What food do you or don't you recommend people try when they visit a particiular part of the world?

What foods would you like to try but haven't had the chance yet?

...and any other foody facts do you want to offer...:eat:

For those in the know include drinks aswell! :wine:

When in Spain I ate Paella (can't spell it but it's that rice and seafood dish) and drank Sangrhia (again my spelling is pants) throughly enjoying both!

In Uganda I ate peanut sauce and drank really sweet black tea and didn't particularly enjoy either. :unsure:

In Italy I ate pizza, pasta and ice cream - yummy!

During my travels in the states I am looking to eat and drink the food and drinks of each of the states I pass through...

For instance:

New York - Long Island Iced Tea and a Manhatten to wash down a Club Sandwich!

Kentucky - Fried Chicken

Mississippi - Mud Pies

Georgia - Peaches

L.A. erm...Mineral water!

If anyone knows of any drinks and foods relating to any of the states in America I would love to hear about them! :wink2:

I tried a kangaroo steak in Australia. It was very nice indeed.

Remember the wonderful Alioli (garlic mayonaise) in Spain that they served with bread at the beginning of the meal. Bought some at home and it never tasted quite the same.

French bread tastes better in France than anywhere else!

The stuff you buy over here just doesn't compare.

By the same token, do Dutch Caps fit better in Holland?

There's no way of telling Patsy. They only put fingers in dykes in Holland.

Back on topic...I was once felled by some Korean Kimchi. Avoid at all costs.

Beruit
Avoid
Raw chopped liver with cooked fat and mint leaves wrapped in flat bread - dunno what it's called but I don't even recall having more than one mouthful.





It should be pointed out that when I went there it was just months after the ceasefire and there was very little power and therefore little refrigeration possible.



Beruit
Try
Everything but the raw chopped liver

Back on topic...I was once felled by some Korean Kimchi. Avoid at all costs.

Oooh but there are something like 35 different types of Kim Chi, I got addicted to a couple of them.

In Mexico there are lots of street stalls selling pineapple slices. If you say nothing, they give you the slice ladelled with chili powder. I always asked for it "sin chile", ie no chile, but I was slow one day and got my slice covered with chile powder. Now, a couple of years later, I NEVER eat pineapple without chili powder! Its a sweet and sour thing, the tastes are perfectly complimentary - brilliant.

Japan: Went to someone's sayonara dinner (leaving Japan) and they ordered some fishy thing that came in a little pot about the size of a shot glass (US$ 100!!!). I only smelled it and it was one of the most disgusting things I have ever smelled and almost retched (no..didn't try eat any). There is a name for it, but can't remember it. But anyway, avoid the "mega expensive smelly rotten fish dish". Basically, just avoid everything expensive on the menu...its a "speciality" and only for the masochistic (in wallet and experience).

Mexico again: Buy a sandwich and it almost always has jalepeno peppers in. Now I carry my own supply to add to sandwiches wherever I am. Yum yum, especially with tuna sandwiches.

Thailand: Fishcakes...yum.

Cambodia: Any street soup vendor. Costs about 10p and better than anything I could find in restaurants.

Cambodia again: A "happy pizza". Most pizza restaurants offer happy, extra happy and mild "happy pizzas". Eat an extra happy one and you will be blitzed for about 12 hours. Totally legal (but I heard a story about Cambodia where a guy asked for "an AK47, 100 rounds, an extra happy pizza, waitress to take home and 3 grenades please", and the only question was "would that be Chinese or American grenades sir" - Chinese grenades are cheaper!). Also the only place where tourist services have a "rocket launch a cow" option, where you get to blow the crip out of a poor bovine (but apparantly they screw with the sites so you miss and they can use the same cow over and over again...welcome to Cambodia).

Costa Rica: Nothing. Worst food in the world. BUT, there are some Argentinian steak houses there, and OMG, if you think you have ever had steak, think again until you try Argentinian (Brazilian doesn't compare for some reason I know nothing about).

Japan again: Haven't tried the Japanese Kobi steaks as WAY to expensive, but here is the story. The cows are hand-massaged daily, and fed a daily diet of beer. They are the happiest cows in the world, and apparantly the Kobi beef is the best in the world. I'm saving up to try, will update in 2008 once I have enough money to try it.

More to come.......

Korea: Rat! Very spiced and quite pricy, so sure the taste was all the spice and not the meat, but actually quite nice!

Vietnam: Dog! Bloody disgusting, greasy, slimy, oily, horrible. But sure if Korean rat restaurant did it would be a different result (you go to local markets and see severed dog heads lined up in a row, hmmm).

Malaysia/Singapore: Laksa! a bit of a speciality and can vary, just like fish and chips. Some locals talk about Laksa like heroin addicts talk about heroin. You need luck as a tourist to get a good "hit".

Hong Kong: "Morning Glory". No, not hubbies hard on, a fried lettuce/cabbage (actually don't know) mixed with garlic thing. Addictive! First thing I look for on the menu.

Canada (change of track!). Some place in Nova Scotia where a lot of the world's scallops come from. Restaurant was "scallop only", and never tasted scallops like it again.

