Rome, Athens, Provence and Paris

Over the past 6 weeks, my family and I traveled through Europe, visiting ancient Greek and Roman sites, French medieval chateaux and Gothic churches, and of course "Lost Generation" haunts in Paris. While beautiful and fascinating, we still had to eat, and eat we did. There were some culinary revelations, and I decided that throughout Rome I would not repeat the same meal twice. While Athens guaranteed I would have a steady supply of cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and Feta. Provence was a gustatory homecoming. Back in 2007 I was captured by the flavors and ultimate freshness of just picked produce found on town market days. To come back to it where you could find only the truly ripest tomatoes, beans, herbs, and most importantly olives of many variations was wonderful.

Paris, while featuring amazing (Michelin) 3 star restaurants, and the latest in trailblazing French cuisine, was a place for cafés, bistrots and brasseries on this visit. It was tempting to try to get into La Comptoir, featured on No Reservations recently, but with an 11 year old with simple tastes, and a long wait, we opted to look, but not touch.

The foods I will remember from this trip, and the ones I will want to reproduce at home are (in order of encounter):
Rome:
Pasta alla Carbonara
Pasta alla Amatriciana
Pasta alla Amatriciana
Salt crusted, baked fish
Braised lamb sweetbreads

Athens
A real Greek salad: ripest tomatoes, peppers, onions, kalamata olives and sheepskin milk feta
Octopus salad
Greek braised rabbit

Provence
Roast Iberico pork (well as close to Iberico pork as you can get)
Stuffed tomatoes and peppers
Fried, stuffed squash blossoms
Homemade chili oil
Braised veal with olives (a yummy dish from Les Deux Garçons in Aix)
Merguez sausage

Paris
Crab salad with Remoulade
Steak tartare (sadly no readily available Charlois cattle in Washington I know of)
Salad with fried goat cheese wrapped in phyllo dough

Just a few good memories to try and replicate at home...