My mother’s only brother worked and lived in Europe for a very long time. When he retired back to the States, he and his wife always traveled with expresso powder. They pumped up their coffee with it. My aunt was a very slight person and always needed heavy cream for her coffee, but baked apple pies using Saccharin. The dichotomy of life, huh?
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Our friend, a retired nurse , stocks up on saccharine at Boots in the UK, and asks me to bring her saccharine home for her when I visit the UK. It’s for her coffee and tea.
It hasn’t been sold in Canada for over 25 years.
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My DH has a sweet tooth. I don’t even like ice cream - I scrape frosting off of pieces of cake. He has just crossed the line of his bloodwork into the diabetes category and needs to dial back on white food and sugar, and sadly - alcohol. But other than honey for my herbal tea, I live without sweets. I have a “fat” tooth - death by cheese is my motto!!
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I normally don’t carry anything, although I’m tempted to take some black pepper & chili flakes with me next time I fly.
Yes, you get pepper, but the amount is enough for just one bite (for me)
And yes, I will ask for the peppergrinder in restaurants, or chili’s (pref fresh).
I don’t see anything wrong with that. Many people add extra salt. Why won’t i be allowed to put extra pepper?
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There were pretentious poots on Chowhound? Really?
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I carry a small (pocket-size) pepper grinder with me sometimes, especially when there is a good chance I’ll stop for a burger somewhere. Not that I like pepper on my burger, but I do on my fries, and those little packets of pepper (or even the stuff in shakers on the table) may as well be black dust, flavor-wise. My grinder is so small that it’s only good for about three or four servings of fries before I have to refill it, but that means it’s easy to carry.
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Yes, always!
I like extra spice on my food. I do it at home too; I’ll make the dish and I will (probably about 70% of the time) add chilli peppers or hot sauce to mine. It elevates the dish for me and makes it a lot more enjoyable, whereas the others would probably dislike it with that much spice.
We have travelled a lot and I always thought I would enjoy certain dishes more with a bit of added spice, and it’s usually not something that they have available on request. Then on one trip (to Spain via layover somewhere in the middle east) we had a fried chicken snack at the airport prior to leaving and I kept the extra hot sauce packs in my handbag. It helped make the bland airplane meals so much better. Then when touring around Spain, I thought more than once that I would have liked a sauce to accompany the dish or that the dish would taste a lot better (to me) with some added spice; neither of which was available at any of the places we dined at. We were in a local grocery store one day (I always go to the grocery stores to check out the wares), I picked up a bottle of chipotle tabasco. We enjoyed meals after that a lot more.
I have since always bought a bottle before a trip and kept it in my handbag; it’s small enough to take on a plane, flavourful enough to add a little something to the dish and helps me to enjoy it much more. I will always try the dish as intended and, if I think it would add to it, add a bit of hot sauce to it to get it to peak enjoyment levels. I enjoyed my second trip to Italy a lot more when I could add some spice to my pizza. Did not need it at Sorbillo in Naples! Had the black pepper pizza which was perfection straight out of the kitchen.
That was a very long-winded way of saying Yes…
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Okay?
One of us always carries a small vial of kosher salt for “correcting” restaurant plates without insulting the kitchen by asking for salt.
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I carry a tiny bottle of Tabasco, along with salt and pepper packets. But that’s mostly because I usually have a hard-boiled egg in my purse in case I get hungry (or someone asks me for food).
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When I visit my dad, I bring along a complement of herbs/spices/condiments depending on what I plan to make for him. He’s not much of a home cook, so rather than stock him up and have them languish, I just bring what I need.
Otherwise I don’t bring hot sauces or salt etc. when I go out I honestly never thought to.
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Put me in the no camp. I understood the op to ask about bringing and adding spices to restaurant foods while travelling for a vacation. I could be wrong, but I don’t think their intent in asking was whether you modify airplane food or the fries in your burger joint?
Anyway, for me, food experiences are a big part of travelling to a new place. Whether it be international or domestic where there are regional cuisine cultures, I want to taste the food as it is made there. I can fiddle with my food plenty every other day of the year, when I’m the one cooking. I agree with the posters who implied or stated - what is the point of doctoring restaurant food until it tastes like what you’d make at home.
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Thanks for some great ideas. I used to just bring s&p but now I’ll also be carrying Thai “parched bird chili and garlic” when I fly.
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