Eating While Traveling

Eating while traveling to other countries can be a confusing experience. There are several parts of the world where you don't feel comfortable eating the native foods and others where it is an enjoyable experience. One important fact to remember is that in most countries, don't drink the water from the tap unless you are told that it is safe to do so. Instead, buy bottled water and have plenty of it on hand.


It depends on what country we visit whether or not we eat the food. In China, when we went on our day tours, we never knew what we would be served. We had tables for 8 people with a turntable in the middle. At each place setting was a saucer-size plate, a soup bowl with weird shaped spoon, a glass, a fork, and a set of chopsticks. The servers would bring the food out and put it on the turntable. Many times we did not know what it was but we learned that Chinese food in China is not like Chinese food in the United States. We could not even recognize some of the food. We would try to take a sample of each food, but I was glad that white rice and watermelon were served at the meals because I knew what they were. At one stop we were served chicken feet, which nobody ate. I was told later by a Vietnamese person at home that chicken feet are a delicacy in China and we were being honored.


In Venice, we had delicious lasagna in one of the restaurants there. In Egypt and Israel, the food that we ate on our tours were just like American food with meats and vegetables. In Russia, we had Chicken Kiev and some of the people were afraid to eat the salad because they didn't know if the vegetables had been washed with fresh water. In Honduras, we ate only the food at the hotel and snacked during the day. In Australia, we were introduced to "dim sum", food with a dumpling coating and we also tried squid and kangaroo meat. In New Zealand, we had a traditional English Christmas dinner at a farmhouse with the three meats (one was turkey but no dressing) and all of the other English trimmings, including Christmas cake (which we call fruitcake).


Many sandwiches in Europe are served with a fried egg on top. Raw beef is listed on a menu at nice restaurants in France. At the McDonald's in Venice, we were surprised to see that pigeons were encouraged to come into the restaurant to eat food that had fallen on the floor; however, it was unnerving to be eating and have pigeons flying around your head. Yuk!!!! If someone closed the door, another person would open it and let the birds in. The gelato in Venice, however, was delicious.


These are just some of the ethnic experiences that I have had. However, I would rather stick to the familiar, since I don't want to spoil a once-in-a-lifetime experience by getting sick.