One of the joys of foreign travel

The chicken pie is all made, ready to go into the oven this evening to cook.

Yesterday I was back to our more usual carer, Tasha. I was surprised to hear, that when she went on holiday to Mallorca earlier this year, she hadn’t tried any of the meat or other local foods at the hotel – she doesn’t eat fish of any sort anywhere. She reckoned it didn’t look right so the only time she & her children ate a proper meal was when they came across an English pub. There they gorged themselves on good English food.

I couldn’t help thinking what a pity. Foreign food may look different, even taste different, but that’s not to say it’s bad. Indeed it’s often wonderful. The locals manage to eat it & not get food poisoning all the time so why should you. Personally I would be more suspicious of the food at that English pub.

Indeed I regard one of the joys of foreign travel is trying new tastes, discovering new food horizons. If we hadn’t been abroad we would never have discovered the joys of mussels, oysters, frog’s legs, limoncello etc. We don’t always enjoy them – snails are not something I can get excited about – but we do at least try them to find out. There are just so many culinary wonders, different methods of cooking, different combinations of flavours. Food is such an essential part of life it’s a pity not to get the most out of it. It isn’t just fuel to keep the body going. It should be one of life’s greatest little joys.