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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

In wondering what people WANT from food on holidays?

124 replies

hoovercraft · 27/02/2011 16:31

Went on holiday and the food at the hotel was lovely. Huge array of salads and seafood and hot dishes. Really interesting food and salads - lovely one with avocado (my fave).
One night they had whole prawns on the buffet, another was a whole salmon. All fresh and lovely. Meat dishes were nice too. Also had a huge paella and local dishes.

But people complained about the food .
One couple we met even went to the local greasy spoon for meals. We went there at lunch and it was horrible - chips, micro pizzas, froen prawns with no flavour in sandwiches.

Im amazed. What do people want from holiday food?

OP posts:

bedubabe · 01/03/2011 11:18

Binful - baked beans readily available here. I'd swap them for pork any day :)

twopeople · 01/03/2011 11:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

jasminetom · 01/03/2011 11:38

Sorry to go a bit off topic but in Sri Lanka last year I overheard a British couple complaining about the rain and wanted their money back. The man said it was "ridiculous".

humanfraggle · 01/03/2011 11:46

My DH's Nanna and Grandad also won't eat any 'foreign' food. They won't even eat pizza.

They go on holiday to Benidorm at least twice a year, and they take tinned ham with them in their suitcases.

God love 'em

megapixels · 01/03/2011 11:52

bedubabe - To be fair, baked beans look pretty vile to those that are not used to them :). I am not from the UK and would at the idea of having to eat them, I can't believe anyone would like them either . DD1 will eat them as she is used to them because of school meals. Nothing wrong with turning up your nose at a particular food, just not an entire cuisine.

bedubabe · 01/03/2011 12:55

I wasn't complaining - I just found it interesting!

lesley33 · 01/03/2011 13:18

I love trying different types of food. But lots of people going abroad are only going abroad because of the weather - they are not choosing to go to a particular country to experience that country. So I understand why they may not be interested in trying the food of that country.

theyCallMeHer · 01/03/2011 13:21

Nothing wrong with baked beans 'meal in a tin' my grandad used to call them

adamschic · 01/03/2011 13:23

We are quite easily pleased but must admit that I have eaten at KFC when abroad, just the one night out of 7/14.

I usually enjoy the buffet meals and even DD finds something she likes mainly pasta and rice based. However, this year is a special year and I went on trip advisor before booking our holiday and had to pay quite a high price to find a hotel with 98% 'excellent' food reviews. So am looking forward to something more upmarket.

Usually do meet people who won't eat the hotel food and are going to the local 'english' bar but that is their personal choice and I wouldn't judge them.

lesley33 · 01/03/2011 13:25

The food I had in China wasn't great as it always seemed to be swimming in grease. When we asked them to use less fat, still had loads of grease, but our guide thought they had used hardly any oil!

Iklboo · 01/03/2011 13:30

On holiday in the Dominican Republic years ago one bloke wailed 'you'd think they'd have chips - we're near America'

lesley33 · 01/03/2011 13:35

I love trying lots of unusual foods. But after spending 3 weeks travelling around remote parts of Iceland eating only fish soup, meat soup or fish and potatoes we were pleased to come across a pizza restaurant!

Mind you there was nothing wrong with the Icelandic food, just a bit boring to have all the time.

merryberry · 01/03/2011 13:35

I want to not get ill. end of.
:)

Joby1970 · 01/03/2011 13:53

i wnet to Alicante a few years ago & ordered Pork Tongue & also pigs trotters. The waiter made me ask twice for it & wen tinside & told the owner that an English person was ordering trotters & tongue... btw it was lovely

bumblingbovine · 01/03/2011 14:36

I love to try different foods and going to good local restaurants is part of the holiday for me.

Unfortunately after meeting dh I now find we have to actually seek out those awful tourist chips with everything places as in many local restaurants it is almost impossible to get any (let alone good) vergetarian food and dh is Vegetarian.

Greece and France and even Italy (not so bad in the south in Italy) are really awful for him foodwise so although I insist on visiting "good" restaurants a bit, we also do the "chip type" places a bit so that dh doesn't get too hungry!

EleanorJosie · 01/03/2011 14:41

I guess people want different things from their holiday. Some want it to be exactly like home but with a pool and sunshine. Some want to try new things and for it to be pretty different from home.

BringOnTheGoat · 01/03/2011 14:45

Think people want the things they like. I like ALL food so as long as it's tasty I'm happy. I prefer a selection of local food to choose from - wherever I go. It is so sad to see the 'chips n egg' brigade - as per Shirley Valentine turning their noses up at local delicasies. Agree that some people just LOVE a moan!

EleanorJosie · 01/03/2011 14:55

My dad doesn't eat onions, garlic, pasta, rice, anything spicy or too herby or with sauces on or mince, or most fish or seafood. He hasn't been abroad much though! My mum likes everything apart from mushrooms and seafood.

I think this is why I became a bit of a foodie...at the age of 11/12 I started to discover a world beyond frozen Dalepak grills, soggy veg, overcooked meat, chips and spaghetti hoops on toast. Nether of my parents could cook...though my mum has got better. To sound a bit Peter Kay I still remember my first taste of garlic bread at about 11...OMG garlic bread!

