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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Do you think some of these people who refuse to eat local food on foreign holidays, never actually tried it?

80 replies

TunaMayoP · 04/06/2025 13:53

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5347862-people-who-expect-british-food-on-a-foreign-holiday?page=9&reply=144760434

I suspect that this woman and similar who refuse to eat 'that foreign muck' has not even sampled it. A friend's DF (no longer with us) was like this woman. He even didn't want to know about Spanish omelette which is omelette with onion and potatoes. He ate onion and potato in a savoury pasty or pie. Eggs he ate in various forms.

OP posts:
Gingercar · 04/06/2025 13:54

Yes I think so.

MrsMoastyToasty · 04/06/2025 13:56

They're the sort of people who "eat with their eyes". Basically if it doesn't look familiar they won't eat it.

My19thNervousNameChange · 04/06/2025 13:57

That's a bit weird. Your Spanish omelette example + ingredients is exactly the same as the other thread as well as the late relative. Hmm

FanofLeaves · 04/06/2025 14:02

MrsMoastyToasty · 04/06/2025 13:56

They're the sort of people who "eat with their eyes". Basically if it doesn't look familiar they won't eat it.

I live with one of those!

He’s 3.

PhilippaGeorgiou · 04/06/2025 14:09

Made me think of my dad (I am 67 so he is long gone now). Growing up he would complain bitterly if my mum put "that foreign muck" in our food. He was talking about herbs, and British herbs at that. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) he never went abroad after national service because I think actual foreign food would have killed him.

beetr00 · 04/06/2025 14:11

FanofLeaves · 04/06/2025 14:02

I live with one of those!

He’s 3.

🤗 😀

HarrietBond · 04/06/2025 14:19

Well, I'm not on any other thread and I can talk about my granddad who loved egg and bacon pie but thought quiche lorraine was a disgusting foreign invention. So it may be widespread.

I grew up an extremely picky eater and I'm now far less so, and forcing myself to try new things abroad was part of that.

Zucker · 04/06/2025 14:24

I got such a laugh from that article, so funny. I do know someone like this though. Every meal time at somewhere vaguely new results in nose and eyes scrunched up almost in pain at the thoughts of something as exotic as a red pepper or a spring roll 😁They live on mash potato and meat.

InterIgnis · 04/06/2025 14:25

Some. Some may also have had the experience of eating at tourist traps, which rarely ever showcase local food in anything approaching a good light.

MrsTerryPratchett · 04/06/2025 14:36

The opposite of my lovely granddad. Went through Italy during the war and ‘loved’ Italian food. He used to come on holiday with us and eat his beloved Italian food. Like this, “oooo I’ll have a pizza, no tomatoes or cheese please”. Bless his heart. Although Italians care about their food they care about older people more and they would make it work.

We assumed that his trip through Italy in a tank was when the Italians probably didn’t have any cheese!

Kittycat1969 · 04/06/2025 19:19

I’ve travelled extensively throughout Europe and the USA. I’m quite a plain eater. I do like spicy food (love Chinese food but not Indian) but can’t eat rice or pasta, I don’t eat fish and being lactose intolerant I can’t eat cheese etc. I’ve never gone or will go anywhere where it’s all inclusive for that reason and always go self catering. I’d never even been to a resort that had English food type restaurants and have always found something I could eat in local restaurants. Benidorm and resorts like it in Spain were somewhere I would’ve never have gone (generally go to unusual cities etc. for the culture, galleries etc) but last year i went to the canaries and a quiet resort that had a mixture of local cuisine and English cuisine. It was wonderful, unfortunately most of the local cuisine was fish based so couldn’t eat most of it and it was so nice to have much more choices than id normally have. So what if someone wants an English Breakfast. Does it hurt anyone else? If these places didn’t have customers and make money they wouldn’t exist. Not everyone that has food problems are stupid or don’t deserve to travel. I think your being really patronising!

SinnerBoy · 04/06/2025 19:24

Apparently, other hotels contacted the one mentioned and said that she'd complained about everything and its dog with them, too. She sounds like a chancer, trying to get a payout.

MrTiddlesTheCat · 04/06/2025 19:43

My mum is like this. She came to visit me abroad and packed bread. Good job mum, we don't have bread here. Ffs.

Radiatorvalves · 04/06/2025 19:48

My Irish uncle came to stay once and I served him lasagne. He wasn’t sure what it was! To be fair he ate it. Then went home to boiled bacon, floury spuds and boiled to buggery cabbage.

My dad at 85 is a huge fan of foreign food.

TunaMayoP · 04/06/2025 21:09

SinnerBoy · 04/06/2025 19:24

Apparently, other hotels contacted the one mentioned and said that she'd complained about everything and its dog with them, too. She sounds like a chancer, trying to get a payout.

I’m surprised that she isn’t barred from booking holidays from all of the travel agencies

OP posts:
yakkity · 04/06/2025 21:14

Kittycat1969 · 04/06/2025 19:19

I’ve travelled extensively throughout Europe and the USA. I’m quite a plain eater. I do like spicy food (love Chinese food but not Indian) but can’t eat rice or pasta, I don’t eat fish and being lactose intolerant I can’t eat cheese etc. I’ve never gone or will go anywhere where it’s all inclusive for that reason and always go self catering. I’d never even been to a resort that had English food type restaurants and have always found something I could eat in local restaurants. Benidorm and resorts like it in Spain were somewhere I would’ve never have gone (generally go to unusual cities etc. for the culture, galleries etc) but last year i went to the canaries and a quiet resort that had a mixture of local cuisine and English cuisine. It was wonderful, unfortunately most of the local cuisine was fish based so couldn’t eat most of it and it was so nice to have much more choices than id normally have. So what if someone wants an English Breakfast. Does it hurt anyone else? If these places didn’t have customers and make money they wouldn’t exist. Not everyone that has food problems are stupid or don’t deserve to travel. I think your being really patronising!

