Food and drink you discovered on holiday

[Cloo]

... that has become a bit of a fixture?

For us it has to be Vino Verde from Portugal, first introduced to us by airbnb host in Porto who left a bottle in the fridge for us. Often referred to at home as 'Vino Greeno' it has become a bit of a summer drinking staple. Albeit seems relatively hard to find this year, wondering if the grape harvest in Portugal has not been great lately.

 

[Epona]

Octopus, I'd never had it before I went to Greece.
Actually a lot of Greek food and drink.
I really like Greek food and drink and I like Greece (This may have been apparent from posts that I've made on the tea thread and the Lidl/Aldi thread, I get very excited when it is Greek Week at Lidl!)

I wouldn't say Octopus was a fixture, it's not that cheap here, but we have it occasionally.

Also retsina, ouzo, and metaxa.

 

[ouirdeaux]

Salted liquorice.

I'd been in the Netherlands on and off since 1980. Must have been around 2015 when I discovered it.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?

And it's supposed to be an acquired taste. Weird.

 

[Elpenor]

Loaded coronas - Corona with a shot of rum in - driving down to Key West at a bar at Islamorada. Still one of my favourite weekends that

 

[smee]

Tomato fritters that we had in Santorini in 2019. Have not seen them here so had to make ourselves but are so good. (Tomatoes (good ones, we wait til we have homegrown ones), garlic, chickpea flour, oregano, touch of cinnamon)

 

[smee]

Loaded coronas - Corona with a shot of rum in - driving down to Key West at a bar at Islamorada. Still one of my favourite weekends that

We had a version of this in St Lucia - corona with a shot of lime rum! Amazing but haven’t tried to recreate in the greyness of England

 

[Gromit]

The humble croissant.

Had no idea these crumbly delights existed till I went abroad aged 11.

The Spanish hotel baked them fresh every morning.

I guess the French stole the recipe and then they made it across the channel to Britain?!

 

[tonysingh]

Currywurst. My first time in Berlin and oh my days. I have a favourite imbiss to get it from now, Curry 36 next to Bahnhof Zoo. I've tried imitations here but they're not the same

 

[dessiato]

The humble croissant.

Had no idea these crumbly delights existed till I went abroad aged 11.

The Spanish hotel baked them fresh every morning.

I guess the French stole the recipe and then they made it across the channel to Britain?!

I think the French invented them. When I lived in Spain the croissant weren't as good as the French ones but were a very palatable next best.

And this brings me to Spanish food generally. I, as is obvious I think, fell in love with Spain, my heart remains there. I love the food and wine there. The only thing I don't especially like is Cruzcampo. It seems to be becoming popular in Scotland, but it's really not very good. Nor is San Miguel, which I don't recall seeing any Spaniard drinking.

ETA croissants were invented in Vienna.

 

[bcuster]

Clams on the half shell as a young child on vacation at the seashore. Are raw clams eaten in UK or Ireland?

 

[Epona]

In all honesty, I didn't have a lot of exposure to foodstuffs and cuisines from other countries when I was a kid - growing up poor and rural (plenty of fresh veg mind) with parents who learned to cook during the last years of rationing and weren't that into cooking (we had decent enough meals growing up, and my mother is a good baker with a particular skill at doing pastry, so a lot of pastry based goods, also plenty of nutritious fresh food but not very adventurous) means that when I started going overseas in my late teens (also going to restaurants tbh), it was like an explosion of flavours.

 

[Epona]

Clams on the half shell as a young child on vacation at the seashore. Are raw clams eaten in UK or Ireland?

We export most of our clams from the UK to the US believe it or not!
Scotland also has some snail farms that export escargot to France.

In terms of seafood, pickled cockles and whelks were popular for ages, not clams though for some reason.

 

[tonysingh]

We export most of our clams from the UK to the US believe it or not!
Scotland also has some snail farms that export escargot to France.

In terms of seafood, pickled cockles and whelks were popular for ages, not clams though for some reason.

I remember being on a day trip to Calais with some friends before football and having a munch in a cafe. We egged each orher on to try snails and frogs legs. The latter are vile, tasting like greasy, rubbery chicken. Snails though are lovely. I've had them several times since and would gladly eat them again.

 

[Orang Utan]

Calamari
Loads of fish and seafood
Coca Cola
Orangina
Moussaka
Milkshakes that weren’t Nesquik
Fancy ice cream that wasn’t vanilla, Neopolitan or raspberry ripple

 

[Epona]

I remember being on a day trip to Calais with some friends before football and having a munch in a cafe. We egged each orher on to try snails and frogs legs. The latter are vile, tasting like greasy, rubbery chicken. Snails though are lovely. I've had them several times since and would gladly eat them again.

I do like snails.

It's a bit of a weird one here because N is pescetarian, he is fine with eating whelks, clams and mussels, but not sure whether he would eat land snails because his viewpoint seems to be if it comes out of the sea it's ok for some reason.
I get being vegetarian or vegan (I was vegetarian for a couple of decades, a lot of my relatives and friends are vegan), but the land/sea distinction makes absolutely no logical or rational sense to me whatsoever.

