Favourite foods from your travels

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Re: Favourite foods from your travels

Postby rdearman » Thu Nov 07, 2019 6:43 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:Sorry - nothing memorable in Bratislava, Slovakia.

The chips (French fries) in the Goblin Pub are pretty darn good. (And the Guinness)
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Re: Favourite foods from your travels

Postby DaveAgain » Fri Nov 08, 2019 8:19 am

Poffertjes, small pancakes covered in caster sugar and butter. I had these at an open air cafe in Holland. You served yourself the caster sugar, which was in a large bowl, guarded by wasps.
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Re: Favourite foods from your travels

Postby Adrianslont » Fri Nov 08, 2019 10:46 am

Well Bluepaint, you asked for it:

Indonesia:
Balinese spiced fish - especially from Jack Fish, Sanur
Nasi Padang in general but have enjoyed the Sederhana chain in Java and a big place in Siantar, Sumatra - they served it with such a flourish! And numerous small joints.
Jungle durian on the roadside between Berestagi and Medan, Sumatra
Fried chicken in too many places to mention in Indonesia

Singapore and Malaysia:
Char Kway Teow from the popular stall in Tiong Bahru markets in Singapore
Pepper crab every place I’ve had it in Singapore
Salted Egg crab and other seafood in KL
Home cooked Nonya food
Durian from Top Fruit, Geylang, Singapore
Masala Dosa from anywhere in Singapore
Es Kacang and Es Durian Mount Fuji
A breakfast or snack of Roti Prata / Roti Canai with curry and dhal
An upmarket mod-Canto meal at some place off Orchard Road this year
Dum Sum at the Shangrila many years ago
Every dining outlet at Raffles (curry house, Italian, fine dining) was great years ago, if a little pricy. No idea now.

Europe:
Bread and patisserie in France
Duck in France
Couscous in France
Pissaladière for a snack or lunch
Bread in the Netherlands can’t compete generally but the bread from Bakkerij Westerbos in Amsterdam was great
Dutch liquorice
Surinamese takeaways in the Netherlands - not so much for the quality but for multicultural mix of dishes
Steak and ale pies at various English pubs
A particular whole fish in Italy - I can’t remember what kind but it was pretty good and I loved the way the waiter filleted it at the table for us while being very charming in a very hectic restaurant. He then nearly came to blows with his colleague five minutes later!

Hong Kong:
Roast goose and roast pork from Yat Lok in Central - and elsewhere
Tim Ho Wan dim sum

China:
A suprisingly good quality banquet lunch at a conference in Zhejiang university, Hangzhou - I don’t associate conferences with food that nice

Cambodia:
Very reliable food at the Khmer Kitchen in Siem Reap
Fish Amok at The Sugar Palm, Siem Reap was a cut above Amok elsewhere (which was still good)
Kangkung/Ong Choy/morning Glory is a staple vegetable I enjoy in lots of places but I especially enjoyed it in Cambodia
The aroma of the street vendors barbecuing in Siem Reap is insanely good - and I never tried it

Food is one of my favourite things about travel.
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Re: Favourite foods from your travels

Postby garyb » Tue Nov 12, 2019 11:33 am

I've just come back from Portugal and man, these people know how to eat! Most food there was simple, reasonably priced, of good quality, and in big portions. Some highlights:

Francesinha: A grilled sandwich filled with beef, sausage and ham, topped with a fried egg and melted cheese, floating in a beer or Port-based sauce with fries. Great hangover cure or very filling lunch.

Image

Bifana: a roll stuffed with a very generous helping of roast pork, and costs less than a couple of euros.

Petiscos: similar to tapas. Olives, bread, ham, cheese, grilled sausage, etc. This was a petiscos night in my hostel in Lisbon:
Image

Pastel de nata: the famous custard tart. Find a bakery that serves them fresh so the pastry is still crunchy and the filling warm. However it's not the only one and you really can't go wrong with any of the pastries and cakes there (unlike in places like Italy where looks are often deceiving and excessive icing sugar can ruin everything). Everything is as good as it looks. 20+ Portuguese pastries and cakes. Possibly the best thing I ate was a creamy caramel sponge cake, but I can't find the name of it.

In Lisbon I had a meal with soup, fish, wine, and dessert for less than ten euros. You just need to know where to go. Lisbon is famous for cod (bacalhau) and sardines.

