studentsineurope

Parisian street vendor preparing great crepes

You’ve been running around the city all day. You’re exhausted, and you can’t bear the thought of a trip to the market, the train ride home with all those bags and the preparation of a meal over one burner in a kitchen that also happens to be your bathroom. Or perhaps you’re just leaving the nightclub. It’s 4 a.m. and you’ve danced yourself into a state of starvation. For obvious reasons, you want to eat before falling into bed with your clothes on.

Pas de problème– as the French would say. The streets of Europe are filled with foods that are quick to grab and wonderful to eat. They are fast without being “fast food,” and inexpensive without making you curious of their expiration date. They are the crepe and the falafel–two foods that are never lost in translation or on the palette. So forget the Value Meal and take your taste buds to the streets.

While the crepe may remind you firstly of France–due to the name and the fact that they originated in Brittany, where they are eaten with a cup of cider–crepes are almost everywhere in Europe, probably because of their versatility. In fact, if you wanted, you could have a crepe three times a day for weeks on end without eating the same one twice. Trust me, I know.

The very thin, pancake-like exterior is generally made from flour, eggs, milk, water, salt and a little bit of butter. The batter is poured onto a griddle and cooked for only about 2 minutes. This exterior is then filled with any number of ingredients that make up an interior that’s sweet, savory or somewhere in between. For example, my favorite breakfast crepe is eggs, cheese and spinach, while my favorite desert crepe is full of gooey Nutella and fresh bananas. Adding to its versatility is the fact that every country has its own take on the crepe. The Greeks top their Nutella and banana crepes with biscuit crumbs that add a little bit of salt to an otherwise ridiculously sweet treat. In Zurich, on the other hand, I had one topped with ice cream that tasted like a rose– I had to sit down for that one obviously, but it was wunderbar.

But perhaps you’re looking for something with a little more bulk. Although not as versatile as the crepe, the falafel makes for a delicious street food. So great, in fact, that while I was living in Paris I made a rather lengthy commute almost daily to Rue des Rosiers in Le Marais, where some of the best falafels in the city are fried up and served. L’As du Fallafel is probably the most well known, but there are about four on the street–lines coming out of each of them. I now remember Le Marais not only for its Jewish culture, its art galleries and its romantic bars, but also for this Middle Eastern delicacy.

Yes, the falafel is from the Middle East (in fact, the McDonalds in Egypt serves a McFalafel). The exact origin is uncertain, but immigrants from Middle Eastern countries are to be thanked for bringing the treat not only to Paris, but all over Western Europe. If you’re not sure what to eat in Amsterdam, Brussels or Munich, you can always count on the falafel.

Of course you should probably know what the falafel is before you indulge in it. To start, the falafel is vegetarian but full of protein. Ground chickpeas are mixed with chopped onion, garlic and a variety of spices, rolled into balls the size of a meatball and dropped into a fryer. The result is a series of sinful spheres that are then served either on a plate or stuffed into a more street-friendly sandwich, either in pita bread or a tortilla shell. The toppings may include hummus, yogurt sauce or harissa–a hot sauce of sorts, tomatoes, onions, eggplant and other vegetables. The parade of flavors and sheer weight of this sandwich will satisfy even the hungriest traveler and leave you with a mess down the front of your shirt that was totally worth it– no matter how few you brought with you.

Obviously, when travelling through Europe, you’ll have a laundry list of things to do to get the most of your experience, and tasting the local fare should be one of them. But regardless of your budget and schedule, be sure not to ignore what comes out of a stand on the side of the street. Not only do the locals eat it, it’s also delicious in its own right. They say that scent is the strongest sense tied to memory, but I believe taste to be a close second. Since my travels through Europe, cravings for the falafel and the crepe are a regular occurrence and, while I can sometimes find them here, they just aren’t quite as satisfying as their European counterparts.