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

[TunaMayoP]

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.

I'll eat anything that bleeds.

I don’t care because it doesn’t affect me. I have tried many foods the most unusual probably being sea cucumber, zebra, crocodile.

Is his nationality important? I’m Irish and I made a chickpea and spinach curry for dinner last night. My favourite local restaurant is Syrian.

I won't try certain foods as I know they won't agree with me, anything that's very spicy, rich or greasy or contains mushrooms. I might try them at home (with the exception of anything with mushrooms) but not if I was in a restaurant or on holiday. I don't like hot, spicy food anyway so that's no loss!

This has worked to my advantage. Travelling for work in Barcelona, out for tapas dinner with colleagues, one of them made similar "don't like foreign food" noises and was sent into a total tizzy by the prawns. Solved her problem by bravely volunteering to eat her share for her. Delicious.

My thoughts too. The idea that you only encounter spaghetti or seafood abroad seems at least a generation or two out of date. You’d be hard pressed to find a pub or supermarket these days that doesn’t have ‘foreign stuff’ not only available but usually in greater volume than pie and mash / gammon and chips-type food.

I do have experience of people who can’t tolerate anything slightly different to what they’re used to though. An American friend who moaned that Thai food in London wasn’t the same as in New York springs to mind!

Probably outing but as a teen I lived in Portugal and made some side money baking and selling pasties to ex pats. Several of them proudly told me they ate an English breakfast at a restaurant in Portimao/Praia da Rocha (tourist area) then my pasties for dinner, every single day.

No interest in chicken piripiri, bifanas (which is basically just a fried pork fillet sandwich), all the delicious seafood (swordfish, tuna steaks, bacalhau etc etc), wild boar, loads of other options. No, just English breakfast and pasties 😬

It’s wilfully ignorant to go abroad and expect everyone to speak in English and serve egg and chips.

You are talking about MN, where posters can't bear the idea of sleeping in a different bed, or at least must book a hotel because the idea of staying in a friends house is horrifying, where posters with young kids must have a routine that cannot vary for a minute, in a country where beige food is the norm for kids as no-one under 18 could possibly eat something else than chicken nuggets.

It's hardly surprising there's a lot of posters who are unwilling to try anything different or foreign 😂. Of course, they haven't tried anything, and with that attitude, they would convince everyone and themselves they would hate it if they did.

Beetroot?

I applaud your altruism! I'd have been the same.

I once had to eat three delicious portions of grilled sardines in a similar situation.

It does seem to be driven by a distinct lack of imagination - even the way it's invariably referred to as foreign 'muck'.

It's not even the fact that some of these holidaymakers hope that there will be some British-style food available in foreign countries, but that they expect it as their right and actually complain if there isn't any!

I think, for many of them, they're so egocentric that they assume British food is standard food and that places abroad that serve non-British food are just doing it to be difficult and to be mean to them.

The same as many assume when people in different countries (or even in Wales, for that matter) 'refuse to' speak English, they're just trying to be awkward or doing it for a laugh.

The very idea that people in a non-English-speaking country might conduct their daily lives in a language that isn't English - or (gasp) not even speak English at all!!

I tried French food, but it really did nothing for me ☹️. Thank God for the little Vietnamese restaurant round the corner from the hotel.

Everywhere else, I've enjoyed local foods. There's usually something to like.

When you say French food, what was it? There is SO MUCH to French food!

Do you know a lot about U Colitis, diverticulitis, IBD etc? Are you on FB? Go onto the stoma pages. I don't think the general public realise the nausea, pain, diarrhea etc that people who have stomach problems go through. Even those who follow the ideal diet can end up with stomas, in their 20's. My DP has been lucky that it taken until his late 50's for his bowel to become that diseased by diverticulitis to need an ileostomy. That woman has UC.
People in a lot of those cultures, who have inflammatory bowel conditions, just die. I know people from Thailand and there's a lot of stomach issues.

If no issues are present, then ideally try other foods, as an adult. But income can hinder that. All you can eat buffets get a bad rap, but that's how I first tried different Chinese and Indian stuff. I grew up with South African, Italian, Caribbean and only a touch of English.

The only French food I like is their dessert/pastry, puddings etc. To me, it tastes like there's something missing. But I do like spice. I've never been disappointed across African cuisine.

I’m just curious as to what you mean by French food? Sorry, I’m not meaning to be confrontational but there are so many regional cuisines with specialities that I wonder what it is that you’ve tried?

I’d agree that spice is generally not a feature though!

Ridiculous people.

I think it depends what it is.

I absolutely love trying new cuisines and travelling but with a gluten allergy if I'm not careful it can make me ill very quickly if I accidentally eat it.

We now pick places to visit based on what the local cuisine is. I would love to visit Poland etc but I also know its very gluten heavy in most dishes. Large parts of SE Asia is the same with soy sauce (contains wheat) etc.
It honestly can be a minefield trying to avoid getting sick. I usually print out and take a local language card which says allergic to gluten.

I'm an incredibly fussy eater so I always investigate thoroughly what food is available when I go anywhere (UK or abroad). I just cannot make myself eat certain things.

But I recognise it's a me problem.

The only time I got upset was a pre theatre meal where I had checked out the menu online to get there and find they had suspended their menu without notice and there was nothing I could eat, Luckily the very understanding staff were able to adapt the menu for me.

If I go abroad I want to try their local food. I don't want things like burger and chips.

I said that to a friend when we were in Lithuania last year. We had burger and chips (because it was the first thing we could find) and on night two we had some Ukrainian food

UC probably isn't helped by a diet of the foods she complained weren't available, such as bacon, sausage and chips.

In Russia visiting family - my MIL hates fish/sea food - can hardly look at it - and every meal was huge piles of grilled or steamed crabs, prawns, caviar, river fish (very bony and a bit muddy tasting), smoked fish and dark bread. We were being treated and that was the 'treat' meals. I absolutely loved it. But even I was quite relieved when they noticed she was only eating breakfast all day and took us to a very good burger bar.

French "food" covering everything from traditional dishes from the North/ South of mainland to Martinique and Reunion Island, so I would love to know what you mean by "French food".

That's the same with every country, I don't get how anyone can decide they just cannot possibly eat anything from that country. It's just food! It doesn't mean you have to eat everything and anything, but French food is not just snails and brain.