>Perhaps I have watched too many K-drama
Lol. In my experience corndogs are just a garbage food Koreans grab when they don't have time for anything better, and the tteokbokki cart is too far away. It's like grabbing a donut from Dunkin or Timmies.
It’s funny bc I was just about to comment to recommend halal cart over hot dogs for tourists to NYC. The big difference to me is that the halal cart is more unique to NYC to me. You can get a hot dog anywhere, but it’s far less common to be able to get a chicken or lamb over rice platter outside the New York metro area.
I’ve never had ttekbokki in my life and I keep seeing it all over tiktok and I have been craving it so bad all week. Then I come to Reddit and see your comment that mentions ttekbokki. I’m taking it as a sign to get some this weekend !!
I kept seeing it in K-Dramas so went to our local Asian store and got one of those cups of ttekbokki. Holy hell was it hot (spicy)! I like spicy food but this was Colon Blow hot!
I think OP might be the only person in history to have expected anything beyond simple sustenance there.
I wonder if they went into a 24 hour dinner expecting fresh barista brewed artisan coffee from the refills.
How would OP have known that before going there, though? Many other countries have jaw-droppingly amazing street food, it stands to reason that the legendary NYC hot dogs have a flavor proportional to their reputation.
> it stands to reason that the legendary NYC hot dogs have a flavor proportional to their reputation.
Does it? They are an icon in films/TV set in NYC, but even in Hollywood reality I can't recall anyone ever actually bitting into them with delight. They are just something that tired cops or lawyers quickly pick up on their 6th hour of overtime whilst trying to think of a way to catch the bad guys.
I didn't grow up in the USA either and I wouldn't have expected anything but stomach filling from them.
Maybe it's cultural, maybe my country just idolizes America more than yours. But over the years I've heard a lot of people recommend having a hot dog in a stand and when I dated a guy from New York he was horrified I'd never tried one before and insisted I did. No one is under the impression that they're 'fancy', but that the flavor is superior to any hot dog you can make at home, well, sure. For example, the 'grab and go quick sustenance' food we have in Berlin are doners. I've had a lot of doners in a lot of different countries, and even the ones in Turkey are absolute trash compared to the ones in Berlin. It's really a huge difference. When I went to Copenhagen and grabbed a quick hotdog, I was blown away by how rich and flavorful the meat was, the crispy outside, the softness yet firmness of the bread. I expected the same from NYC and also didn't get it.
Its not really a "omg the hotdogs are amazing" reaction of horror and more of a "this is a common rite of passage when you come here" reaction of horror.
From new york myself and i tell every person visiting to leave those nasty ass things alone, its just hyped up on tv for no reason.
Its not really a "omg the hotdogs are amazing" reaction of horror and more of a "this is a common rite of passage when you come here" reaction of horror.
From new york myself and i tell every person visiting to leave those nasty ass things alone, its just hyped up on tv for no reason.
To be fair, NYC also has jaw dropping amazing street food, as long as you're going to Brooklyn for tacos instead of hanging out in tourist central where people are just desperate to get a quick bite after their Broadway shows. It's not much of a secret that there is very little great food around midtown, and the Olive Garden (?) and other chains around Times Square are a running joke among basically everyone who has been to NYC more than two times.
Does it even have a reputation? I grew up here all my life and it’s never mentioned or eaten. Just go get a pizza, that what New Yorkers actually eat on the go. I think the hot dogs are for tourists.
Los Angeles hot dog vendors are pretty darn close to amazing....ok, maybe not amazing....but damn, they are good.
Grilled, with bacon and onions....just had one prior to the USC game.
The only cities in the US where you should seek out hot dogs are LA and Chicago. I lived in LA for 5 years and I miss the danger dogs. And it's not just with bacon, the bacon is wrapped around the hot dog and cooked together.
The biggest myth about LA is that it's only healthy food. Tacos, danger dogs, In-N-Out, donuts...that city will raise your cholesterol without even trying.
Same for fish & chips and other items on the list, I don’t know what OP expected from those foods. I understand they are not great but “underwhelming” meant he had some expectations.
And fish and chips has salt and vinegar on and usually mushy peas and tartare sauce. It's like saying oh this pizza from Naples is a bit shit, its bland unless they put cheese and tomato sauce on it
For me the best part of fish and chips is chip shop chips. They are a specific kind of chip that you don’t get anywhere else! I think the beauty of a lot of British food it that its comfort food and not “getting” that is why we get ripped on so for for shit food. We aren’t winning any awards for beautiful sun-kissed veg, ours is tied to pub culture which is very much more than just about the food. Unfortunately old fashioned fish and chip shops where you can eat in for dinner are in decline where I’m at but they’re great!!!
I am Scottish so perhaps biased, but I just don't really understand why British food gets knocked so much. Like *good* fish and chips is amazing. A *good* steak and kidney pie is amazing. Good chicken balmoral (chicken stuffed with haggis, usually served with whisky sauce) is amazing. Curry in Glasgow is amazing. Go to Rugby Park (home of Kilmarnock FC) and get one of their famous Scotch pies. Its fucking amazing.
The rest of the world is just wrong in my opinion - and I say that as a MASSIVE foodie who literally bases trips around food.
THANK YOU!
I’m English living in NY and people constantly love telling me that our food is shit. And it’s like ok well I really like it it’s comforting and filling and makes me happy. A full English? Sunday roast? A really good scotch egg?!
Also a massive foodie and I think people who come to the U.K. to try our food just aren’t going to the right places.
It’s not that there aren’t good British dishes, it’s that there’s a (at least perceived) lack of variety in flavor profiles.
Comforting and filling it may be, but all of the foods you listed are some variation on rich, salty, meaty. British food stereotypically seems, for lack of a better descriptor, *brown*. The prototypical traditional British dish is some sort of brown fried or roasted meat, often encased in a brown pastry crust, sometimes accompanied by a brown sauce or gravy.
I’m American and I agree. I thought the food was pretty great there myself, maybe I just got lucky? The breakfasts were awesome and that cheese and pickle sandwich for lunch was something else, I wish they were more popular here.
As a Thai, you're right about Khao San Road being a scam.
Not just the Pad Thai, but alot of street food there are mostly tourist-trap tier
The only people I've heard going there are all tourists; never heard a local willingly wanting to go there unless with foreign tourists.
Lol, I think the shows aren't actually on the strip though right? There are guys who'll take you to them but they're all a little ways away. That's what I, uh, heard from somebody I mean
I first went there 25 or so years ago and it was wild then. There was a pub in an alleyway going towards so i rambuttro called Suzy Pub that was always packed with young Thai students. It was great. Hardly any backpackers went in for some reason and I used to have some great nights in there. Live music etc. I’ve been back to kohsahn loads of times over the years and it changed a lot and became not too interesting a place to me but I see the appeal to younger backpackers on a first trip wanting something exotic feeling but familiar.
That's about when I used to hang out there. It felt like the wild west. The whole street was like the Star Wars cantina. I'd sta at the D&D Hotel and eat at some.indian place that was on a second floor that had internet.
The D&D god yeah I remember that. I used to stay in J and Joes just down the back alleys. It was an old Thai teak house converted into a guesthouse. Don’t see many of them any more. Wooden floors, old creaking ceiling fans. It was another time. I remember playing pool with a policeman who had his gun laying on the bar. His radio went off with excited chatter in Thai and he turned it off to concentrate on his shot.
It's impossible to recommend an area for street food because it's so ubiquitous. You're going to see locals eating street food EVERYWHERE except for Khao San Road. Just get out of the tourist zone, find a place with a bunch of locals eating and order whatever the vendor sells.
If you want some proper direction, check out Mark Wiens on YouTube. His entire premise is finding amazing food in Thailand. I ate at a couple of the places he's been to in Chinatown and they were incredible.
Your experience with foods depends on the specific places you get them. The fact that fish and chips is a common dish in the UK and sushi is common in Japan does not mean every restaurant in the country that serves them will have equal quality. And street foods like NYC hot dogs and balik ekmek in Turkey aren’t meant to be amazing cuisine; they’re basic grab-and-go foods (although I’d argue that eating them while walking through Manhattan or along the Istanbul waterfront makes them pretty memorable). Sushi in particular is an art form in Japan, and the best sushi chefs create an experience that blows away anything you could get at home, no matter how common sushi restaurants might be.
