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?

Such a funny thread, holiday oneupmanship is rife - I'm a better tourist than yow, my experience is so much more authentic than yours. It's always nice to have somebody to look down on, isn't it? Surely if people are having fun, that's the point, and if the demand is there then resorts will supply it. Going to a cheap resort and then complaining about is just weird.

As ever, I agree with Pag.
Some Terribly snobbish people on this thread.

Let people eat what they want. If you don't like it, don't go to a Brit-friendly resort.

I wonder why people like my parents feel they can look down on others just because they don't have ultra-cosmopolitan tastes.

'Hee hee. I am so much better than people who eat ketchup abroad because I eat tapas and crêpes.'
Fuck off.

Snobs. All this seeking out of 'authentic native darling little woy of the way' nonsense. I like local food on holiday but sometimes I don't. I work hard and maybe I want to 'learn' from 'travelling', or maybe I want to enjoy guaranteed sunshine and a sleep next to a blue sea on a holiday and don't give two hoots what the locals are up to. I pay for my holiday and will enjoy I as I please.

I go to expat shops and Irish bars for a fry uop sometimes in Amsterdam - maybe I fancy a taste of home? Is that allowed?

heavyheidi OMG you are right. The worst meal I EVER had in my life was a Chinese in Riva del Garda [sick]

Jeez it was rank!!! (And before anyone asks why we would eat chinese in Italy, it was way out of season and only about 3 places were open. Crikey that was a dull holiday!!

I agree a lot of people sound very snobby here. "Oh no, I'm not a tourist I'm a traveller^.

We've just got back from Tunisia. It was AI , which I prefer because it gives me the chance to try some 'local' (if mass produced) food, without going hungry if I hate it.

It makes me more adventurous as well I think. There was a dish labelled 'Tunisian Beef in Herb Sauce' that looked bloody terrible - the sauce was a dirty black/green kind of inky look. There is NO WAY I would have tried it had I seen on a menu, but knowing that I could get something else if I didn't like it made me give it a go.

It was bloody gorgeous! The beef was falling apart soft and the sauce was sort of basil-y and peppery. I went back up for a proper portion, but I swear I was the only person trying it!

DD is quite adventurous, but has her moments like all kids. She didnt like the way all the veg seemed to have garlic in it, but would have eaten at the Italian Bar every day if we'd let her - their pasta was lovely and she ended up eating quite a bit of seafood pasta that I wouldnt cook at home.

I do think it was a shame the amount of people just eating chips, chips and more chips, especially with all the other stuff on offer. Even then they complain though - because the ketchup wasn't Heinz!

And I do think its wrong when they mark the hotel down on Trip Advisor, because they didnt like the food, when actually they probably didn't try it. How can a hotel hope to rectify that?

FFS it's not about snobbishness, it's about a peculiarly unpleasant brand of traveller that feels that wherever they go in the world, that world has to adapt to them. It's cultural imperialism to expect the whole world to serve English food. If you travel, you travel with an open mind. That is all. You don't go somewhere and expect to behave exactly as you would at home, eg: men with shirts off in town in a Muslim country, getting blind drunk and vomiting all over someone's else's village, being fantastically rude to people because the whole world does not speak English to your requirements and you haven't even bothered to learn the very basics of the language of the country you are visiting, etc, etc, etc. Just because you have the money to travel does not mean you can go abroad and behave like a total ass with a clear conscience.

That's a description of 90% of teh English tourists I've met.

Now you can all line up to yell at me.

i have often been embarassed by being british abroad our reputation of being moaning minis is not without good reason

Those links are fab duchesse have seen the 'gazpacho' one before but never the 'french bread' or the 'tempura', priceless

I do like to try different things on my hols but don't begrudge those who want a 'taste of home' too, as long as thats whats available, hate reading reviews on tripadvisor of people complaining about 'spanish food' in a spanish hotel

Or
"Didn't like the hotel, there were too many spanish people eating spanish food" (in Spain)?

I have lived in Marbella for the past 7 years and it never fails to amaze me that people bring suitcases full of nappies, bread, tea bags, coffee, cereal, crisps etc with them for a week or two on holiday. Every single supermarket here, be it Supersol, Mercadona or Alcampo sell all these products and more, for those that are self catering at NORMAL prices. I do wonder how these people think we manage to bring up our children here - amazingly one can buy nappies in Spain. Who would have thought it?

I am regularly looked at with a when I say that 'No, I'm sorry I don't know where you can go for egg/sausage/fish/beans (delete as applicable) with chips. If one is staying in Fuengirola, Torremolinos or Benalmadena, one would be hard pushed to find a caff (as that is all they are) that is NOT billed as English/Welsh/Scottish/Irish.

Restaurant wise, from Cabopino to Estepona we are spoilt for choice - in the place where I live alone we have Tapas, Italian (smart), Pizza/pasta, Chinese, Japanese, Teppanyaki, 3 Indians, Modern European, 2 Michelin 1 stars, 5 AMAZING chiringuitos and 3 asadors (Spanish mostly meat cooked on the plancha (grill/hot plate and SO delicious).

