itravelnet.com Travel Blog

Location: Koh Samui Ferry - Thailand Date: 20 Feb 2008

The Durian is known in Southeast Asia as the "King of Fruits". Its aroma is so pungent though that this King is not welcome inside some places.

Labels: food, koh-samui, sign, thailand

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Location: Railay - Thailand Date: 15 Feb 2008

Labels: beach, food, krabi, railay, thailand

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Location: Bangkok - Thailand Date: 11 Feb 2008

Labels: bangkok, food, thailand

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A street vendor in Macau serving breakfast.

Labels: china, food, macau

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Labels: chicken, china, food, macau

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Boiling Offal Pots

Eating in Hong Kong is hard work if you don't eat meat. I'm not a vegetarian but I'm not a fan of offal, which is what most of what the street food in Hong Kong seems to be.



For a city that was once a jewel of the British Empire it is surprising how little English is spoken on the the street. This makes for ordering food a challenge.

I found a place serving some sort of meat product skewered on a stick, which was most tasty. I then moved on to the next tray, and pointed to these frying balls of something. The lady said "spicy"! I nodded. She said again "spicy"!! I said "OK, I like spicy", then she repeated again "SPICY"!!!
"OK OK give me spicy".

She gave me a container with 10 of them. They were excruciatingly spicy, and I like spicy. I forced the third one down before surrendering and running off to the nearest 7/11 to put out the fire.



Know where your food comes from

Eating in Asia you get a better sense of where your food comes from. In the west we only have to see our meat as prime cuts neatly packaged in a styrofoam container at the supermarket. You can walk around markets and see live chickens waiting to be slaughtered and live fish carved up before your eyes, still gasping for breath.



Live crabs can be bought in shops on the street as well. These crabs aren't in a water tank though. They are bound with bamboo and stacked neatly on top of each other as if they were boxes.



Eating Vegetarian

Eating for vegetarians can be hard going here, even if you go to a "vegetarian restaurant". I looked at some menus of vegetarian restaurants and found that every item had meat in it.



Sometimes vegetarian options at restaurants include prawns and bits of pork.

The safest option for a vegetarian is to go to an Indian restaurant. If they say it is vegetarian you know that it will be. When in Hong Kong I like to visit Branto on Lock Road, which my vegetarian sister put me onto.

There are plenty of other vegetarian restaurants in Hong Kong as well.




Sweet Things

The Hong Kong egg tart is a cheap and tasty snack that can be found all over Hong Kong.



Also on Lock Road I frequent this juice bar daily. They have a variety of fresh juices, as well as a sweet mango or coconut drink with tapioca balls, which I struggle to limit myself to two a day.

Labels: china, food, hong-kong

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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It used to be said to eat well in england, eat breakfast 3 times a day. Things have changed from those days though as there as so many migrants here, and with them they brought restaurants from all over the world.

The English Breakfast is a classic meal and you can have here for dinner and no one will bat an eyelid.

Labels: england, food

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Belgians are master chocolatiers. There are chocolate shops all over Brussels. They also claim the waffle as their own, so if you have a sweet tooth then you will enjoy wandering around Brussels.

Labels: belgium, brussels, food

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Legend has it that French Fries were introduced to the U.S by soldiers returning from Europe after the Great War. They thought that Belgians were French hence the confusion. That is the story as told by Belgians anyway, but the term French Fries was already in America before then.

I would say that the Belgians probably did invent them as they are not one to boast anyway. Not that it matters. French Fries rolls off the English tongue nicley, and when you are in this part of the world you only need one word: frites.

Frites in the Netherlands are most popular with a big dollop of mayonnaise. It sounds wrong but its not too bad actually.

Labels: food, maastricht, netherlands

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It seems that in the Netherlands there is a mania for fried snacks served out of vending machines.



Automatiek snack shops are all over the Netherlands, of which FEBO is probably the most widely known.

Labels: food, maastricht, netherlands

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Labels: dubai, food, uae

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When in Old Town Rhodes, visit the man in the gelati van - probably the best gelati in Rhodes.

Labels: food, greece, rhodes, rhodes-old-town

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A restaurant in Tokyo serving whale. The picture depicts all the bits of the whale that are on the menu. Japan still insists that its whale hunting is
"scientific".

Labels: food, japan, tokyo, whale

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Labels: food, japan, tokyo

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Man can't live on Masala Dosa alone, but he can try. I have been having the dosa everyday for breakfast. Such a simple meal but so good. Sometimes I end up having it for dinner as well. In this heat I never have a big appetite so sometimes I only have a juice for lunch. Combine this diet with hours of walking in this heat, no wonder I am losing weight.

