Eating ethnically while traveling.

Do you try to expand your food horizons when not at home?
I kept staring at the “ethically” thread and this companion idea came to mind.
I suppose anything not local qualifies.
:

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I try to expand my food horizons wherever and whenever I eat.

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But then I can’t use the traveling schtick.
:cowboy_hat_face:

Are you asking if folks eat differently when traveling? You have “ethically” in the title but asked if we
expand our food horizons when traveling.
Because we might be more thoughtful about the ethics abroad than at home? Or we might be more adventurous in our eating than when home.
Just looking for clarification, thx

Ethnically

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All food belongs to a particular ethnic group (or groups), so yes, of course I eat ethnically while traveling. But if you mean do I eat outside my own ethnicity, yes, I like to seek out local specialties. But I also eat outside my own ethnicity at home.

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Absolutely! Depending on how tightly you define it, the food of my own “ethnicity” is banal and boring. Fortunately my home town had a healthy mix of southern European cultures to add some onion and garlic and maybe even some herbs!
As a child, my father would accompany a friend home, down the block, and share their table. On returning home, my grandmother would notice his breath and say, “You’ve been eating at the xxxxs.” Should have been a clue.

Actually, eating ethnically is a major reason to travel.

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I was inspired by the lutefisk comments on another thread.
We used to have a guy on Roadfood, Wandering Jew, who’s from New England.
He went everywhere, but insisted on eating the most correct meal in whatever locale he was visiting.
He kept insisting that everyone in Minnesota ate lutefisk and hot dishes.
Of course, the folks who actually lived there thought he was batshit crazy :anguished:
He’s still at it but no more Roadfood.

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I really appreciate his intent. However, and as you suggest, a shrink friend commented that we can never truly know what goes on in a marriage, Same can be said about regional tables. How they are publicized, how they are in fact.

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You have successfully confused me. To your core question: Absolutely yes

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I try Chinese food everywhere I go.

Also, I like trying Greek restaurants called Zorba’s, whenever I see one, wherever it is.

The sushi is really good in Paris.

I seek out North African food in France.

I want to try doner next time I visit Germany.

I try a lot of new foods, at home, what I grow, when I travel.

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Too funny. You beat me to the punch by hours and hours. I posted an hour ago that I kept mis-reading “ethically” as “ethnically” in the other thread.

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Cross country by car, I don’t eat ethnically–I eat fast, but I avoid fast food chains as much as i can.

At a destination in the evening–maybe.

Yes. The small town I’ve chosen as my second home doesn’t have a huge variety of “ethnic” (as opposed to … what? “non-Caucasian?” “non-white-protestant American?”) foods compared to a larger city, although we’ve had some nice additions over the years: Pakistani, Lebanese, Turkish, several Sichuan places, reasonably decent sushi, and very good Oaxacan-style food & tacos.

No good Greek, Italian, Spanish, French, Middle Eastern, Thai - so those tend to be the cuisines I seek out when traveling. Being just at the tail end of a 3-month sojourn in Berlin, I would say I made a good dent in all of these, but mostly Thai & ME foods.

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I enjoy trying local food when I travel overseas. For example, BBQ in the American south or seafood in New England.

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And apparently I still am. :upside_down_face:

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In Canada, as a white person with a German Greek background, I consider most Non -White Anglo Saxon Protestant foods to be considered ethnic (the word ethnic is out of favour), as well as some quirky regional WASP foods like Haggis, potted shrimp, and kippers.

British Isles food and the food that has been handed down from the Loyalists, save the quirky regional stuff, is not exotic up here. So fish & chips, roast beef, chicken pot pie.

Kind of funny how chicken schnitzel is exotic, and McChicken without a bun is not. I had organized a Xmas dinner for 4 friends at a Polish restaurant about 20 years ago. Once we were seated, my one friend, who likes Jamaican food, some pizza, burgers, and McChicken, was critical and not open to trying any dishes on the menu.
Especially perogies.

Would have been nice to know she wasn’t open to Polish food when I was in the planning stage.

I convinced her to order the chicken schnitzel, selling it as something similar to a McChicken without the bun. I think she also ordered a Caesar salad.

This is why you see things like Caesar salads offered in Polish restaurants, and french fries offered at Chinese restaurants in parts of Canada where I live.

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A guy I knew went to China and did his best to eat in only Western fast food places. It was his trip and money so it’s his choice, but it struck me as odd.

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He balances out those of us who actively avoid Western fast food while travelling.

I rarely order hamburgers if I’m outside North America.

I do take photos of the regional McDs items and use the facilities at McDs while travelling .

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I’ve mentioned before that my second “career” was as a military history researcher, with a particular interest in the Great War. I’ve researched all the men commemorated on my borough’s war memorials, who died in that conflict - nearly 3000 of them. Thirty one died serving with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. What did surprise me , during the research, was that virtually all of them had only been in Canada for a very short time. These were young men, so they had immigrated to Canada in their late teens or early twenties. There must have been many others who survived the war, carrying on their British food and social traditions well into the 20th century.

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