We are back in Europe (Aunt Ilana and I). This time, again, we bring you our impressions of being back in the old continent.

As we did last time, the Aunt Clara tribe starts the tour in Denmark. Back to the land of butter and bacon... and speaking of which, I am again amazed at the fact that although Scandinavians in general, and Danes in particular, eat an insane amount of meat and calorie-ladden foods, they do not seem to be - yet - affected (too badly) by the obesity epidemy that ravages the Western World. The only possible explanations I can come up with are that Danes burn a lot of fat by just keeping themselves warm throughout the long winter and that by walking and biking a lot you can shed quite a few pounds.

We went to the local supermarket today to find some diet candies to keep myself entertained between the seemingly endless summer BBQs, none were to be found. We barely located a brand that is sugar free but not exactly diet. How comes "diet" hasn't arrived in Denmark yet?

We'll keep you posted of our culinary adventures while we return home. Hopefully I will do so weighing the same I did when I left... somehow I doubt it.

By Aunt Clara

I'm pretty sure that the increasingly sedentary lifestyle (apart from genetics) is the determining factor when it comes to obesity, more than what people actually eat.
There was an interesting article on the BBC site today with reference to the French. I haven't read the book in question but I had a quick look at a friend's copy once, and hope to get my paws on one soon.

It is maybe so. Maybe moderation is the Danish secret, but I am not that convinced yet. I think it has something to do with biking and walking everywhere.

I am still puzzled by the lack of "healthy" products in the supermarket. Even in our humble neighborhood supermarket there is a whole isle dedicated to fat-free, sugar-free, healthy products, I barely found a few sugar-free chocolate bars and candies in the largest local supermarket, obviously aimed at diabetics, their caloric content was the same or higher than the regular products. There were only two brands of sweeteners available. You'd think I am in some sort of backwards country, but if you head for the deli section you'd find more choices of cheese and cold cuts that you were able to suspect there exists. Oy!

Anyways, there's some good news: I can fit in a small size t-shirt here. Obviously, although fit and seemingly healthy, the Danes are not Parisian-sized by any stretch of the imagination.

By popular request I made habichuelas negras today. I followed the Dominican Cooking recipe to the last detail. If only I didn't always make such a mess of the rice I could claim to have achieved absolute authenticity.

In the last few days we've eaten out several times, taking in Spanish, Chinese and Moroccan cuisine. I'm told there is a Thai restaurant in town, which is good news. A constant disappointment here is that although there is an Indian (Hindu) presence in Gibraltar and a couple of Indian restaurants, they're not actually very good.

The main challenge when ordering food here and in Spain is remembering to say 'gambas' instead of 'camarones' 'patatas' instead of 'papas' and 'zumo' instead of 'jugo'.

It finally hit me yesterday. The excesses of the Danish diet, and my lactose intolerance gave me a case of The Viking Revenge (despite the fact that I am chuggin' down lactase pills like there's a prize at the end of the bottle). For people with my "condition" Denmark is not the place, what with their obsession for putting butter and cream on everything.

Anyways, there's plaice (or flatties, as Uncle Rob calls them, perhaps a Brit thing) for dinner again, and I had salmon for lunch, so some good came out of all this. My daughter, on the other hand, finally succumbed to her heritage and made peace with potatoes.

Yesterday in Spain we went to eat 'pecaito' in a typical (i.e. not very touristy) bar. There are some establishments that take this to an absolute literal extreme. Seafood means seafood and nothing more. You get tapas, media raciones or raciones of fried fish and shellfish. No fries, no salad, nothing else apart from the liquid accompaniments like tinto de verano or inadequately chilled cerveza. Certainly there was no rice. What would a Dominican think?

The only concession is that they bring you a bowl of olives and a basket of bread to nibble on while you wait for the fish to arrive. Which, by the way, was superb.

I forgot to mention it, but I found "yuca" here (cassava). We were walking around in town called Nykøbing (Sjæelland) and on the main street found a Thai shop. Right there by the door they had these roots that looked suspiciously like yuca, I asked and yes, they were. We bought a couple of pounds and had a truck load of yuca frita and arañitas with dinner. Pleased crowd I tell you.

We are back in Copenhagen with its impressive selection of exotic restaurants. After having been last week in the oldest Thai restaurant in Demark (Thai House in Odense) we will be urgently trying to locate a good Indian restaurant.