Therese, you're right about cuisine being one of the ways to get insights into a culture.<BR><BR>But Bill, if dining/cooking isn't one of your interests, then other ways to gain insights (besides history, of course) are the local language, folk art and crafts, manner of dress, livelihoods, and performing arts.

Maybe we need to qualify 'food' a bit. I confess that I often don't have the energy after a full day sightseeing to really appreciate a fancy feast. But I do enjoy the simpler 'everyday' dishes of a region, especially soup and stews. I often get ideas about how to liven up my own everyday cooking from what I eat when traveling.

I get the impression that some people are trying to see as much as possible on their trip ( being that they may not be back EVER again ) and see eating as getting in the way of valuable sight seeing time. Yet one can only see so much before being overloaded.<BR><BR>As for me - food is that mportant. Both traveling and here in NYC. I can't eat as well here every day as I do on vacation but I do make the effort to give the proper attention each time I eat.<BR><BR>A couple of my friends are just bottom line cheap when it comes to food. "Why would I spend $15 on an foie gras appetizer when I can get a Lean Cuisine meal for $2.59" they say. There is no point in even discussing the finer points to eating with people like this. <BR><BR>There are people who are uncomfortable eating unfamiliar foods while on vacation and thus eat burgers and such. To these types I say why travel outside of the US then.<BR><BR>Europe has a better, healthier, positive attitude about food compared to many Americans.

No!

Yes!

OK, say you have spent the entire day walking and sightseeing.For breakfast you had a cup of coffee and a roll.Lunch was a baguette wherever you happened to be.<BR>It is dinner time,it is dark, and you are exhausted from all the walking and looking.<BR>Don't you look forward to a little rest in your room,getting dressed,and going and sitting in a good restaurant(not neccesarily expensive or dressy) and enjoying a good meal?<BR>And when you have eaten it and are full and can think about the day-isn't that good meal at the end of the day - all a part of the great trip you are having?<BR>So, is it not important for every aspect of your trip to be good?

foodie, I eat the exact opposite of you. I would never dream of starting a day of touring with just a cup of coffee and a roll. I want a big breakfast with fruit, meat or eggs, something whole-grain. I love those big English breakfasts! <BR><BR>And I have no desire at the end of a busy day to go back to a hotel, rest, get dressed again and then out to a restaurant in the evening. Give me something simple *then* and early to bed, I hate that feeling of going to bed stuffed. No wonder you don't have room for a decent breakfast!<BR><BR>I don't think you can appreciate how unimportant food can be. You might as well be arguing that people should take taxis or limousines all the time rather than the tube/Metro because the ride is "nicer." The people who really live in those areas you're touring don't eat out in restaurants all the time, do they?

Interesting to see your post, Bill, since I just read Adam Gopnik's book, Paris to the Moon, on our recent trip to Italy & France. I realize that food is important to Parisians, and the French -- and I liked the book and Gopnik's style of writing -- but I guess I hadn't realized just how much of this book was devoted to writing about food, cooking, eating. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if more of the book had been devoted to other topics (my favorite chapter was the one where Gopnik wrote about the trial of a former Vichy official in Bordeaux a few years ago) but apparently Gopnik, and his readers, love to write, and read, about food.<BR><BR>I enjoy eating in Europe, but food has never been one of my top reasons for traveling in any European country.

Eating is something you have to do every day. Eating well is a mind set which colors everyting else I pursue and do in my life. Taking food into one's body can be a wonderful intimate pleasure. Many European countries consider breakfast to be a insignificant meal - a roll and a cup of coffee. If you can't take the mental time to pay attention to what you're taking into your body how can you really be taking in things around you. Whether you prefer breakfast or dinner to be your main meal is secondary to the attitude one has towards eating. One has to learn to relax and take it all in - eating is a great way to learn this attitude because it is an action you have to do everyday.<BR><BR>In defence of the other camp I reminded of a Chinese saying: eat like a king for breakfast, a peasent for lunch, a bird for dinner. <BR>

My husband and I are also in the "what's the big deal?" camp when it comes to restaurants and traveling. I'm not denying that we like to eat, and we do go to a restaurant a few times per trip. However, they rarely seem like they're worth the time and money, even in Paris! There are so many things I'd rather be doing. I'm happier assembling a picnic, or grabbing some kind of takeout food.<BR><BR>The first thing most people ask us when we return from a trip is "how was the food?"