Why can’t you eat rice or pasta? Do you mean you won’t eat it?

Carlou · 04/06/2025 21:29

I had some UK visitors.... cousin and his wife and 4 kids stay with us. I live outside the UK and ran round for them a lot. The night they were due I topped up the fridge/pantry with staples and a few odd items from my country for them to sample. When they arrived the teens were hungry and I put pizza in the oven. They devoured them. They were however very cagey about trying anything new (even a bite) and tho I had food that they would eat, they were quite a nit picking bunch! Particularly the wife was exceeding picky with food tho she did absolutely no help in my kitchen so I didn't find out what she did like til it was on the plate (despite asking beforehand). . This translated into having to go into 3 different supermarkets in our small town to try to get "proper" pizza cos the ones in the stores her kids would "simply not eat" (despite the fact they loved these 12 days beforehand!!!). The only thing that seemed to meet with her approval in the whole time she was here was the wine!! Grrr... no manners and no sense!

TheNinkyNonkyIsATardis · 04/06/2025 21:40

My in laws made a big fuss about the Italian food, in Italy, not being like what you got in the UK. And they couldn't get the waiters to understand them.

My husband got awfully stressed when I suggested pate as part of a picky buffet lunch for them, apparently the sight of non-beige food might have tipped them over the edge.

Weirdly they're far less restrictive than my own parents (multiple dietary issues plus eating disorders), but my parents never show surprise at foreign countries serving foreign food.

rosydreams · 04/06/2025 21:43

so funny ,you would think at that age you would know better you would check the photos online of the hotel before going. If i am going to go eat somewhere i check the food first to see if its anything i like ,i don't just go somewhere then complain its food i don't like

Its even funnier because she went to Greece its like my other half would love to travel to Japan . But we know full well the main foods are fish he hates fish so we know its probably not a good idea for someone like him.

Lifestooshort71 · 04/06/2025 21:47

I'm fussy about meat in the uk so obviously I'm fussy about it when I'm abroad and won't try any meat that I'm not familiar with in case it's a bushtucker experience (offal, for eg). We go to Spain a lot and I get round this with tapas by saying I'm vegetarian. Does that make fussy? Yep, but no more than I am at home.

HarrietBond · 04/06/2025 22:33

rosydreams · 04/06/2025 21:43

so funny ,you would think at that age you would know better you would check the photos online of the hotel before going. If i am going to go eat somewhere i check the food first to see if its anything i like ,i don't just go somewhere then complain its food i don't like

Its even funnier because she went to Greece its like my other half would love to travel to Japan . But we know full well the main foods are fish he hates fish so we know its probably not a good idea for someone like him.

There’s plenty of chicken, pork and vegetable based food in Japan! You’d be fine.

Kittycat1969 · 05/06/2025 08:19

yakkity · 04/06/2025 21:14

Why can’t you eat rice or pasta? Do you mean you won’t eat it?

Surely there are foods that not everyone likes? I don’t like them and I try them every now and again to make sure my tastes haven’t changed.

Bjorkdidit · 05/06/2025 08:29

No, they're just a bit thick, and childish.

That woman, who has to be the new Queen of 'Thickos on Trip Advisor' clearly didn't think through how she'd come across with her 'no English food, not enough chips, wrong brand of lager' sad face all over the internet.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 05/06/2025 08:50

Kittycat1969 · 05/06/2025 08:19

Surely there are foods that not everyone likes? I don’t like them and I try them every now and again to make sure my tastes haven’t changed.

Yes, everybody has something they don't like. But you said in your first post 'I can't eat rice or pasta', which sounded more like having an allergy or intolerance. Is it the texture?

I don't think I fully understood until recently that food is a huge source of anxiety for many people. This appears to be what underlies a lot of fussiness about food - it's unfamiliar, it may kill me! It's not rational but it seems to take a strong hold in some people at an early age. Very hard to overcome, especially given that there's no way to avoid eating. Not a new phenomenon either. I had a colleague years ago who had family with a young son (about four, I think, when she told me about this) who point blank refused to eat anything except a particular brand and flavour of baby food. Unfortunately the manufacturer decided to discontinue that flavour. My colleague reported that the little boy's parents were in despair as they had no idea what he was going to eat when their stockpile ran out. I left shortly afterwards so don't know the resolution. If still alive that little boy would now be around 40 years old.

My own son was a good eater when first weaned but suddenly became very fussy not long after his first birthday. We dealt with it by not making it into a big deal. Fortunately he did eat a wide enough selection of foods that we had no concern about malnutrition, but he was well up in his teens before he slowly started trying new things. He's in his 30s now and will eat virtually anything. Phew. The only trigger I can think of was that he had lots of chest infections and bad colds when very little and his eustachian tubes got blocked (glue ear). I wonder if swallowing was difficult. Also, his hearing was affected and his speech was a bit delayed. This may have been frightening and trying to stick to only familiar safe foods was a coping mechanism. (Amateur psychotherapist mode: OFF.)

MargoLivebetter · 05/06/2025 09:09

I don't even know what British food would be any more. Isn't Tikka Marsala our national dish these days? The supermarkets are full of international foods, as our the high street takeaways and restaurants. It just blows my mind that people here are subsisting only on whatever they consider British food to be!!!!! Unless they are ancient, I'm not entirely sure I believe that they've never tried anything "non-British". Are we seriously supposed to believe that people haven't had a curry or a pizza? I suspect they just don't like what they get served on holiday and make a big fuss about it.