Food culture – cultural food

It seems, that I am currently struggling to find new and exciting places to eat here in Graz. Maybe because I’m longing for a food culture, which is basically non-existent in this country. Wherever I go, the first thing I look at, is the food. Not what the restaurants serve, but what and where the locals eat and what the street food is like. When you take a look over the pond, our american friends have a far wider spread of food culture as we do. But why is that? Maybe because the US is a huge country which doubles as a cultural melting pot. There are so many different nations and cultures, who decided to live together and learn from each other. Maybe Austria is more likely to keep things they don’t know outside of their borders? Maybe the time isn’t righ. Maybe Austria just isn’t ready yet.

Just to pick one, I’d love to have a chinatown here, but I think there are not enough chinese people here, who actually cook real chinese food. It’s the same with all the other foods I crave. I wish I could go to a food truck and chow down as many carne asada tacos I can possibly fit down my belly. But that’s – sadly – not going to happen.

I find Austrian’s to be the best example for creatures of habit. They like what they like and maybe hesitate to try something new. I believe that the food scene here, has massive potential. Especially, as travelling becomes more a lifestyle, which people like to pride themselves with. It is quite interesting, that the most people I know, eat the same 5-10 things or flavours every day. It goes from spaghetti and classic Italian food to typical Austrian dishes as Schnitzel and Käsespätzle to maybe a sushi or chinese(-ish) take out, fast food or BBQ(-ish) style of dishes. Maybe it’s greedy to want more, but I, personally, can’t help but lust for more. There are so many amazing things to try and taste, see and visit, why stick to the same old bread with a slice of ham on top?

I believe that a lot can be said about our culture when looking at our eating habits. As the saying goes: Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you who you are.

traveling is being selfish – but that’s okay

Believe it or not, I know people who don’t like or even want to travel. Why? I’m not entirely sure. I think it’s the fact that they don’t know how. I know a woman, mid 50s, mother of three, who has never left Europe in her entire life and probably never will. Some people prefer ‚home‘ to whatever that’s waiting out there for us to discover. But why? Why would you not want to go out and see the world? That’s always something I ask myself whenever I hear somebody say something like: I don’t like traveling, it’s so much work and lots of money spend for spending time I could spend just as fine here at home.

NO. JUST NO.

And here is why:

1) Traveling changes you. For the better. The feeling of letting go of whoever you have to be at home and just be who you are, is something you cannot achieve as easily at home. At home, when you have 3 small children and a husband to take care of, laundry to wash, appointments to make, work to go to, it’s not that easy to take time off for yourself. But when you’re walking through the streets of Bangkok, wondering where all these people come from and instead of hearing a little child screaming „Mommy! Mommy! he pulled my skirt down!“ you hear nothing, but the beat of the city – that’s when you can let go, just for a moment, just be yourself.

This may sound selfish, but in a way traveling is being selfish – and that’s okay.

2) All the fun stories you can tell your grandchildren when you’re old and wrinkled. „Remember that time I went to the grocery store?“ – No great story ever starts like this. „Remember when we hiked up to Macchu Picchu“ is a much better way.

3) Also, think of the impact you can have on a future generation. I believe, that this is the most important part. Daring yourself to step outside of your comfort zone and then, encouraging the next generation to do it as well.

4) There are far more reasons why you should travel than I can even think of, believe me, this is just the start.

You can’t blame people for not wanting to travel. They just don’t know any better. This is where my plea to all the people out there finds it place: Please, please, teach your children how to travel. It will certainly enrich everybody’s lives. Take this from a young woman, who has never spent an entire year in her life without leaving her home country at least once. I have to put a small disclaimer in though: Traveling isn’t cheap. Surely not everyone can afford a 3 months round trip through Asia, BUT even if it’s just the neighboring country, or even your own. Please go and see the world – and take your children with you. It makes such a difference, to be brought up by people who have seen the world, been to the pyramids of Gizeh, seen the view from the Empire State Building or walked down the beaches of Thailand.

Building or walked down the beaches of Thailand.

summer feeling

Summer is upon us and even I dare to go outside and enjoy the weather when it’s this great. Whenever it’s getting warmer I feel like eating the “right” thing is something crucial to my well-being. As much as I loooooove those glazed baby back ribs, eating a whole bunch of them at lunch when you have a busy day ahead is not my favourite kind of feeling. It’s like rum punch, sweet at first until the hangover. So what I love to do is to stick with some lighter but still absolutely deliiiicious dishes. Here are my top favourites:

Pan seared seabream with (the world’s best) potatoe salad garnished with some flat leafed parsley and garlic

The first one is obviously fish. I absolutely love eating fish in general, but especially for lunch on a hot summers day. It’s light and fills you up just right. Sadly, I haven’t found a really good fish restaurant here in Graz – yet. My personal favourite is the fishmonger at Kaiser-Josefs-Platz where you can buy a vast variety of fresh fish but also enjoy an early lunch. Only downside to this place is, that it’s only open from Tue-Sat and only from 7am to about 2pm. I’d really really like a good and affordable fish restaurant here, that’s something I’m missing very much.