Wine is also generally good and cheap. There's port of course, vinho verde (young wine), and regular wine (almost always a blend rather than a single grape variety, but still high quality).

I recommend Portugal to everyone... Except perhaps vegetarians! ;) In reality there are some good meat-free restaurants these days and I had an excellent veggie burger in a place in Lisbon.

Now it's time to cut down on sugar. It's gonna be hard.

Some other highlights from my travels: everything in Italy (special mention to Turin for excellent savoury food as well as the best gelato and hot chocolate, and Genova was up there too); fried fish and fried aubergines (berenjenas) in Andalucía; and basically everything in Vietnam was cheap and tasty.
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Re: Favourite foods from your travels

Postby Chung » Tue Nov 12, 2019 7:36 pm

- Halászlé (Hungarian)

- Mućkalica (Serbian)

- Bryndzové halušky (Slovak)

- Homemade Turkish breakfast. What I regularly enjoyed with my hosts in Istanbul was similar to what's in this picture.

Image

I've had plenty of other dishes and meals during my travels but these four dishes/meals stand out the most. However, I've come to like some dishes so much that I've been making them at home after having found recipes on the internet and the right grocery stores to get the proper ingredients. Some dishes that are in my rotation for home cooking thanks to traveling are żurek, meggyleves, 불고기 (bulgogi), 大盤雞 (dapanji), ayam kecap and feijoada (à brasileira).

You can tell that I'm no vegetarian and happily skip dessert to get at a bowl of soup and main course.
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Re: Favourite foods from your travels

Postby lavengro » Tue Nov 12, 2019 9:44 pm

garyb wrote:...
Francesinha: A grilled sandwich filled with beef, sausage and ham, topped with a fried egg and melted cheese, floating in a beer or Port-based sauce with fries. Great hangover cure or very filling lunch.

Image....


I developed instantaneous coronary occlusion from just a brief glance at that photograph.
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Re: Favourite foods from your travels

Postby Sedge » Wed Nov 27, 2019 5:04 am

Arroz con Camarones at the Malecon in Guayaquil, Ecuador; fried plantains literally anywhere in Ecuador; Naranjilla juice for breakfast; tilapia in banana leaves in Mindo
Barbecue night with friends of my host family in Japan - catching noodles as they went past in a bamboo shoot full of water
Easter dinner at this little place in Maroochydore, QLD, Australia. I was with a bunch of New Yorkers and it turns out the owners/chef and hostess of the place were from Buffalo, NY. The food was great but the best part was the people.
Gallo Pinto (black beans and rice) in Costa Rica. Also, Thanksgiving dinner at La Selva Estacion Biologica.
Cuy with green risotto in Ollantaytambo, Peru (literally everything we ate in the Sacred Valley was amazing, TBH, but the first dinner we had in Ollantaytambo was unanimously voted best food of our 3-week South America trip. Thanks to the taxi driver for the recommendation!). The ginger-honey-mint lemonade at the restaurant we went to in Castro, Chile.
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Re: Favourite foods from your travels

Postby Versus » Wed Nov 27, 2019 11:14 pm

Gyros. A well-known Greek dish at their seaside resorts.
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Re: Favourite foods from your travels

Postby Iversen » Thu Nov 28, 2019 3:02 pm

Favorite foods: pizze
Favorite food: pizza

(and creamy German yoghurt and to drink: Crème de Menthe from Teyssier)

'Gastronome food' from Michelin restaurants is not my thing - too small portions, too high prices, weird combinations and an a hysterical star cook yelling at his team of slaves in the kitchen. And no wine for me, please. White wine tastes like cider that has expired many years ago (and cider tastes like apple juice that has fermented due to inadequate storing facilities). And red wine tastes just as bad as white wine, just with added pollutants like tannic acid and served at at a higher temperature. I once got milk with spearmint flavour in Alice Springs in Australia - rather that than wine.

But grapes are OK.

F3329a04_Pizza_in_Alicante.jpg
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Re: Favourite foods from your travels

Postby IronMike » Wed Dec 04, 2019 7:24 pm

Iversen wrote:Favorite foods: pizze
Favorite food: pizza

F3329a04_Pizza_in_Alicante.jpg

That is perhaps my favorite topping on a pizza. Even better is to add capers to the anchovies. YUM!
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