I've travelled extensively throughout Europe, lived in Spain and Italy and worked in Germany, and holidayed in many places include most of the Greek Islands, and Cyprus and Turkey.. I've eaten the local Cuisine most of the time in those countries...but unbelievably the best meal I ever tasted ,,and this was after I'd lived in Northern Italy...was in Cyprus, where at a beautiful Greek roof top restaurant I chose not a traditional Greek meal, but an Italian ham & Mushroom Carbonara..something I'd eaten in many Italian restaurants in the Uk and in Italy on many occasions . To this day I have never tasted anything as delicious as that Carbonara in Cyprus , I have no idea how they made it, but it far exceeded anything I'd ever tasted in Northern Italy.
We've eaten lots of fresh fish caught and cooked right there at the harbour restaurants in many countries also, and delicious too... but the best was a Fish chowder we had at a seaside restaurant here in the Uk just 40 minutes from where I live.
The coastal area is full of restaurants and bars on the beach, where they catch and cook the fish right there and then, mainly shellfish.. and the soup we had at this particular restaurant had so much fish in it, and cream sauce, and served with a big chunk of crusty bread and eaten Al fresco at the tables over looking the sea on a sunny day...Ambrosia...and now whenever we take a trip down there, we always have that soup, even if it's winter, sitting outside on the restaurant decking area watching the fisherman out with their nets.... ..