Angie

Angie is the resident foodie of Living the Dream. She seeks out local food, restaurants, farmers markets, and cooking classes wherever she travels. Angie has been on one long-term trip of 465 days along with her husband Jeremy.

10 of the Best Norwegian Foods (And Where to Try Them)

You may not think of Norway as a culinary destination, but on our recent western fjord road trip, we were pleasantly surprised with the food. Although the dining scene in larger towns like Bergen and Alesund was amazing with lots of fine dining options, we were equally impressed at some of the food we had in tiny fjord-side towns and mountaintop restaurants, too.

From hot dogs to prix fixe menus, we were delighted at the focus on using local ingredients in traditional dishes and in more unusual and creative ways, too (smoked salmon on a pizza, anyone?).

Before our trip we did some research on traditional Norwegian foods to try, but finding some of those foods proved near impossible. In this post we highlight some traditional and more common foods that we were actually able to try, and give some ideas of where to find them around the western fjords.

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Things to Do in Vienna – 4 Musical Must-Sees

Vienna is undoubtedly the world capital of classical music. The Classical movement started here, and many of the great composers lived and worked here for at least part of their lives.

Even today, the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic continue the classical tradition and are some of the best performers of classical music in the world.

With this long and rich history, it can be daunting to find all the best musically themed things to do in Vienna. After all, you can only visit so many museums and listen to so many performances before getting burned out.

During our stay in Vienna, we checked out four of the best music spots in the city. If you’re looking to experience the music scene during your stay, we’d like to recommend these as a perfect starter!

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Bro Review – A Lovely Prix Fixe Experience in Alesund

After road-tripping around Norway in some very remote places, often cooking our own meals, we arrived in the town of Alesund excited to eat at some proper restaurants. Highest on our list to try was the fine dining restaurant Bro (Norwegian for “bridge”). This spot was recommended to us by a Norwegian couple we met at Aegir Brewery in Flam (thank you guys!), and it was the most delicious, creative meal we had on our entire trip.

So if you’re looking for a prix fixe dining experience with delicious wine pairings to match, Bro most certainly needs to be on your radar.

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Going on a Food Tour with Walks of Italy Florence

Italy is a country with such a rich food culture, and yet sometimes on the tourist trail it can feel like all you see around you are mediocre pizza and pasta joints.

It can be overwhelming or tricky to figure out where to eat and what to eat, and what foods are authentic to the particular region of Italy in which you find yourself (if you’re in Florence, it’s not pizza and pasta).

Luckily, on our recent stay in Florence, we had the opportunity to take a food tour with Walks of Italy Florence where we learned precisely what authentic Florentine cuisine is, and got to try some excellent examples of it.

As with most food tours, the day began in the very early hours of the morning with the request that we come with an empty stomach.  As if the challenge was thrown down, we happily obliged.

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