Today in Food on Fridays, we take a look at the variety of international foods that Chris and I had the chance to sample on our recent trips to London and Berlin.

Before I get to the most international stuff, I though I’d point out a bit of what we had for breakfast. Our favorite discovery was something that was also popular in Hamburg: pastries called Franzbrötchen. That literally translates to “French roll”, but I think it really is as French a pastry as an “English muffin” is British (i.e., not very). It’s a not-too-sweet, un-iced cinnamon roll.

For a morning beverage, we discovered an espresso bar called lekkamokka, a name that is a little play on the words for “tasty” in German (lecker) and the Italian name for a common kind of Italian coffeemaker, moka. Although the cafe doesn’t look like an Italian coffee “bar” inside, it is actually owned by an Italian man. We returned each morning, and by the third day the guy was already starting out coffees when we walked through the door, without us having to order. Regulars after 2 days – probably because Chris stood out from the crowd by speaking to him in Italian. 🙂

But I digress. What I really wanted to talk about today is all the different cuisines we tried for dinner in our 3 nights in London and 6 nights in Berlin:

– Japanese sushi, in London
– Japanese izakaya-style small plates food, in London
– Spanish Tapas, in both London and Berlin
– Italian food from Sardinia, in Berlin
– Moroccan, in Berlin
– Vietnamese, in Berlin

We’d tried food from those countries in the past and always enjoyed them all, and that was true again – various fish, sausage, lamb, chicken and other dishes combined to make a delicious series of dinners.

However, I should note a rather unique style of Vietnamese food we tried in Berlin was something definitely a bit different for us. Dubbed “Saigon Street Food” by the restaurant, it was served as small plates style like “tapas” or izakaya foods from the other cultures, but with some unusual offerings. Everything we tried was pretty good, but the one thing that stood out above the rest was the what was in this bowl:

Encased in a buttery sauce that was surprisingly, yet pleasantly, salty, and offering a slight crunch in each bite, every tasty morsel in that bowl was superb.

Can you guess what is in that dish? I can’t say I’ve ever been to a restaurant before where this was offered on the menu; I’m certain I’ve never eaten anything like them in the past.

Before you see the answer below, I want to emphasize again how tasty they really were.

Ready?

Here’s the photo of the dish listed on the menu:

Silk Worms dish on the menu

Yes, silk worms.

But of course, that’s exactly what you thought they were, right?