Linda431

"So are you guys taking off the head, shell and tail of the shrimp with a knife and fork, too? Everyone I saw was using their fingers."

I was lucky enough to be at le Petit Zinc about 15 years ago when Catherine Deneuve was there. I watched her peel shrimp after shrimp with 2 swipes of the knife & fork. I was amazed. It must take practice to be able to do that. AND still look gorgeous while doing it.

I agree with Tomass about the chicken at L'Ami Louis. Out of this world. You probably don't want to know this if you're watching the old cholesterol, but it is coated with goose fat before it's roasted. The potatoes are cooked with goose fat as well. Then they dump a load of garlic/parsley butter on top.(I told you you probably didn't want to know!)

Patrica Wells has the recipes for both in her Food Lover's Guide to Paris.

SeaUrchin

Meatwise I only eat what I would eat at home, chicken or fish. But I will eat any vegetable or anything else new to my palate.

FainaAgain

Oh, I would eat ice-cream only and avoid everything else

crefloors

I had a really good steak in Paris. Rooster combs seem to be the "latest" thing. Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Chanel has eaten them in several countries. He was in Mexico last night, they cook the combs, but he didn't eat them this time. He confined himself to grasshoppers, ant and mosquito eggs, and grubs. There was some other kind of small bug he ate that is traditionally eaten alive.

I wouldn't worry too much about eating in Europe, but watch out for Mexico!!

robjame

No avoids... only tastes I have decided I don't like as well.

It is all what you were brought up eating...

Queasies - Do you eat eggs?
Do you know what they are?

annw

Andrew Zimmer is really entertaining and I have to admire his brass with some of the items he consumes.

But on the last program he was offered some large pokey fruit with a terrible stench which he absolutely could not consume and in fact spit out.

As for avoiding, I tend to avoid meat and to favor vegetarian and pastas while traveling if they are available, as they generally are in Italy where I travel most.

Did have outstanding fillet mignon in Ireland, however.

plafield

That spiky, stinky fruit sounds like durian, from southeast Asia. I tried it once. It's tastes/smells like a combination of banana, garlic and dirty socks. Totally gross and I'll never eat it again.

StCirq

Yes, it was durian, and if you've ever encountered it you'd know why even Iron Stomach Andrew couldn't hack it.

I stuff myself with foie gras and baby veal in Europe - can't get enough of it! I've had delicious donkey sausage in Sarlat and the rue Buci in Paris, eaten bunny and wild boar and frog's legs and snails and venison and horse meat and elk and stuffed goose neck and sweetbreads and goat and scallops with coral and crayfish and beef cheeks and raw herring and pig's ears and tongue and pretty much everything else.

What I draw the line at is tripe. Good God, I cannot fathom how anyone can get that down their throat! I once bought a panino from anoutddoor stand in Florence, not realizing it was tripe stewed in some sort of tomato sauce, took a bite and literally spewed it onto the sidewalk - very startling to the vendor and his other customers. But man, that stuff is nasty!

BTilke

There are some dishes I won't eat in any country, no matter how pretty the dish sounds in another language.

I've had some very good beef in France, look for a menu offering "poire" of beef, that's a good cut. I find it pretty easy to get a good "filet pur" in Belgium, sometimes the beef is local (usually listed as BBB), sometimes it's not. In Austria, beef (inc. steak) from grassfed Scottish longhorn cattle raised in Styria is fabulous.

I tend to avoid ribs in Eruope...I just haven't found them any place as good as in the U.S. Our experience has been that most places serve spareribs whereas we like babybacks. Also a lot of their barbecue sauces are too vinegary tasting.

I avoid vegetable soup in Belgium. You can eat wonderfully well in Brussels, but that dark green vegetable soup just isn't worth it. It's like eating soup made of grass (and not the kind that gives you a buzz). So I stick to France for creamy soups and Germany/Austria for clear soups with chicken or beef broth as their base. One of the best soups I ever had--a CLEAR tomato consomme--was served at a dinner party near Bremen and I've never come across it anywhere else, it was absolutely delicious.

