I’ve written and erased, reworded and rephrased this opening sentence several times now—I’m going with the one you just read. I attempted multiple different ways of explaining the challenges in picking a restaurant while in a foreign country, however, each time I read it back to myself, it came across all wrong. So, I did what any wordsmith in the same situation would’ve done—I laced up my charlatan shoes, rewrote this entire paragraph, and moved my original opening sentence to the beginning of the following paragraph.

Finding a desirable restaurant while in a foreign country isn’t always a walk in the park. See what I mean? Sounds kind of crybaby’ish, doesn’t it? Hence, I scratched it as my opening sentence and instead placed it down here where it’ll be a lot easier to explain myself now that I have your attention.

I practice pescatarianism eating habits which means the majority of #food I consume is fruits and vegetables. I won’t intentionally consume any dairy products and I don’t eat meat with the exception of fish and seafood. But I’m not weird about it. I won’t turn my back on egg washed noodles or announce to everyone I come in contact with of my eating habits, nor freak out if a loaf of bread has egg in it and I don’t do things like advertise it on my vehicle or anything extreme like that.

My wife is also pescatarian but she was recently diagnosed pre-diabetic so her eating habits, though very specific like mine, come with a side of heightened awareness. She stays away from gluten entirely which means most breads, pastas, rice, etc are completely off-limits because the wheat effects her negatively and she tries really hard to consume no sugar whatsoever. She doesn’t cook with sugar, she avoids it on dinner menus, she won’t use most salad dressings, starches, very rarely will she consume desserts and, what I mean by very rarely is, she’ll be off sugar 100% for weeks at a time, sometimes months, and then periodically binge eat sugar for hours on end.

Alright, now that I’ve given you a lengthy explanation which is something I’ve never done on this platform, ever, I can further the length of this introduction by explaining that opening sentence to you—the one I relocated to the second paragraph. When @puravidaville and I want to enjoy a romantic dinner together at a local restaurant, as we did last night while in a foreign country and, each of us with our specific eating practices, in conjunction with both trip adviser reviews and dinner menus written in Greek, choosing the restaurant has proven to be exhausting on numerous occasions.

After about an hour of searching and making suggestions back and forth, a few frustrated shoulder shrugs and nearly throwing in the towel on the whole idea, she found Rouga Tavern, a truly authentic restaurant experience in the heart of Thessaloniki, Greece. We had no idea what we were walking into other than the fact the menu had items on it we both could enjoy. As soon as I saw the joint, I knew I had a @foodfightfriday contender in the making so I snapped this photo of the courtyard outside and will now use it as my cover image that’ll even make @birdsinparadise wonder how I did it.

The cover image.

That’s an iPhone 8+, Birds, how’d I do? When you’re competing against the cover image Queen on a weekly basis, you really have to step up your game. I figured with such a gorgeous establishment in an absolutely stunning country, I’ll not only make this romantic dinner date a contender but I’ll also make it a @tasteem restaurant review—not so fast!

After picturing each page of the dinner menu and ordering way too much food to show you, capturing multiple images of our romantic surroundings so I could write a review for the folks over at Tasteem, looking like one of those nerds who won’t put his phone away at the dinner table—I just learned there isn’t a current competition available to enter this review in! Now I’ll explain, something I rarely do at great lengths, how this contender became a catch-22.

I wasn’t just the only person who looks like me and talks like me at a crowded Greek restaurant on a Friday night that’s actually in Greece, I’m also accompanied by the only startling gorgeous blonde girl in about a half mile radius. We have everyone’s attention, I’m taking pictures of everything they bring to our table as though we don’t have “Look at me! I’m such an annoying tourist!” tattooed across our foreheads and what else? I’m a few hours late entering this contender now and why stop there, right? All of that and I don’t even have a platform to enter this restaurant review which, surprisingly so, works in both of our favor. I took several people photography photos last night as well as multiple street art images surrounding the restaurant that I wouldn’t have added to this contender had it been a review—now I can.

Good morning/afternoon/evening, adjust that to the time zone you’re currently assigned to, happy Saturday—welcome to @foodfightfriday! And welcome to Rouga Tavern, a seafood and Mediterranean restaurant located at Karipi 28 in Thessaloniki, Greece, 546.

The Menu.

Prior to taking our dinner order and, upon bringing us two glasses of water, we were served bread for two which I got all to myself because of Pura’s anti-gluten eating habit. It came with a side of this delicious olive tapenade that I could’ve eaten by the pound and the view from our table—iheart Greece!

Pre-appetizer round.

We ordered two appetizers and here comes the catch. Catch-22 means this contender is now part of @steemitworldmap as well as @travelfeed. Two Three for the price of one—I love it when things work out the way they’re supposed to.

Deep fried zucchini crisps with a tzatziki and Greek yogurt *(yes, it’s still called “Greek yogurt” even when you’re in Greece), garlic, and shredded cucumber dipping sauce, all of which are free from processed cattle substitutes and a Greek salad (yes, it’s still a “Greek salad”).

Two appetizers.

I ordered the Kritharoto Thalassinon which translates to an orzo rice with mussels, calamari, shrimp, and peppers. The stunning @puravidaville ordered Solomos Psitos which translates to grilled salmon served with grilled vegetables and they both translate to “oh my goodness gracious that was sofa king good—we’ll definitely visit Rouga at least one more time before we leave Greece next week!”

Entrée round.

The aftermath.

Now then, back to the part I pointed out in the beginning of this contender where I said we don’t eat dairy or meat but we’re not weird about it. When the owner of the restaurant recognizes the two Americans completely out of their element who thoroughly enjoyed the authentic cuisine, accompanied by a bachelorette party involved in all of the traditional festivities, you don’t say “no thank you” when they bring you this dessert on the house—baklava and a goat cheese cake yogurt topped with blueberries and a chocolate mousse that’s nothing less than food heaven on a spoon. Can you tell how much we couldn’t stand devouring every.single.bite of it?

The dessert round.

Food for thought.

As you venture across this planet of ours, hopping over multiple borders, you’re met with cultural differences that are vastly different to the ones you’re accustomed to. That’s just the way it is. For example, and this is only one of many, legal drinking age. Where I come from, the US, the legal drinking age is 21. In the UK, however, it’s 18 and, here in Greece, there isn’t one. What that means is, it isn’t uncommon to see young teenagers and kids drinking at the dinner tables and pubs here, that goes for cigarette smoking, too.

Where I come from, again, this is only one of two examples, weed is legal (marijuana). Therefore, big tobacco fights a vigilant fight to stay inside your pocket in the United States. Here, however, and throughout most of Europe, marijuana, the all-naturally grown, photosynthesis derived, seed bearing plant is illegal which means cigarettes are not only abundant, they’re extremely costly, customary, and traditional. People don’t have to step outside to smoke cigarettes in Greece, nor in most of Europe, they fire up within inches of where you’re enjoying dinner.

The atmosphere.

Dinner was delicious, can you tell? 5-stars. Pura and I decided to take advantage of the remaining sunlight and continue our evening together by venturing around the area, hand in hand, up and down the surrounding single-lane, cobble stone roads and side streets just taking it all in. As I’ve been doing quite regularly since arriving in Greece three weeks ago, I captured several pieces of magic produced by the local artists who use nothing more than spray paint cans and a ziplock bag full of tips—enjoy!

Local street art.

Same place next week, deal? Thank you for hanging out with me again. Greece is gorgeous and the people here are warm and welcoming—I highly suggest adding this part of our shared map to your bucket list. Have a great weekend, #steemit, and have an even better week!

Monday