I am absolutely a fan of going on holiday and doing fuck all in the way of tourism, but when I hear people moaning about the heat, sun, weird food, I do wonder WTF they bother coming somewhere hot

Squeakytoy don't know where you are off to in Spain, but have a wonderful time and if you are anywhere near to me, let me know as there are a couple of places that you absolutely must try. If you are even half the foodie I am you will love them It's 37 here today btw and very bloody lovely!

I know a Dutch lady brought wine to France as it was on special here. I think people just like their comforts and don't see travel as an experience, more a 'what I do anyway but sunnier' thyrp thing. Check out this resort in Turkey - hugely popular with the Dutch (well some of them):

www.orangecounty.com.tr/en/index_tr.html

thyrp? Type of course.

Took me bloody ages to find nappies in Spain. The sizes I need always seem to be out of stock. Ended up at the Hipercor at Puerto Banus, where you can only get them in packs of 5 million (or thereabouts). :o

Oh dear Panzee, no idea why you couldn't find them apart from Hiper. For future reference (should you need) Mercadona and Alcampo are the best places for nappies, though I would say avoid the Farmacias for them as for the price they are in there one could ship a container load over

I generally find the food in Spanish supermarkets rubbish and the english stuff very expensive.

I often wonder what they eat....lol..............and where they buy their furniture as I never see any shop selling sofas or tvs.

Just bad luck I think! Last year the size 3s were all out of stock, this year it was the 5s! Thanks for the tip, there is a Mercadona near where I stay, as well as an Opencor.

I'm educated middle class 'traveller not tourist' type but I take food when I go to Spain - I'd be constipated if I didn't. Brown bread? Never heard of it. Vegetables with your main course? Not a chance.

I love the area we go to (near Barcelona) but I don't like the food much. I don't think being able to stomach foreign food gives you a badge of honour or credibility, if you liked that stuff so much you'd buy the ingredients and cook that way here.

Don't bother with the OpenCor unless it's an emergency - they are a FORTUNE in there.

traceybeaker - English food is expensive here because, well, it's imported and NOT England. In the same way - to buy wonderful Chorizo, manchego and pata negra in the UK is an expensive treat, not an everyday lunch staple as it is for us. 1kg of THE most succulent and tasty prawns for lunch today - ?5. Same in England - at least £20. The Spanish eat wonderful fish, seafood, pork, Iberican pork, Lamb, beef. Oh and fruit and vegetables too - a huge amount of which you will see on your supermarket shelves in the UK. Everything is seasonal here, 80% of the fruit and veg we eat here are Spanish grown. Either you have your eyes closed or you are an incredibly fussy eater. How can you say that the amazing fish and seafood displays in supermarkets from the bottom tier Mercadona to the top of the drawer El Cortes are 'rubbish food'? Have you ever tried Iberican Pork? Beats the crap out of the insipid water pumped shite you will find in Sainsburys unless you are prepared to mortgage your home to buy the decent organic and free range stuff over there. Have you ever been to a Spanish food market - the indoor ones can only snigger at Borough Market (and I love Borough Market).

Seriously Morris - vegetables with your main course unheard of? Vegetables make up an enormous part of Spanish cuisine. Peppers, tomatoes, broad beans, carrots, amazing onions, peas, broccoli, courgettes, aubergines. I love the Spanish food, but also French, Italian, Thai, Japanese, etc etc and will cook all these at home. Love a good roast too, but not every bloody day of the week.

Brown bread is available wherever you shop - All OpenCors have their own instore bakery, certainly in the south in the towns you can't move for bakeries/pasty shops - all selling amazing breads.

But then again - if people want a 'home from home' but with a touch of decent weather, I imagine they want English grease, English Beer and a bunch of English twats to hang out with - so will have to pay through their ignorant noses for it.

rockstock mmmmmm Lomo! I crave a good bocadillo de lomo and you just can't get it over here.

KenDDD you can get it in Waitrose... and from here by mail order if you're not in the south. Bocadillo de lomo coming up!

I think I love you! I can feel a big order coming on.

Why not I say - it keeps for ever, assuming it gets a chance . I always bring kilos of the stuff back with me for my Mum and DBs and DS - the chap at the supermarket was somewhat at first, but 7 years on he knows what to do!

"That's a description of 90% of the English tourists I've met."

I tend to avoid the sort of resort that attracts that type of tourist anyway. The last few holidays abroad we have had have been in Croatia and a quiet resort in Corfu. The only Brits we met were gentle, polite and interested in the local food and culture (and mostly much older than us).

I agree with duchesse and think that that Brits abroad should try and adapt or put up and shut up.

I live in Belgium, so when I saw a place in Nerja with full freeview AND full english in the near vicinity, this seemed like a REAL treat! We didn't go though....

How come you didn't eat vegetables in Spain?
No tomato, no peppers?