat fish of course! It was only a quick lunch but it sure got my belly full haha.
For now I’m back home, missing the sun again and getting ready to start the new year. Happy Celebrations!

COFFEE ON THE WEEKEND

Finally I got myself a weekend free! It was the first one in a long time. Although I still had the usual responsibilities of course, it felt great to not have to be anywhere during the weekend. I got to try this coffee place I have always walked past so many times and I think it’s my new favorite! I had a chai latte and my friend Philipe a cappuccino. Sunday I made myself coffee as well because I can’t afford to keep getting it from cute cafes haha and was happily surprised by the golden hour light that filled the living room Sunday afternoon. Overall a relaxing weekend before the craze about exams starts.

FOOD IN COLOGNE

Eating is one of my favorite hobbies which is especially hard when you’re really bad at cooking. But okay that doesn’t matter for now haha! When in Cologne the big question is where to eat? Unfortunately I was only there for two days but I did manage to come up with some suggestions.

The one place I had been hearing all about was Cafe Buur so of course I wanted to go try it. It’s a new place with a menu including healthy and unhealthy foods, but all a very yummy. My friend got the salmon toast and I stuck to the big dish (because I like to eat…) Oriental Healthy. At least it was healthy so I didn’t feel so bad about eating this much. I was pleasantly surprised with the mix of foods since it actually came together really well. I highly recommend eating here, it’s a good vibe.

All you can eat sushi is always the right decision, especially when it’s cheap like this place. I was quite surprised to pay 12 euros for it, since here in the Netherlands you can expect to pay at least around 20 to be able to eat at one of the classic chains. We ordered a lot and ate a lot but did run into one tiny issue as our experience turned more into an all you can wait sushi…
Our second order took a solid hour, but we were so hungry and impatient we ordered dessert. But then the dessert came before our second order of sushi arrived so that got a little messed up haha. Nevertheless cheap and good sushi, Shukodo is the way to go. But keep in mind, you might end up spending a long time here!

I mentioned previously the German bakeries and their heavenly bread. They also sell sandwiches there, freshly made! I took this picture at the Wiener Bäckerei at the central station wishing I was hungry enough to eat one. Sadly not, except I could go for a salami sandwich right now. If you need to grab a quick lunch and want it to be good, this is your best option. My favorite part is really that it is all freshly made, especially the bread.

LUNCH ON PAROS

This post is quite late not to say the least haha, but it’s been a busy few weeks with uni starting and the beginning of my board year. It’s always nice to look back however on the summer vacation and the lovely last day spent in Greece. We had lunch (on the island Paros) at this place called Moschonas Fish in a little cute town named Naousa. What was really cool about this restaurant is that all the fish they served they had fished on their own, and they had fresh octopus hanging everywhere. Of course we had to eat the usual calamari which we were having every single day of this trip. We also had some tatziki with pita bread and were able to fill our stomachs before we proceeded to walk around the town. At this point of the vacation we were super tired so it was a relaxed day and we were looking forward to finally returning home.

sushi making

Sushi is by far one of my fav foods except its always soooo expensive so I decided to cook for once and actually try to make it myself. Surprisingly it actually turned out well and now I have a huge batch of sushi I can eat for the next few days.

italian munchies

Italian food is probably my favorite so when I had the opportunity to go I stuffed myself so much that I gained like 20 pounds.

We did a lot of fun wine tastings! My knowledge on red wine has increased like crazy haha

The best food you can get is from the market. This market was in San Gimignano and they had really good meat and fresh fruits and veggies that we used for dinner later that evening.

A classic tuscan dinner with lots of salami, focaccia and chianti classico.

and the best part of course: the gelato! We had gelato at least once a day and it never disappointed. Everywhere you went the gelato was delicious and there were just so many flavors to choose from every time.

favorite foods

If you know me well then you know I am terrible at cooking and I generally just don’t like it haha. But here are some of the things that I do like to make. They’re really easy because I get lazy and when its a bit more legit of a meal someone else usually ends up cooking…. Eating healthy as a student can be a real pain so these are some ideas for lazy people.

My favorite is this quick mexican meal with tortillas, homemade guacamole, chicken, sour cream, tomatoes mixed with onion and to top it all off salsa. All you gotta do is overfill the tortilla with all the sides and eat! 😉

Putting brussel sprouts and sweet potato in the oven is another quick way to have a healthy dinner. It’s just important to add olive oil, salt and pepper on the veggies and then leave them in the oven for about 20 min. But don’t burn them like I did…

I think I actually had this for breakfast one day because I ran out of everything else. But this is a simple lunch meal that consist of pasta, carbonara sauce, mushrooms and some spinach to make it at least a little healthy haha.

On the days I like to eat breakfast I usually keep it simple and just cut up some mango and then either make a smoothie with whatever I’ve got left or just have some random fruit I can find. Like I said I’m really trying to keep it healthy.

Another classic is an avocado toast. I’ll usually have this for lunch and when I’m hungry bored. It fills you up and tastes good but because it has avocado you can still consider it healthy so I don’t feel bad about bored eating again.

Like I said this does not look like a simple meal because it is homemade butter chicken and I would probably fail cooking that all one my own. I really enjoy eating this and my friends and I decided to make it at home for once. Ordering it all the time just gets too expensive…

Back to what I actually can make: this is a simple lunch again that is literally pasta, spinach and sauce (that I did not make myself haha). If I’m feeling ambitious I’ll also add some mozzarella to the sauce.

One of my top favorites is the smoothie bowl. This one has avocado, banana, mango and some spinach. I like to add rice milk in the blender because it helps mix all the ingredients together and makes it a bit more liquid. To finish it just top it off with some banana and chia seeds and there you have a really tasty, healthy and refreshing breakfast.