I agree with you about frogs legs - they're really quite greasy/spongy, a texture I don't particularly get on with. Am glad I tried them, but am happy to just say they're ticked off my list of things to try.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

I keep meaning to make sweet sage tea that I had in Jordan but I never get round to it. It's delicious stuff and really all I have to do is buy some sage.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Green tea

 

[Elpenor]

We had a version of this in St Lucia - corona with a shot of lime rum! Amazing but haven’t tried to recreate in the greyness of England

Yes very much something that works in the right time / place

In my case sitting at a bar right on the marina with people coming off boats carrying enormous tuna they’d caught, hot sun beating down over a deep blue sky and sea

 

[Winot]

Loaded coronas - Corona with a shot of rum in - driving down to Key West at a bar at Islamorada. Still one of my favourite weekends that

Ooh Key West recs please - I have a weekend there in December.

 

[Cloo]

Just remembered it was our honeymoon in the South of France that finally got me into orange juice - I'd always hated it as a child, probably because it was often squash rather than juice, so never drunk it. But the hotel had this amazing fresh squeezed juice with breakfast that finally made me realise I could like orange juice and I've drunk it ever since. Come to think of it, I fancy a glass now...

 

[Callie]

I keep meaning to make sweet sage tea that I had in Jordan but I never get round to it. It's delicious stuff and really all I have to do is buy some sage.

Interesting! I have so much sage in my garden I've been wondering what to do with it. There are lots of different types of sage though!

 

[Elpenor]

Ooh Key West recs please - I have a weekend there in December.

I will ask my friend in Fl who has been there recently, and drop you a PM

She will know more recent bars than from my trip in 2013

 

[Gromit]

I think the French invented them.

ETA croissants were invented in Vienna.

My last sentence was tongue in cheek.

I’m still trying to find out where Continent is. Lots of countries do their breakfast instead of a full English. I don’t think I’d like the food there. Their breakfast is quite basic.

 

[Saffy]

I don't need anything else when I go on holiday, apart from maybe Fanta Limon.

 

[[62]]

Sweet mustard in Germany. Never found it here, though. If I see it's available in a branch of Yormas at some German railway station I'll have a bratwurst covered in it even if I'm not that hungry.

 

[Orang Utan]

Ooh yeah good call, though I usually had the Fanta Limon with vodka in it!

 

[Gromit]

Sweet mustard in Germany. Never found it here, though. If I see it's available in a branch of Yormas at some German railway station I'll have a bratwurst covered in it even if I'm not that hungry.

Ocado

 

[Gromit]

Which brings me to Sauce Algerienne.
Available in all good Parisian kebab shops.



Dragged the OH across Paris trying to find a supermarket that stocked it. Bought three bottles when we finally did.

Ocado now stock it. Only they call it this:

 

[pinkmonkey]

Not so much on holiday because I only really go abroad for work, but - my love of Gyoza came from a stand in a foodcourt in a HK mall in TST where they sold a dozen gyoza and a can of coke for about £2. I'm wheat intolerant now so I can't really have them. Ok I have done and paid for it in a night kept awake with joint pain. My love of tofu also came from China where I first ate it at lunch time in a staff canteen. It was there that I realised they treat meat more like a condiment and that tofu is the main event, usually served with lots of leafy greens.
My fave main meal ever is a Taiwanese spicy beef noodle soup, I spent a lot of time in Taiwan in the 90's and I couldn't wait to get there to get my chops round this dish. It's available in London, but it's not quite the same, when I worked in Taichung, the places I ate, the noodles were as thick and squishy as earthworms. It's hearty and filling, the beef is almost like oxtail, cooked until soft and coming off the bone, the broth is like a hot chilli/aniseed gravy and you can add more chilli sauce to up the heat. If my Yorkshire nan had been born in Taiwan she'd have cooked this for me, it has that vibe to it.

When I worked in Elche in Spain the local tapas there was Delicias De Elche, Elche is nestled within palm forests, the tapas is a date with the stone removed, replaced with an almond then the whole thing wrapped in streaky bacon and cooked, it's divine. I got so excited when Lidl or Aldi had them in for their Spanish week but they were absolutely vile and nothing like the fresh ones. But they'd be easy enough to make!

 

[pinkmonkey]

I was also searching for a mustard - Lidl sell their smoked salmon with a little packet of orange flavoured mustard. I assumed it was German, because Lidl but my German friend looked at me like and said she'd never heard of it. a bit more Googling and I can see it's from Northern Italy. The North of Italy and Southern Germany share some cuisine so that would explain it.

Orange Mustard | Buy Italian Food Online

This unique Italian condiment from northern Italy is prepared with freshly picked, finely sliced oranges which are left to caramelize for four days. The sweet yet 'piccante' mustard taste is perfect with mature and strong cheeses, marinated or fresh fish carpaccio, boiled sausages such as...

www.vorrei.co.uk