I don't order crab much in Europe. Too often they sneak in crab stick instead. And if you've lived in the NW, where you've got wonderful Dungeness and Alaskan king crab available in every city then...although I do like some of the potted crab I can get in the UK

I love game season in Belgium, France, Germany, Austria...esp. venison and marcassin.

wally34949

I remember watching the Travel Channel a few years ago and this young lady was in Vietnam. She walked into a nice restaurant (she was so excited) and ordered the special of the house. When it arrived, she asked what it was and was told it was "cock and balls from a pig.

She hesitated and took the knife and said, I think this is the cock. She put it in her mouth and said, "Tastes like chicken."

I laughed so hard I nearly ran out of oxygen.

cmt

The only thing I can think of that I avoid is cream sauces. I can taste a little bit of them, but cannot have an entire dish that contains a lot of cream. It won't kill me, but I don't digest it very well, and on a trip I prefer not to risk having stomach problems.

I try to taste all sorts of unfamiliar foods and foods that I may know, but that are difficult to find at home. The only "strange" meat that I already know I dislike is tripe, but I wouldn't rule out trying it again, because maybe my taste will change or I won't find it as bad prepared a different way. The only fruit I didn't like was cactus fruit. I eat any and all vegetables.

cmt

P.S. The oddest food I ever tried in Europe was raw pork sausage. I was having dinner with an internet friend in a little restaurant in his neighborhood in Milan, and one of the dishes was this raw pork sausage. At first I assumed the waiter was just showing it to us before cooking it, as he'd shown us the fish. But it was really served raw, and it really was pork. I ate it because I didn't want to be rude. I was going home in two days, and I figured I could ask my doctor for some pill similar to my dog's once-a-month heartworm pill that kills any worm larvae before they get a chance to mature into adult worms. But there's no such thing. I survived. It was probably very good pork from a very healthy pig that grew up eating Italian hazelnuts and chestnuts. I prefer the pork cooked, though.

cigalechanta

The Bress Chicken is special. I will not eat anything I would play with when it was alive

spinesrgn

Steak. Never had one as good as you can get in the states.

robjame

I know what you mean, spinesrgn
I never order maple syrup in France for the same reason

AR

I agree that steaks are better in the US, but then again it is a speciality there.

Steaks were popular in Europe in the '70s but have lost much of their appeal as people want more than just a steak. In the UK, there were many steakhouses 30 years ago (height of sophistication to have a prawn cocktail, steak and black forrest gateaux washed down with Blue Nun) such as Berni Inn and Beefeater which have now closed as palates have changed. You can still get plenty of steaks in pubs etc.

As for the rest of Europe - take France where they would rather kill their grandmothers than make a bien cuit steak.

elina

>>>I tried reindeer meat in Norway. Very greasy.<<<

In that case the grease came from something else, not reindeer. That is the leanest meat you can get, almost no fat at all. Tha animal is not farmed in a sense that it would be fed, and it eats just dry, grey moss. No fat at all. Just like game, but even leaner.

And yes, you eat your chicken with knife and fork. It would raise some eyebrows if somebody just crabbed the bird with bare hands. Unless it is the upper leg on somebody´s backyard.

Lawchick

Beuschel in Austria.

SloJan2

Rex, I draw the line at horse because I like horses and to me, eating them is akin to eating dog.

Tripe may sound gross and wouldn't be my first pick but I have to admire those who learn how to use the whole animal. Waste not, want not.

Padraig

In general, when eating in restaurants -- be they a mile from here or a thousand miles -- I seek something that I am unlikely to eat at home, usually because I don't know how to cook it or it's a lot of work preparing it or because it uses ingredients I can't easily find.

So I don't order steak very often.

I usually try local specialties, and there are few ingredients that turn me off. No snails, thank you, and nothing that involves cruelty in production.