I hate the food on holiday

[pandarific]

Gutted. We’re at a villa in Greece with PIL, I’m pregnant. This villa (organised by PIL) comes with a ‘chef’, who you give money at the start of the week and they cook breakfast lunch and dinner.

It’s run by an English lady, who manages the chef - all we got asked was ‘are there any vegetarians?’ and one person has said they don’t like fish - ‘oh okay, good you said as we have fish three times this week.’

My problem is... The food is cooked fine, but it’s very, very plain and the same thing over and over. I can’t have a bloody drink, I LOVE food anyway so was really, really looking forward to nice food on holiday. Varied, interesting, with nice desserts, stuff I wouldnt have at home - holiday food, iyswim? I could honestly cry.

For lunch yesterday it was spinach and feta pie, plain tomato onion olive pepper and cucumber salad, a loaf of bread and a slab of feta. Fine - bit dull, but fine.

For dinner yesterday it was plain cooked chicken (no sauce of any kind) cooked potatoes and the same salad. A loaf of bread, a slab of feta cheese. An odd orange cake for after which was strangely wet inside and not very nice. ...again a bit dull, but fine.

For breakfast, it’s been eggs, a loaf of bread, Greek yoghurt, jam, cut up fruit. Oh or cornflakes. (Three large packets of cereal, all bloody cornflakes. WTF?)

For lunch today, it was the chicken from yesterday, the spinach pie from yesterday, a slab of feta, a loaf of bread, and salad.

We have just had dinner. I had a word with myself beforehand as I’m beginning to get severely grumpy and struggling to hide my rage, and everyone else, DH included, seems to be delighted with it. I was thinking I shouldn’t pre-judge it, I’m sure she’ll do something different, etc etc. Can you guess where I’m going with this?

Plain grilled chicken or plain grilled pork (), no sauce of any kind, the same salad, a slab of feta, a loaf of bread, the spinach pie again. Nothing for after.

I am fucking gutted. I KNOW I am putting too much importance on this, but I can’t have anything to drink, I’m pretty bloody food focused anyway and now I’m pregnant I’m dying for nice, interesting food to relieve some of the massive fucking boredom of being pregnant, and I was SO looking forward to this. Idk if I was stupid to expect something better, I’ve never been on a holiday like this before, wasn’t . No shops open at the min as it’s a public holiday - I have privately moaned to DH and he’s said we can go to the supermarket .

If I see that fucking salad again I may scream. Please Mumsnet, I know IABU - hand me a grip someone?

Yikes that is a dull menu!

Think of the millions of people who would kill to eat as well as you, and stop being such an over-entitled pillock.

She's on holiday ffs! So everyone on holiday should eat bland food because there are starving people in the world? This thread is getting ridiculous.

I would be FURIOUS and I also wouldn't have coped with it for more than one day. Really? Wouldn't have coped? Jesus Christ.

I don’t get the nasty comments about first world problems .This lady is on holiday ,she’s paid a chef .Shes pregnant and food is life when pregnant .Shes aloud to be bored ,fed up and disappointment with the meals ,I would be .

Tell em you’ve got a craving!
Then ask for kleftiko, yiyantes, meze, elies, with lots of olive oil and lemon to sort out any further dry food 😎

That food is basic. It is! and the quality I also would have expected from a private chef would have been what you were expecting.

Your not being unreasonable at all, expecting flavour on chicken is not being fussy - and as for those saying ‘talk about a first world problem’ THIS IS MUMSNET WE ONLY TALK ABOUT FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS!!

I would be disappointed to and I would have to say any chance of seasoning ? Or can we have .....

At the end of the day it’s your holiday and as you pregnant and want to eat good food maybe request a meal out?

Tatiana, I was not talking about Italian pasta, of course that has sauce.

I was saying we don't have sauces on meat or fish. We just don't. You can shout carbonara all you want, and pesto, these are for pasta! And no, none of what you mentioned was Greek or Spanish at all.

Anyway, glad all sorted OP, have a lovely holiday now

Op has said that she knows she is being unreasonable but to me, I think she’s more disappointed than being rude or ungrateful. I agree with people, food is a huge part of the holiday but like other people have said, pop to a supermarket and get some bits. We went on a big family holiday once where each person took it in turn to do the meals every day, some of it was definitely not to my liking 😂😂😂 I asked my DM if it would be ok for hubby and I to eat out a couple of times so we could have some time alone and she went bloody ballistic!

I was giggling to myself earlier imagining the shrink in the psychology session, cowering behind his new-age flower arrangement and begging 'Please - I understand your feeling about repetitious grilled meats, but please - PLEASE STOP SHOUTING ABOUT SALAD!'

smashes, sounds of breaking glass and the sad, wet thwack of tomato hitting the wall

Who is ‘we’ dan? Why on earth are you trying to speak for the whole of the meditarranean when you don’t appear very familiar with the cuisine?

Italian sauces are not just used for pasta. Cacciatore is generally used with chicken or rabbit, tomato sauce is eaten with sausages and meatballs, parmigiana is used with chicken or auberigine etc. They also do a lot of wine reductions with meat, veal with Marsala, veal Tonnata (tuna and caper sauce), salsa Peverada which is a Venetian sauce for game, Sicilian olive sauce which is eaten with cold meat or grilled fish, traditional casseroles with rich sauces (eg hare with red wine). I’ve had scampi with Bloody Mary sauce, pigeon with blackberries and onion sauce, lamb with green pepper sauce, fish with nettle sauce, duck with orange, mustard and hazelnut sauce etc.

