Things You Don't "Get"

[tonyh29]

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

im surprised @tonyh29 cuisine doesn't come in to your travelling, that's something I do like, TV chefs doing travel shows, rick stein's are great

Fear not , I don't travel to weird countries and make a beeline for the nearest McDonald's and Starbucks 

If I go somewhere I'll eat local food and try the local beer etc , but I've no real interest in learning to go home and recreate that dish for myself 

If I meet people who have come back from holiday and I ask them , Oh how was <<inset country>> they invariably say oh the food was fantastic we had this amazing dish with prawns this big  and a sauce to die for   .... and I think that's nice but how did you find  << insert country >> , did you explore the place , did you see anything amazing  , I can get prawns in sauce in this country .

 

Today is probably a good example ....  i've not eaten yet today  , I'm at work been on calls all morning  ...I'm now getting a bit peckish ..my options are Shreddies or Shredded Wheat  that I have in the kitchen downstairs  , I'm not interested in a walk down to a Deli for a Pork belly, Asian slaw, pickled ginger, daikon, sweet chilli jam and mayonnaise  baguette 

 

Edit - Just to show I'm not a complete heathen , i went for a combo of Shreddies AND Shredded Wheat 

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by tonyh29

[tonyh29]

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

One of the best parts of holiday and travelling for me. Sampling local cuisine

 

1 hour ago, Wainy316 said:

Absolutely!  One of the main draws of travelling for me is sampling the local cuisine.

 

EDIT: Yeah what Stevo said

I've kinda covered my answer in another reply  , but I'm genuinely interested to know ,  how much of a consideration would you put on the food ?

Probably a bad example (for me at least as I'm not a fan of the food) , but take India  ... for me it was things like  the Golden triangle , seeing tigers in the wild , toy train up the mountains  and seeing the Himalayas , the history etc   ... would you approach India as go for the food and see what else happens to be there  ? ( simplified but you get the gist) 

[mjmooney]

13 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

Fear not , I don't travel to weird countries and make a beeline for the nearest McDonald's and Starbucks 

If I go somewhere I'll eat local food and try the local beer etc

But you're still faced with a very limited subset of the available local goodies, as (correct me if I'm wrong) you don't really eat any fruit or veg. Or drink wine. 

 

[chrisp65]

I imagine there’s some family from Venezuela or Botswana or Nauru that have saved up and visited Britain to experience some utterly different culture. When they get home and they’re asked what do you remember, they’ll just shudder and say ‘We went to Morecambe. dirty bastards put gravy on my fish.’

[Stevo985]

1 minute ago, tonyh29 said:

 

I've kinda covered my answer in another reply  , but I'm genuinely interested to know ,  how much of a consideration would you put on the food ?

Probably a bad example (for me at least as I'm not a fan of the food) , but take India  ... for me it was things like  the Golden triangle , seeing tigers in the wild , toy train up the mountains  and seeing the Himalayas , the history etc   ... would you approach India as go for the food and see what else happens to be there  ? ( simplified but you get the gist) 

No I wouldn’t choose a destination purely based on food, mainly because most destinations will have a host of local cuisine to choose from. 
 

So it’s not like one destination has zero food and the other has loads. If that was the case it might come into it more. 
 

But it’s a massive perk of wherever you go to be able to sample their local foods. It’s one of my favourite things to do finding little restaurants and sampling their style of food. 

[StefanAVFC]

Food is truly one of life's great pleasures. Cooking is me, is a hobby and I enjoy it the same as watching a movie or playing a game.

Surprises me when people don't care.

[villa4europe]

18 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

Fear not , I don't travel to weird countries and make a beeline for the nearest McDonald's and Starbucks  

that's a must for me to be fair

McDonalds UK is something that I feel like I know with the back of my hand, so when you're in say Germany which is an easy example for me you can go get the McRosti which was basically a big tasty with a hash brown on it, or of course the McRib, Dubai McDonalds do big macs with the chicken burgers from a McChicken

KFC is probably a better example, in China they did a fish burger which was a white fish piece coated in the colonels secret spices, came with an orange caviar sauce, in Hiroshima you can get an exclusive to that region orange and chilli coating on the KFC

you got to try those things

and Italy is the worst, McDonalds in Italy was absolute dog shit, burger and fries were horrible

[StefanAVFC]

2 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

that's a must for me to be fair

McDonalds UK is something that I feel like I know with the back of my hand, so when you're in say Germany which is an easy example for me you can go get the McRosti which was basically a big tasty with a hash brown on it, or of course the McRib, Dubai McDonalds do big macs with the chicken burgers from a McChicken

KFC is probably a better example, in China they did a fish burger which was a white fish piece coated in the colonels secret spices, came with an orange caviar sauce, in Hiroshima you can get an exclusive to that region orange and chilli coating on the KFC

you got to try those things

and Italy is the worst, McDonalds in Italy was absolute dog shit, burger and fries were horrible

In Poland, the Kanapka Drwala is a must. @fightoffyour I'm right aren't I?

Edited June 3, 2020 by StefanAVFC

[mjmooney]

It won't surprise anybody to know that food would outright stop me from visiting certain countries - India being the prime example - couldn't face all that bloody curry (although there are many other reasons that I'd avoid the place - heat, bugs, snakes, sanitation, poverty, etc.) Nice to see on a TV travel programme, but no desire to actually go there. 

It's France and Italy for the food and wine (and climate and culture) for me. 

Edited June 3, 2020 by mjmooney

[Wainy316]

43 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

 

I've kinda covered my answer in another reply  , but I'm genuinely interested to know ,  how much of a consideration would you put on the food ?