Exactly. OP doesn’t say whether they went to kaiten all you can eat or to an Edo style omakase. The experience will vary wildly. I’ve had good sushi in Japan, and I’ve had incredible sushi experiences. You get what you pay for.
Definitely! Simililar to the point I was going to make. It also seems like OP has missed the point with a lot of these foods and has perhaps taken them out of the context and immersive experience they're eaten in.
Agreed with this. My area has a lot of good sushi options due to being next to the ocean and having Japanese immigrants being here for generations. Even though it’s widely available here and I do omakase every 1-2 months, sushi is still one of the things I’m most excited for in Japan. I can’t wait to try all the highest quality fish from dedicated sushi chefs for a fraction of the cost here.
Sushi is something that goes from awful 7-11 sushi to sushi that was so good that it literally made me cry. It's one of those foods where the quality of the ingredients and craftsmanship matters a _lot_.
Currywurst after a night of drinking is elite. I have fond memories of stuffing my face on a snowy night in Berlin. Context is everything with fast food.
I definitely agree that Napoli was just all really good food. The 3 euro folding pizza was the best one I had. Maybe cause I was slightly buzzed but still
every tourist wants to know what “the best” is so they can have that and not suffer FOMO from their choices… so a “best” has to be invented for them whether it exists or not
I was in Bali with some friends earlier this year, they spent a lot of time trying to find places that were highly rated by tourists, we went out of our way to get to them... They were all basically the same as any other place we walked into.
I'm not a ludopath, but I'd bet you're either talking about Sorbillo or Da Michele.
Both are good obviously, but not worth the waiting line, and far from being an absolute best (which I'd say, there's not). Napoli is the birthplace and the capital of pizza, you can find it good in many places (and even cheaper), so yeah, your comment is completely correct.
Da Michele was like €4,50 a pie. I stayed next door and got in like like 10 mins before they opened and was immediately seated. If you're able to do that its 100% worth it, but I do not get why people stand in line for hours when there's like 3 other fantastic pizza places in the same block.
If you’re talking about Da Michele, I would beg to differ. I loved it. I still daydream about it but I love pizza and it’s the best I’ve ever had.
ETA: We waited for 30 mins or so for it too and I would do it again.
When I visited my friend there this spring, she said that after a couple meals of traditional Mongolian food I'd be over it. She was right. The Nomads restaurant elevates it to be more restaurant-style by adding things like pickled onions, etc, which makes it have more flavor but even then it's just heavy. I was craving vegetables and fruit, which I came to learn are expensive at the grocery store (about $1 USD *per banana*)
Edit: Truthfully, though, I doubt many foreigners would know offhand what traditional Mongolian food is. They probably just think of Mongolian barbecue (which I personally never encountered there).
I still think about some imported Japanese grapes I ate in Taiwan a few years ago. They were like $40 USD per bunch and were a welcome gift from a family friend. I'd never been given fruit as a gift before so that seemed charming but a little odd to me, but then I ate one of the ginormous grapes and it was seriously the most intensely delicious grape flavor I've ever experienced in a real fruit. It was incredible. I would pay $40 to eat them again for sure.
Yes they were huge!! Like it took multiple bites to eat one grape. She gave us both a green bunch and a purple bunch, and each night at dessert we'd each eat 2 grapes, one of each color. Honestly it was an amazing and very memorable gift lol
Japan doesn't have a lot of good land to farm on.
Because of that, they know they won't be able to feed their own population or be able to influence prices on the global market. Thus, they decided to do quality over quantity. Most farms are dedicated to producing a singular product at the best of their ability.
Perfect looking but not the tastiest imho!
There’s a lot of wastage - they refused to sell me a pack of 4 apples in a supermarket because 1 was slightly bruised. Threw away the whole pack!!!
When I was on the coach you could see the orchards - each apple was individually wrapped up in a cover whilst on the tree. I guess that helps keep pests away and things?
I've had a few really great dishes in Inner Mongolia (dated a Mongolian girl from there for years) but overall, yeah, and Mongolia proper was worse. Boiled sheep heads gets old fast. However we used to go out to eat these pancakes with lamb in them, holy fuck they were awesome.
if you can make it out to altai tavan bogd NP in the extreme northwest DO IT, it’s one of the most beautiful and culturally unique places on the planet
I did a long trek in the altai area starting at tacan bogd and every day felt like I was in a movie or a beautiful commercial the nature was incredible
Wife and I visited Mongolia for a couple days in 2016. Ulaanbataar was “home base” and wasn’t anything special (big, congested city) but the trip to Gorkhi Terelj National Park to ride the horses was one of our most memorable experiences. Highly recommend. On the way there we stopped at the Genghis Kahn monument. Absolutely stunning.
I have to say, OP is the first person I've heard say they don't like currywurst. I always introduce 2-3 people to it every time I go to Germany, and everyone who has tried it has loved it. I once traveled with a Brazilian girl who was a super picky eater, and that was basically the only thing she would eat in Germany. OP complains about the amount of sauce - but the whole point of the dish is the sauce! Like a lot of stands will give you a hard brötchen just to soak up any sauce you have left after eating the wurst. So to me that is a bizarre thing to complain about.
I remember a video about a guy trying the first currywurst in Germany that he sees... which is located just right out the airport doors. Unsurprisingly, he didn't emjoy it that much. Maybe OP did something similiar and tried it from a place locals wouldn't necessarily go to?
Idk, I've had pretty good currywurst at a stand across the street from the Stuttgart airport. I think it's mostly that OP had the wrong expectation if he thought the sausage was the feature part of the meal. The only time I've been truly disappointed by currywurst was when it was served with either too little sauce or sauce that didn't have the right balance of sweet/spicy (never run across either of these in Germany, but frequent occurrences at German festivals in the US). Most imbiss stands in Germany use the same store-bought curry ketchup, so there's not a lot of variation in my experience. The most disappointing currywurst I've had in Germany was because the fries that came with it were soggy.
Very true. First time I had I was in Berlin actually, and sat at a random place with some friends (it was a school trip).
I had no idea what currywurst was, so I wanted to try it, and I liked it very much, I try to eat it everytime I'm Germany.
I agree with the fish and chips, the problem is that it’s something of a lost art.
Back in the day fish and chips in the UK would be fried in dripping which would give it a succulent flavour, sometimes sauce was just a nice side bonus. But more and more I’m finding my favourite chippies are changing hands along with the recipe and they’re nowhere near as good as I remember, often very bland. One way to redeem it is to order a pot of mushy peas on the side. Also I only order from chippies in seaside towns or quiet villages, and rarely do I have fish and chips in a restaurant or pub.
Points I agree with:
Korean corndogs are underwhelming. Went on a food adventure with friends, and those things are so…. Bready.
I am Thai, and I never make or order Pad Thai, neither does my family. Pad Kee Mao aka drunken noodles is where it’s at as far as stir fried noodles go.
In Jerusalem, I had several people recommend a popular international bar/restaurant, so I look forward to all sorts of exciting cuisines. I sit down and order my drink, and then look at the food menu. Turned out to be a burger restaurant - I'm an American.
I was watching a travel show about Paris, and I remember a bakery owner saying that tourists are disappointed by how many pizza and burger places are around that particular area. He said, "French people don't want to just eat French food all the time!"
My father-in-law owns a restaurant in a small French village. The menu changes daily, but the one constant is their burger. To be fair, it's the best burger I've ever had in my life 🤷♀️
I used to be good friends with a guy who owned a fine French restaurant in the US. He added a bistro style burger and it became his best selling item. Even Americans want to eat American food when they go to French restaurants apparently.
I had a couple burgers at French places when I was in Paris a couple weeks ago and they were all really good. Basically, if it's a good restaurant, they're going to be able to nail something simple like a burger, and sometimes that's exactly what I needed after a day of sight-seeing
I've eaten all kinds of non-Austrian foods in Vienna - Hungarian, Portuguese, Lebanese, Vietnamese, you name it! - and it has all been pretty decent. I got nachos at some "Tex Mex" place and nearly threw up.
I don't know what it is about Mexican that causes them to ruin it so badly.
Not sure why Mexican food is so elusive outside the Americas. TexMex even more so but that makes a bit more sense as a regional variant. Even in the US you can get some terrible places but they’re still better than I’ve had in my meager Europe travels.
