A small collection of lunches that are available around the world.

Europe.

Smorrebord (butter-bread), what they call the famous open-faced sandwiches in Copenhagen of Denmark. Sandwich number 1 is Queen Victoria Cheese, rhubarb marmalade, toasted almonds and purple clover. Sandwich 2 is pickled herring, mayo, potatoes, dill, crunchy fried buckwheat and sweet pickled onion. Both were on thin slices of very dense rye bread..Chalkboard menu at the Grebbestad Strandvagen, on the Bohuslän Coast of Sweden.Seafood chowder & soda bread in a small town on the Coastal Causeway Route of Ireland, UK. The chowders were fabulous because they almost always contained some type of smoked fish.The chalkboard menu at the Pieman Café in Dublin, Al’s No 1 favourite restaurant in ALL of Ireland!Fish & Chips with Mushy Peas at the Windmill Inn in Loughborough, England.Belgian lunches in their traditional pubs often looked as if they belonged in an old painting.
It was early May and white asparagus season in Belgium, resulting in numerous delicious variations of asparagus dishes. This Smoked Salmon Salad in the Cambrinus, Bruges, was one of my favourites, and whenever (green) asparagus season comes around I often make it up at home. In Holland too there were explorations of asparagus. This Broodjes & Asparagus Soup was served up at the Ubica Pub in Utrecht, Holland.The Farmers Market in Rouen, France, sold dried sausage sticks, 20 for 5 Euros. Roses on the wall of the farm cider seller on the Route du Cidre (Cider) road near Cambremer, France.Sitting in the trunk of our car we often had picnics in France, usually featuring French farm cider along with yummy sausage sticks, cheese, bread and chocolate picked up along the way.‘Eat octopus. Drink green wine’: instructions to myself when exploring the northwest coast of Spain. Here we were having a lunch of pulpo (octopus), mussels, salad and fries at a seaside café on Spain’s Galician coast.This Spanish lunch looked like an old oil painting: wine and a Spanish tortilla in Penafiel, Spain. (The lunches in Belgium also looked like old paintings but weren’t quite as tasty.)

Los Americas.

A light Argentinean meal for the afternoon merienda: matambre (rolled beef), ensalada mixta (tomatoes and lettuce), Chimichurri (parsley, garlic and spices sauce used as both a dip and marinade), bread and cerveza. Ceviche was our favourite dish in Costa Rica; this is the Ceviche at La Fortuna in the town of Fortuna near one of CR’s many magnificent volcanoes.
Tacos Pastor with extra pineapple in Marquelia, Mexico.Flores Rellenos (stuffed squash flowers) at the restaurant ‘Sabor de Puebla’ in Puebla, Mexico.Mexican idea of an American sandwich. The Sirens Pub in Port Townsend, USA had an American twist on a Mexican dish: bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers with chipotle mayonnaise. Neon sign for Fat Burger diner in Las Vegas, USA.Brewer’s Lunch at Strange Fellows Brewery in Vancouver.

Asia.

Lunch in Singapore is best found at hawker food court. This is Telok Ayer Market, from the Victorian era, near the city’s central business district.Classic satay with peanut dip and a beer in Melaka, Malaysia.Cooking choreography in Kuala Lumpur as they put together a delicious stir fry linch.

Fish for lunch at a restaurant on the Mekong River in Vietnam.The kitchen prep staff frequently added decoratively cut vegetables to our meals in Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. This lunch was at a BBQ Cafe in Mandalay. Shrimp Pad Thai with extra crushed peanuts, chile flakes, lime, bean sprouts chives and lettuce in Thailand.In Yoyogi Park in Tokyo we tried a combo of BBQ chicken and Takoyaki, doughy balls filled with octopus or squid, for lunch. The Takoyaki was a little too much like runny fishy pancake mix, possibly undercooked, and the chicken was basically raw – we had to take it back twice before we felt it was safe to eat.
Or maybe the Japanese undercook everything, at least that’s what it seems with sushi, which I actually love. This annotated menu was for a sushi tasting in Vancouver; in Japan we were using film and only took a photo of the Takoyaki because it was outside. A really fresh scallop along with mussels at a fish cafe on Lamma Island, a short ferry ride away from Hong Kong.
More of Dan’s CFFC: Suggesting Lunch or Dinner.