In what way has living abroad changed your palate?
What do you miss?
What have you brought back from abroad?
A few things I've taken on from three years living in Germany and traveling a small bit in Europe:
>A love of pickled and sour things
Pickles from Poland, Sauerkraut, Berliner Weisse
>Turkish food
Everywhere in Germany, and amazing. Sigara borek, adanas, antipasti (filled peppers, paprika feta chees mix, the olives etc.) and the veggie kebabs (with latkas, haloumi, makale or falafel)
>Prezels
Obviously in Germany, but the best I ever had were in Romania at the Gara de Nord train station
>Beer all the time
In my home country, we tend to only booze at the weekend -- binge drinking, really. This was never my style -- I prefer the continental way of having a couple of beers most evenings -- usually 3 to 4 times a week -- and a beer in the afternoon at a cafe, which would be unthinkable in my home country.
>Polish craft beer
Seriously, the best in the world right now -- plus, they don't come in pissy 33cl bottles. They put them in proper 50cl bottles and charge a fair price.
>Wostok
Pic related -- it's a pine-tree flavoured softdrink I can only find here in Germany. Amazing stuff. The Russians made it to emulate Coca-Cola, but it's way, way, way nicer.
16 hour-later bump
>>7565981
I work a lot in Afghanistan. The bases over there are like 50% populated by people from India and Nepal.
I eat so much damned Indian food for like 3 or 6 months at a time, but the time I get back on US soil its nice to just have something simple like a BLT. All their stuff is sooo heavily spiced. They always have the best tea though.
>>7568004
I hear that. I love Indian food, but I couldn't eat it more than once a week.
You need to mix up the bland with the flavoursome.
That said, in India, street food like grilled corn-on-the-cob, bhatura/bhatoora, and poppadom and popular, from what I can gather.
I could eat Turkish food all day, though -- it's like a perfect bridge between Indian and European cuisine -- not as complex as Indian in terms of spices, so you can taste individual ingredients. Also, it's never overly spiced. Sometimes it's a bit too greasy, but I just drain it off or use a few napkins.
The Spanish and Turkish love their oil.
>be euro
>grow up in asia
>like malaysian/peranakan/SG food a bunch
>move to US as adult
>like southern/soul food a lot
That's about it, really.
I can't really pick out specific examples right now because reasons. I do like chilli crab with egg, though.
I hate only drinking 1-4 beers, it's such a tease
I Used to sell Woodstock limonades in Austria. They made some other flavored, like pomegranate and datte, and some mate variation. Also, have you ever tried club mate ? That's pretty nice.
>>7565981
been living in germany off and on. loved sauerkraut pickles and mustard before i went, felt like ancestral homelands first time i was there. also i'm sorry to any germans who have eaten an american hot dog. cheap imitation of god tier vienna sausage. ate pic related in austria. helpful bar man explained "In Tirol we eat sausage with hand".
>>7568071
>Also, have you ever tried club mate ?
Jesus, I don't know how I left it off the list.
I'll really miss that -- the buzz it gives me gets me through any day and has prolonged nights out by 8 to 10 hours.
Amazing stuff and tasty.
Ever had the Winter Edition Club Mate? So lovely.
>>7568129
I've seen these things around, but assumed they were Frankfurters. I've just avoided them as the Frankfurters I get in my home country are mediocre to poor.
I'll try one out next time.
I just don't know if anything can top a Thüringer Bratwurst with senf.
The bratwurst is great in any context -- I even add it to Italian meals which would call for some kind of meat or sausage.
I do love the standard bratwurst with potatoes, gravy, mustard and sauerkraut. The mix of the tart, mildly-spicy and the peppered pork is just wonderful.
>>7565981
Dude, that local polish craft beer is mental. went through like 30-40 of them - all of them taste different!
I even had one from a shop that tasted like proper bubblegum - valkiria or smth
Malaysian here. I miss New Zealand milk chocolates. Also, NZ lamb. Oh my god. Just thinking about the lamb makes me salivate. The most, sweetest, juiciest lamb there is. I don't even season them.
>move to US from UK
>it's all just salt and fat and indulgence and nothing actually good
>americans believing UK food memes
>at least craft beer scene thoug-
>oh no it's just over-hopped IPA memeshit
>ok well candy surely, if anywhere does sugaru shit well it's gotta be-
>oh no it's literally vegetable oil bars
Kill me
Root beer's pretty good though
>>7569534
I've been to the US twice.
All their food is awful. I thought Root Beer was awful, too -- tastes like Deep Heat (the stuff you put on a muscle after you've injured it).
Some stuff I had:
>Virginia ham
Never tasted ham (boiled ham -- not cold cut) this bad before. Just totally lacking and a with a weird off flavour to it. Probably the crap they feed to the poor pigs.
>NY Pizza
Nearly all Berlin pizza is better than this. It's not bad or anything, it just doesn't deserve the hype.
I know someone might say "go to Williamsburg" but it'd be overpriced hipster shit. The cheap places in Berlin I go to have world-class pizza for €2 a slice (9" x 7" square)
>Chocolate
We all know this is awful. Hershey's tastes like vomit.
Jolly Ranchers are mediocre.
>Bread
Impossible to find good bread in the US. Even in hipster burger joints, they'll oftentimes use cheap, packaged buns not dissimilar to McDonald's buns.
>Cheese
This I blame on German-Americans. Everything is bland. Thankfully, people have recently found sharp cheddar.
Where I'm from the supermarkets are overladen with sharp cheddar, blue cheeses, etc. and you can also get any bland stuff you like.
>Pastries
How can this "melting pot" not have some good French, Italian or German pastries? It's like a joke.
>Coffee
Weak as piss -- even the proper stuff. Drip coffee is an abomination.
>>7570751
>Even in hipster burger joints,
Lol, why are you trying to get good bread from hipster joints?
lrn2yelp
>>7569534
Try getting to know middle-class southerners. Not low-class ones. Low class southerners, despite all the memes, seldom to never cook. They subsist on frozen ready meals and boxed dinner kits. And old money upper class southerners are usually just as clueless about what to do in the kitchen.
Middle class ones, however, can cook. It's because they're paradoxically thriftier than their low-class counterparts and cooking is cheaper than preparing dinner kits for the family by far.
I know because I'm also non-American living in America. I dated a southern bitch from a middle-class, college educated family for seven years and was introduced to many coastal low-country foods through them. Love it. During our time together, we developed a fusion of sorts, combining low-country cuisine my native one. One of the best things to come out of it is "dry"-stewed collards. At first, my ex's family thought me nuts for both removing the stems from the collard leaves and not boiling them the way they do, but when they tried it, they were quite surprised.
Oh, and Floribbean cuisine is also pretty good.
Yeah, it's a thing. A naturally occuring fusion.
My brother also lives here in the US. He met his wife at college. She's from a mixed Caribbean background, but born and raised in Florida, as were her parents and grandparents. Predictably, her family cook Floribbean food. It combines aspects of Hispanic Islander cuisine (Cuban, Puerto Rican and Dominican) with American southern cuisine (especially barbecue) and Afro-Caribbean cooking (Jamaican and Barbadian, mostly). It's fucking delicious.
>>7565981
>In my home country, we tend to only booze at the weekend
where are you from?
>>7571040
Prudeistan
>>7568020
>in India, street food like grilled corn-on-the-cob, bhatura/bhatoora, and poppadom and popular, from what I can gather.
enjoy your fecal matter contamination
>>7571056
>Prudeistan
Are you trying to say Britain?
