to think if you are only going away to Spain for a fortnight...

[squeakytoy]

you really do not need a "taste of home"...

Just reading the reviews for the place we are staying at next month.. (stayed in the resort before, but never this particular apartment complex) and I just love reading reviews...

"lovely place, but shame there was no british pubs close by"

well thank the lord for that!

"wicked holiday, found an amazing bar that did a full english and you could get a brill sunday roast for 5 euro wiv yorkshire pudding"

ffs its over 90 degrees out there.. why the hell do you want a bloody roast dinner???

When I go to Spain, I want to eat spanish food, enjoy spanish culture, and feel like I am on holiday.... is that asking too much?

OP. I know I don't particularly want traditional English food, wherever I am in the world, but it sounds a bit like you're being a snob here. Those English "pubs" serving UK food abroad are for people who want to eat that stuff, otherwise they'd not exist and go out of business.

When I went to Florida there was an "Olde English Pub" type place I walked past that was doing english food, roast dinners etc. They did cod and chips for $19. The place was rammed.

I just don't understand. That's my favourite part of going abroad, to go in to the local supermarkets and see all their local deliciousness!

Think you are a better class if tourist if you make sure to mingle with the natives? What's the point of travelling if you don't want to learn anything about your destination, Tails?

Whether I'm in Newcastle, New Delhi, or wherever I travel to, I want to experience life as lived by the indigenous population. Outside of the UK, I avoid Brit dominated resorts and mingle with the locals.

I'm shortly going to one of my favourite Greek islands where few Brits venture because it is accessible only by boat or plane from Athens. I'll breakfast on yogurt and honey, drink ouzo, listen to Greek music, dine in tavernas and (when invited to do so) join in the folk dancing that signifies either a special occasion or a spontaneous celebration of life and smash a few plates while getting smashed.

I'll also continue my attempts to master the Cyrillic alphabet, endeavour to learn more Greek words and phrases, and return home refreshed and enriched by my holiday experiences.

I get to munch at some classy joints with prices to match squeaky but one of my favourite eateries is a small Portuguese restaurant in South London where a choice from the extensive lunchtime menu together with a bottle of Super Bock, soft drink, or a glass of truly sumptuous house wine costs the princely sum of £6.95 - if you eat lunch on 6 occasions at this establishment, you'll get one free.

When it comes to eating out in central London the canny can find a wealth of inexpensive little gems. There's an Italian restaurant in Soho occasionally frequented by Brian May that won't break the bank at any time of the day or night, and an Indian restaurant in Fitzrovia that was established back in the 60's and is known for it's superb food and modest cost.

Of course, true aficionados of the UK's capital can dine inexpensively on the dishes that have sustained impoverished Londoners for generations namely, pie and mash with liquor or stewed eels

Why would you go to a 'resort' if you want to see the true Spain?

Totally agree with you OP....I go abroad to experience the culture. I don't want all things Brit when I'm abroad.

Love Tripadvisor and usually write reviews myself (whereever I go).

Maddest one I read was where someone complained about the sound of dogs barking near a hotel where they stayed! Idiots
Hotel concerned was a very good hotel in a peaceful countryside location (outside Sorrento). Dogs were really not a problem....but some people have to find something, anything to moan about.

izzywhizzyletsgetbusy

Where's the restaurant

Some of this is a bit snobby to be honest. We have a place in Spain and whilst it is a purpose built complex of apartments, tennis courts, swimming pools etc , it is about 50/50 English and Spanish owned.

Most of the English are families and lounge by the pool or tour the area. There are a few who drink beer until the pub opens and they can go and get a beer and sit in their rooms or eat pizza.

But the Spanish are the same - not intrinsically classy just because they are not English and perfectly capable of drinking alcohol all day and sitting out eating bulk buy packets of crisps and yelling at each other.

I also have a small affection for the English section of the supermarket. It always makes me grin to see the rows of hob nob, weetabix , pg tips and other things that people sneakily grab between the polenta and onions and chorizo they are happily picking up to show they are 'proper' tourists.

Of course there are arses who go to another country and sneer at everything local and wander about in footie shirts complaining about the locals. But most people go abroad to try and enjoy it as best they can. But if they are crap with the language and feel vulnerable they will cling defensively to what they know.

It is great if you feel confident about immersing yourself in local culture. I could be quite snotty about it - we travel around and can eat anywhere but that is off the back of dh speaking excellent Spanish. My ability to be adventurous out there when relying on my crappy Spanish and fretting about the two dc is much more limited and makes me quite happy that there is a local Italian with English speaking staff.

Each to their own tbh.

If you want "Britain in the Sun", there are places catering for that.

If you don´t, don´t go to one of those places.