> In Jerusalem, I had several people recommend a popular international bar/restaurant, so I look forward to all sorts of
I travel a lot to Asia for work (China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam etc). Nothing I dread more than being taken out for "Western food" by a supplier with a big excited smile on their face. Unless you are in a top tier city (KL, Taipei, Guangzhou etc) you can guarantee it will be 5/10 at absolute best. Just take me to the local hole in the wall lol!
I'm an American who was recently in Vietnam, and employees at almost every restaurant I visited would immediately turn the menu pages to the western section when I entered. Like, I can get a better burger with 100 more customization options any day of the week at home, no thanks. Send in the local food!
A lot of these are not as much about the taste, but more about the folklore and the experience. Ofcourse a hotdog from a street vendor won't be good, it's designed to be as cheap and easy to make as possible. It's the charm and history that goes behind it that make it worth the experience to me.
My husband and I went to Morocco and loved everything about it…except for the food! Don’t get me wrong it’s tastes alright but boy do you get sick of tagine and cous cous!
Never ate them in Morocco, but I'm French and there are many tagine restaurants in France. Every tagine I've tried in France was very flavorful... It's actually one of my favorite foods.
I'm surprised by this comment. Are tagines in Morocco worse?
I had the same experience.
I think it comes down to getting shit tier tourist tagines. The ones they make at home and for parties / weddings are most likely much better.
As a vegetarian, we always ordered tagine in Morocco without meat, so I thought it only tasted super bland because it was lacking the meat. I can't believe others feel this way too. The best meal we ate on the whole trip was at a Syrian/Lebanese cuisine restaurant in Rabat.
P.S. The fact that nearly every establishment handed us a bs bill with a bunch of items we never ordered just added to the distaste.
Man, I had tagine for every dinner and almost every lunch in Morocco, and they were all bangin! I was getting a bit bored of it by the end (~10 days), but it tasted amazing every time. I think it helped that our drivers were also our cooks, so they were cooking for themselves, too.
[Here's an Imgur album of a few of our lunches.](https://imgur.com/a/WMothSO)
Really?? Maybe you didn't order well? Every chicken tagine I had was amazing and zesty with the lemons and olives and spices. And the tomato based meatball ones were equally flavourful and tender. Mmmmmm.
I’ve never heard anyone recommend eating pad Thai form Khao San Road or even going to Khao San Road. It’s known as a tourist trap.
I LOVED Balik Ekmek. It was one of my favourite meals I had in Istanbul. Maybe you had it at a not so great one? There were line ups at the street stalls I went to. So much flavour in those sandwiches.
I was disappointed with Chicago deep dish pizza. It’s more dough than anything. All you need it’s one slice because one is the equivalent of 3 regular slices.
Barbados - lovely island, that doesn't produce much at all anymore when it comes to food. It's all imported, and, I am thinking ALDL/LIDL/Dollar general levels of quality, poor folks. And, it's super epxensive. Bacon is considered a luxury item by the people I got to know.. Didn't really read up on it, but thought it would be a fantastic tropical island to visit with excellent seafood. Mmm, yeah, no. Best thing are the locals fish fries, and flying fish. Pretty much everything else has been shipped in. :\
I agree with this, was a wonderful spot. But, probably not visited by most. Also, no, all the shellfish is imported.
The flying fish is local and reaaaaally good. Pretty much everything else is frozen and imported. Spent three hours there to talk to the chefs and mongers.
I love seafood and pretty much travell to a location nowadays if they have excellent stuff
PM for the worlds best seafood location. :)
Netherlands: I liked very little of the food I've eaten in Dutch cities, and especially the fact that most of the food I found wasn't Dutch.
In Amsterdam and Rotterdam for example there are tons of international or foreign places. Even outside the city centre. It was underwhelming to find out that the Dutch cuisine is very limited. On the other hand, lots of great breweries.
And the country is amazing!
My partner's dad - who can be a bit of an oddball at the best of times - has been wanting us to do a "family vacation" (him his partner, us and our daughter and my bro in law and his kids) for a while. He even offered to cover all the kids which is nice of him.
However he wants to go to an all-inclusive, in Cuba, in July. Wtf man. Cannot think of anything I'd rather do less tbh. Food is terrible on the resorts, and it will be like 43C. I'm pleading with my partner to try and get us to just rent a cottage for a few days instead.
For me, the food was more uneven. I had some really great meals, and some really mediocre ones. Though one thing remained constant: the bread was incredible and anything served on it was elevated ten-fold.
I cracked so hard with all these strong opinions, I'm Indonesian myself, I'm glad you enjoyed our food!
By the way, just to let you know that when we mention 'Bakso', we're referring to the entire dish with the broth and noodle/vermicelli, not just the meatballs in itself.
I've been to Netherlands too, your Fish with Hollandaise Sauce is really really good, I didn't stay that long, I wish I can go there again to fully immerse the food and the people. Any restaurants/dishes you recommend?
Edit: It was fish with hollandaise sauce (not fish and chip) I just checked my travel photos.
If you go for Dutch food, try Hap hmm in Amsterdam. Its more of a cantine than a restaurant, but the people are nice and the food tastes like homemade food. I will say though as a local, that I find eating out in the Netherlands is expensive and often not worth the price.
Egypt honestly was disappointing. I’ve been all over the middle east (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine/Israel, Jordan, turkey, Egypt) and it was definitely at the bottom of the list. It’s odd because it’s always been a breadbasket of the region but the cuisine was relatively dull. It’s also been absolutely taken over by western fast food chains (Jordan too) so it can actually be kinda hard to find a good local place. Lebanon and Syria (and Palestine in a close third) have absolutely insane food though. So fucking good. Much respect to Egypt, but I couldn’t find anything exciting (experience limited to Cairo).
I got a cacio e pepe in Rome that wasn't very well prepared, with the sauce separated. To make things worse, the guy right next to me was served a perfect and scrumptious-looking cacio e pepe, although he was was apparently uber-Roman because he had a big shoulder tattoo with "SPQR" wrapped around the Colosseum. Maybe that's what it took to get a decent C e P there.
Not the same but when I was in Naples we must have looked like dumb tourists (in this case we were) and ordered a mozzarella. The waiter asked if we wanted two, making it seem like one was not enough. She then brought out two huge mozzarella balls and then we got charged 26 euro for the two of them. We were definitely scammed but it was honestly kind of funny so we just went with it.
All that to say sometimes I think the Italians are just fucking with us
I lived in Madrid for years and was never a fan of tortilla de patatas (and this used to offend the Spaniards greatly when I’d say it’s not my favourite 😅). My mum attempted to make it once we left Spub and hers was amazing - it quickly became a favourite of mine and I make it now too lol.
You kinda have to see it as just sine home cooked meal and nothing special. My ex from there taught me how to cook it and it was nice. I wouldn't specifically order it at a restaurant if I'd ever go back thete, but it's also not really at the top of Spanish cuisine recommendations.
My best paella meal was in Barcelona, where the chef and guide took us to La Boqueria Market and then back to his apartment where we to cooked seafood paella together. It was the best, and honestly no paella I’ve had in Catalonia has been as good
I am not American. Seeing these things in the movies kinda made it somewhat iconic for me. So my first time in NYC I happily tried one. Yeah, I found out the hard way. I enjoyed many other foods in the US though. The best pasta I ever had was actually in San Francisco, but I try not to tell that to my Italian friends...
Chicago Hot Dogs are actually legit.
There use to be a dude in Denver called Biker Jim who had a Cart where he served exotic meat sausages on a bun, deer, rattle snaked, elk, Ostrich.
Bourdain hung out with him
Those were awesome
He now has his own place unless its closed.
Just recently flew through Chicago, even the hot dogs at the airport were delicious. I had an Italian beef sandwich on my way back through at the Billygoat Tavern at the airport. Very good.
My husband and I went to a Chinese restaurant in Bologna. We’re American and never ever has a Chinese restaurant in the USA ever had a commercial or the need to advertise because Americans love American Chinese food. To say it was a sad experience in Bologna is a understatement.
This is the problem with things that are hyped up. Usually they are good in their own right but in the context of what makes them good… quality convenience price nostalgia. But taken out of context they are just food. People rave about their nostalgic experience with some random street food when in reality they are nostalgic for the experience it brought with it.
NYC hot dogs are hyped up because every nyc cop show has some detective grabbing a hot dog and a blue cup of coffee while that race to their car to solve the crime. This isn’t because the hot dog is good, it’s because it’s literally on every corner ready in 30 seconds and costs (at least it did/should) some small pocket cash.
