How much does food play a part of your travels?

Mandy the guide and cooking teacher in Hanoi


Gumbo and potato salad in New Orleans - a cajun thing

From the seafood market in Busan

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How fascinating @toml

Travel is such an educator and we each find our own passion across different cultures.
Food is a natural connector, taking a meal with someone is a language in itself.

I lived in Ho Chi Minh & Singapore for 12 months, in Bombay (Mumbai) for 6 years and many other places always long enough to learn their cuisines in depth and while I love to cook I didn’t take the time being content to enjoy restaurants, markets and street vendors and when you’ve had “authentic” anything else pales into comparison. I always remember being offered the western version of a menu in a Cantonese restaurant in Richmond BC and surprising the server when we asked for the “local” version.

I do have friends say “Oh you must be able to cook a mean curry” actually no … I’m not a lover of pungent spices and if there’s one herb I could forever live without, both to smell and taste, it’s Coriander!

Mine is a more Mediterranean palate … thank you for sharing your food explorers adventure.

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Ha! I had seen this @Vanessa_A and thought it was a recipe for hen food!
I am a master at making concoctions. Made a nice pureed soup with potatoes, broccoli, onions and mushrooms. I just throw in what feels right :rofl:

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If you have any concoctions with courgettes let me know. I’ve just picked a fridge full from our garden!! I’m thinking thin grilled slices, layered with crumbly goats cheese, on one of the lovely buttery French flan bases we can get here? Suggestions for seasoning?

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Just had a delicious courgette concoction left for me by my HO @Vanessa_A!
The courgette was spiraled and it appeared to have been lightly stir fried with veggie sausage and green curry paste. It was a real treat for the palate. Not hot or spicy just uniquely flavorful.

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@Vanessa_A we once made a courgette and lemon cake from a recipe we picked up at a National Trust property and using a courgette we’d bought from their garden. My son also recently made savoury muffins with carrot courgette and cheese at school.

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Love the sound of those, especially the courgette and lemon :cake: … do you have the recipe ? I’ve still got loads, and more waiting to be picked… I could probably start a cake shop!! :grin:

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I’m now waiting for a post from someone asking what a courgette is :rofl: I consider myself ‘bilingual’ as I was born and raised in Wales but have lived my adult life in Canada. In North America it’s known as a zucchini, and courgette would not be recognized in Canada or (I think) the USA. Here it’s common to make muffins with them, often with carrots too. Search for a recipe for ‘morning glory muffins’ and they’ll probably include both those ingredients, and much more. Enjoy.

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Haha… I’ve been meaning to update my post for days as I knew eventually that question would be asked :rofl: so thank-you!! I tend to write American English (because our mag is a mainly US audience and I taught US english for several years), but currently I’m getting influenced by learning more French… I’ve now got a strange “BritUSFrancais” language developing :grin: Peculiar variations of words keep emerging! Will look up those muffins !!

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Food has always been very important to me on my travels.
When I get my duty schedule for the next month (I am a flight attendant) I know exactly where I will be eating the first meal as soon as I arrive. Also when I request a certain destination I am already looking forward to the delicious food I will get there.
I do love the varieties of Asian cooking but I also love the Brazilian churrascerias, sushi in Japan, pub style chicken wings in the US and the best steak houses in South Africa.

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I can’t find the recipe card in my cupboard, but have found a similar recipe on their website https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/montacute-house/recipes/lemon-courgette-cake

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When you mentioned this I wondered whether lemon drizzle would work with it… and that’s an option!! Thanks for this and I’ll be making this at the weekend!!

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Hi Debbie,

I heard about that when I was in Iceland. Normally I try local foods, but I wasn’t brave enough to try that!

I just went for the Icelandic hot dog, and that was delicious!

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I do cook a lot to save money when I travel, but I make a point of trying local specialties, such as soparnik (so yummy!) in Croatia and a sonoran hot dog in Arizona.

When I was in Iceland the food was so expensive, so I did end up buying things at a local supermarket. I was also able to find chocolate and salt, which would have cost far more if I bought it at a tourist gift shop.

One thing I always look for is good, strong coffee from a local coffee shop.

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Part of travel has always been about the food experiences for us. Having moved to Germany at 18 and 20 years of age, we quickly fell in love with the many types of sausage (wurst) that was sold on the side of the road, stuffed into one of those crunchy Kaiser rolls with plenty of spicy mustard. I still have a sweet spot in my heart for German pastry and a nice big soft pretzel. I’m not sure there’s enough space here to list all the food tours throughout Italy, Spain, France and Croatia that we’ve enjoyed. How many different flavors of gelato are there?!?!

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I just heard the term “bubble and squeak”. Had to look it up as I never would have guessed it in a million years. It sounds like something I would love! Any of you Brits have a great recipe?

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I LOVE bubble and squeak Rebecca… but you really don’t need much of a recipe. Just get a mix of lots of veggies (usually leftovers) and mash them with potatoes (left over roast dinner veg was a favorite in our house). And then fry in a mix of butter and olive oil. You can add anything really… garlic, bacon and sprouts and parsnips give good flavour.

We always have this for breakfast on Boxing Day with fried eggs… all the leftovers from Christmas day lunch!

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Thank you! @Vanessa_A I’m definitely going to try it.

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When I was a child we always had bubble and squeak for tea ( which is what we call the evening meal in the North of the UK) on Mondays. I always thought it was my mum’s secret recipe passed down from generation to generation.
It was many years later that I discovered it was just the left overs from Sunday dinner mashed up! :rofl:

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While traveling my main focus is on food. As we travel to the different destinations we find a variety of changes in the food served. If it is a seaside location then eating seafood is a must.

In India, Goa is one of my favorite beachside destinations.
There are various classy multi-cuisine restaurants available that offer outstanding food services.

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