Eating rich, spending little in London and Paris

I had the good luck to travel to London and Paris over spring break this year. After a taste-bud killing night of airport fast food and gelatinous plane meals, I was ready to get my feet on the ground and get something delicious in my mouth.

However, eating in Europe can be expensive, but I was determined to spend my spring break chowing down on great-tasting food while taking little out of my wallet.

My first London meal was in Piccadilly, and cheap offerings were scarce. Eventually, a couple  friends and I settled on a little green-roofed food shack in the middle of the plaza. The place had mostly deli food, and I ended up with a crunchy salami, tomato and cheese baguette. My friends gave their thumbs up to the sausage rolls and pepperoni pizza, but the crowd’s favorite was a fried cinnamon-glazed waffle.
All three of us ate lunch for less than $4.

Cities are packed with tasty foods you can eat one-handed while sightseeing.

At a Cornish Bakehouse in London I had a pastie, which is basically stewed meat, veggies and herbs encased in a flaky pastry crust. A medium steak and onion pastie was 2.60 pounds. Foot-long baguette sandwiches are everywhere in Paris for about five euros, and I picked up a ham and Emmental (authentic Swiss cheese) sandwich at a corner store for 3.50 euros.

Eating while standing up is pretty much the key to eating cheap in any foreign city, and you can get local favorites on the street.

If you want an inexpensive restaurant meal, it helps to have a taste for ethnic food.
Because London and Paris are capitals of former colonial powers, they are rife with people of many other cultures selling their traditional recipes at affordable prices.

In London I stuffed myself with Indian food for around 10 pounds, and in Paris I got a two-person portion of couscous merguez (couscous served with vegetable stew and sausage) for 9.50 euros.

If you’re looking to go really cheap, just find a local grocery near your hotel and load up on goodies.

I wouldn’t advise totally foregoing eating in a restaurant, because half the fun of going someplace new is trying out local specials. But besides saving money, supermarket shopping aids in the procurement of souvenirs.

As a food lover, I like to save labels or wrappers when I take trips and scrapbook them. If you’re not a hoarder like me, you can still pick up normal things like boxes of chocolates or bottles of booze for yourself or your family.

On my last day in London, I visited a Sainsbury’s down the street from the hotel and picked up one of my English favorites, Maynard’s wine gums. They taste and feel like Dots, but more like real fruit.

And since I didn’t get to try a Guinness and black, I bought some Ribena to make one myself at home.

The best thing I found was “Spitfire: The Bottle of Britain” – a Kentish ale that was too clever not to buy – and it was only 3 pounds. I couldn’t leave Paris without sampling the local booze, so I also found a small grocer on my last day where I bought some Kinder candy bars, a bottle of red Cotes du Rhone and a bottle of Bordeaux for less than 20 euros.

When I arrived in Europe, my suitcase was half-empty. By the end of my trip, it was completely full, and I spent less than $200 feeding myself for 9 days and buying food souvenirs.

Just remember: Shop the street, eat ethnic and find a close grocery.

The real trick to feeding yourself cheaply on vacation is simply not expecting to dine like a queen – set a budget, and you can have your vacation and eat well too.