I was really lucky to go to Israel with my mum at age 14 and I can still remember first tasting houmous and pitta there - in fact I remember eating so much houmous and mezes and not realising there was a main course to follow...

But anyway I can also understand people being fussy as well as I could have gone that way.

rocketleaf · 01/03/2011 15:07

My sister has just been on holiday and said exactly the same thing, the food sounded amazing, loads of fresh stuff, fish caught daily and cooked in front of you. mazing salads. yet the also provided chips and pizza etc for the none adventurous people and she was shocked at how many people just came away with plates full of 'brown food'

Some people are really scared of anything they don't know. When I first met DH the only veg he ate were peas (I was vegetarian) and the most exotic thing was chicken fried rice (from the chippy) He said he didn't like curry and I had to question if I could actually have a relationship with someone who didnt!! Luckily he liked me enough to try one and he loved it. After that if he said he didn't like something I laughed at him and asked him when was the last time he tried it? He now eats most things although there are of course some things he genuinely doesn't like. He had been brought up on very unadventurous 'british' diet and it took trying to impress a girl to get him out of that rut. Lucky it did really or he would have been buggered when we travelled round SE asia!

The thing I think is a shame is when it becomes hard to find local food in a resort that gets a lot of british tourists, they get pushed out in favour of steak and chips and English breakfasts.

Jux · 01/03/2011 15:15

We went to Malta last year. Everywhere we went the food was English. Mainly Fried Brown Shit because that seemed to be what everyone wanted to eat. It was really really hard to find a restaurant/cafe producing genuine (unanglicised) Maltese food.

I did get a most delicious seafood salad at one point and somehow got dh and dd to try octopus. They are utterly converted.

Drives me mad. Half the point of going away is to try different things.

iamamug · 01/03/2011 15:30

Have just got back from a fab trip to Thailand where the food is gorgeous - did a cookery course and have brought back masses of curry paste to try and recreate the dishes at home.
My youngest DS is a notoriously fussy eater but had no access to 'junk' in the first week and happily ate chicken and noodles in many forms every day.
He's not good with a lot of spice but the B&B cooked the food to his taste.
The 2nd week was in a holiday resort and all his faves were available - pizza, spag bol, burgers etc..
However - they were all home cooked and very good quality and he still opted for Thai noodles many days.
He also ate a whole bag of fried crickets - I kid you not!!
A mother was never so proud and horrified all at once!

Incidentally - I also went to Egypt last year.
Stayed in a lovely hotel with super buffet - the local food was delicious - and yes the Brits queued for the chips.
One lairy young girl announced that the food was crap and was later seen eating a KFC bucket!
And yes, I did get ill - but not from the food.
Our hotel used an English Health inspector to keep standards up in the kitchen (unlike the KFC, Burger King etc up the road - all franchised and please don't tell me their hygiene is better)
I am convinced my bug was due to sloppy hygiene of other holiday makers - these germs can last hours in 45 degree heat! (And I wasn't ill until I got home - probably caught it on the plane)

Laquitar · 01/03/2011 15:45

'it becomes hard to find local food in a resort that gets a lot of british tourists, they get pushed out in favour of steak and chips and english breakfast'

Excactly rocketleaf. Easy to say 'why do you care what others eat' but i care when i see the local places closing down because of the chains like Pizza Hut or Macdonalds taking over.

And for me it is not just about the food, i don't want to see the same plastic signs when i go holidays. It spoils the whole atmosphere. It is aesthetic crime aswell!

Binfullofmaggotsonthe45 · 01/03/2011 19:38

The thing is, it doesn't matter if it's KFC in Egypt - they don't fly it in cooked! It's still the same chicken as you may get on a buffet in a hotel across the road! You have exactly the same chance of getting Ill from hygiene issues.

Handling money, not washing your hands, ice cubes, pool water (lovely to see people who complain of stomach problems happy to wade into the communal pool last time we were there ) are major culprits of the tummy bug. Then consuming a load of all inclusive lagers and sitting in 90 degree sun getting red.

Also no-one ever seems to connect the overeating - we watched a woman, my husband nicknamed the gâteau beast, literally take a whole cake and tray of profiteroles to her table and quoff the bloody lot! Any wonder people get the trots! Surely these people don't eat chicken, beef, lamb, potatoes, pasta, rice, couscous and 5 desserts at home do they?

mollymole · 01/03/2011 20:24

talking of egypt we had amazing food at a Le Meridian hotel - every meals a choice of hot and cold meat dishes - fresh fish dishes - hot vegetables and an amazing salad bar - like a market stall where you filled your basket with the items you wanted and handed the basket to the assistant who prepared you a fresh salad ! there was also a fresh cook pasta bar and egg/ommellete bar with choices of filling and yet loads of Brits were moaning - such a shame we in the iddle of nowhere and they couldn't get their fix of crap !!!!

i have a really novel idea of passport control and it goes like this - any one in the checking in queue over 16 wearing a football shirt - send their whole family home - any one wearing spanking new trainers - send them home and then, when you get through check in and it's still only 6.00am and they go to a bar and start drinking alcohol - send that lot home too -

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