I was stunned to see medium sized cans of baked beans on the supermarket shelves for 2.50 (obviously catering for brit tourists).

The Italians LOVE PG Tips and Tetley tea bags...so always export a few of those when visiting the Rels.

You can go to the smallest most run down cafe in Italy and still get amazing food, with NO KIDS chips with shit meals. Over here if we eat out we eat somewhere nice that doesn't hate children, never pubs/Harvesters/frozen veg type places and even they offer bland crap with chips.

Why go to Spain/Greece/abroad if you don't want to experience that country? especially with children.

Could you really eat Spanish food non stop for two weeks though? I couldn't eat ANY cuisine for two weeks straight. Though I don't do english food abroad though - Spain has some great Indian, Mexican and chinese restaurants.

I'm off to Italy this weekend and I'm def packing provisions. The Italians literally only seem to eat Pizza, pasta and gnocchi! Drove 40kms last year to go to an Indian that was hugely overpriced, couldn't even find any risottos - no way I can eat pizza and pasta for 7 days straight.

Italians also eat meat and fish dishes....not just carbs!! And yes I could eat local food everyday....and have never eaten 'English' anywhere else but England.

I do think that British people on the whole are quite open to trying different types of food, which is why there are a wealth of Indian, Chinese, Thai, Italian etc restaurants and take aways in every British city. This may well be because our own traditional cuisine is a bit crap.

Spag bog and stir fries are standard in many British homes and Tikka Masalam is considered to be a British invention. We're generally quite eclectic in our tastes compared to other countries. (I'm basing this on knowing an Italian family well who would never have anything other than Italian food and when they go out they have pizza).

No idea why you would want to go to Spain and eat British food though.

I agree about South East Asia - was there for a couple of months and don't think I had a bad meal once.

I spend a lot of time in China where the food is in the main.....

vile. Nothing like the food they export.

theposieparker, we really did struggle, honestly! There was the odd wienerschnitzel or corden bleu on the menus but that was about it. Maybe we were looking in the wrong restaurants!

(shhh but I don't rate Spanish food at all......salads are good though!!)

The whole point of a foreign holiday is foreign food.
Our last holiday I read trip advisor-someone gave the hotel a poor rating because they had no brown sauce on the table-I thought 'that's the hotel for us!' -it was lovely.

"In London, if you go to a cheap restaurant, you get cheap food, of poor quality, poorly cooked, and if anyone can advise me differently, I will be happy to give it a try."

Ah, but Most of us don't live in London. I live in rural South Yorkshire where the pubs sell a lot of dishes made with local produce - local lamb, pork, beef and chicken and locally grown vegetables. One of our favourite pubs doesn't sell kids meals, but half size portions off the main menu.

I think there are a lot of assumptions on here about eating out. I have holidayed in non touristy parts of France and eaten disappointing meals as well es excellent ones. The same goes for here and Spain and the US. There are good and bad eateries all over the world. Although I agree that our motorway service stations are an embarrassment.

I agree with Besom that here in the UK we are lucky to have such a wide choice of cuisines available. I know that the Italians are fiercely protective of their regional dishes and you won't find a Sicilian making risotto for example.

"I couldn't eat ANY cuisine for two weeks straight."

I think that that´s quite a good point tbh.

For example in a week we often have lasagne, curry-we don´t have a roast everyday.

A1980 Thu 18-Aug-11 00:11:28

"If true shit is passed off as food here and food abroad is vastly better, then I wonder why I got a very bad tummy upset in a number of countries for no particular reason and when I had practiced safe food and water hygeine."

Simple explanation: your stomach will be used to the bugs in your own country, but not in a foreign country (or do you imagine that the native Spanish and Italians spend all their time nursing tummy bugs?)

I love English food, but it used to take my stomach some time to settle when I was only visiting the UK as a tourist and my mother was very ill when she came over to visit me the other year.

I go to Spain or most places abroad for the sun.

And that is it, I am not interested in their food culture or the people.

I go for a relaxing time in the sun.

Some people don't want to immerse themselves in another culture. Some would just like to go and have a bucket-and-spade holiday in a place where it's almost definitely going to be warm and sunny every day.

What's the problem? There are loads of things that people do for fun that I don't choose to do (stamp collecting, paintballing, researching their ancestors, knitting, riding horses, drinking lager) but I don't complain that facilities are available for them to do these things.

Costa Del Self-Obsessed Loser

When we lived in Thailand, we went out virtually every Sunday to have pub lunch.
There comes a point where you just can't face another plate of Thai food.
On Phuket, there is a curious pub right in the middle of the island called the Green Man. It is completely incogruous but my first stop when we went away for the weekend.

link
www.the-green-man.net/