Labels: food, india

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International companies accommodating for local tastes and traditions. In this case the fasting month of Ramadan. Colonel Sanders probably never even heard of Ramadan.

Labels: food, kuala-lumpur, malaysia, religion

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Fried Bananas - Koh Samui

Labels: food, koh-samui, thailand

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The Khao San Rd in Bangkok is the budget accommodation centre of Bangkok and perhaps the backpacker capital of Southeast Asia. It's also a good place to find cheap street food.

Labels: bangkok, food, khao-san-rd, thailand

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The Costa del Sol has been a favourite for British holiday makers and expats for decades. This is apparent in the amount of British pubs and fish and chip shops along the coast.

A recent report in The Independent highlights how important migration is to the Spanish economy: UK migrants fuelling Spanish boom

Labels: costa-del-sol, food, spain

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The premium ham in Spain is from pigs fed almost exclusively on acorns.

Labels: food, seville, sign, spain

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Every guide book will tell you to sample the national food where you visit. Hungary is renown for many of its national dishes such as goulash and paprika chicken, as well as its sausages, like the Debrecen sausage.

These are all good but I haven't truly sampled a nations food until I have tried their snack foods. In Hungary the local snack food that reigns supreme is the Túró Rudi. If Hungary was to have an official national snack, this would be it.



If you have never had one it is probably best if you eat first then ask questions later. It consists of sweetened compressed cottage cheese, covered in chocolate. It shouldn't work, but it does.

Those who have already converted to the way of the Rudi, there is a place for you at The Túró Rudi Fanlisting.

Labels: food, hungary

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A trend that has developed in the last few years in London are these company sponsored mini festivals. £5 is an amazing deal to see all these bands. A donation really. With free ice cream you could eat 5 pounds in weight or currency and that has paid for your day.

Ben & Jerry's Sundae

Labels: england, events, food, london

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On the corner of Oxford St and Charing Cross Road you will find Dionysus, one of the few places left in London's West End serving proper English chips. The shop caught fire a couple of years ago so I'm glad to see that it is back in business.

Labels: england, food, london

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No Durian - Singapore

Labels: food, sign, singapore

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Spend longer than 5 minutes in Italy and you will realise that Italians are nuts about Nutella. Here is a cafe dedicated to the chocolatey spread in Bologna.

Labels: bologna, food, italy

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I was taken to this place by a friend, otherwise I would never have found this place. £2.95 all you can eat is one of the best deals in London. It's in Chapel Market near the Angel tube station.

Labels: england, food, london

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Labels: berliners, cologne, food, germany

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I seem to find myself at Maoz all the time when I'm in Amsterdam. Good falafel's that you pack yourself.

Labels: amsterdam, food, netherlands

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Tesco, the UK's giant supermarket chain, has introduced a self serve checkout trial in some stores in West London. You scan the items yourself and when you are done you pay with card or cash like you would at a train station ticket machine.

I had a go and it seems easy enough to use though I don't know if it is going to work. They will save labour in not employing a check out operator, but then they need to have people hovering nearby to assist people in using it, as well as extra surveillance and security as it will be too great a temptation for shoplifters to sneak unscanned items.

Labels: england, food, good-idea, london, supermarket

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I attended Wimbledon on the opening day and the atmosphere was incredible. London's weather forgot the usual formula of Wimbledon=Rain and continued its heat wave that started on the weekend before.

Seeing the players up close and observing such details as the texture of the grass and the goings on around the court make it an experience you don't get on TV.

Wimbledon is renown for its queues so I didn't hold much prospect of getting in. Upon arrival at midday the queue stretched for as far as the eye could see, making it a blockbuster in the literal sense.

The British are world beaters when it comes to forming a queue, and at Wimbledon they have the art mastered. When joining the end of the line you receive a numbered ticket, a collectors item in itself, to keep your place in-line.



Houses along the way turn their front yards into food stalls and flagstands. One man was selling Womble's, which as a consequence meant that I was singing the Womble's of Wimbledon theme song in my head all day. Wimbledon would be a great place to live, but this reason alone would put me off living here.

The queue moved quickly and I was at the gate in 45 minutes, and I got a daily ground pass. For centre and court one tickets, only 500 tickets are available to the public each day, so the queue for for those tickets start the day before.



A daily ground pass ticket gains you access to Court 2 (Standing) and courts 3 to 19. If you go early in the first week this will give you the chance to see some seeded players in the outer courts.


(Evie Dominikovic from Australia)

Of course no visit to Wimbledon can be complete without having strawberries and cream.

Labels: england, food, london, sport, wimbledon

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