Following the Equator

Friday Fun Fact: Italian pizza

Pizza as we know it—with a tomato topping—originated in Naples, Italy, in the 18th century, and Neapolitans remain serious about protecting their pizza heritage. In fact, purists believe there are only two types of pizza: marinara and margherita.

Authentic marinara pizza, the original, includes tomato, oregano, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and basil. Margherita pizza is named for Queen Margherita of Savoy, who preferred a pizza that resembled the Italian flag because of its colors—tomato (red), basil leaves (green) and mozzarella (white).

Photo: Sami Keinänen via Flickr (CC license)

Photo of the Week: Peladillas in Barcelona

Food stands and open-air markets provide great opportunities to try local treats—and even find interesting photos.

This colorful picture is from a market in Barcelona and shows a rainbow of peladillas—candy-coated almonds popular in Spain, especially at Christmastime. The photo was taken by ronmark., who submitted it to the EF Tours group on Flickr.

If you have a unique or fun destination travel photo, just add it to the EF pool on Flickr. We pick a new Photo of the Week every Thursday.

Photo: ronmark. via Flickr (CC license)

Tip of the Week: Restaurant nights

Organizing and hosting fundraising events can take more time than you have in your busy day. The good news is there are a number of restaurants that understand this problem and want to help.

Hosting a restaurant night requires little planning and very little investment. Ultimately your group is responsible for getting customers to the restaurant on a designated night. Then your group will receive a percentage of the sales on that selected night.

For more information and a list of restaurants that host restaurant nights, check out Fundraising with Restaurant Nights.

(Tip of the Week is written by EF Fundraising Specialist Erin Griffiths and appears at Following the Equator every Tuesday. For more fundraising help on your EF tour, check out EF's fundraising tips or contact an EF Fundraising Specialist at fundraising@ef.com.)

Student Travel Poll: What would you eat?

One of the most exciting experiences of traveling is trying new foods, especially cultural delicacies. For me, eating cuisse de grenouille, or frog legs, was definitely a highlight of my most recent trip to Paris.

For our first Student Travel Poll, we pose this question:

poll by twiigs.com

Real Whopper: A £95 hamburger

Fast-food restaurants are never the best place to enjoy the local fare while traveling. The news yesterday proves they're also not the most economical.

Burger King's Gloucester Road branch in West London is now serving the world's most expensive hamburger, according to Guinness World Records.

"The Burger," as it's simply called, costs £95 ($186 US). The proceeds will go to the Help A London Child charity.

According to the London Telegraph, "the bling burger" features the world's most succulent Japanese beef complemented with white truffles, onion tempura prepared in Cristal champagne and Italy's finest Pata Negra prosciutto.

Check out more details in the Telegraph's video above, which also includes passers-by near the Gloucester Road Underground station tasting the costly creation.

Friday Fun Fact: World's largest restaurant

Syria is now home to the world's largest restaurant—Damascus Gate, which seats a whopping 6,014 diners.

According to the BBC, the 3-year-old suburban restaurant recently grabbed the Guinness World Record from a 5,000-seat eatery in Bangkok, Thailand.

Want more stats? Damascus Gate covers 580,000 square feet, has a 27,000-square-foot kitchen and employs 1,800 staff in the summer. And the cost? $40 million.

Tour Tales: Lasagna in Rome

Several EF College Study Tours staff members are traveling with EF groups on tour this spring and summer. Two EF Tour Consultants, Jackie Thomas and Janice Johnson, are currently on tour with a CST group in Italy and Greece. Jackie emailed us this update from Rome:

Germany's robot restaurant

If you're looking for a state-of-the-art restaurant, then you'll have
to head to Nuremberg, Germany. That's where a restaurant called
's Baggers is revolutionizing gastronomy. Or so they say.

There are no waiters or waitresses—only touchscreens and robots. Customers order online, and meals are prepared by people (not robots—yet) in the kitchen high above the restaurant floor. Meals
are then placed on tracks that delivers the food. See for yourself …

French and fries

There's long been a general consensus that the French chafe at the American lifestyle. Mostly, it's a sense we gather from anecdotal evidence; sometimes it hits us like a bulldozer.

But are the French really that different from Americans? Perhaps not.

Which country, after the United States, has been the biggest money-maker for McDonald's in the past few years? From which country does McDonald's highest-ranking non-American executive hail? The answers: France.

Paris O Postcard: Lunch at Versailles

Lunch at Versailles, originally uploaded by following.equator.

Full roasted chicken, a buffet of cheeses, a fresh baguette, strawberries, string beans ... all served on a city bench in the center of the town of Versailles.

What started as an impromptu lunch idea last year during an excursion to the palace of Versailles may now be a full-fledged tradition after some EF staff members repeated the feat this afternoon during Paris Orientation.

Last February, EF Group Leader Greg Holmes and I roamed the open-air Sunday market in Versailles searching for lunch. We were forced to get creative, buying a full chicken, cheese, bread and fruit. We even bought real, metal forks. Then we found a bench on a quiet side street and spread out our feast. This clearly was not a common sight, as the Versailles passers-by either smiled, nodded or grimaced. Several even offered us a "bon appetit!" It was a great moment that Greg and I recall often. We both even saved our forks as souvenirs.

So, today, when our group of first-time group leaders made the way to the open-air market, I told the story to my colleagues -- Erin Bennion, Joe Burkett and Diana Tavares. We decided to give it a try. We bought our supplies (including forks and knives) and settled in on the bench. Not only was it a delicious feast, but it also was another memorable experience. We also toasted Greg for the inaugural Versailles lunch.

Greg even emailed me Saturday night, asking when we were headed back to Versailles. Greg, you'll be happy to know, I'm adding my new fork to the Versailles collection.

The EF Paris Orientation concluded today after a busy day of sightseeing and a wonderal Moroccan Farewell Dinner. Special thanks to all of the first-time participants for another successful Paris Orientation.