Not to mention the fact that food and the talent to create the food is so widely distributed across the world that you can get good or even better replicas elsewhere because that chef is trying to perfect a technique with better products and technology then the street vendor
I went to eat Rijsttafel in Amsterdam the last time I visited and it was the most underwhelming and expensive meal of my trip. Wish I had read this before I bothered.
Highly recommend Chinese hot pot or the pickled herring if you want a unique food experience in the Netherlands
I didn't mind them, they just weren't the hype. We stopped at a bunch of places for food but always doubled back to markets to get snacks and the costs weren't bad at all
Spain: I found most dishes to be super basic, oily and/or salty. People hyped up things such as pan con tomate (it's nice, but not a revelation).
Sri Lanka: the curries weren't particularly special compared to ones elsewhere.
Japan: takoyaki. Have had it so many times and still get tempted to buy it, but it just doesn't do it for me.
US: savoury dishes tasting sweet
Just in case, there's a dispute between the Ruhr area and Berlin to who is the really currywurst origin. I must say that the currywurst I had in Wurst Willi in Dortmund is much better than anything I tried in Berlin the around 10 times I've been there.. (however, the key of the currywurst is a good sauce, the sausage is just a normal sausage lol). It's just fast food nothing more
I've always wanted to eat a NY slice while in NYC. The slices I had there were tasteless cardboard, burnt crust, with gooey cheese and watery sauce. New Haven apizza set the standard for me for American pizza.
Any Neapolitan pizza outside of Naples is just not going to come close to what you can find in Napoli. I've searched and never found one anywhere that comes close.
I found some enjoyment in NYC slices. I think a part of it is doing a little on the ground research especially for comfort foods. I sat down at a bar on night one and chatted with a guy and simply asked what I should be grading the slices on. "flop", "not overly greased but there is a fine line", "freshly made so the cheese still has some gooeyness to it" were some of the things I was told to keep an eye out for. I am not a fan of barstool sports content but I would say if you watch three of portnays pizza videos from NYC you can know what the things are you should be looking for.
Pastel de nata from Belem, Portugal. The one from Belem are meant to be THE spot to get them from and honestly I liked a couple spots in Lisbon better. In all I think I tried 6 different bakeries. Belem was like 3rd or 4th.
idk where OP is from, but fish and chips in the US has plenty of flavor from the fish and breading, it's not just a sauce delivery mechanism. I would be surprised and disappointed by that too.
Idk. It’s hard to agree about the sushi. Maybe it’s because I’m Japanese but there’s just something inherently different about sushi in Japan vs the US for me. I can understand what you and OP are saying though
Honestly, maybe these people aren't too discerning about their sushi. Honest to goodness, the unexciting sushi places in the suburbs in Tokyo were MILES higher quality than any fancy restaurant I had back home. Especially because of the wasabi, real wasabi is hard and expensive to find outside of Japan. And it was so absurdly cheap too, I remember grabbing plates and plates and plates for three people and expecting a USD$300 bill, and it ended up being USD$42.
This is similar to my takeaway from having a good amount of sushi in Japan. I live in San Francisco and have pretty amazing sushi regularly. I’ve had everything from boats to insanely expensive omakase experiences. The thing that really impressed me in Japan was we were waiting for a train in Kanazawa. Had some time to kill, so we went to the sushi restaurant in the train station. It was on par with what is considered very good sushi in SF. And yeah the price was surprisingly low.
I don't get it either. I absolutely loved the sushi when I was in Japan, especially the fatty tuna belly (toro).
I've only had really good sushi in a handful of places in the UK, and the chefs were all from or trained in Japan.
The sushi in Japan is much simpler than "Americanized" sushi that I have had elsewhere in the world. They don't have all the crazy sauces, toppings, fillings, etc. But to me that's the beauty - there's no distraction from the truly fantastic quality of fish, the way it melts in your mouth, and you can focus on the subtleties of the flavors of the different types of fish. The faint citrus of the yellowtail, the sweetness of the scallop, etc.
I have never had sushi quite that quality anywhere in the US - which is unsurprising, since any sushi you get in the US must be flash frozen before serving raw in order to kill any parasites. So any sushi you get in the US, even from the fanciest restaurants, is previously frozen. In Japan, they don't do this, and they just accept that you will probably get parasites - to the point where they do regular intestinal parasite checks on school age children! After visiting, I understand why - the fresh raw fish is another level.
For me it was Egypt and Sinai. The food was so underwhelming. I try to eat the food of the place I'm in when I'm traveling but Egypt was the one place I found myself at Pizza Hut a few times. Also the refrigeration and preservation of the food seemed a little dubious to me.
Egypt. The fresh guava juice was amazing, and I loved their dolma with tomatoes. However, the rest of the food I had there was ok but not anywhere as good as what I ate in Turkey, Morocco, or Israel.
I also got sick from eating the pigeon.
>Perhaps I have watched too many K-drama Lol. In my experience corndogs are just a garbage food Koreans grab when they don't have time for anything better, and the tteokbokki cart is too far away. It's like grabbing a donut from Dunkin or Timmies.
So are the NYC hotdogs.
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This is the way. And get the juice. Always get a juice!
Yup. On the go and don’t want to stop? Hot dog cart just waiting for you. But it’s more a snack and I hope nobody considers it a meal.
Please don't meal shame me.
They don’t call em’ “dirty water dogs” for no reason!!
Some would argue the same about the halal food carts, but I still think about how tasty those were and it's been almost 20 years since I've had 'em.
It’s funny bc I was just about to comment to recommend halal cart over hot dogs for tourists to NYC. The big difference to me is that the halal cart is more unique to NYC to me. You can get a hot dog anywhere, but it’s far less common to be able to get a chicken or lamb over rice platter outside the New York metro area.
Odeng never made me say, “Oh, dang!” But i still got odeng and chicken livers after most nights out with friends.
I’ve never had ttekbokki in my life and I keep seeing it all over tiktok and I have been craving it so bad all week. Then I come to Reddit and see your comment that mentions ttekbokki. I’m taking it as a sign to get some this weekend !!
I kept seeing it in K-Dramas so went to our local Asian store and got one of those cups of ttekbokki. Holy hell was it hot (spicy)! I like spicy food but this was Colon Blow hot!
I can only handle medium spice so maybe it’s not for me lol !
They have ones that are just sweet and only a little spicy, just gotta look at the package and make sure it says sweet or sweet and spicy.
New Yorker here ; street hot dogs are just meant for quick food, they're not meant to be amazing
Yo the Papaya Dog on 6th Ave would beg to differ
That's a proper hot dog spot though I mean the random halal carts that happen to sell hot dogs
ah yeah you're right then. Those generally are meh.
As a New Yorker as well never once have I actually eaten one. If you want an actually iconic street food you have to get a dollar slice
There’s a reason we call them water dogs I suppose… not the most appetizing name haha
I think OP might be the only person in history to have expected anything beyond simple sustenance there. I wonder if they went into a 24 hour dinner expecting fresh barista brewed artisan coffee from the refills.
How would OP have known that before going there, though? Many other countries have jaw-droppingly amazing street food, it stands to reason that the legendary NYC hot dogs have a flavor proportional to their reputation.
> it stands to reason that the legendary NYC hot dogs have a flavor proportional to their reputation. Does it? They are an icon in films/TV set in NYC, but even in Hollywood reality I can't recall anyone ever actually bitting into them with delight. They are just something that tired cops or lawyers quickly pick up on their 6th hour of overtime whilst trying to think of a way to catch the bad guys. I didn't grow up in the USA either and I wouldn't have expected anything but stomach filling from them.
Maybe it's cultural, maybe my country just idolizes America more than yours. But over the years I've heard a lot of people recommend having a hot dog in a stand and when I dated a guy from New York he was horrified I'd never tried one before and insisted I did. No one is under the impression that they're 'fancy', but that the flavor is superior to any hot dog you can make at home, well, sure. For example, the 'grab and go quick sustenance' food we have in Berlin are doners. I've had a lot of doners in a lot of different countries, and even the ones in Turkey are absolute trash compared to the ones in Berlin. It's really a huge difference. When I went to Copenhagen and grabbed a quick hotdog, I was blown away by how rich and flavorful the meat was, the crispy outside, the softness yet firmness of the bread. I expected the same from NYC and also didn't get it.
