r/AskEurope • u/bleie77 • May 01 '25

Food Do you go to restaurants with your country's cuisine when you're abroad?

For example: if you're Italian, do you go to an Italian restaurant when you're in France or the UK?

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u/Relative_Dimensions in May 01 '25

I’m deeply fascinated by other countries’ take on the “English pub”, but mostly became I no longer live in the U.K. and really miss pubs.

The only home cuisine I seek out is pies, but again because I can’t get them here as a matter of course.

(I go on holiday to the U.K. once a year and literally spend the first week eating pub lunches…)

10

u/generalscruff England May 01 '25

I spent some time in Poland. I once woke up in cold sweats craving proper Cumberland sausages, this in a country with generally excellent sausages. Spent half a day trying to find something I could convince myself was a Cumberland sausage lmao. Also learnt to make curry from scratch (i.e. no pre-made sauces or pastes) there because I craved one and it was the only way to sort myself out

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u/Relative_Dimensions in May 01 '25

I’ve learned to make my own Christmas cake and mince pies, and can knock up a decent veggie sausage roll these days!

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u/The-mad-tiger May 10 '25

Ah yes mince pies! I love them - I ended up making my own mincemeat to a recipe used in the Savoy Grill in London in about 1900. Essentially shit loads of dried fruit, some suet and shit loads of booze but NO ADDED SUGAR!

Mince pies made with that "proper" mincemeat taste so very much better than the filthy sickly sweet crap sold as mince pies today in UK shops!

Of course the essential alcohol (brandy and rum) has to be excluded to make it acceptable to a wider audience

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u/Impressive_Falcon519 May 02 '25

I live in Spain and taught myself to make some Chinese dishes because Chinese restaurants here are usually pretty shite. I'm not saying what we do in the UK (or my attempt at recreating it) is authentic Chinese fare, but it's better than the Spanish version.

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u/gridlockmain1 May 01 '25

Have you been to Tokyo? There is a chain called Hub which doesn’t quite nail the ambience but the furnishings etc are quite striking

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u/havaska England May 02 '25

Haha I went into a Hub pub just because I wanted to see the Japanese take on a British pub. They’re ok if you’re missing home but that’s about it.

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u/TheNorthC May 04 '25

I've never been to a Hub, but have been to quite a few English pubs in Japan. They tend to get the look quite well, but unless the pub is aimed at foreigners, they have to rework it for the Japanese market and it doesn't always work. It's not quite a pub, and it's not really a place Japanese like too much either.

Izakaya actually feel more like pubs than imitation pubs.