Food? Hate the stuff - never touch it!

If you have to ask we can't explain it to you. <BR><BR>Myself I hate to fish. Some people live to fish, some people hate to travel

I'm with you Bill...I like to wait until I'm hungry and then just eat a little something -- doesn't matter what really -- to take the edge off the hunger. I could never stuff myself at multiple course sit down meals or just eat because the clock has a certain time on it. Yick.<BR><BR>I hate feeling full, it's truly disgusting to me. My friends all make comments about how tall and thin I am and ask me how I stay slim, like it's a mystery. I never diet, I just don't eat the way they do. The people I know who insist on a "real dinner" every night are all overweight. Don't know if the two things coincide or not, but they seem to.

I presume "never stuff myself at multiple course sit down meals" assumes that everyone eats American portion, multiple AMERICAN PORTION course sit down meals. I agree most of the time if one is restricting to American portion meals only.<BR><BR>But European restaurants generally do not serve American portions. I felt that a seven course French meal to be about 1/2 portion of an American portion lunch specials at a mall type chinese restaurant.

I think the bottom line here is that people go to Europe -- or anywhere else in the world -- for different reasons. Personally, I put a much higher priority on things like looking at architecture, people-watching, and taking photos than I do on eating in nice restauants, but I also understand that other people really get a lot of pleasure out of that. <BR><BR>The only kind of "foodies" that annoy me are food snobs, the kind that, because they have to have a certain level of cuisine, or have to eat at a certain kind of restaurant, dismiss other kinds of food or restaurants as unworthy for anyone. Frankly, I'd probably get a lot more pleasure out of eating a great pizza, or a lamb curry, than I probably would anything from the kitchen of Alain Ducasse or Alice Waters. What matters is what you like, not what critics, or others, deem as excellent.

I still think we may be trying to compare apples and oranges here.(oh dear, sorry, terrible pun. : - ) ) <BR><BR>As an experience, eating is like any other form of entertainment. There's opera at La Scala; good local theatre in any region; and the TV at home. Each is its own experience, yes? Or take photography: some find picture taking on vacation a bore or even a chore; others enjoy having a selection of lenses and films when snapping; yours truly is something in between. <BR><BR>Still, thanks Bill, for giving us all 'food' for thought (okay, okay, I'm going, I'm going....)

I am convinced that food just tastes different to different people. Those that don't see what the big deal is obviously don't taste the same things that I do, or they wouldn't be asking the question! I never get restaurant recommendations for Europe because I would never remember (or be able to find) the places anyhow, but oh, do I ever appreciate a good meal!

if you appreciate good food, they dinnertime in italy is an event. its meant to share with other people, to relax, to enjoy each other company, to banter and joke and to forfil the evening by also appreciating and enjoying good food and wine. its a complex social event. some people just eat to live and will never experience this type of pleasure and the rest of us will continue to experience a little heaven each nite boun appitito

Peter is right , eating in another country is a cultural and social "happening". You see, feel and taaste what the native people feel , you interact with otheres, ..It does not have to be a 4 Star event! You tour and sightsee all day, rest then go out and sit and peoplewatch, then head off to a cafe , bistro or 3 star..whatever. then you spend a few hours...what else are you planning to see after 8..the churches, museums, etc are closed..all there is to do is pewople watch or club...personally clubbing in any city in the world is the vey same!<BR><BR>In a bistro, you may make a conversation with a native, you may learn something from someone you would never meet wandering the streets.<BR>I do not live to eat but neither do I eat to live. Food satisfys all the senses..touch,sight.smell

Some people seem to be suggesting that to eat in restaurants on ones vacation equals stuffing oneself every night and being overweight, that one cannot go to say-Paris and enjoy the cultural side and still eat out without somehow being less of an adventurer because they like to eat a fine meal,rather than some kind of picnic in a hotel room?<BR>Isn't this some sort of reverse snobbery at work here? <BR>How many people who can afford to travel AND eat would say that they go to Paris and see all the sights but don't eat in restaurants because "food is not important"? <BR>I'm sorry-I just don't buy it, if you eat, then you eat in Paris just like you do in Chicago or wherever, and if you are on vacation,why would you eat in your hotel room rather than out? <BR>