Do you think some of these people who refuse to eat local food on foreign holidays, never actually tried it?

I've never watched anything like Saturday Kitchen or Bake Off, I can't think of anything more boring than watching other people cook. Well actually I can, having to do the cooking!

I wouldn't like ingredients not being labelled properly in an all inclusive but presumably if you ask someone would find out.

Holidays are totally wasted on some people.

My PIL are like this. They really aren't that interested in food in general, they never watch any TV cooking shows like Saturday kitchen or Bake Off and the only meal they cook from scratch is a roast Sunday lunch. Everything else is pre-prepared to put in the oven/air-fryer or out of a tin/packet/jar. They do not enjoy eating out and see it as a huge waste of money.

They are suspicious of anything unfamiliar and stick to what they know because of the fear of wasting money if they order (for example) a Pad Thai or a paella because they might not like it and not want to eat it. Far safer to stick to a burger and chips, or shepherd's pie.

Having said that, the beauty of All Inclusive or even B&B at a hotel overseas is that you can try things without spending anything extra. When we have stayed AI in the past the children have always been encouraged to try things - just a spoonful - see if they like it. If they don't, that's fine. DS developed a love for squid rings when he was about 3, daughter became obsessed with the salad bar.

PILs wouldn't know where to start with a buffet style AI offering, too much choice, labelling can be a bit suspect sometimes like a full description of the type of fish and sauce ingredients in Spanish, all it says in English is "fish". So again, default to the known and unchallenging.

We don't go on holiday with them.

Hmmm @Ponoka7 , if your bowel condition is so severe that incredibly limited foods only are tolerable that is a separate matter to not being able to access "British" food. My son has a chronic and significant bowel condition (classed as a disability) and has to be very careful about certain types of food, but that has not stopped him from travelling widely and sampling the local foods, so long as he is careful with his choices. That has nothing to do with "British" food! It is the same for people with food allergies, again nothing to do with "British" food being available globally, just to suit someone.

Surely it depends. If I know something contains an ingredient I don't like or didn't agree with me I wouldn't eat it, the same as at home. For example I've never tried tiramisu and never will as it's coffee so I know I won't like it. I wouldn't care if anyone was offended, you couldn't pay me enough to even sniff it, let alone eat it!

French "food" covering everything from traditional dishes from the North/ South of mainland to Martinique and Reunion Island, so I would love to know what you mean by "French food".

That's the same with every country, I don't get how anyone can decide they just cannot possibly eat anything from that country. It's just food! It doesn't mean you have to eat everything and anything, but French food is not just snails and brain.

In Russia visiting family - my MIL hates fish/sea food - can hardly look at it - and every meal was huge piles of grilled or steamed crabs, prawns, caviar, river fish (very bony and a bit muddy tasting), smoked fish and dark bread. We were being treated and that was the 'treat' meals. I absolutely loved it. But even I was quite relieved when they noticed she was only eating breakfast all day and took us to a very good burger bar.

UC probably isn't helped by a diet of the foods she complained weren't available, such as bacon, sausage and chips.

If I go abroad I want to try their local food. I don't want things like burger and chips.

I said that to a friend when we were in Lithuania last year. We had burger and chips (because it was the first thing we could find) and on night two we had some Ukrainian food

I'm an incredibly fussy eater so I always investigate thoroughly what food is available when I go anywhere (UK or abroad). I just cannot make myself eat certain things.

But I recognise it's a me problem.

The only time I got upset was a pre theatre meal where I had checked out the menu online to get there and find they had suspended their menu without notice and there was nothing I could eat, Luckily the very understanding staff were able to adapt the menu for me.

I think it depends what it is.

I absolutely love trying new cuisines and travelling but with a gluten allergy if I'm not careful it can make me ill very quickly if I accidentally eat it.

