I have discovered Polish food thanks to a trip to lovely Krakow.

Beef Tzimmes (Jewsh sweet stew)

Barszcz (Polish Borscht- beetroot soup), apparently can come chunky and with potatoes/ a croquette for dipping but the restaurant made their smooth and put meat ravioli in mine

Pierogi (Polish dumplings), I only really fancied the meat (pork/beef) ones but they can come in sweet varieties such as blueberries and soft cheese too.

I didn't get round to trying Bigos (a stew made with EVERYTHINGand often served in a bread bowl)

Piernicki- nice soft gingerbread biscuits

It's not really Polish but I have discovered non-alcoholic Mojitos.

I even bought some Barszcz sachets that I found in a corner shop over there home with me and I will be looking to make my own/buy Barszcz/Tzimmes/ Pierogi and Virgin Mojito if I can

Have you discovered anything that you've liked when away? or anything you've hated?

I've not tried any of these but I do recognise a few of the names from watching some of the Hairy Bikers European tour programmes. Maybe one day I'll get to taste them.
My find was Baklava on a small Greek island. Yum.
I'm looking forward to our trip to Bavaria in a few weeks.

Something simple from camping holidays in France.........fresh stick of French bread, no butter.......just bite off a mouthful of bread and stick a piece of chocolate in your mouth and chew them together

gorgeous !

Simple tastes.

Orangina - A long long time ago
Rillettes - Bordeau-Chesnel are our favourites
Petit Suisse.
43 - Liqueur from Spain

oh Baklava is lovely

enjoy Bavaria


Sometimes simple is best!

I like Orangina but if you're looking for bitty orange fizzy juice- Club orange is the best in my opinion (I think it's mainly an NI/RoI thing)

Juusto makkara in Finland. Camping sausages with cheese in them, great wrapped in foil and heated up in the sauna.

I've not yet tried it, but im going to prague in September ams can't wait to have trdelnik, like a doughnut thing wroth nutella/ice cream and other fillings.

My hubby has introduced me to lots of Spanish and Mallorcan cuisine which I love. My favourite though is ensaimada filled with chocolate. It's sweet flat pastry thingy which can be plain, or filled with cream, jam or chocolate. When he was out there in 2014 and I visited, I got a big one filled with chocolate to take home, my sisters and I devoured it in about 3 minutes

Conch, when I was in the Bahamas. A very unlikely food, but a staple there, it's wonderful when marinated in lime juice, or simply incorporated into conch chowder

Feijoada, a sort of stew - in Brazil

I've tried most dishes from Southern Europe and cook a lot of Turkish & Greek food myself. A couple of years ago though I was on holiday in Zante and one evening had a lamb stew that contained Orzo.

For those who are unfamiliar with Orzo it is pasta but in very small pieces that, when cooked, look like large grains of rice. I was determined to replicate the dish once I was home and managed to find Orzo in Asda.

Not a food, but when in Thailand I was taken by their habit of eating with fork and spoon. They believe that it is the cook's job to cut up the meat into manageable portions, and so no knife should be needed at the dining table. But you still need two implements to wrangle your food, hence fork and spoon. I copy this for appropriate dishes now.

I thought I'd had decent Thai food until I actually went to Thailand.

FRANCE:

Fougasse - bread base topped with bechamél sauce and other toppings such as sliced potatoes, bacon, onion etc. The best way I can describe it is kinda like a pizza but without red sauce...I'm making it sound quite crap but believe me it is sooooo much more. Absolutely divinely delicious.

SOUTHERN INDIA:

Masala dosa - a huge crispy pancake loosely rolled with spicy potato filling, served with three or four different chutneys.

Kaima iddly - rice dumplings chopped into small pieces, fried and smothered with spicy red sauce. Served with oniony yoghurt.

Pani Puri - little round puffy crispy circles with some yummy stiff piled on top and I can't remember what the stuff was, but trust me it was beautiful!

BRASIL:

Pastel - a pastry shell about the size of an iPhone 6plus, deep fried, with lovely fillings such as ham and cheese and tomato, or seasoned minced beef.

Kibe - Lebanese in origin, a deep fried seasoned ground beef and bulgar wheat snack, in a sort of egg shape/size with slightly pointed ends.

