It’s a bit of a chicken and egg question because until you visit you don’t know if the journey was worthwhile for the food. I am lucky I have travelled a lot and I have had great food in many places but there are a few that were pretty dire and nothing would temp me a back (for the food) - Dallas is one example. That said I may have just missed out and if I had the right local guide I could have eaten well.
I also find that some food destinations are massively over rated and there can seem to be almost an “exotic” amplification factor. I wonder if some times the rave reviews of certain food are more a “look at me, I have travelled to somewhere few others have”.
And how often that is because the local food is compromised by poverty and limited access to quality ingredients. So North Korean food may be great but probably won’t be worth trying in North Korea because of the lack of ingredients. I find much the same with a lot of Thai and Vietnamese food where you can eat better (and authentic) food in the immigrant communities of big western cities.
So sometimes the journey to get to the food really doesn’t deliver the culinary payback and if we were more honest about some of the food in exotic locations it’s more about time and place than the deep down quality. The curry you are eating as you watch the sun slip into the sea on your from your Burmese beach shack restaurant does taste superb - but that is the romance of travel - the exact same dish wouldn’t cause so many heart flutters on a wet and cold February day in the backstreets of Chicago or Manchester.
Sometimes yes. But there must be at least hundreds of places on the planet where one can know well in advance of travel what the food is like. My two best meals (so far) (Barcelona and Budapest) I found out about from CH. NYC, Seattle, SF and on and on. The best soup I (or Bourdain) have ever had I found out about on a blog about Vietnam. Just my two cents
It’s nice to trust reviews and recommendations but you really need to know the person who recommends is on your wavelength all the time…and even then they may love a cuisine that you just like.
Similarly they may brag about the wonders of X and Y to justify (maybe even just to themselves) the fact they visited…especially if it was a far far away…and they fell for “the emperors new clothes”. I am certain I’d do that to my friends some of the time…as no one wants to lose face.
May your good fortune continue. I do get it right far more open that I get it wrong, and I always travel with high hopes.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
87
Completely agree, Phil.
It’s one of the benefits of forums, over other sources of information. You get to know people.
From time to time, I have to rely on the likes of TripAdvisor, at least a a starting point for research. It can be a dismal exercise., mainly because of how the site comes up with its ratings (whatever that may be). By way of example, if I look at the list for the major city near me, it’d be #7 before I get to a place I’ve even heard of. And #20 before I find somewhere I’d rate as decent. And #24 before you get to one of the generally accepted “big hitters” (the ones talked about for possible Michelin stars).
Honestly, if the opportunity presented itself, I would go pretty much anywhere. The only place I’m really not interested in is Africa, just because I’m not a big fan of the foods I’ve tried.
I wouldn’t have qualms about going to a country whose political/cultural policies I may not agree with. I love to learn about new cultures and countries, and while I may not agree with something, it’s a learning experience for me. Those negative things helped shape the country, and its people, food, art, etc. Those things wouldn’t be what they are without all the positive and negative things in its history.
We went to Kenya and Tanzania about eight years ago. Not for the food but for the animals! But I thought the food was fine but nothing to write home about.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
90
Similar for us in South Africa. We were on an escorted tour with most dinners being included. Food in the hotels was very westernised and there was very little sense of eating local food. We did take ourselves off on our own a few times and managed to find some “African” dishes and other places where local ingredients featured.
Now, of course, food in North Africa is very different and much more readily available where I live.
I could go either way on Moroccan food. Reason being is that the flavors/ingredients are quite similar to those used in Indian food (I’m of Indian ethnicity), so the food isn’t “different enough” for me.
There are still remnants of a large Indian population in East Africa. When I went we stayed at the Serena hotels, which were started by a family of Indian descent and the food was heavily influenced by Indian cooking. The food was good.
But typical East African food is fairly bland legumes or grains, the one exception being Ethiopia which has some great food.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
94
Remnants is right - the enforced racist expulsions from Kenya and Uganda in the early 1970 was a disaster for the community. Thankfully, my country was more tolerant of refugees then, than it appears to be now.
Keeping this to a food focus, whilst most British “Indian” restaurants are actually owned by Bangladeshis, I know of one place where the owners are of East African Asian extract. There are twists to the food that you don’t generally find (although a look at their online menu suggests they are moving towards the more usual Punjabi offerings than when I ate there in 2010).
My local Indian place is owned by Kenyans of East Asian descent. The clientelle is mainly Pakistani immigrants so they serve Nihari and lots of kebabs.
Does it mean that most British Indian food had a Bangladeshi slant as well? I’ve not had Bangladeshi food so I didn’t pick up the differences while I briefly lived in London, if there was any.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
97
Unfortunately not.
As I understand it, the original British “Indian” places started out in Punjabi ownership, serving northern sub-continent food. When the Bangladeshis (mainly from Sylhet province) took them over and greatly expanded the number, from the 1970s, they kept the same dishes. This is mainly because they’d already become Anglicised food and the customer base knew what to expect from the high street curry house. It is only in very recent years that we’re starting to see places serving regional food or palces having “desi” sections of the menu which are likely to be more traditional preparations.
If one is visiting the DPRK, the stay is likely no longer than a week (3-4 days is a typical amount for a tour). That country will ensure that foreign tourists are fed (and you may want to give mayonnaise another chance if you visit…). Had pretty good duck bbq in Pyongyang.
I hear that Pyongyang got its first pizzeria, but don’t know how easily tour groups can visit.
Harters, the places I’ve lived in the US are very similar. Bangladeshis own most of the “Indian” restaurants now. In Baltimore, up until ten years ago you could usually figure it out by the sign. It’s Indian-owned if the sign reads “Indian”, Pakistani-owned if the sign reads “Indian Pakistani” and Bangladeshi-owned if the sign reads “Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi”. Not sure why, but the “Bangladeshi” has been disappearing. Maybe cause I would keep walking in and asking what menu item was Bangladeshi (and there wasn’t any item that was.) On a more serious note, I will say 95% of my Bangladeshi and non-Northern Indian friends and acquaintances have pretty much abandoned their “real” food and eat basically generic Pakistani-type food. It’s really sad, I wish they could appreciate their own food. Being Pakistani, I loved eating authentic dishes at their homes, but those experiences are very few and far between now. I have lots of theories and perspectives on what people wrote here. Hope I get time next few days to share.
Maybe places where there is hygiene issues, if I only have a few days. As someone who is accustomed to first world hygiene, the stomach needs more than a few days to ‘acclimatize’ to the local standards.
An example, when I arrived at Guatemala, I was told by every traveler that I would have stomach problems because they all had them. And soon enough, I got pretty sick after a week there. Its fine after that for 2 months.
