People who expect British food on a foreign holiday

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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

I’d actually say that if you are fussy or have restrictive dietary requirements for whatever reason you need to either book self catering where you know there is access to a supermarket where you can purchase any required foods or it’s your responsibility to contact the hotel or other accommodation provider before booking so you can ensure they can meet your needs. For British people with additional dietary requirements, cruise lines like p&o are a good bet and are receptive to extra needs eg they coed brilliantly for a friend whose child has really restrictive eating and my coeliac friend sings their praises too. Beans and bacon are available for breakfast daily (can’t stand beans myself )

I do take tea bags when we go abroad, I always check our apartment will have a proper kettle (cant make tea with just hot water from a coffee maker) and I do make sure I go to a supermarket where they sell fresh milk, not UHT as most Spanish and Italians drink UHT for coffee

I dont really prefer traditional UK foods (although lots of it I do love) so we mainly go abroad for the food to be honest. I would be upset to go into a restaurant/bar and see burger and chips or something like that, we dont eat that sort of thing

However OH drives me mad with coffee. He doesnt really appreciate proper coffee so prefers instant. When we're abroad he will always ask for a latte and just doesnt get that lots of Spanish and particularly Italian bars, proper bars dont do that, they just do coffee, their way, not some god awful americanised type of coffee. He always moans about this. I think he's got a nerve.

Someone tell Susan that this is what holidays to the USA were invented for.

For some reason, a lot of you have associate food conservativeness/fastidiousness with racism or xenophobia and are getting on your moral high horses. I came from another part of the world and I started by telling you that even people known for being very adventurous with their cuisine - the Chinese- prefer familiar food when they travel. My argument is that this is a very human trait and not a mark of racism or superiority. I used to have relatives visiting from India who complained about the tap water in Singapore, saying that their well water tasted far "sweeter". It is really people being people, yearning for the familiar. There may even be health benefits to sticking with the familiar while travelling, certainly in the past. And it is perfectly possible to travel to Italy to fall in love with its art, countryside, fashion, vibe but not its cuisine (which is admittedly wonderful). We do not all have the same palate. Why condemn people for preferring to stick with you describe as terrible food? As much as you decry British food, the modern version of it - fish and chips, burgers, the English breakfast, chicken tikka masala, roasts, bangers and mash- is popular globally.

Yeah, you havent met many people from other countries who comment on UK/English food have you!!!!

I can tell you they are not shy about giving a negative opinion on it

Complete bollocks. There's no point in going abroad and expecting it to be just like home. This woman seems to have expected that it would be.

Also your use of the word 'moron' is offensive.

When I go abroad on holiday, I am quite happy with the food, provided it is labelled. I am vegetarian, and often find I have to ask what’s in a dish. I never understand why hotels can’t label GF / V / Ve etc. It’s not difficult, and would make holiday makers lives so much easier. I’ve lost count of the times I have written this when asked to review, or directly asked the restaurant, but sadly nothing changes.

Judging by the buffet breakfast we’ve been served in some (posh, admittedly) hotels they can indeed expect to see their traditional dishes. Mind boggling!

That is a whole different thing. When you are on holiday, you are usually there for no more than 2 weeks. Surely you can try different foods for that time? ( dietary requirements and fussy children aside) Many resorts have guests from many different countries. It is simply not possible to provide English, German, Dutch, Russian food amongst others at a small hotel.

When you permanently live in another country it's not unreasonable to want to eat food from your home and if there are enough people also from that place then usually someone will open a restaurant.

I love visiting big cities for this reason. It gives me the opportunity to try food simply not available where I live.

But would you for example go to a hotel in Italy and complain,leave a 1 star review and expect some compensation vouchers because it didn't serve bacon and sausage? And the brand of alcoholic drink that you like?

Or would you accept that you are in another country who might not have the exact item of food that you like on offer and have some open mind?

I have no problem with stereotypical English type foods and would possibly even choose some if on offer abroad, I wouldn't complain they were not on offer though.

Exactly. I can't imagine going on a short break to an amazing city such as Barcelona, for example, and rather than sitting in a bar enjoying tapas, going to hunt down a McDonalds or Popeyes. It's so normal to enjoy Spanish food for many Europeans including the British, even back at home. It's the best thing ever to do it in a warm square with a cold drink. There is no snobbery about this at all, it's simply really enjoyable to eat the local food.

Your use of the word bollocks is offensive.

Unfortunately whether you like it or not there exists a clique of folk who like to enjoy British culture in warmer climates. It's why the likes of Benidorm and Costa Del Sol exist, along with some of the more popular European destination that simply exist due to tourism, the majority of which is Brits.

Personally I couldn't think of anything worse, trying new food abroad is one of the major draws of going on holiday.

You can draw similar comparisons to those to ignorant to learn a few choice phrases when going abroad, I expect they're in the same moron category as this woman wanting to eat a sea of beige kids food on her holiday. Like it or not she is entitled to do both of these!

After 3 weeks in china and eating 3 local
meals a day, I have never been so pleased to see the Golden Arches! I’m an adventurous eater, but just sometimes more familiar flavours are needed.

Try getting decaf coffee in Swedish supermarkets! 😁

It would be incredibly rude to go to a local resturant or shop and moan at the local people for not selling British food. However the woman is not an independent traveller going abroad for local culture. She bought an all inclusive holiday from a company that sells holidays to British people who want to go and eat and drink familiar things in limitless quantities in a sunny place. The woman has complained about TUI not meeting her expectations. She hadn't insulted Greek people.

Susan looked very old for 69!

Well, quite, and sometimes it's the only nearest option when you're hangry and roasting hot and tired and a bit hungover and don't have time (or loads of money) for a sit down meal in a proper restaurant. I admit we got off the train in Versailles when we were in our 20s and immediately went to the KFC which was right there. Filled our belly, we then walked to the palace sated and were able to enjoy it better. We'd eaten French food the rest of the time though. If there had been somewhere to buy savoury crepes right outside the station we would have done but the KFC filled a hole.

I am Indian but after growing up in SE Asia, I find travelling in India and eating only Indian food boring. I run off to find Chinese and western food. And MacDonald's is strangely enticing only when I am travelling.

Yes, I get the impression that Susan was probably of the generation that grew up with either no sunscreen at all, or slathered themselves in Ambre Solaire oil and ended up looking like David Dickinson or Madge from Benidorm.

I don't personally seek out British food anywhere, and a Brits abroad type of holiday is my idea of hell.

But people should eat whatever food they enjoy eating, and book whatever sort of holiday they want to go on. There's no rule that says you must immerse yourself in the culture of wherever you visit.

That aside, the headlines have (as is to be expected) seized upon one fairly small part of the complaint and the hotel by all accounts is a complete shit hole that was miss sold by Tui.

I get that too. As much as I love pasta and pizza and other traditional Italian foods when I visit Italy by the end of a week's holiday I find my mouth watering at the thought of my first takeaway from my local Indian even as I'm climbing the steps to the plane.

Exactly. But both the DM and this thread are gleefully mocking her because she represents an archetype. There are even people on this thread mocking her looks.

It’s by far largely the migrants that set these restaurants up. They weren’t opened for them by others.

Surely though if you know your tastes are quite pedestrian you don’t go AI where you can only eat what’s put out for you - at least if you go self catering you can pick steak and chips or chicken and chips or burger and chips every day if that’s what you want - I’m struggling to think of anywhere I’ve been where this lady might book where certain international ‘staples’ such as these were not on menus be it restaurants/cafes

I love Greek, Italian and French food. But Russian and Latvian favourites did for me sadly.