Coxinha - a little snack food thing, of a dough filled with seasoned shredded chicken and then deep fried.

Pilão coffee - this brand of coffee is the best I have ever tasted. It tastes rich and slightly chocolatey.

Sazon - Powdered strong seasoning which comes in sachets, to add to cooking. About 15 different varieties (e.g. garlic, meat, rosemary, fish, chicken etc). I took 30 packets (each containing 12 sachets) back to England with me.

Doce de Leite - this is also known as 'dulce de lete' in Spanish-speaking Latin America. It's a kind of really dense, thick, smooth creamy caramel sauce in a jar. Can be added on top of icecream or any dessert, but if you are a piggy like me, just eat with a spoon straight out of the jar!

Green apple Fanta - This is the best Fanta flavour I have ever had!

Caipivodka - the same as a caipirinha but with vodka instead of cachaça, mixed with freshly squeezed lime juice and sugar, and muddled with ice and quartered limes.

Cassava chips - Chips (as in UK chips, not crisps) made from cassava instead of potatoes.

GERMANY:

Currywurst! - very nicely textured sausage cut into chunks and smothered with a ketchup/curry powder mixture.

TEXAS, USA:

Enchiladas, tacos, nachos com queso, Mexican rice, beans - all made by Mexican/Texican experts and just amazing.

Frito Pie - Fritos are kinda corn chips deliciously flavoured. Frito pie is the chilli cheese flavoured chips with beef chilli, sour cream and jalapeños on top.

I know it's junk but churro's with a nutella dip are delicious. I couldn't get enough of them in France & America. They're similar to doughnuts but long-shaped. They're also popular in Spain, Portugal, Holland & Australia I believe.

Hard to know where to start but I’ll try:

Greece:
- Gyros (Greek ‘kebabs’): basically, pork souvlaki, chips, onions, tzatziki and anything else you want, stuffed inside a kind of fried flatbread wrap.
- Tyrosalata (Greece): Feta dip often flavoured with a bit of a kick.

France:

- Maroilles, Pont L’Eveque and Livarot cheeses, guaranteed to make your fridge a hazardous zone, but amazing on crusty bread.
- Gallettes: Savoury crepes from Bretagne, made from buckwheat and filled with anything you like; my favourite is the ‘complet’- just simple ham, egg and cheese- but I’ve had everything from scallops to black pudding inside.

I could wax lyrical about French food as my parents live there so I’ll try to rein it in.

Spain:
- Palomitas de mantequilla: fluffy popcorn flavoured with butter, unlike anything you can buy here but widely available from even street corner kiosks.
- Almogrote: From La Gomera in the Canary Islands, a cheese and chilli spread that goes perfectly on toasted bits of bread.
- Salmorejo: a ‘cousin’ of Gazpacho, it’s a soup/ dip made from tomatoes, garlic, bread and oil. Much, much nicer than Gazpacho, usually comes garnished with hard boiled egg and jamon Serrano.

Viva foreign muck!

Wow, where have you been? Brill list, can't wait to try some of these myself especially Tyrosalata and Almogrote.
Thanks!

I miss proper Orangina before they messed around with it.

Ha, I was lucky enough to live in Greece and Spain for a bit and still miss the food today. Almogrote is VERY hard to find but any decent Greek restaurant should do tyrosalata as a starter or accompaniment. Sounds like you share my love of spicy cheesy things!

Me too, lived in Greece for a while. I still can't find replicate the grilled aubergine I used to have in Rhodes.

It was the little bottles years and years ago. "Romantic" when compared to a bottle of corona pop.

there was a also a chocolate milk drink called cacolac. Hardly ever see that now though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDPFBLKAoB8

Have to agree with gyros, they are junk food of the gods. Was in Crete last week and managed to restrict myself to three in the week. Each almost more than I could eat and none more than €3.

I was always a bit skeptical about pancakes with bacon and maple syrup until I had them in the US. Big thick buttermilk pancakes with lashings of maple syrup and crispy bacon, lovely!
I'd also never had cornbread until I had it in the US. Fresh from the oven, still in the baking tin with lots of whipped honey butter. Amazing!

Pont L'Eveque and Livarot are fairly easy to find here - have never seen the ultra-pungent Maroilles though.