Its not really a "omg the hotdogs are amazing" reaction of horror and more of a "this is a common rite of passage when you come here" reaction of horror. From new york myself and i tell every person visiting to leave those nasty ass things alone, its just hyped up on tv for no reason.
It’s not “no reason.” Street dogs are cinematic short-hand for “this character is busy.”
Berlin doners hit on another level
Had one for dinner last night after some drinks. Always hits
Its not really a "omg the hotdogs are amazing" reaction of horror and more of a "this is a common rite of passage when you come here" reaction of horror. From new york myself and i tell every person visiting to leave those nasty ass things alone, its just hyped up on tv for no reason.
To be fair, NYC also has jaw dropping amazing street food, as long as you're going to Brooklyn for tacos instead of hanging out in tourist central where people are just desperate to get a quick bite after their Broadway shows. It's not much of a secret that there is very little great food around midtown, and the Olive Garden (?) and other chains around Times Square are a running joke among basically everyone who has been to NYC more than two times.
Does it even have a reputation? I grew up here all my life and it’s never mentioned or eaten. Just go get a pizza, that what New Yorkers actually eat on the go. I think the hot dogs are for tourists.
Los Angeles hot dog vendors are pretty darn close to amazing....ok, maybe not amazing....but damn, they are good. Grilled, with bacon and onions....just had one prior to the USC game.
The only cities in the US where you should seek out hot dogs are LA and Chicago. I lived in LA for 5 years and I miss the danger dogs. And it's not just with bacon, the bacon is wrapped around the hot dog and cooked together. The biggest myth about LA is that it's only healthy food. Tacos, danger dogs, In-N-Out, donuts...that city will raise your cholesterol without even trying.
Same for fish & chips and other items on the list, I don’t know what OP expected from those foods. I understand they are not great but “underwhelming” meant he had some expectations.
And fish and chips has salt and vinegar on and usually mushy peas and tartare sauce. It's like saying oh this pizza from Naples is a bit shit, its bland unless they put cheese and tomato sauce on it
In all honesty, I must admit I like mushy peas.
But the point of fish and chips *is* to have sauces/salt and vinegar.
For me the best part of fish and chips is chip shop chips. They are a specific kind of chip that you don’t get anywhere else! I think the beauty of a lot of British food it that its comfort food and not “getting” that is why we get ripped on so for for shit food. We aren’t winning any awards for beautiful sun-kissed veg, ours is tied to pub culture which is very much more than just about the food. Unfortunately old fashioned fish and chip shops where you can eat in for dinner are in decline where I’m at but they’re great!!!
I am Scottish so perhaps biased, but I just don't really understand why British food gets knocked so much. Like *good* fish and chips is amazing. A *good* steak and kidney pie is amazing. Good chicken balmoral (chicken stuffed with haggis, usually served with whisky sauce) is amazing. Curry in Glasgow is amazing. Go to Rugby Park (home of Kilmarnock FC) and get one of their famous Scotch pies. Its fucking amazing. The rest of the world is just wrong in my opinion - and I say that as a MASSIVE foodie who literally bases trips around food.
THANK YOU! I’m English living in NY and people constantly love telling me that our food is shit. And it’s like ok well I really like it it’s comforting and filling and makes me happy. A full English? Sunday roast? A really good scotch egg?! Also a massive foodie and I think people who come to the U.K. to try our food just aren’t going to the right places.
It’s not that there aren’t good British dishes, it’s that there’s a (at least perceived) lack of variety in flavor profiles. Comforting and filling it may be, but all of the foods you listed are some variation on rich, salty, meaty. British food stereotypically seems, for lack of a better descriptor, *brown*. The prototypical traditional British dish is some sort of brown fried or roasted meat, often encased in a brown pastry crust, sometimes accompanied by a brown sauce or gravy.
I’m American and I agree. I thought the food was pretty great there myself, maybe I just got lucky? The breakfasts were awesome and that cheese and pickle sandwich for lunch was something else, I wish they were more popular here.
I believe this person got fish and chips from the wrong place. When I had it in London I found a quality place and it was outstanding
The quality can vary dramatically. I went to one in Loughborough recently called Batter Days and it was delicious. Really good beer batter.
Exactly! It would be like having pizza without the cheese. The sauces are part of the dish
As a Thai, you're right about Khao San Road being a scam. Not just the Pad Thai, but alot of street food there are mostly tourist-trap tier The only people I've heard going there are all tourists; never heard a local willingly wanting to go there unless with foreign tourists.
It's a ridiculous place but it can be a hell of a lot of fun. I don't go there for the food though.
I know why you go there 🏓
Lol, I think the shows aren't actually on the strip though right? There are guys who'll take you to them but they're all a little ways away. That's what I, uh, heard from somebody I mean
My first meal in Thailand was curry on Khao San road. I was so disappointed.
I first went there 25 or so years ago and it was wild then. There was a pub in an alleyway going towards so i rambuttro called Suzy Pub that was always packed with young Thai students. It was great. Hardly any backpackers went in for some reason and I used to have some great nights in there. Live music etc. I’ve been back to kohsahn loads of times over the years and it changed a lot and became not too interesting a place to me but I see the appeal to younger backpackers on a first trip wanting something exotic feeling but familiar.
That's about when I used to hang out there. It felt like the wild west. The whole street was like the Star Wars cantina. I'd sta at the D&D Hotel and eat at some.indian place that was on a second floor that had internet.
The D&D god yeah I remember that. I used to stay in J and Joes just down the back alleys. It was an old Thai teak house converted into a guesthouse. Don’t see many of them any more. Wooden floors, old creaking ceiling fans. It was another time. I remember playing pool with a policeman who had his gun laying on the bar. His radio went off with excited chatter in Thai and he turned it off to concentrate on his shot.
I’m going to BKK next week. Where should I go for street food that locals patronize?
It's impossible to recommend an area for street food because it's so ubiquitous. You're going to see locals eating street food EVERYWHERE except for Khao San Road. Just get out of the tourist zone, find a place with a bunch of locals eating and order whatever the vendor sells. If you want some proper direction, check out Mark Wiens on YouTube. His entire premise is finding amazing food in Thailand. I ate at a couple of the places he's been to in Chinatown and they were incredible.
I was on Khao San Road for Songkran and it was packed with Thais.
Your experience with foods depends on the specific places you get them. The fact that fish and chips is a common dish in the UK and sushi is common in Japan does not mean every restaurant in the country that serves them will have equal quality. And street foods like NYC hot dogs and balik ekmek in Turkey aren’t meant to be amazing cuisine; they’re basic grab-and-go foods (although I’d argue that eating them while walking through Manhattan or along the Istanbul waterfront makes them pretty memorable). Sushi in particular is an art form in Japan, and the best sushi chefs create an experience that blows away anything you could get at home, no matter how common sushi restaurants might be.
Exactly. OP doesn’t say whether they went to kaiten all you can eat or to an Edo style omakase. The experience will vary wildly. I’ve had good sushi in Japan, and I’ve had incredible sushi experiences. You get what you pay for.
Definitely! Simililar to the point I was going to make. It also seems like OP has missed the point with a lot of these foods and has perhaps taken them out of the context and immersive experience they're eaten in.
Agreed with this. My area has a lot of good sushi options due to being next to the ocean and having Japanese immigrants being here for generations. Even though it’s widely available here and I do omakase every 1-2 months, sushi is still one of the things I’m most excited for in Japan. I can’t wait to try all the highest quality fish from dedicated sushi chefs for a fraction of the cost here.
Sushi is something that goes from awful 7-11 sushi to sushi that was so good that it literally made me cry. It's one of those foods where the quality of the ingredients and craftsmanship matters a _lot_.
Definitely a great point.
Yes I wholeheartedly agree
Currywurst after a night of drinking is elite. I have fond memories of stuffing my face on a snowy night in Berlin. Context is everything with fast food.
I think a lot of the foods mentioned here hit different after you've been out tying one on. (Hot dogs for example)
pizza from “the best” pizzeria in napoli… wasn’t much better than pizza from anywhere else in napoli
I definitely agree that Napoli was just all really good food. The 3 euro folding pizza was the best one I had. Maybe cause I was slightly buzzed but still
I feel that nowadays the term "best" is partially made because of social media. Which is not a good thing.
every tourist wants to know what “the best” is so they can have that and not suffer FOMO from their choices… so a “best” has to be invented for them whether it exists or not
I was in Bali with some friends earlier this year, they spent a lot of time trying to find places that were highly rated by tourists, we went out of our way to get to them... They were all basically the same as any other place we walked into.