Probably a bad example (for me at least as I'm not a fan of the food) , but take India  ... for me it was things like  the Golden triangle , seeing tigers in the wild , toy train up the mountains  and seeing the Himalayas , the history etc   ... would you approach India as go for the food and see what else happens to be there  ? ( simplified but you get the gist) 

Nah food is never the main pull but it's always something I want to get immediately stuck into when I visit somewhere (the beer too of course). 

An exception to this would be for revisiting Korea.  I absolutely adored the food there and cook a few of the dishes.

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by Wainy316

[HanoiVillan]

41 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

I'm not interested in a walk down to a Deli for a Pork belly, Asian slaw, pickled ginger, daikon, sweet chilli jam and mayonnaise  baguette

Nicely demonstrates my problem; if you took off the slaw and the mayonnaise, I would probably walk across broken glass for that sandwich, let alone walk to the deli. But with eggy, creamy sauces I'm not interested.

[fightoffyour]

19 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

In Poland, the Kanapka Drwala is a must. @fightoffyour I'm right aren't I?

I’m ashamed to say I don’t even know what that is!

But McDonald’s does seem to make some pretty decent (relatively speaking) chicken strips here, whilst Burger King regularly offers 10 nuggets for 5zl (£1) that are great value.

If you’ve been (forced to go) to Ikea in the summer, ours has a grill outside from which the highlight is ‘maczanka po krakowsku’, a slow cooked pork in gravy sandwich (bread roll). These cost 10zl and are an absolute steal and the best food they sell, such that they almost make the rest of the experience worthwhile. Though as the name suggests it originates from Krakow so May only be sold here.

Edited June 3, 2020 by fightoffyour

[StefanAVFC]

What savages are mixing pickled ginger, daikon and mayo btw? 

[chrisp65]

11 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

It won't surprise anybody to know that food would outright stop me from visiting certain countries - India being the prime example - couldn't face all that bloody curry (although there are many other reasons that I'd avoid the place - heat, bugs, snakes, sanitation, poverty, etc.) Nice to see on a TV travel programme, but no desire to actually go there. 

It's France and Italy for the food and wine (and climate and culture) for me. 

That would surely be more about tailoring the trip than ruling out a country?

Fair enough I can imagine there’s a long list of places to visit so India will be your 78th choice. But if you don’t like crowds and heat, go to an area that’s cooler and less crowded. It kinda stretches from Sri Lanka to the Himalayas. There are cold bits that have flushing loos. 

I’ve banged on about it before, I’m a big fan of Malta. But bloody hell, the tourist bit just amazes me that people are happy to go there, dirty, smelly, crowded and the food is basically chips. I guess if you want guaranteed sun, lager and chips and that’s the entire brief then it absolutely does that for you. 75% of the island is geared up purely for that. But bloody hell, I wouldn’t let that stop me going.

Places can be revelations. A weekend football trip to Belfast last year and now I’m utterly in love with the place and want to go back. Can you imagine ever putting Belfast on the top of a holiday wish list!

Edited June 3, 2020 by chrisp65

[HanoiVillan]

Everyone I know who has been to India always recommends either going to the Himalayas or to Kerala or the wider south, and just giving every big city a swerve. As I understand - and I've never been, so please feel free to correct me those who have - Kerala is quieter, slower and more scenic than a lot of India, and some people have compared it more to south-east Asia (which is obviously a part of the world I do know and recommend visiting).

[tonyh29]

16 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

But you're still faced with a very limited subset of the available local goodies, as (correct me if I'm wrong) you don't really eat any fruit or veg. Or drink wine. 

 

No more limited than i'd be at home tbf   but you'd be amazed at the 101 different ways they can cook pork around the world 

I take your point , for sure in Korea I'm not going to sample Kimchi ,   but I've certainly never starved in places or got bored with the food ...  and I don't really feel I've missed out in life if I didn't eat  the speciality aubergine parmigiana etc

 

 

 

 

[fightoffyour]

27 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

In Poland, the Kanapka Drwala is a must. @fightoffyour I'm right aren't I?

Ok well it sounds pretty special, I’ll be on the lookout. Seems like a seasonal thing from what I’ve read though?

[tonyh29]

9 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Nicely demonstrates my problem; if you took off the slaw and the mayonnaise, I would probably walk across broken glass for that sandwich, let alone walk to the deli. But with eggy, creamy sauces I'm not interested.

for me it would be Pork belly ..and bread  ... well , seeing as Bicks  isn't looking I'd actually have some lettuce in there as its one of the few green things I eat .... other than smarties and skittles 

[mjmooney]

1 minute ago, chrisp65 said:

That would surely be more about tailoring the trip than ruling out a country?

Fair enough I can imagine there’s a long list of places to visit so India will be your 78th choice. But if you don’t like crowds and heat, go to an area that’s cooler and less crowded. It kinda stretches from Sri Lanka to the Himalayas. There are cold bits that have flushing loos

The curry though, the curry... 

Yeah, I know you're right, but I have a limited comfort zone, and I'm definitely risk averse. I think I prefer (psychological) relaxation to adventure. I've got a finite budget and (gulp) a finite amount of years left to me. If I was planning a trip, I'd be thinking "Third world, where I'd get some new experiences? Or Europe, where I know  EXACTLY what pleasures await me?" It's different enough from home for a nice change, but not so different that I'd feel unsettled. 

Bear in mind I never left the British Isles until I was married and nearly thirty. 

[StefanAVFC]

7 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

Ok well it sounds pretty special, I’ll be on the lookout. Seems like a seasonal thing from what I’ve read though?

Yeah it isn't all year round! Tbh my favourite thing from McDonalds (on the rare occasion I go!) is a McFlurry.