Trying local cuisine - how adventurous are you?

[Mattg]

One of the things I love about travelling is getting to try all the different types of local cuisine when visiting a new country. But I realise some people don't enjoy this nearly as much as I do. I was recently eating at a local restaurant in Tbilisi where I ordered a delicious khachapuri and Georgian wine. An American family sitting behind me ordered only burgers/sandwiches and coca cola. I couldn't help thinking, "what a waste of a perfect opportunity to try some awesome local food!"

How adventurous are you when it comes to trying the local food while overseas?

To help you answer this, I put together a little quiz...

Question 1. You're in a country where you do not understand the language and the menu is only available in that language. Do you...
(a) point to random items and wait to see what kind of food arrives - 5 points
(b) ask the waiter to recommend something - 3 points
(c) Use Google Translate to translate the menu into English - 2 points
(d) Ask for an English menu - 1 point
(e) Leave and look for the nearest McDonalds - 0 points

Question 2. You're in Italy and you find a restaurant that has menus only in English, Spanish, French and German. Do you...
(a) rejoice that you can understand the menu - 0 points
(b) leave immediately because it's clearly a tourist trap - 5 points

Question 3. You're in Sweden and the waiter recommends the dish of the day, "svartsoppa". Do you...
(a) gladly accept - 5 points
(b) ask what it is - 2 points
(c) stick to the Swedish meatballs - 1 point
(d) order a cheeseburger - 0 points

Question 4. You find out that the main ingredient in svartsoppa is, in fact, animal blood. Do you...
(a) eat the entire bowl - 5 points
(b) taste a small amount - 3 points
(c) politely decline - 0 points

So... how did you go?

For those who scored above 10, I'd love to know what your favourite food is that you've discovered while travelling? [Bonus points if you post a picture of it. ]

 

[Mattg]

Here’s one of my personal favourites, the aforementioned khachapuri from Georgia

 

[jase05]

I like to try most things but try to avoid seafood at all costs. My wife isn’t very adventurous and tries to pick dishes she “knows” and avoids most street food snacks whereas I’m happy to crunch on crickets, spiders etc

 

[harvyk]

My answers

1. I have pointed to an item and said I'll Have that. Only once have I regretted it (It was a heated squid in Hong Kong, not good) 5 points

2. Depends on the tourist trap. Sometimes yes sometimes no. So 2.5 points

3. I might accept I might ask what it is 3.5 points

4. Depends on what way I went with question 3, although to be honest I'd probably decline.

So I'm going to award myself 11 points for this.

As for favorite food? I love bakeries in Asia (HKG, TPE, SIN). So egg tarts are good, also quite like mango moose. Also really enjoyed these fish balls which came from a hole in the wall type place near temple st in HKG, washed down with a beer made for some good eating.

 

[drron]

Well I consider myself adventurous but mrsdrron isn't so generally have to find something middle of the road.But then if wandering the streets by myself I have eaten grubs,crickets,grasshoppers and all sorts of wierd things.
Perhaps the funniest moment wasn't a weird food but a local selling birds eye chillis in Mae Hong son.She was offering a taste to any foreigner that passed and most passed by.I though took a whole chilli of her display rather than the little bit she offered and chewed it for some time before swallowing and said xixy-delicious.She wasn't to know that i have a cast iron stomach and have destroyed my taste buds with chillis ever since I was a young boy.My grandfather grew them and we ate them fresh off the bush.

However I do admit for quite a few of the items I try there is no need for a second time-think haggis.

 

[RooFlyer]

When I was much younger ... I was in Hong Kong with some mates. We decided to plunge into deep Kowloon and walked into a restaurant with no English apparent at all. No English on the menu, so we just pointed and hoped.

I'm still not sure if the dish is the one that we chose, or if the restauranter was having some fun with some gweilos ('ghosts').

Anyway what came out were several half chickens. i mean, exactly half. Cut down the middle, with everything but the feathers still there, but cooked. I recall I picked around the meat bits and it was OK. Lots of beer helped.

These days, I always try the local cuisine; sometimes its hard to get them to show you the non tourist menus, especially in the lesser-tourist places. I never go for 'street food' in third world countries. My desire to have an uninterrupted holiday is greater than my desire to be adventurous in those cases.

I scored 10-ish, but that probably over-rates my true adventure-ness.

Edit: Favourite 'adventurous' dish: was in Tokyo on business, and met a high powered business type for dinner at his favourite (and very expensive) restaurant - he was paying. . He ordered for both of us, and I'm still not sure what half of it was, but it was exquisitely presented and of course delicious. But they eventually took pity on me with the warm jellyfish in a bowl of soup. After many futile attempts with chop sticks (as my host used), and some merriment at my expense, they gave me a western spoon.

