One of the toughest things about travelling is adjusting to the food.

Many of the adjustments when travelling are not difficult, but eating when travelling has always been tough for me.

We recently flew to Spain. So many things in Spain were the same as in Canada. 

Their roadways were the same. If you kept your eyes away from the Spanish signs, you would many times think you were driving the Canadian countryside.

It was also winter in Spain, just like in Canada. It was cold there just like at home – except for one difference: at home I’m cold when I go outside; in Spain I was cold when I was inside. Many people there don’t heat their homes like we do, so I found myself bundling up when I got indoors.

People were friendly and willing to communicate, to the point of being interested in where we were from and where we were going. 

It was just like home in so many ways. 

But then there was the eating thing. Every few hours I need a little refuelling and that’s where it got a little tricky. 

It would have been easy to eat American fast food (if you know the song, you can sing it here), but then I’d have missed out on experiencing some of the culture.

I’m not one to experiment too much when it comes to food, so when I found something that had some similarity to what I would eat back home I jumped on it. 

Pizza was one of those food items. I’m really familiar with pizza; I eat it all the time. Bu there I had a chance to experience a different slant on pizza. … I tried it twice because I wasn’t sure the first time if I’d just picked a bad restaurant.

Over all pizza is pizza: you have your crust, your sauce, your toppings and your cheese.

The crust, though slightly different, was much the same. The toppings tasted the same as back home … as long as I made sure the ham was not some Spanish ham. 

But the cheese was not mozzarella. I don’t know what they used. It wasn’t a strong tasting cheese, but it had a peanut butter quality to it – not in the taste, but just like peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth, so did this cheese. 

It was just a little much.

The biggest difference was almost no tomato sauce. Pizza in Canada has a rich tomato sauce spread out over the whole pizza.

In Spain, and I’m told in Italy as well, there is very little tomato sauce – just a hint, and that might be exaggerating how much they put on the pizza.

It was this combo of sauce and cheese that turned me off of pizza – one of my staple food groups at home. 

I got by, however, and no one knew I didn’t really like it. Well, until now. 

Here’s the thing: We often project that we are fine with things, that we are mostly good with what we are facing. Sometimes we give everyone the impression that we are alright with God when we are not. Maybe He hasn’t answered a prayer for a long time. Maybe He didn’t come through for you when you had a big need. You don’t have to pretend you are okay with it. Everyone else might not know how you feel until you say it, but God already knows and He can handle it.

That’s Life!

Paul

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