A language learners’ forum

There's an unassuming town called Hongya in China, about an hour's bus ride away from the outskirts of Chengdu. I've been there four or five times and literally every time the food was flawless. Home runs with every dish - mapo tofu, lamb bone soup, crispy eggplant, beef ribs, pudding, frozen fruit and cream, and this tofu and rice dish they don't serve anywhere else called dou hua fan. It's very delicate tofu served in hot soup, and you eat it with rice and spicy sauce for breakfast. Hongya has not only the best individual meals I've ever had while traveling, but also the most reliably astounding.

Also good: everything in Shunde, an unassuming town a couple of hours from Guangzhou. They're more assuming, though, because they're famous in China for their tapioca.

Specific dishes: baked dumplings in Xinjiang, black dumplings with golden custard in Hong Kong, rice noodles with pulled pork in Kunming. And that's just China! In Indonesia, Indomie yang pake telur dan sosis, fried plantains, cilok; in Yekaterinburg thick bread and hot soup; in Singapore bak kut teh...

I'm not even that into food, just hungry right now When I was in college I used to throw instant ramen in a pot of canned chili for a snack.

Spaghetti alle Vongole somewhere on the west coast of Italy.

I don't speak Italian except for food words like Spaghetti & Vongole. 'il conto per favore' was communicated using the internationally-approved mime of writing on my palm with my finger.

Beef tartare! A-ma-ZING!

I am starting to realise that nearly all foods are my favourite if I remember them at the right time

What a time to start a diet...

Food: chocolate croissants, Paris.
Drink: Tecate with lime and salt, Ciudad Acuña, Mexico (tho I think this combo has become a fad in the USA now).

MorkTheFiddle wrote:Food: chocolate croissants, Paris.
Drink: Tecate with lime and salt, Ciudad Acuña, Mexico (tho I think this combo has become a fad in the USA now).

I wanted to include some drinks but struggled to think of any at the time!

Egg coffee and egg hot chocolate in Vietnam are delicious.

Additional food:

1. Bun Cha Ta Hanoi in Hanoi, Vietnam
2. Bun Cha 145 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam this place is great, do like everybody else and order the bun cha and an extra side of noodles, it is fabulous

Teango wrote:What a time to start a diet...

It isn't a diet, you are just eating in a more balanced way. If you are being balanced then you might have something very fatty or sugary or salty but eat something more nutrient-dense and less fatty/sugary/salty the rest of the day see - balanced! I find that easier than splitting things into good v bad. Otherwise I always want to be bad

At a small donkey burger (驴肉火烧) restaurant in Sanlitun in Beijing:



Donkey burger, egg and tomato soup, cold cucumber and tofu strips with sauce.

Nothing spectacular here. I haven't travelled much, but some highlights include:

Chinese take away - Inverness, Scotland.
Vegetarian kebab - London, England.
Brown bread - Miltown Malbay, Ireland.
Thai take away - Duisburg, Germany.
Goat cheese salad - Donegal Town, Co. Donegal, Ireland
Potato cake - Glencolmcille, Co. Donegal, Ireland.
Chips from Leo Burdock's - Dublin, Ireland.
Haloumi wrap - Berlin, Germany.
Veggie burger - Oulu, Finland.
Sorry - nothing memorable in Bratislava, Slovakia.