I'm not a ludopath, but I'd bet you're either talking about Sorbillo or Da Michele. Both are good obviously, but not worth the waiting line, and far from being an absolute best (which I'd say, there's not). Napoli is the birthplace and the capital of pizza, you can find it good in many places (and even cheaper), so yeah, your comment is completely correct.
Da Michele was like €4,50 a pie. I stayed next door and got in like like 10 mins before they opened and was immediately seated. If you're able to do that its 100% worth it, but I do not get why people stand in line for hours when there's like 3 other fantastic pizza places in the same block.
Well, pizza from anywhere in Napoli tends to be great anyways so...
If you’re talking about Da Michele, I would beg to differ. I loved it. I still daydream about it but I love pizza and it’s the best I’ve ever had. ETA: We waited for 30 mins or so for it too and I would do it again.
Mongolia. Anything and everything in terms food. Beautiful country though.
When I visited my friend there this spring, she said that after a couple meals of traditional Mongolian food I'd be over it. She was right. The Nomads restaurant elevates it to be more restaurant-style by adding things like pickled onions, etc, which makes it have more flavor but even then it's just heavy. I was craving vegetables and fruit, which I came to learn are expensive at the grocery store (about $1 USD *per banana*) Edit: Truthfully, though, I doubt many foreigners would know offhand what traditional Mongolian food is. They probably just think of Mongolian barbecue (which I personally never encountered there).
I mean it's one banana, what could it cost $10? /j
LOL you should try buying fruit in Japan - it’ll bankrupt you (though will be the most aesthetically pleasing fruit you’ll ever see)
I still think about some imported Japanese grapes I ate in Taiwan a few years ago. They were like $40 USD per bunch and were a welcome gift from a family friend. I'd never been given fruit as a gift before so that seemed charming but a little odd to me, but then I ate one of the ginormous grapes and it was seriously the most intensely delicious grape flavor I've ever experienced in a real fruit. It was incredible. I would pay $40 to eat them again for sure.
Omg are those the gigantic ones? I never got to try those
Yes they were huge!! Like it took multiple bites to eat one grape. She gave us both a green bunch and a purple bunch, and each night at dessert we'd each eat 2 grapes, one of each color. Honestly it was an amazing and very memorable gift lol
How DO they have such good fruit?? It was absolutely bonkers how perfect all the fuit I had there was.
Japan doesn't have a lot of good land to farm on. Because of that, they know they won't be able to feed their own population or be able to influence prices on the global market. Thus, they decided to do quality over quantity. Most farms are dedicated to producing a singular product at the best of their ability.
Perfect looking but not the tastiest imho! There’s a lot of wastage - they refused to sell me a pack of 4 apples in a supermarket because 1 was slightly bruised. Threw away the whole pack!!! When I was on the coach you could see the orchards - each apple was individually wrapped up in a cover whilst on the tree. I guess that helps keep pests away and things?
I've had a few really great dishes in Inner Mongolia (dated a Mongolian girl from there for years) but overall, yeah, and Mongolia proper was worse. Boiled sheep heads gets old fast. However we used to go out to eat these pancakes with lamb in them, holy fuck they were awesome.
Man if you could me any pointers about Mongolia I’d appreciate it. I don’t see it get mentioned a lot. It’s on my list.
if you can make it out to altai tavan bogd NP in the extreme northwest DO IT, it’s one of the most beautiful and culturally unique places on the planet
I did a long trek in the altai area starting at tacan bogd and every day felt like I was in a movie or a beautiful commercial the nature was incredible
Wife and I visited Mongolia for a couple days in 2016. Ulaanbataar was “home base” and wasn’t anything special (big, congested city) but the trip to Gorkhi Terelj National Park to ride the horses was one of our most memorable experiences. Highly recommend. On the way there we stopped at the Genghis Kahn monument. Absolutely stunning.
Did you have any expectations at all to begin with?
I just left Münster Germany and a friend I made told me about Currywurst. I actually liked it
I have to say, OP is the first person I've heard say they don't like currywurst. I always introduce 2-3 people to it every time I go to Germany, and everyone who has tried it has loved it. I once traveled with a Brazilian girl who was a super picky eater, and that was basically the only thing she would eat in Germany. OP complains about the amount of sauce - but the whole point of the dish is the sauce! Like a lot of stands will give you a hard brötchen just to soak up any sauce you have left after eating the wurst. So to me that is a bizarre thing to complain about.
I remember a video about a guy trying the first currywurst in Germany that he sees... which is located just right out the airport doors. Unsurprisingly, he didn't emjoy it that much. Maybe OP did something similiar and tried it from a place locals wouldn't necessarily go to?
Idk, I've had pretty good currywurst at a stand across the street from the Stuttgart airport. I think it's mostly that OP had the wrong expectation if he thought the sausage was the feature part of the meal. The only time I've been truly disappointed by currywurst was when it was served with either too little sauce or sauce that didn't have the right balance of sweet/spicy (never run across either of these in Germany, but frequent occurrences at German festivals in the US). Most imbiss stands in Germany use the same store-bought curry ketchup, so there's not a lot of variation in my experience. The most disappointing currywurst I've had in Germany was because the fries that came with it were soggy.
Very true. First time I had I was in Berlin actually, and sat at a random place with some friends (it was a school trip). I had no idea what currywurst was, so I wanted to try it, and I liked it very much, I try to eat it everytime I'm Germany.
I agree with the fish and chips, the problem is that it’s something of a lost art. Back in the day fish and chips in the UK would be fried in dripping which would give it a succulent flavour, sometimes sauce was just a nice side bonus. But more and more I’m finding my favourite chippies are changing hands along with the recipe and they’re nowhere near as good as I remember, often very bland. One way to redeem it is to order a pot of mushy peas on the side. Also I only order from chippies in seaside towns or quiet villages, and rarely do I have fish and chips in a restaurant or pub.
This explains why the fish and chips that I had in a small seaside town in North Wales was the best I ever had.
Howth, Ireland for me. Right on the water. All four of us got the fish and chips; all four of us cleared our plates
UK friends told me the only place to really get fish and chips was in a seaside town.
There are definitely still places that fry in beef dripping - you look for the ones that specifically say the chips are definitely not vegetarian!
Points I agree with: Korean corndogs are underwhelming. Went on a food adventure with friends, and those things are so…. Bready. I am Thai, and I never make or order Pad Thai, neither does my family. Pad Kee Mao aka drunken noodles is where it’s at as far as stir fried noodles go.
In Jerusalem, I had several people recommend a popular international bar/restaurant, so I look forward to all sorts of exciting cuisines. I sit down and order my drink, and then look at the food menu. Turned out to be a burger restaurant - I'm an American.
I was watching a travel show about Paris, and I remember a bakery owner saying that tourists are disappointed by how many pizza and burger places are around that particular area. He said, "French people don't want to just eat French food all the time!"
My father-in-law owns a restaurant in a small French village. The menu changes daily, but the one constant is their burger. To be fair, it's the best burger I've ever had in my life 🤷♀️
I used to be good friends with a guy who owned a fine French restaurant in the US. He added a bistro style burger and it became his best selling item. Even Americans want to eat American food when they go to French restaurants apparently.
I had a couple burgers at French places when I was in Paris a couple weeks ago and they were all really good. Basically, if it's a good restaurant, they're going to be able to nail something simple like a burger, and sometimes that's exactly what I needed after a day of sight-seeing
For sure, a bistro burger can be on point and delicious.
Some of the best pizza and Chinese I've ever had were in Paris. It's an international city.
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Texan expat living in Europe. Never, ever get Tex-Mex outside of Tx. Ever.
I still have memories of the "Mexican" I got in the UK years ago...admittedly, I knew it'd be questionable af. It just amused me, I guess.
I've eaten all kinds of non-Austrian foods in Vienna - Hungarian, Portuguese, Lebanese, Vietnamese, you name it! - and it has all been pretty decent. I got nachos at some "Tex Mex" place and nearly threw up. I don't know what it is about Mexican that causes them to ruin it so badly.
