What new foods have you discovered whilst travelling?

[Sam_F]

Hello everyone!

For me one of the great pleasures of travel is not only discovering new places but also finding new culinary delights.

Have you ever spent time just perusing the aisles of the local supermarkets, marvelling at things you have never seen before?

Even stopping for gas can provide an opportunity to discover something new. For example, in the US doing just that gave me an opportunity to find a chocolate bar called a Milky Way, which is very similar to the Mars bars we have here in the UK. Similarly, whilst refuelling the car in Norway, I found the Kvikk Lunsj chocolate bars, which are a Norwegian institution and widely loved and I can see why! They are akin to the Kit Kat bars in the UK (only better!)

Having a sweet tooth I love finding new cakes and some of my successes in the past have included the tarte Tropézienne created in St Tropez in 1955 by Polish baker Alexandre Micka. Another success I came across when visiting Lake Bled in Slovenia was the Bled cream cake, first made in 1953, and now the national dessert of Slovenia. Another memorable dessert that I found whilst visiting Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina is Hurmašica, (as shown above), a Bosnian treat prepared by dousing the pastry dough in lemon flavoured sugar syrup. Yum!

Many places are well known for certain foods, such as conch salad in the Bahamas or the Caribbean, paella served at the beachside restaurants in Southern Spain and Swedish meatballs dished up all over Sweden.

Virtually every country prepares special, symbolic foods for festive occasions. These dishes often represent good fortune, heritage, or changing seasons. Examples of such include the serving of twelve symbolic dishes on Christmas Eve in Poland, the most famous being barszcz also known as borscht, red beetroot soup, filled with mushroom dumplings. In China during the Mid-Autumn Festival, families celebrate by sharing intricate mooncakes which represent unity and completeness. And then there is, of course, the Oktoberfest, held all over Germany, where bratwurst and pretzels can be enjoyed with a beer or two!

What new foods have you discovered whilst travelling?

Sam.

[Oztravels]

My list to date. Snake, turtle, cockroach, crocodile, rat, crickets, sea snake and my all time least favourite Balut (Photos attached) Apology to those squeamish

[Nofurbabies]

My all time least favourite, durian in Indonesia. I had to try it twice just to make sure. I was right the first time!

[SeniorSitter1]

Haggis in the UK. Two bites and I was done. Turned Vegetarian for a week after that.

[Nofurbabies]

Noooo! I love haggis!

[gchampagne]

I have a sweet tooth also and I discovered papanasi while in Bucarest last summer. It’s a Romanian dessert that was highly recommended by our guide. It’s kind of a big cheese filled donut hole with blueberry jam and cream on top. You have to order it along with the meal as they make it from scratch so it takes some time. The surprise was that there were two of them so we had one put in a separate plate for my wife who only took a few bites as she was pretty full. I wound up eating one and two thirds although I was pretty full myself but I have a special section for desserts because I always find space. It was delicious.

[SeniorSitter1]

Now this looks delicious! The fact that they make it from scratch, even better!

[Silversitters]

Two foods new to me that I “discovered “ last month in Croatia are Burek and Knedle sa šljivama Croatian plum dumplings.

The Burek is a savoury pastry filled with cheese or spinach and eaten for breakfast .

The plum dumplings are made with mashed potatoes filled with a fresh plum , fried and sprinkled with cinnamon . These are served as a main course or as a dessert .

Both are delicious and both were devoured before I could take photos .

[WeRPAWsome]

Hi @Sam_F

One of the unexpected joys of travelling full-time is wandering through ordinary supermarkets. Tourist attractions are great, but the local grocery aisle often tells you far more about a place than any guidebook.

Over the past 14+ years on the road, some of our most memorable discoveries have been the everyday foods locals barely think twice about.

In Iceland, we became surprisingly fond of skyr, which looks like yoghurt but is much thicker and more satisfying.

In Japan, it was the bewildering variety of onigiri from convenience stores. We started out cautiously and ended up making special trips just to try new fillings.

In Portugal, we discovered queijadas, little sweet cheese tarts that seemed to appear everywhere but rarely make it onto international “must eat” lists.

One of the most unexpected finds was in Sri Lanka, where roadside stalls sold fresh king coconuts. Not exactly a food, but after a hot day they tasted better than any soft drink ever could.

And then there are the things you never expected to enjoy. After years of avoiding black licorice, we found ourselves happily eating salty licorice in Scandinavia. I’m still not entirely sure how that happened.

For us, the best food discoveries are rarely the famous national dishes. They’re the local snacks, bakery treats and supermarket oddities that you stumble across by accident.

[Chrissy]

Catania fish market Sicily has a little stall with a few stools and a couple of tables and it has the best Frutti di Mare, a cone of fried seafood, no chips! The fish comes in fresh off the boats every morning by 6 and in the afternoon it’s a fruit and vegetable market. The stall is open all the time and always busy. I’ve been a few times and it’s always delicious

[mdarden1x]

Salsify is a root vegetable I was not familiar with until having a bowl of salsify soup in Zurich. I now have it growing in my garden.

[Cathie]

Gazpacho ready made from the supermarket. Anywhere they sell it I just buy cartons and cartons. Lunch and dinner done. Sometimes also breakfast . Equally handy on train or bus journeys.

[Chrissie]

Sat in a small local cafe in Laos, and on the menu they had " 5 small bats". You had to give them 24 hours notice though, so we missed out on that delight.

[Debbie]

I had bat curry in the Seychelles. Fruit bats, so not small. Quite nice but lots of bones in it!

[Cuttlefish]

You need to come to Turkiye @Silversitters - Mus’s Mum makes the best borek ever!! Turks eat it like it’s going out of fashion #boreklove

[Cuttlefish]

Yes, we had wasp wine and some sort of snake liquor in China @Debbie - you could see them pickled in it! Your bats reminded me. #bugslife

[RedLassie]

You mean HAGGIS in Scotland, surely? It seems unlikely you will have tried it in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

i LOVE IT, you must have not had the best one.

[RedLassie]

I just Googled Balut, as it looked to me like a hedgehog. but a duck egg embryo? even worse

[Silversitters]

Yes please

[SeniorSitter1]

Yes I do. It becomes a blur sometimes.