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I’ve traveled quite a bit internationally and cannot recall a place where the cuisine was truly awful. I was always able to find something that appealed to my tastebuds. Probably the
most non-exciting cuisine I’ve had was in the Dominican Republic. Not awful, but not terribly exciting either.
I eat at Mexican restaurants often and have NEVERe had cilantro on any of my meals.
I’m gonna call BS on that statement haha.
I have a friend who cannot eat cilantro (he has the gene where it tastes like soap to him) and he goes out of his way to ask for no cilantro but still gets it anyways sometimes
I adnit, I am in the shallow end of this pool. I'm fairly happy in there is a ubiquitous national dish that is cheap, filling, and consistleny good.
Mexico, Brazil -- beans rice
Thailand -- Pad Thai
Ethiopia -- doro wat
North Africa -- Couscous
Middle east -- Hummus
Central Asia -- Bishbarmek
Indonesia -- Gado gado
Ukraine -- Borshcht
Hungary -- Gulyas
Germany, Poland -- Wurst, kraut, potato, beer
Japan -- plastic-pac of seafoof salad from 7-11
But if I have to searsc-and-learn, I'm usually not too happy with the results.
Thailand is exasperating. Evening street food looked wonderful, but take-home plastic bags are no fun if you have no home and have to eat them balanced on your lap on a hotel bed. In Romania, I love Mamaliguta with sour cream, but it exists only in inaccessible private kitchens. Most of the world, what families eat home remains a well-kept secret. In the US, any foreign traveler ever see scalloped potatoes or macaroni/cheese or smothered chickre on a menu at a freeway exit ramp?? I had home-cooked meals for three days on a Ukrainian boat -- amazing.
When I was in Sweden, Smorgasbord was all the rage, nothing else was possible. I hated the stupid things.
The worst was Malawi. Nsima was like corn meal mush, but made with cassava flour and some other ground flour of millrrt or whatever, served with a broth containing very few floating parts. The menu, for variety, my offer "sanguidge", two buttered slices of American white bread, sometimes with a slice of bologna or something between.
Suriname, no bread at all, except wrapped factory dinner rolls. Very poor quality and selection in fruit market. Dine-in meals uninteresting and pricey. Much nicer next door in Indian-influenced Guyana.
Sometimes the bread alone is enough to offset any shortcomings. Anyplace the Russians have ever been, has incredible crusty chewy bread, , a great meal with just goat cheese or local jam.
I tend to be a noon-diner.. on the road. As I recall, in Italy it was tooo much food. Spain, France and Portugal, not enough. In Asian Turkey, I understood nothing on the noon menu, so the waiter took us to the kitchen where we could point at pots of what looked good. A life-shaping dining experience.
Probably going to get pounded on for this opinion, but it may have been because of the particular area we were in. We're not foodies, so don't search out a great culinary experience, but hardly any of the food we got in restaurants in Spain and Portugal was palatable. I KNOW they both have world-class cuisine, but I guess we were at the wrong places---too touristy, maybe. All the meat was tough as nails, for example.
I also detest our regional food here---but someone above said they liked it (Ecuador). Again, may have to do with where we are---rural, coastal. The large inland cities can offer much more. Warm-water, bony fish, white rice, chicken and plantains---so sick of it.
Keeps our eating-out costs down, lol.
(to be fair, I disliked Texas food too. Except for bbq-brisket! THAT is superb)
Both Spain and Portugal have world class cuisines as you so rightly say, but you’ll have to search hard for it in tourist areas, like Algarve in Portugal or The Costas on Spain’s Mediterranean coast.
These areas are heavily favoured by Brits for vacations and a lot of Brits, CERTAINLY NOT ALL, dismiss the local cuisine in two words, foreign muck.
There are good restaurants to be found on Algarve though, usually a kilometre or two away from the strip, where you can get cataplana, which is the name of the dish as well as the pot it is cooked in, or bacalhau, dried and salted codfish, frango chicken or chicken piri-piri, plus all manner of fresh fish.
If you want to try good paella in Spain, head for Valencia, but it’s not just paella that Spain does well, there’s gambas al ajillo, (garlic shrimp), polbo á feira or pulpo a la Gallega, a traditional Galician boiled octopus.
Be apprised though, Spanish eateries don’t do early bird specials, particularly in Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla etc.
The Spanish like to eat dinner late, lots of top notch restaurants won’t open until maybe 8.00 p.m., and I’ve often made 11.00 p.m. reservations in Madrid, walked in and found the place crowded at that time.
One thing that I’ve started doing is take walking food tours in different cities that I visit. It’s a little more expensive than if I picked a spot for dinner by myself but it’s a good way to try different dishes that are local to the area
Top two disappointing culinary experiences: the Philippines and Egypt. The food in the Philippines was more odd and overcooked with none of the richness or sophistication of Thai or Malay or Vietnamese cooking, which is a bit peculiar. Who knows why. Egypt was dull and dull and dull and flavorless. The national dish is rice and pasta and beans with a tomato sauce.
I disagree on Turkish food. I did my research beforehand and had an absolutely wonderful travel experience with delightful meals just about every day. For anyone with plans to go to Istanbul: Istanbul Eats - Istanbul Restaurant & Food Guide
Food in England we still talk and laugh about, so boring, in larger cities we could find Thai food but they don't put much hot pepper in unless requested. Beans and toast for breakfast at small B&B haha.
Italy was a challenge eating in tourist areas, expensive blah food. Best meals were in side street trattorias.
Filipino food eaten at US potlucks did not inspire me to get recipes. Wish they leaned more to SE Asian spices and sauces.
Everyones taste buds are different around the world.
I still remember the Ethiopian restaurant we ate at in Baltimore 30 years ago OMG so delicious.
And the first time we ever had sushi in California 40 years ago, so wonderful (we lived in a very small east coast town back then).
My husband and I traveled in France seven times, and we always remarked how bland the French food was. We like spice in our food, so we made our way to Moroccan/Vietnamese/Chinese/etc. restaurants and were happy. It was in France that I started using sriracha, as an act of self-defense.
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