People who expect British food on a foreign holiday

[rhomb]

Woman moans about no British food in a Corfu hotel https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tourists-nightmare-corfu-hotel-had-35327009.amp

If you refuse to eat foreign food, or worried about having a flare up of a dietary issue (she has ulcerative colitis), you don’t go on a foreign holiday!

How many people who go abroad and never sample the local food, have never tried it? Even Spanish omelette is egg, potato and onion! A late relative even refused to eat this, even though he was happy to eat these ingredients in a salad - boiled eggs, new potatoes and spring onions

That was a joke surely.

One packet of tea leaves with peppermint flavouring doesn't mean he was right, any more than finding a packet of orange flavour chocolate would prove that chocolate is a citrus fruit.

I think yabu, even if I consider myself to have an adventurous palate, although I doubt I'd want to holiday in a resort or hotel that would appeal to this woman.

Most countries in Europe will be able to accommodate dietary requirements, certainly in a hotel, and in a lot of restaurants too- people with ulcerative colitis aren't limited to travelling within the UK because it's a disease of humans not British people- so foreigners can develop it too!

Secondly, she's a paying customer. Plenty of hotels and resorts appeal directly to Brits and serve 'British' food, and others serve fairly bland 'international' cuisine. When a hotel serves a more 'exotic' local menu, if it's a decent hotel then chef will normally be able to whip up an omelette and chips for the more fussy eater if you ask politely. You're paying them for the food at the end of the day.

I do think the woman is being unreasonable too though, before paying for a week's food you'd probably think to ask to see some menus or ask whether they served x,y and z before you parted with your cash.

Sorry, you've lost me...

It doesn't take much admittedly!

@RexsSoupCan

OMFG I am not interested in talking to different sorts of people and looking at different kinds of art when I am on my holidays. I am flipping knackered from work and want a week lying in the sun. This is not possible where I live as it pisses it down most of the time.

But why should people in foreign countries accommodate you going there and basically living as if you're in your own front room?

If people tipped up here and walked into restaurants and started moaning that they couldn't get what they wanted in their home countries they'd be torn to shreds and told to go home. Why is it OK for Brits to do it?

This makes absolutely no sense.

Murgh makhani is a Indian dish.
Stop food appropriation. It's ridiculous

Try the Spanish, they're terrible usually. We have one or two in the family who will try flavoured things but generally and particularly the older generation do not like non Spanish food. Paricularly in areas where its less tapas and more basic meals, just meat and potatoes usually. They're not keen on sauces.

Yeah nice try. You're fooling no one however

Ahhhh there goes Susan, proving wrong those Mumsnetters who don't think there's such a thing as 'chavs' and that the word shouldn't be used.

Obviously even people like the awful Susan have a 'right' to go abroad just for the sunshine and stick to their awful baked beans, but under those circumstances they should do their homework and stick to bloody Benidorm rather than go to Greece and complain that it's... Greece.

The hotel has refuted most of her claims and says she makes a habit of this sort of behaviour.

Yes, Susan and her ilk bring out the raging snob in me (and clearly I'm not alone) and I don't feel any need to apologise for that.

Are you drunk???!!!!

Food appropriation? I’ve heard it all now 😂

For one, her words have probably been twisted as the tabloids usually do. This is a big problem with all inclusive, if you don’t like the food you’re pretty stuffed and need to accept it or pay more to go out. Charging £1.50 for water whilst AI is pretty poor.

Perfectly put 😘👌

My FIL refused to eat 'foreign food' but his favourite meal was lasagne. I think he meant he didn't like spicy food.

No problem. Couldn’t give less of a fuck.

She moaned about that as well - too hot in Greece who’d have thought it?

@SharpLily ha ha- I admire your honesty . My H is identical and hence we never go AI as he declared our one and only experience to be full of ‘food grabbing greedy pissheads’ apologies to any here who aren’t like this and do go AI - but in this case he was actually pretty close to the truth , a lot of Susan’s too ( of all ages and sexes) moaning about lack of sausages, beans ,bacon, chips, burgers etc and it kind of made it a no no on future holidays.

I like the part where she claimed she could have gone to the Caribbean for the price of all the extras she had to pay for. Maybe you could, Susan, where you would have been offered Caribbean food instead of Greek!

@Ginlovingmumof4 I took a big liking in Antigua to conch fritters!!

I used to walk past a pub that had a board outside saying British food at lunchtime and then had a list and every meal was from a different country. It made me smile. Usually the website for hotels includes menus. Why did she not check before she went.?

I have some sympathy with her.

For everyone saying you should expect "foreign" food when abroad, a Greek or Spanish all-inclusive aimed at the UK market isn't really an "abroad" trip imo (similarly I'd put cruises in this category too). You're not going "abroad" to discover the local culture and cuisine but for a week's R&R in a sunny location with a swimming-pool, lots of food and drink and a reasonable level of comfort

It's perfectly ok for people to want this from a holiday, with a side of ketchup, chips and Bacardi. Perhaps the lady should have researched the hotel more thoroughly though.

But people who are being sneery are imposing their value judgment of what a holiday should be like on her.

Yes I agree with that, I wouldnt go on a holiday like that if you paid me, my big passion is going away for the food and culture of somewhere different, particularly the food. I also cant stand the nature of those sorts of places, resorts, hotels sort of thing

But, thats what suits me, it wont suit everyone, and thats ok

If you think the sneering on this thread is bad, wait until you see a thread about going on holiday in the UK, going somewhere like Wales for a holiday or god forbid up north for a holiday???? People cant get their heads round it, dont even consider it a holiday!!

Should have gone to benidorm. Where patatas bravas is chips and spicy ketchup.

MN social class attitudes filtered through the prism of AI holidays are always an entertaining read though! It's not quite up there with the deconstructed ham butty thread, but then what is?

I'm with you and if it makes me a snob, so be it.

It wouldn't matter so much if people like "Susan" were just anomalies but we have sent waves of these people to continental Europe for decades, who have helped destroy the environment, corrode the culture and given us an awful reputation outside the UK.

They may technically have a "right" to go and behave like half-wit slugs on continental beaches, guzzling egg and chips and swearing at people who don't speak English but let's at least admit that it's a major reason we're so widely disliked around the world. Why should we behave like this abroad and expect to be respected or trusted by anyone?

Not sure how they're any more environmentally destructive than any other form of travel? The flights of MNers who are going on holiday to enjoy authentic local cuisine contain the same amount of emissions, place equal stress on scarce water resources in dry areas. It makes no difference to those things if you're eating naice serrano ham for your breakfast instead of bacon.