lovely salmon trout on a bed of tagliatelle, white esparagus and white sauce

Another lovely fish dish. This one is from ‘Propeller’ a lovely restaurant with a rustic feel, perfect for the University-ambiance. I honestly would have preferred a fresh salad instead of the tagliatelle, but that’s probably because I just felt like a salad today and it was way too hot for carbs today.

mixed green salad with falaffel and toast accompanied by a refreshing soda-lemon drink

Oh, this was the first time I actually enjoyed eating falaffel. Before that I always pictured falaffel to be a whole sandwich with meat and veg in it, but they turn out to be some tasty little things to have with a salad. To my surprise, I didn’t miss having meat with my salad, which I quite often feel like because I’m a true carnivore (or because I’m just used to eat meat with my salad)

Yes, these are all dishes I enjoyed during my month of finals which means studying and nothing else, really. Still, I will never ever skimp on food. Never. I’ve got to have one hour or two per day to just enjoy food. That’s not too wrong, I hope 🙂

Taking a step back

Sometimes, you need to just take a break. Just press pause. Just halt for a moment and look around. But that’s not how life works. The world keeps on spinning and it will do so no matter what. Sometimes, you find yourself floating and merely existing.

Travelling would be the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about escaping the every-day life. Escaping, not because my life is miserable but because I am a person who needs change from time to time, location-wise and everything else sometimes too. But wouldn’t that be running? Fleeing from reality? Trying to find shelter and safety within the unknown?

The truth is: I don’t know.

I admire people who decide to just cut off all the strings and just go abroad. Alone. I always wanted to do that myself. But, just as life goes, things have changed. I have changed. Not for the worse I hope, but I simply have decided to never choose a career over love and family. That’s just not who I want to be.

So, what do you do when you still feel the urge to leave and never look back but on the other hand don’t want to?

DO BOTH

Who says you can’t explore things without being completely alone? Who says you have to do this all by yourself? Just do it the way you want to. But the most important thing is that you do do it.

Leave. Go places. Take a friend or just a camera.

Create memories. Take someone you love with you.

Please, just do things. Do not live a dull and boring life.

Don’t just copy someone else’s life. Create your own. That’s the whole magic.

main stream or what?

Usually, I’m not the ‘weak and insecure’-whining kind of type. (At least I try not to be) I’ve grown to know what I’ve got and to work that s*§/$. But sometimes you just have to let it go and accept the fact, that it is okay to feel bad. It is okay to be sad, vulnerable, insecure. Just like it’s okay to feel great, proud and confident. I believe that more people should embrace and cherish the whole range of feelings and not just a tiny part of it.

Every now and then I look in the mirror and pick every little thing that I do not like about it. My hips, my thighs, my height, my short legs, my bust, my cheeks, my nose. – And then I feel bad. – And then I get angry at myself because I feel bad about my body. – Because: who’s to say what’s pretty or not? – And five minutes after that I think that I’ve had the same body for over 20 years now and I haven’t done so bad (not only love-wise). So there must be something to it. – And then I think about all the things I love about my body. My hair, my lips, my height, my eyes, my hands, my waist, my bum. And then I think about the process I’ve just been through.

For many young creatures like me it’s hard to find yourself attractive enough to love and embrace yourself just the way you are. Media and society dictate who and what we should find attractive and if you’re not part of that scale I’m sorry but you’re out.

Really? That’s what we teach our praised “next generation” ? And to be clear, it’s definitely not only girls who struggle with this problem. Men are just as vulnerable as women but society forces them to be the “stronger” gender. Not to show emotion because that’s considered to be a sign of weakness. Complete BS.

When I was in highschool I always compared myself to other girls because I wanted to fit in. I wanted to fit in so bad I did some pretty stupid things just to at least look just like all the other girls. Back then I didn’t have anybody to tell me that I was stupid and insane. I didn’t have a person I could truly confide in with everything I was going through. Of course, my friends noticed some things, but no one really knew. I wanted to fit in those size 2 skinny jeans so bad I added an eating disorder to my list of stupid things I did in my life.

But who says THAT is the only way to be perceived as pretty?

Ever since that low point in my life (and yes, I know it sounds ridiculous since I’m only 20 years old) I swore to myself to never let anybody else again tell me how to feel about myself. Now, a few years later I still haven’t completely overcome that obstacle yet. I find myself to be in quite a dilemma. On the one hand I do want other people to find me cute and beautiful and on the other hand I couldn’t care less because I finally have a person by my side who loves me just the way I am.

So what now?

Change my diet, change my eating habits, change everything because everybody else is? NO. Big no from me. Not because everybody else is and definitely not because somebody else said so and definitely definitely not because skinny girls showing their bums on instagram get more likes than I do.