Not sure why Mexican food is so elusive outside the Americas. TexMex even more so but that makes a bit more sense as a regional variant. Even in the US you can get some terrible places but they’re still better than I’ve had in my meager Europe travels.
> In Jerusalem, I had several people recommend a popular international bar/restaurant, so I look forward to all sorts of I travel a lot to Asia for work (China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam etc). Nothing I dread more than being taken out for "Western food" by a supplier with a big excited smile on their face. Unless you are in a top tier city (KL, Taipei, Guangzhou etc) you can guarantee it will be 5/10 at absolute best. Just take me to the local hole in the wall lol!
A hotel in Rome kept telling us about the UK pubs and burger joints. I didn't come to Europe just to eat steak and chips or something.
I'm an American who was recently in Vietnam, and employees at almost every restaurant I visited would immediately turn the menu pages to the western section when I entered. Like, I can get a better burger with 100 more customization options any day of the week at home, no thanks. Send in the local food!
A lot of these are not as much about the taste, but more about the folklore and the experience. Ofcourse a hotdog from a street vendor won't be good, it's designed to be as cheap and easy to make as possible. It's the charm and history that goes behind it that make it worth the experience to me.
Singapore Chilli Crab. It can be good, but is generally too sweet from the ketchup and just unbalanced. Give me Black Pepper Crab any day.
I love both but black pepper crab is the clear winner
Black pepper crab or salt pepper crab all the way!
Tagines in Morocco. When you read about this dish, it sounds so seductive. The reality is blandness and disappointment
My husband and I went to Morocco and loved everything about it…except for the food! Don’t get me wrong it’s tastes alright but boy do you get sick of tagine and cous cous!
Yeah, I find the pastries to be great and everything else pretty meh and bland. They have all these great spices on display… WHERE DO THEY GO??
Never ate them in Morocco, but I'm French and there are many tagine restaurants in France. Every tagine I've tried in France was very flavorful... It's actually one of my favorite foods. I'm surprised by this comment. Are tagines in Morocco worse?
This stuns me too. Similarly in the US (or at least here in SF), even when tajines aren't good, they are never bland. I wonder what the difference is.
I had the same experience. I think it comes down to getting shit tier tourist tagines. The ones they make at home and for parties / weddings are most likely much better.
As a vegetarian, we always ordered tagine in Morocco without meat, so I thought it only tasted super bland because it was lacking the meat. I can't believe others feel this way too. The best meal we ate on the whole trip was at a Syrian/Lebanese cuisine restaurant in Rabat. P.S. The fact that nearly every establishment handed us a bs bill with a bunch of items we never ordered just added to the distaste.
Man, I had tagine for every dinner and almost every lunch in Morocco, and they were all bangin! I was getting a bit bored of it by the end (~10 days), but it tasted amazing every time. I think it helped that our drivers were also our cooks, so they were cooking for themselves, too. [Here's an Imgur album of a few of our lunches.](https://imgur.com/a/WMothSO)
Really?? Maybe you didn't order well? Every chicken tagine I had was amazing and zesty with the lemons and olives and spices. And the tomato based meatball ones were equally flavourful and tender. Mmmmmm.
I’ve never heard anyone recommend eating pad Thai form Khao San Road or even going to Khao San Road. It’s known as a tourist trap. I LOVED Balik Ekmek. It was one of my favourite meals I had in Istanbul. Maybe you had it at a not so great one? There were line ups at the street stalls I went to. So much flavour in those sandwiches. I was disappointed with Chicago deep dish pizza. It’s more dough than anything. All you need it’s one slice because one is the equivalent of 3 regular slices.
Barbados - lovely island, that doesn't produce much at all anymore when it comes to food. It's all imported, and, I am thinking ALDL/LIDL/Dollar general levels of quality, poor folks. And, it's super epxensive. Bacon is considered a luxury item by the people I got to know.. Didn't really read up on it, but thought it would be a fantastic tropical island to visit with excellent seafood. Mmm, yeah, no. Best thing are the locals fish fries, and flying fish. Pretty much everything else has been shipped in. :\
The seafood at Oistins is excellent, it’s taken straight from the fisherman and cooked by locals.
I agree with this, was a wonderful spot. But, probably not visited by most. Also, no, all the shellfish is imported. The flying fish is local and reaaaaally good. Pretty much everything else is frozen and imported. Spent three hours there to talk to the chefs and mongers. I love seafood and pretty much travell to a location nowadays if they have excellent stuff PM for the worlds best seafood location. :)
Netherlands: I liked very little of the food I've eaten in Dutch cities, and especially the fact that most of the food I found wasn't Dutch. In Amsterdam and Rotterdam for example there are tons of international or foreign places. Even outside the city centre. It was underwhelming to find out that the Dutch cuisine is very limited. On the other hand, lots of great breweries. And the country is amazing!
Cuba. Terrible food but its not their fault.
Agreed but ideally, with bottles of Havana Club going for $4, you don't notice
I drank SO MUCH rum when I was there, it's so cheap and good.
$10 lobsters though.
My partner's dad - who can be a bit of an oddball at the best of times - has been wanting us to do a "family vacation" (him his partner, us and our daughter and my bro in law and his kids) for a while. He even offered to cover all the kids which is nice of him. However he wants to go to an all-inclusive, in Cuba, in July. Wtf man. Cannot think of anything I'd rather do less tbh. Food is terrible on the resorts, and it will be like 43C. I'm pleading with my partner to try and get us to just rent a cottage for a few days instead.
For me, the food was more uneven. I had some really great meals, and some really mediocre ones. Though one thing remained constant: the bread was incredible and anything served on it was elevated ten-fold.
go to miami so you have can have good cuban food in a country that has you know...easily available water, food and electricity.
I cracked so hard with all these strong opinions, I'm Indonesian myself, I'm glad you enjoyed our food! By the way, just to let you know that when we mention 'Bakso', we're referring to the entire dish with the broth and noodle/vermicelli, not just the meatballs in itself. I've been to Netherlands too, your Fish with Hollandaise Sauce is really really good, I didn't stay that long, I wish I can go there again to fully immerse the food and the people. Any restaurants/dishes you recommend? Edit: It was fish with hollandaise sauce (not fish and chip) I just checked my travel photos.
If you go for Dutch food, try Hap hmm in Amsterdam. Its more of a cantine than a restaurant, but the people are nice and the food tastes like homemade food. I will say though as a local, that I find eating out in the Netherlands is expensive and often not worth the price.
Egypt honestly was disappointing. I’ve been all over the middle east (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine/Israel, Jordan, turkey, Egypt) and it was definitely at the bottom of the list. It’s odd because it’s always been a breadbasket of the region but the cuisine was relatively dull. It’s also been absolutely taken over by western fast food chains (Jordan too) so it can actually be kinda hard to find a good local place. Lebanon and Syria (and Palestine in a close third) have absolutely insane food though. So fucking good. Much respect to Egypt, but I couldn’t find anything exciting (experience limited to Cairo).
Red Lobster in Boise, ID. I told my wife, "how bad could it be?" Boy was I wrong.
New York Cart Dog had high expectations? It sits in dirty water waiting for someone so hungry they take the plunge.
I got a cacio e pepe in Rome that wasn't very well prepared, with the sauce separated. To make things worse, the guy right next to me was served a perfect and scrumptious-looking cacio e pepe, although he was was apparently uber-Roman because he had a big shoulder tattoo with "SPQR" wrapped around the Colosseum. Maybe that's what it took to get a decent C e P there.
Not the same but when I was in Naples we must have looked like dumb tourists (in this case we were) and ordered a mozzarella. The waiter asked if we wanted two, making it seem like one was not enough. She then brought out two huge mozzarella balls and then we got charged 26 euro for the two of them. We were definitely scammed but it was honestly kind of funny so we just went with it. All that to say sometimes I think the Italians are just fucking with us
Wait, you went to a restaurant just to order a mozzarella?
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I lived in Madrid for years and was never a fan of tortilla de patatas (and this used to offend the Spaniards greatly when I’d say it’s not my favourite 😅). My mum attempted to make it once we left Spub and hers was amazing - it quickly became a favourite of mine and I make it now too lol.
You kinda have to see it as just sine home cooked meal and nothing special. My ex from there taught me how to cook it and it was nice. I wouldn't specifically order it at a restaurant if I'd ever go back thete, but it's also not really at the top of Spanish cuisine recommendations.