We now pick places to visit based on what the local cuisine is. I would love to visit Poland etc but I also know its very gluten heavy in most dishes. Large parts of SE Asia is the same with soy sauce (contains wheat) etc.
It honestly can be a minefield trying to avoid getting sick. I usually print out and take a local language card which says allergic to gluten.

Ridiculous people.

I’m just curious as to what you mean by French food? Sorry, I’m not meaning to be confrontational but there are so many regional cuisines with specialities that I wonder what it is that you’ve tried?

I’d agree that spice is generally not a feature though!

The only French food I like is their dessert/pastry, puddings etc. To me, it tastes like there's something missing. But I do like spice. I've never been disappointed across African cuisine.

Do you know a lot about U Colitis, diverticulitis, IBD etc? Are you on FB? Go onto the stoma pages. I don't think the general public realise the nausea, pain, diarrhea etc that people who have stomach problems go through. Even those who follow the ideal diet can end up with stomas, in their 20's. My DP has been lucky that it taken until his late 50's for his bowel to become that diseased by diverticulitis to need an ileostomy. That woman has UC.
People in a lot of those cultures, who have inflammatory bowel conditions, just die. I know people from Thailand and there's a lot of stomach issues.

If no issues are present, then ideally try other foods, as an adult. But income can hinder that. All you can eat buffets get a bad rap, but that's how I first tried different Chinese and Indian stuff. I grew up with South African, Italian, Caribbean and only a touch of English.

When you say French food, what was it? There is SO MUCH to French food!

I tried French food, but it really did nothing for me ☹️. Thank God for the little Vietnamese restaurant round the corner from the hotel.

Everywhere else, I've enjoyed local foods. There's usually something to like.

It does seem to be driven by a distinct lack of imagination - even the way it's invariably referred to as foreign 'muck'.

It's not even the fact that some of these holidaymakers hope that there will be some British-style food available in foreign countries, but that they expect it as their right and actually complain if there isn't any!

I think, for many of them, they're so egocentric that they assume British food is standard food and that places abroad that serve non-British food are just doing it to be difficult and to be mean to them.

The same as many assume when people in different countries (or even in Wales, for that matter) 'refuse to' speak English, they're just trying to be awkward or doing it for a laugh.

The very idea that people in a non-English-speaking country might conduct their daily lives in a language that isn't English - or (gasp) not even speak English at all!!

I once had to eat three delicious portions of grilled sardines in a similar situation.

I applaud your altruism! I'd have been the same.

Beetroot?

You are talking about MN, where posters can't bear the idea of sleeping in a different bed, or at least must book a hotel because the idea of staying in a friends house is horrifying, where posters with young kids must have a routine that cannot vary for a minute, in a country where beige food is the norm for kids as no-one under 18 could possibly eat something else than chicken nuggets.

It's hardly surprising there's a lot of posters who are unwilling to try anything different or foreign 😂. Of course, they haven't tried anything, and with that attitude, they would convince everyone and themselves they would hate it if they did.

It’s wilfully ignorant to go abroad and expect everyone to speak in English and serve egg and chips.

Probably outing but as a teen I lived in Portugal and made some side money baking and selling pasties to ex pats. Several of them proudly told me they ate an English breakfast at a restaurant in Portimao/Praia da Rocha (tourist area) then my pasties for dinner, every single day.

No interest in chicken piripiri, bifanas (which is basically just a fried pork fillet sandwich), all the delicious seafood (swordfish, tuna steaks, bacalhau etc etc), wild boar, loads of other options. No, just English breakfast and pasties 😬

My thoughts too. The idea that you only encounter spaghetti or seafood abroad seems at least a generation or two out of date. You’d be hard pressed to find a pub or supermarket these days that doesn’t have ‘foreign stuff’ not only available but usually in greater volume than pie and mash / gammon and chips-type food.

I do have experience of people who can’t tolerate anything slightly different to what they’re used to though. An American friend who moaned that Thai food in London wasn’t the same as in New York springs to mind!