Maine: What else...lobster in season. Got to be there.

Scotland(!). Kippers!!!!

Jeez I'm feeling hungry now......................

OOoh Argentinian Steak!! Adored these in Venezuela [their own steak is ****e] - HUGE and juicy - but also tried rat there [well, capiburra - large rodent] and was a very sick bunny altogether.... :sick:

Finland - herrings in vinegar and chillies on black bread washed down with Finlandia Hooch!! yummers.....[only non-crazy thing I discovered over there - they are all barking......

What about your local produce TE!

The best Guiness and Irish Stew I have ever tasted was in Dublin! :wink2:

I will be trying steak in Texas...did you know that during all the mad cow thing the Navy were laughing as they always have Argentinian stake...wierd really considering we had a war with them! :wacko:

Has anyone ever tried sasperella juice? That stuff that Desperate Dan always drank...just wondered what it was like as I am planning on trying it druing my travels through the Southern States!

I've had sasperella tablets, the sweets you used to be able to buy by the quarter!

Oooh but there are something like 35 different types of Kim Chi, I got addicted to a couple of them.



They are all vile. It's the lactose content wot does for me.

They used to serve them up at gosas. That's a pig's head ceremony of anyone's interested.

I've had sasperella tablets, the sweets you used to be able to buy by the quarter!

What are they like...sweet, sour, bitter? :unsure:

They are one of those that you can't really explain, they are just sasperella flavour, sorry.

They are one of those that you can't really explain, they are just sasperella flavour, sorry.

Andrea...the girl who has the answer to everything...well almost anyway...:wallbash:

I had dragon sausage in Yugoslavia...it was very hot and well...I quite liked it where as others didn't! :unsure:

Malaysia/Singapore: Laksa! a bit of a speciality and can vary, just like fish and chips. Some locals talk about Laksa like heroin addicts talk about heroin. You need luck as a tourist to get a good "hit".
....


Couldn't agree more...my fave soup/scoff. Theres a take away near me who do three types of Laksa. Two are on the menu (78 & 79) and one is for ME. I tried the others before I said "can you do me a real Laksa"..Chef nodded and it's good but still just missing something.

That's it...I'm off to find a Laksa at lunchtime now.

Malaysian food is great...Those big food markets where you have all the stalls selling different hot and cold food around a cluster of tables.

I love fish head soup/curry....Mmmm Get in to the cheeks and behind the gills

Street steamboat diners are another great eating experience (although I wouldn't call the food haute cuisine! )

OK...SE Asia next year (already boooked in Europe for this year)
I actually rate Malasian food as my number 1 taste experience as it can be curries, sweet, sour, heavy, delicate all in one meal.

Has anyone ever eaten a chickens foot?

I only ask as I was served one in with a bowl of soup while delivering food parcels to refugees in Yugoslavia. It's the first time I have ever been scared of food...this huge claw was just sitting their in the middle of my bowl...I kinda ate around it...I later found out this is deemed a delecacy round those parts and given to the guest of honor...I was very embarassed that I may have caused offence but honestly thought it was just added to form part of the soup stock! :blush:

I actually like crispy chickens feet. Not too keen in the soft (soup) type as they are a bit bland but crispy feet are great

Some people love chicken feet, but not for me. I sometimes get odd looks when I attack the tail of a fish first as that doesn't seem so popular in the west.

The food stalls round the tables in Asia, thats the "hawker centres". I used to like one that was open late till about 2am and did a lot of satay, another Malaysian/Singaporean speciality. I found the local food in Sing a bit better than the local food in Malaysia, but then, I found the foreign food better in Malaysia - just a taste thing. The curries in Sing tend to be more authentic due to the Indian population, although I caught a few selling some English (as in Bangladeshi/English inventions of Indian food) meals too.

I loved food in Thailand and vietnam (except the greasy dog, but thats hard ot find), they now how to mix the tastes up. Phillipines was pretty awful, even in nice restaurants where they seemed to butcher everything. Strange that some countries with Spanish heritage seem to have lost the knack (costa rica and Phillipines). Yup, Asia is a smorgasboard (ex Phillipines).

Japan I'm liking Sushi for the first time ever, doesn't taste like rotten fish as it so often tastes some other places - but avoid that genuine "rotten fish" dish as it really is disgusting (and incredibly expensive). Haven't done that blow-fish thing either and no intention to (the one that kills you if they cook it wrong).

Found food in China not too nice, but it varies a lot. Eg Beijing is bland, unhealthy and boring, Guangzhou was pretty nasty and got sick (pigs ears etc etc), but Shanghai seems more varied, especially the fish. The big one though is Szechuan!! Where Beijing has about zero spice, genuine Szechuan is UBER-spicy...take extreme care! Think vindaloo with an additional bucket of chilis on top and thats it. Blew my head off, 7 dishes and my head was numb after the first. I always look for Szechuan, but unless its real, its always toned down as noone else in China will (can) eat it if it isn't toned down.

Still looking for a Thai/Szechuan restaurant. That would be specialist only.