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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask you what your most unusual/unexpected overseas food experiences are

153 replies

Bunnyfuller · 30/07/2017 09:21

I mean as in you order something, and the interpretation of it is so vastly different to expectations...

Sometimes this might be from fucking picky kids unrealistic ordering or just from a local idea that this is what people from your country eat.

My two favourites - a portion of fries on a side plate with a useful portion of cold tinned peas. And a full roast dinner. Pre cooked and straight out of the fridge (not reheated at all). The latter was put on for an official dinner, spectacular. Luckily there was lots of booze and some divine doughnut-y things I completely gorged myself on had a couple of for pudding.

OP posts:
jay55 · 30/07/2017 09:34

Chefs salad, which turned out to be cold pasta with tinned hotdog sausages sliced in.

Pizza, which while has variations I thought was pretty universal, what came out was half a soft bread roll with ketchup and cheese, like some student midnight meal, but it was in a restaurant.

Groupie123 · 30/07/2017 09:36

In Malta - 'authentic Italian lasagna' turned put to be rabbit meat between sheets of dry pasta. Inedible.

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 30/07/2017 09:39

In Singapore or malaysia

Ordered skins at a mcdonalds (don't judge...it was a six month trip!!!)

And instead of the potato skins i was expecting

It was actual skins...fried

And at the time i was a vegetarian

mrscropley · 30/07/2017 09:40

Mixed seafood platter in Milan. .
Tentacles hanging out, the lot.
Spent the night in the bathroom with a pillow against the wall for speedy access to the loo and sink. . Expected to die I truly did.

TeddyIsaHe · 30/07/2017 09:41

Fresh orange juice at a festival in Portugal was 2 oranges in a blender whizzed up with water to make a very unappetising lumpy, foamy, thick mess in a cup. I laugh now but I was so thirsty I nearly cried at the time.!

Bluepansies · 30/07/2017 09:46

rufus what kind of skins?! Could you tell? Shock

Chiliprepper · 30/07/2017 09:49

Carrot cake in Singapore - savoury stirfried cubes of root veg (not even carrot!) mixed w/other vegetables- delicious but hugely unexpected!

Rufustherenegadereindeer1 · 30/07/2017 09:50

blue

No I couldn't

Dh was fairly positive it was chicken Smile

And we were normally so careful, to be as sure as we could be, that we werent eating meat

Dh gave me the bag went back for sauce and came back to me looking horrified Grin

thenightmanageress · 30/07/2017 09:53

A veggie pizza in Croatia that I expected to be topped with mushrooms, onion, peppers etc. What came out was a crispy base with sliced tomatoes & no sauce, all covered with slices of carrot and whole broccoli and cauliflower florets!

DollyPartonsBeard · 30/07/2017 09:55

I bought some Danish pastries at a 7-11 in Bangkok as a treat for my friend who was unwell back at the hotel. One had chocolatey bits on and the other had little chunks of jam. They looked very nice indeed. On unwrapping and eating them, however, we discovered that the chocolate was actually burnt fish, and the jam was what I can only describe as candied ham.

sluj · 30/07/2017 09:57

A doughnut in Thailand that had ham inside it. Ham doughnut?
Also in Thailand a mini milk type frozen lolly that had sweet corn pieces all over it .

Checklist · 30/07/2017 09:57

In China:

  1. Some strips of jelly (a savoury dish), which turned out to be deer tendons
  2. A jellyfish dish
  3. What we called fag ash soup, because that was what it tasted like
flownthecoopkiwi · 30/07/2017 10:07

In Japan, small really tough meat kebabs. No idea to this day what they were. And gish with what i could only describe as mucus sauce

SoPassRemarkable · 30/07/2017 10:11

In uganda, goat killed infront of us and then cooked for lunch. The chopped up, hairy intestines were dished up to sprinkle on top.

SoPassRemarkable · 30/07/2017 10:13

Im happy eating goat curry normally but never had intestines sprinkled over it before.

EnormousDormouse · 30/07/2017 10:18

We were desperately searching for veggie food in a town in China the night before our Yangtze cruise, and a very kind man directed us to a pizza restaurant. DP ordered the veggie pizza, which was a disc of dough, covered in minced meat, with slices of apple over the top.

imnottoofussed · 30/07/2017 10:19

In Egypt, ordered tortellini soup expecting something with the pasta things floating in. What arrived was a really salty broth with cubes of what looked like spam floating in it, I wasn't tasting them to find out exactly what they were. This was in the all inclusive al a carte restaurant.

Original poster
Bunnyfuller · 30/07/2017 10:19

Holy crap at some of these. I especially like the ones that are 'meant' to be fairly mainstream but what arrives is so bizarre!!

Hairy goat intestines. Dirty fuckers.

OP posts:
Tigerlovingall · 30/07/2017 10:29

Not like some of the horrors here, just..unexpected?
Went as au pair to Rome, by boat train. Arrived 24hrs later,was met at Rome station by host family, then straight to a restaurant for lunch...

I ordered Zuppa Inglese as a starter. . Was expecting something like brown Windsor, perhaps?
I got....a bowl of trifle.Shock

Redredredrose · 30/07/2017 10:33

Hard boiled eggs in Vietnam - when cracked open, they had nearly fully developed chicks inside.

Original poster
Bunnyfuller · 30/07/2017 10:37

Omfg red did you order seconds?!

OP posts:
Tigerlovingall · 30/07/2017 10:40

At my niece's multi cultural school in the USA at the end-of year party held in a large field. Cross between fair and food stalls, perfect weather, Great day!
We decided to sample some Chinese pork strips. Got bowls of raw pork fat strips.wtf!

lamado · 30/07/2017 10:45

Ordered a latte in Italy once and got a cup of hot milk.
Had a lasagne in Cuba, where the pasta had clearly been rolled by hand (way too thick) and didn't have any tomatoes in it!

FruBayerischOla · 30/07/2017 10:47

Years ago my, then, DP and I went on holiday to Cephalonia with another couple. We were befriended by a very nice local guy who said he'd like to take us out to dinner at his local taverna, which was in the non-touristy area of Argostoli. When we arrived he said that he'd already ordered one of the specialities of the house - which turned out to be sharing plates of liver, kidneys and other bits of offal. Not being very keen on offal we, nevertheless, ploughed our way through it. Having finished it all we, obviously, were effusive in our thanks and compliments - to which he asked if we'd like some more! We said that we couldn't possibly eat another morsel.

In the meantime, a large family group had arrived and were sitting round a circular table in the opposite corner to us. We hadn't seen what they'd been served with, but they were all tucking into something from a large platter in the middle of the table. We asked our host what they were eating so he called out to them, presumably to say that his English guests were interested in what they were eating. They moved aside so we could see ... an entire roasted pig's head! Again we made the right complimentary noises (whilst thinking "thank God we didn't get one of those"!), at which point he asked us whether we would like a pig's head. Luckily our assurances that our own meal had been more than generous meant that we didn't get a pig's head as well Grin

PoppyPopcorn · 30/07/2017 10:47

Ordered "sparkling water" at a very small restaurant in the back streets of Hong Kong and was brought a can of Sprite. Food was amazing though.

Went out for a meal in Kyoto with DH and Japanese colleagues and ate all manner of weird and wonderful stuff, half of which I still haven't a clue about. Deep fried ligaments were mentioned.

Cheesey pasta pizza in the States. Kids loved it.