If I did change something about me or my body it would be just for my sake. To make me feel more like the me I want to be. To be happy again. To look in the mirror and say you did well and, to be grateful.

If I did change something about me or my body it would be at a pace I, and only I, feel comfortable with and not by following anybody else’s plan.

If I did change something about me or my body I would be very careful about it because I’ve done that and almost lost myself in the process.

Change can be good. It can be great. Change is inevitable. But change only as far so you still keep what makes you, you.

fear-ious

What is it about fear, that we just can’t decipher?

A person I once knew told me that fear is just false evidence appearing real. Is that true? Is it all just made up in our mind? I know that a lot in our lives is built or calculated by the fact that people express this specific emotion, if it’s the fear of buying a new car, because the economy’s down or the fear of being humiliated in public. The thing I do not know is, why. Probably it’s an instinct left to save us from danger? The automatic reaction to run when something’s coming after you? I’m not a scientist, so you tell me.

But what if you’re going after yourself? What if this all is just an excuse to stay on the safe side of the shore, to take the easy way, to live the quiet life. What if…

That’s why I’m doing this. I’m trying to get out of my comfort zone and just put myself out there. Not to desperately find a spotlight to shine brightly but to have a voice. I (almost) always speak my mind and for me this is just the same thing but on a whole new level.

I’m not saying that I’m a person completely without fear. To be honest, I’m quite the opposite. 5 Things I fear the most:

1. spiders (for obvious reasons)
2. failing
3. zombies (even if they’re not real)
4. complete darkness
5. being betrayed by the people I trust

You may laugh, because zombies aren’t real and everybody knows that. Yes, I know that too, still, I’ve always been a little wuss and I always will be. Proudly. But the one thing I want to get off of my chest is the fear of failing. This one has accompanied me my whole life and I have the feeling that it won’t be an easy thing to leave behind. That’s a stupid thing to be afraid of, you might think, but in the end, aren’t we all a little afraid?

A cat shows it’s trust by rolling on the back and exposing its belly and I believe dogs do the same. But what if you break this trust? What if you teach the cat that trusting somebody or something won’t hurt you will only consult in misery and pain. That’s when fear comes in. So wether its the fear of getting hurt again, the fear of heights, flying, animals or even death. It is something we all have to live with, somehow. Even if we’re not willing to show it. I believe, that this is even more dangerous, denying that there is nothing when there is clearly something hidden behind the bushes.

For me, it’s mostly the fear of failing. It always has been. I always wanted to meet my parents standards, so I alwaysdid what they expected me to do. I went to school, took piano lessons, got good grades and went on to college. On a superficial level I just did what everybody wanted me to do, to be the good girl. No one knew that I did actually go through a really hard time back then. Being with a guy who instead of helping me to discover and love myself, preferred to tear me down and made sure I would stay right down there so he could feel superior. So I chose the easy way out: whenever I found myself trying something new I calculated the chance of me failing and whenever that chance was too high I preferred stepping back and let someone else try and succeed than me trying and probably (not) failing. I think that, that’s the true reason I never liked sports so much. Up until this day, the fear of me not succeeding and not living up to my own expectations this time, had a much greater overweight than the satisfaction of at least giving it a try. Maybe that’s why it took me so long to finally find the right motivation to go to college and take on two majors instead of one.

But in the end… What remains?

Nothing.

Nothing, but the resentment against your own stupidity. I don’t know how to overcome fear, but what helps me, is believing that there will be a reason for you failing or succeeding. The only thing you can contribute to this equation of madness is maximizing your own variable by giving the best you can. Even when it hurts and especially even when you’re afraid. Maybe it takes a minute or two to take a breath before jumping over the fire and maybe it all feels like one big, scary, black, tunnel.

But there’s no point in hiding. Just keep on going, because what waits on the other end might be glorious.

travel while you’re young

Why wait? Why should you wait to travel the world? So you can afford staying in fancy hotels and have a first class seat? Who says that that is the only way to travel? I honestly believe, that you should take every opportunity there is to explore and see the world, no matter if you’re 21, 45 or 60.

(in)secure

Being insecure may be the biggest weakness a woman can have. For me it means dealing with a topic I’m really uncomfortable with, like when my boyfriend touches my belly and asks me why I haven’t been to the gym lately although I said I would go regularly after my holidays. It means being hurt. And maybe it’s not only your ego that’s being scratched off a bit.

same old, same old

I’ve been awfully busy these days. It’s not that easy to fit yourself back into your ‘old’ life when you’ve been gone for a month and just lived the highlife, not worrying about schedules, appointments, papers or exams.

hyper hyper

So everyone knows that certain things are ‘in’ nowadays, such as having thousands of followers on instagram or being vegan or taking a ‘gym selfie’ everyday to show how healthy you are. What is that crap all about?