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

Download Google Translate then the language you need (that way don't use data abroad). Type or speak your dietary issue. If the waiting staff speaks poor English, swap the language so translate the local into English. Then ask to speak into it.

Friend did that when ds broke his arm in Croatia. Telling the hospital staff how he broke it etc.

What is the difference between someone who is ”travelling in Nepal” and a tourist ?

As for Susan I suspect the tour operator may have told her the buffet would be suitable (or she has past experiences to lead her to believe this) and she was disappointed to find the options were not what was expected. It is true that many tourist spots that have traditionally catered to the less adventurous Brit traveller are less keen to attract low cost tourism, so for all we know, options could have changed. But I guess she is considered an acceptable target for people’s mockery; I feel a bit sad that’s the case. Not everyone was brought up eating a variety of foods or sampling local cuisine and not everyone can change those tastes especially with medical needs.

Have you tried buying decent teabags in Thailand or Vietnam?

Hufflepuff & I (who actually have this fucking awful disease) have actually explained how diet is different for everyone and what may help 1 person can actually cause another to go into a massive flare.
When you find something that works you tend to stick to it. Just because Dr. Google says what's best for someone with UC, in reality it doesn't work like that.

More than a bit rude. Especially as the even the local "high caste" volunteers (uni students from Kathmandu) who had taken me there deigned to eat with these people They were a lovely people who were offering what little they had with great generosity.

It’s not just Brits. A dd working in SE Asia shared a house with 7 Italians, none of whom would ever touch any of the local food. Pizza and pasta non stop.

What is the difference between someone who is ”travelling in Nepal” and a tourist? I did touristy things and non-touristy things with a local university during an extended stay. Uni students invited me along to a remote area on an outreach project. I dont think I was being a tourist during this part of the trip.

Gammons on tour are such a delight. They’re the real snowflakes.

Anyone with any kind of diet need or even fussiness is likely better is self catering or at least not AI accommodation so you can just go and buy chips and drink what you like and haven’t wasted your money on AI food you don’t like. I’m not hugely fussy but the only time I’ve been AI (about 20 years ago when it was a relatively new concept) it was in a Spanish resort and the food was German. It was perfectly nice and the holiday was to lie down in the sun and relax rather than a cultural experience but if you didn’t like German food you would be disappointed.
I take Yorkshire teabags to China (for me) and PG tips for my relatives as inexplicably they all go wild for PG tips and walkers crisps. I drink Chinese tea at home with meals but I want a proper cup of Yorkshire tea in the morning. I don’t drink Lipton tea ever.

I completely agree with this.

If people lack the imagination to even try the local cuisine they can do the world a favour and stay in whatever backwater they feel they belong in. As opposed to foisting their barbarism on the rest of the world.

Nobody owes you beans on toast.

what do you mean "what are you supposed to drink"? The list of drinks on offer in every country is endless, especially in the US.

I find it most bizarre to be so stuck on something and to refuse or not want to try something for a few days.

Like people saying they don't like "Italian food"? How would you possibly know if you haven't even tried it in the first place? It's such a wide variety of food, they can't experiment and find something they actually enjoy?
Weird.
Why bother leaving the UK in the first place.

It's that insufferable attitude to show off "I have done Italy" because they stayed 2 nights but safely in an English hotel serving baked beans and Yorkshire tea.😂

I really dont think I have seen such a non story in my entire life !

A few years ago I was involved in a project in the far west of Nepal. I was the only non Nepali there. Every single meal was rice and lentils, with the occasional serving of goat. I was starting to struggle I must admit. One of my colleagues had a chat with the guesthouse cook and they served me a special breakfast one morning of fried eggs, chips and roti. It was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten.

How many people who 'refuses to eat foreign muck' have ever sampled the local foods?

Do hate people who say they hate something when they never tried it.

@Ladamesansmerci my grandparents lived in Altea for 12 years so I used to go a lot- took my son for his 18th a few years ago now in early May and I’m pretty well travelled as is he, but we had a cracking fun time , did the theme park, water park, coastal train, stayed in the cheap as chips pueblo up the levante end - we went full board but are out a fair bit too in the old town - the hotel did an immense job for the price we paid - yes there were chips and English style stuff but also plenty of Spanish options, fish, curry’s, lasagne , pizza etc and great salads and ice cream and fruit. I do see why a lot of older people go regularly as it does hit the spot for many - I always defend it as I’ve had way worse holidays in more ‘authentic’ places - my son actually enjoyed it more than he did Dubai - and certainly more than he did Egypt for a fraction of the price too . I wouldn’t personally suggest Greece to anyone who isn’t open minded on food etc unless they go self catering and find the cafes that do toasties and burgers , chips etc