Oh man. I adore tortilla, except when there’s too many flies on the one sitting on the counter.
every paella ive had in spain was somehow so bland! 😣
My best paella meal was in Barcelona, where the chef and guide took us to La Boqueria Market and then back to his apartment where we to cooked seafood paella together. It was the best, and honestly no paella I’ve had in Catalonia has been as good
Why would you have *any* expectation at all for a hot dog sold from a cart?
I am not American. Seeing these things in the movies kinda made it somewhat iconic for me. So my first time in NYC I happily tried one. Yeah, I found out the hard way. I enjoyed many other foods in the US though. The best pasta I ever had was actually in San Francisco, but I try not to tell that to my Italian friends...
Chicago Hot Dogs are actually legit. There use to be a dude in Denver called Biker Jim who had a Cart where he served exotic meat sausages on a bun, deer, rattle snaked, elk, Ostrich. Bourdain hung out with him Those were awesome He now has his own place unless its closed.
Just recently flew through Chicago, even the hot dogs at the airport were delicious. I had an Italian beef sandwich on my way back through at the Billygoat Tavern at the airport. Very good.
Do you remember where in SF? I’d be down to try it.
This was back in 2005 and I honestly do not remember the name of the place. A friend who lived in SF at the time brought me there.
One of the best NYC takeout options is Adel’s Halal. Try this next time you are in NYC.
Don't buy Chinese food in Ljubljana. Even if it looks right.
Chinese food in Europe is overall painfully mediocre.
My husband and I went to a Chinese restaurant in Bologna. We’re American and never ever has a Chinese restaurant in the USA ever had a commercial or the need to advertise because Americans love American Chinese food. To say it was a sad experience in Bologna is a understatement.
This is the problem with things that are hyped up. Usually they are good in their own right but in the context of what makes them good… quality convenience price nostalgia. But taken out of context they are just food. People rave about their nostalgic experience with some random street food when in reality they are nostalgic for the experience it brought with it. NYC hot dogs are hyped up because every nyc cop show has some detective grabbing a hot dog and a blue cup of coffee while that race to their car to solve the crime. This isn’t because the hot dog is good, it’s because it’s literally on every corner ready in 30 seconds and costs (at least it did/should) some small pocket cash. Not to mention the fact that food and the talent to create the food is so widely distributed across the world that you can get good or even better replicas elsewhere because that chef is trying to perfect a technique with better products and technology then the street vendor
Bakso is just, okay. Who would be hyping bakso when you have the entirety of Padang cuisine??
I went to eat Rijsttafel in Amsterdam the last time I visited and it was the most underwhelming and expensive meal of my trip. Wish I had read this before I bothered. Highly recommend Chinese hot pot or the pickled herring if you want a unique food experience in the Netherlands
The hotdogs in iceland. They were talked up so much but in the end... nothing out of the norm
I actually liked those. But then again, it is like the only affordable food option there...
I didn't mind them, they just weren't the hype. We stopped at a bunch of places for food but always doubled back to markets to get snacks and the costs weren't bad at all
I really liked Bæjarin’s Beztu!
Who's telling you that NYC dirty water dogs are a food experience worthy of being sought out by tourists?
Spain: I found most dishes to be super basic, oily and/or salty. People hyped up things such as pan con tomate (it's nice, but not a revelation). Sri Lanka: the curries weren't particularly special compared to ones elsewhere. Japan: takoyaki. Have had it so many times and still get tempted to buy it, but it just doesn't do it for me. US: savoury dishes tasting sweet
The difference between food in the south of Spain and in the north is very, very big.
The little stands and restaurants off of galata bridge but nearby sell fish wraps similar to balik ekmek but 10x better
Just in case, there's a dispute between the Ruhr area and Berlin to who is the really currywurst origin. I must say that the currywurst I had in Wurst Willi in Dortmund is much better than anything I tried in Berlin the around 10 times I've been there.. (however, the key of the currywurst is a good sauce, the sausage is just a normal sausage lol). It's just fast food nothing more
I've always wanted to eat a NY slice while in NYC. The slices I had there were tasteless cardboard, burnt crust, with gooey cheese and watery sauce. New Haven apizza set the standard for me for American pizza. Any Neapolitan pizza outside of Naples is just not going to come close to what you can find in Napoli. I've searched and never found one anywhere that comes close.
I found some enjoyment in NYC slices. I think a part of it is doing a little on the ground research especially for comfort foods. I sat down at a bar on night one and chatted with a guy and simply asked what I should be grading the slices on. "flop", "not overly greased but there is a fine line", "freshly made so the cheese still has some gooeyness to it" were some of the things I was told to keep an eye out for. I am not a fan of barstool sports content but I would say if you watch three of portnays pizza videos from NYC you can know what the things are you should be looking for.
Fish and chips are 100% better in the Netherlands than England. It had to be said.
Pastel de nata from Belem, Portugal. The one from Belem are meant to be THE spot to get them from and honestly I liked a couple spots in Lisbon better. In all I think I tried 6 different bakeries. Belem was like 3rd or 4th.
Such a strange thing to say about fish and chips. It’s like saying pasta is bland because you have to add salt and sauce on it
idk where OP is from, but fish and chips in the US has plenty of flavor from the fish and breading, it's not just a sauce delivery mechanism. I would be surprised and disappointed by that too.
Currywurst is Never a succulent sausage, it’s cheap
100% agree on sushi in Japan. Yeah it was amazing, but I was much more excited about the ramen
Idk. It’s hard to agree about the sushi. Maybe it’s because I’m Japanese but there’s just something inherently different about sushi in Japan vs the US for me. I can understand what you and OP are saying though
Honestly, maybe these people aren't too discerning about their sushi. Honest to goodness, the unexciting sushi places in the suburbs in Tokyo were MILES higher quality than any fancy restaurant I had back home. Especially because of the wasabi, real wasabi is hard and expensive to find outside of Japan. And it was so absurdly cheap too, I remember grabbing plates and plates and plates for three people and expecting a USD$300 bill, and it ended up being USD$42.
This is similar to my takeaway from having a good amount of sushi in Japan. I live in San Francisco and have pretty amazing sushi regularly. I’ve had everything from boats to insanely expensive omakase experiences. The thing that really impressed me in Japan was we were waiting for a train in Kanazawa. Had some time to kill, so we went to the sushi restaurant in the train station. It was on par with what is considered very good sushi in SF. And yeah the price was surprisingly low.
I don't get it either. I absolutely loved the sushi when I was in Japan, especially the fatty tuna belly (toro). I've only had really good sushi in a handful of places in the UK, and the chefs were all from or trained in Japan.
The sushi in Japan is much simpler than "Americanized" sushi that I have had elsewhere in the world. They don't have all the crazy sauces, toppings, fillings, etc. But to me that's the beauty - there's no distraction from the truly fantastic quality of fish, the way it melts in your mouth, and you can focus on the subtleties of the flavors of the different types of fish. The faint citrus of the yellowtail, the sweetness of the scallop, etc. I have never had sushi quite that quality anywhere in the US - which is unsurprising, since any sushi you get in the US must be flash frozen before serving raw in order to kill any parasites. So any sushi you get in the US, even from the fanciest restaurants, is previously frozen. In Japan, they don't do this, and they just accept that you will probably get parasites - to the point where they do regular intestinal parasite checks on school age children! After visiting, I understand why - the fresh raw fish is another level.
katsu curry in japan is another story though. it really is better there!
I could eat that stuff every day. Probably my favourite food
For me i can’t eat sushi in the states. Japan sushi from Japan is superior.
Depends on the piece. Most fishes yes, but the sweet shrimp and scallop were better than the ones I’ve had in the Bay Area and LA. And cheaper
For me it was Egypt and Sinai. The food was so underwhelming. I try to eat the food of the place I'm in when I'm traveling but Egypt was the one place I found myself at Pizza Hut a few times. Also the refrigeration and preservation of the food seemed a little dubious to me.
We thought currywurst was awesome! Soo, soo good. We went back 3 times to eat more of it and miss it now.
Egypt. The fresh guava juice was amazing, and I loved their dolma with tomatoes. However, the rest of the food I had there was ok but not anywhere as good as what I ate in Turkey, Morocco, or Israel. I also got sick from eating the pigeon.
I have had the best and worst food of my life in Colombia.
Mexican food in Amsterdam. I just knew i was punishing myself.