 

[Renato1]

My wife often tries the local cuisine.
More often than not she's disappointed, and I chuckle as I hoe into my hamburger and chips meal.

One exception was when we ate Russian meals in Luxembourg (since it was the only place we could find to eat near our hotel). That was darn good.
Regards,
Renato

 

[Archphoto]

I like to think I'm fairly ok with local dishes, however, I loath seafood everywhere in the world, so refuse to eat it (or eat as little as possible) whenever I travel. Have eaten all sorts of bugs in Thailand and they serve deep fried tiny fish at the local bars which, surprisingly, I'm actually happy to eat with the accompanying chilli sauce.

I do remember ordering a meal in Beijing at a local restaurant close by our hotel and the "rough" English translation was "tender deer". Ordered as it certainly wasn't fish and about 10 minutes later a steaming plate of deer tendons arrived. Rubber bands anyone??

Another meal that sticks in the mind was when a client took the photo team to dinner at an expensive restaurant and ordered dinner for all. All going great until a full sized, sliced up, turtle was placed on the table, shell, head, tail and all for us to all tuck into. Even the copious amount of beer couldn't save me from that one . . .

 

[Austman]

LOL.

For Sweden you should have picked surströmming.

Now that really IS a challenge! Even for many (or should I say most?) Swedes!

Surströmming - Wikipedia

Controversy
German food critic and author Wolfgang Fassbender wrote that "the biggest challenge when eating surströmming is to vomit only after the first bite, as opposed to before".​

 

[BriarFlyer]

Disappointed to only score 9; I'll have to up my adventure game!

(I would never order the burger and chips, but nor would I go for the surstromming.)

 

[love_the_life]

I think one of the most adventurous (to use the term loosely) meals was in Seoul back in the 90s. It was a teacher exchange and most of the group went to maccas
I was sharing a room with the group leader, a Malaysian Chinese woman. Anyway we agreed that local cuisine is better and went off to find breakfast down a narrow lane way. I left it all up to her and we ended up with Broth to Chase a Hangover Away (translation). It was a soup the colour of dishwashing water (grey) filled with different organs and congealed blood. Now I’m as game as the rest of you but I stirred it round a lot and tried to pick out the rice grains!

 

[andye]

...However I do admit for quite a few of the items I try there is no need for a second time-think haggis.

And it was only Burn's night yesterday. I'm quite fond of it myself as well as the blood-filled Black Pudding-the King of breakfast selections

 

[eddie 73]

Smelly tofu in Taiwan.

 

[Forg]

I think one of the most adventurous (to use the term loosely) meals was in Seoul back in the 90s. It was a teacher exchange and most of the group went to maccas

From my experiences with teachers in high school ... yeah, given where they’ve been, I’d be scared to eat one!!

 

[straitman]

Depending on interpretation and how I felt on the day I'd get between 7 and 12 points (I think)

In Athens a few months ago and had lunch at the meat market. I had a nice vegetable soup, Sue had a fish dish but our Greek friend had offal soup. It didn't look so great, it smelt awful and tasted worse! He did lace it with a lot of chilli.

Offal Soup



Fish Dish



Vegetable Soup

 

[love_the_life]

Lights and heart were regular dishes when my father was growing up in country Victoria, and who hasn't had brawn? I can still remember the smell as my mother cooked the sheep's head before picking the meat and setting in aspic. You don't need to travel to try challenging foods.

 

[drron]

I didn't mind brawn.my grandmother used to make it as well as pickled beef tongue.funnily I also liked that.

 

[Matt_01]

I did not know what svartsoppa was I had to google it and would give it a try. I do like black pudding. Also I am not a big fan of Italy so the only question I can honestly answer is no.1 so 5.

For those that go to or want to go to Japan try Natto (normally served at breakfast), it is different and people normally love it or hate it, I am the first category.

The most usual food I have eaten was scorpions, snack street off the mall in Wangfujing, Beijing. They are small and crunchy however I could not come at the other bugs on offer. The duck pancakes, strawberries or small apples and other fruits coated in some type of toffee were much more appealing.

 

[get me outta here]

It took me while to work out what “mango moose” was - I’m slow.

As for favorite food? I love bakeries in Asia (HKG, TPE, SIN). So egg tarts are good, also quite like mango moose. Also really enjoyed these fish balls which came from a hole in the wall type place near temple st in HKG, washed down with a beer made for some good eating.

 

[kermatu]

13 for me.
A few years ago I'd have been 20. Iron stomach and no allergies so why not.
Still have the iron gut but now a bit of common sense and the means to afford the odd mistake and start again.