@Ladamesansmerci my grandparents lived in Altea for 12 years so I used to go a lot- took my son for his 18th a few years ago now in early May and I’m pretty well travelled as is he, but we had a cracking fun time , did the theme park, water park, coastal train, stayed in the cheap as chips pueblo up the levante end - we went full board but are out a fair bit too in the old town - the hotel did an immense job for the price we paid - yes there were chips and English style stuff but also plenty of Spanish options, fish, curry’s, lasagne , pizza etc and great salads and ice cream and fruit. I do see why a lot of older people go regularly as it does hit the spot for many - I always defend it as I’ve had way worse holidays in more ‘authentic’ places - my son actually enjoyed it more than he did Dubai - and certainly more than he did Egypt for a fraction of the price too . I wouldn’t personally suggest Greece to anyone who isn’t open minded on food etc unless they go self catering and find the cafes that do toasties and burgers , chips etc

@Ladamesansmerci my grandparents lived in Altea for 12 years so I used to go a lot- took my son for his 18th a few years ago now in early May and I’m pretty well travelled as is he, but we had a cracking fun time , did the theme park, water park, coastal train, stayed in the cheap as chips pueblo up the levante end - we went full board but are out a fair bit too in the old town - the hotel did an immense job for the price we paid - yes there were chips and English style stuff but also plenty of Spanish options, fish, curry’s, lasagne , pizza etc and great salads and ice cream and fruit. I do see why a lot of older people go regularly as it does hit the spot for many - I always defend it as I’ve had way worse holidays in more ‘authentic’ places - my son actually enjoyed it more than he did Dubai - and certainly more than he did Egypt for a fraction of the price too . I wouldn’t personally suggest Greece to anyone who isn’t open minded on food etc unless they go self catering and find the cafes that do toasties and burgers , chips etc

@Ladamesansmerci my grandparents lived in Altea for 12 years so I used to go a lot- took my son for his 18th a few years ago now in early May and I’m pretty well travelled as is he, but we had a cracking fun time , did the theme park, water park, coastal train, stayed in the cheap as chips pueblo up the levante end - we went full board but are out a fair bit too in the old town - the hotel did an immense job for the price we paid - yes there were chips and English style stuff but also plenty of Spanish options, fish, curry’s, lasagne , pizza etc and great salads and ice cream and fruit. I do see why a lot of older people go regularly as it does hit the spot for many - I always defend it as I’ve had way worse holidays in more ‘authentic’ places - my son actually enjoyed it more than he did Dubai - and certainly more than he did Egypt for a fraction of the price too . I wouldn’t personally suggest Greece to anyone who isn’t open minded on food etc unless they go self catering and find the cafes that do toasties and burgers , chips etc

I think the Mirror article has stitched the woman up a bit. They've really focussed on what she said about the food when in fact she had various other complaints too. She might just be a bit of a moaner but in the original Evening Chronicle article (link below) she complains about having to climb a large ramp to reach reception; lack of food and refreshments available on arrival; no entertainment at the hotel which is in the middle of nowhere; a private beach but it was too steep to get down to it 150 yards away (the brochure said the hotel had a private beach just "just steps away") and she wasn't able to have a second key for the room for her daughter.

In the Evening Chronicle article she also says
"Susan added that she couldn't enjoy a drink of her choice during her holiday because she doesn't like ouzo and doesn't drink brandy. She explained that she would normally drink bottled lager or one Bacardi and Coke, which she said would have cost her €9 and would have been a different brand".
So there were other drinks available but they obviously weren't included in the all-inclusive deal and she felt like she'd paid a lot and probably didn't want to spend even more money.

I think she is really daft to moan about "no english food" and with dietary needs she should have made her needs more clear to the hotel before she went. She can't expect "English food" on holiday in Corfu but it sounds to me like the holiday wasn't that great and she was disappointed and has gone on a bit of a rant about how shitty everything was, especially the food. She's used the phrase "no english food" and both the Chronicle (to a lesser extent) and then the Mirror have run with that because it's great click bait to get people wound up and responding to the articles.

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/newcastle-holidaymakers-nightmare-corfu-hotel-31772710

Nonsense. A migrant is not on holiday. They have - out of choice or necessity- left their country and will, entirely reasonably, want to retain some customs and memories from their place of birth.

Going on a week’s trip to Spain or wherever is entirely different. There seem to be two types of holiday makers, those who want a little Britain but with better weather and those that travel to experience other places and cultures and histories and cuisine.

Not to sound snobby. (No actually, I don’t really care if I do). But those that go on holiday expecting British telly, and British pubs and British food, are utterly awful.

I also struggle with Far Eastern cuisine. Went to Malaysia and Singapore earlier in the year and found it very difficult. At least in Singapore European food was more available.

Disabled people shouldn’t travel is a new one even by the ableist standards of mumsnet.

Obviously having a laugh at Susan’s expense makes us all feel like world travellers and very smug. Susan is a twerp, but it’s not just Brits who are a pita about forrin food.

As @GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER observes, Italians are dire (my family etc in Italy). They are as stubborn as mules about only eating what is familiar. So exhausting trying to make mature adults understand that in UK pasta is not a starter. Or when busting a gut over a blow-out Christmas dinner: No There Is No Spaghetti Beforehand However Much You Pout 😡

I try and avoid British food here nevermind abroad…

Genuine question like if you aren’t prepared to try new things and experience different cultures etc then why go abroad? Why not just stay home?