I specified Italy and France because they’re two very obvious contradictions to your no sauce claim and I’ve spent the most time there.

Having said that I’ve had lovely sauces in Spain - tomato, garlic and parsley, alioli, salsa verde (which also has Italian and French versions commonly used with fish).

O.K Tat whatever you say
backs away from thread, still wishes OP a happy holiday
from Spain xxxx

Ugh that’s awful I’d go batshit!
Go out and enjoy real nice Greek food ! I love the food there . I’d jsut tell hubby you want to go explore Greek eatery’s and markets and bakeries and go and do it !

Sounds really awful diet food 🤢

Everyone moaning about first world problems , wtf ? She isnon holiday and wants to enjoy it ! I hope you all don’t enjoy nice meals out with your sanctimonious attitudes 😂

I'd be pissed off. Crappy food on holiday would annoy the fuck out of me. I go to Italy and come back a a few kilos heavier but very happy!

Having lived on a Greek island for many years I’ve yet to be served a meal that didn’t come with an accompaniment of sauce ie tzatziki, humous, aubergine dip, tahini sauce, also many one pot meals are traditionally baked in a tomatoey sauce, salads always served well dressed, meat always seasoned for a good while before cooking so even plain grilled an interesting flavours. The no sauce thing is making me giggle 😆

should we all walk to the wells for water.live off 2p a day.miss meals because others around the world are suffering.golly she wasn't saying she doesn't think of the people who cant afford to eat or are in desperate times.
we all know how lucky we are.it would do other a disservice if she didn't appreciate the good graces shes been able to live with.how is all living in misery ever going to help.
you have to appreciate and rejoice when your given a life that's good.and embrace all the good you can especially when you no how hard it can be to come by.
anyway.yes.being a foodie that would bother me.you paying for a chef too id expect restaurant food.
and being greek food which is delicious.never plain.
could you go out and get some dips.are you allowed to do your own cooking.could you have a small portion at meals time then cook you and you hubbie something fabulous later.
buy in some dressing.
or surely if hes the chef for you you get to request.more sauces etc.
maybe you could word it like "I hear tha greek do this dish... could you cook it for us so we get to enjoy it done by a chef!"

booboo66 How did you come to live on a Greek island?

Also now hungry because of you and tatiana

loopy

Went to work a boozy summer season, Met a local and ended up staying for 10 years!

Sounds very dull and bland, don't blame you for being disappointed.

Why do some people have to be so nasty on MN? Not everything has to be a first world problem to be annoying and worth a bit of a moan on here.

Well that worked out eh, fantastic!

Cant you get off your arse, buy something, and cook it?

Wow, just wow.

Greek food isn't famed for its diversity is it, lamb (In any guise), with salad (normally pimped with feta, tomatoes and tasteless dyed black olives), fried cheese (Like a cheap, flavourless, over fried halloumi), terrible wine, and coffee that the spoon stands up in (Even the greeks drink French or Italian espresso's now!), but bloody hell, they must have shops.

Oh no, what a shame. Holidays are all about indulgence - especially when it come to food.
Could you come up with some 'cravings' and see if they'll cater for you?

Looool @Snowflakeslayer, did you read the thread? I located shareable food, made myself a truly GLORIOUS cheese toastie one evening after a particularly disappointing dinner of the same salad, courgettes with olive oil (nobody ate these) grilled plain white fish and hard white bread, and was perfectly jolly for the rest of the holiday.

I'm home now - wasn't going to update but since snowflake has helpfully bumped the thread...

The cook was definitely taking the proverbial, at least a bit. And everyone else started getting sick of the same salad, lumps of grilled fish/meat and the increasingly stale loaves of dry white bread (all baked at start of the week and wrapped up in a cotton cloth that was unwrapped every day) soon after I posted, too.

Now in fairness moussaka DID make an appearance, but I think it's a good case study - there were 7 of us. The lady made a moussaka that was the size of a coffee table - we didn't even eat a fourth of it. But then, for the next two days, guess what kept coming out of the fridge? I didn't mind this, as I LOVE moussaka (sauce!! cheese!!), but it's not ideal, is it? Why not just make the correct portion size and do fresh for each meal?

This was basically how she cooked and why I think it got so repetitive - because it was literally repeated. E.g. one day at lunch she made MASSES of spaghetti and tomato sauce, far more than we could eat - next two days, as a delicious side, warmed up spaghetti and tomato sauce! Early in the week she made rice-stuffed peppers and tomatoes, and I think on Saturday (!) the three left over came out of the fridge at lunch.

Add to that the lady who managed the villa said to us she'd 'had to take over the ordering recently' and I think the cook was perhaps a little bit dodgy. Shame, as some of the food was great (the kebabs with tziki and lovely griddled bread things was amazing) and it all would have been if she'd done it fresh each time, rather than deliberately over catering and warming up leftovers.

But then I am obviously an entitled nightmare.