American food in a foreign land. Taste's the same?Italy and Egypt

[Bookish Angel]

Observing fly-covered, unrefrigerated, green mystery meat and other rotting food can make McDonald's look VERY good and most of their restrooms a gift from the gods.

[Karennella]

I agree with this sentiment. Britain also has a growing obesity problem and Scotland even more so, with seriously high number of associated cardiac issues. I'm a great lover of the Italian and Mediterranean way of eating, with the emphasis on slow rather than fast food and individual local restaurants using fresh locally sourced produce rather than food chains.

 

I've only cruised on Italian ships and set eating 3 times a day suits me. Lots of my fellow (mainly English-speaking ones) complain about the lack of 24/7 buffets and there being a few hours during the day and most of the night when food is not available. Italians are a significant percentage of overall passengers and they don't seem to want to graze all day and night. The dining room also seem far more popular with them for dinner, rather than piling it high and eating it quick in the buffet. I had noticed that they tend to be a lot slimmer than us English speaking passengers.

Yes I sometimes read the reviews of Costa for amusement, seeing what the mostly American posters have complained about. I find it a mystery that people who want their cruise experience to be standard American, should choose an Italian ship. They dont seem to like the breakfast choices, but Italians generally eat almost no breakfast at all. I think when travelling they like to indulge their sweet tooth and I have never seen anything like some of the breakfast buffets in Italian hotels. We would call them desert buffets and my husband was beside himself with joy! Then they complain about the food not being hot. I cannot entirely blame them as my mother-in-law was a wonderful Italian cook but never attempted to keep food hot; my mother would always heat the plates in the oven so I was used to hot food

. But we learnt in Italy to request our coffee hot and have long ago gotten used to food served lukewarm. They do not like the Italian style pizzas; perhaps they would sooner an Aussie one with roast lamb and peas? Truly, or perhaps ham, pineapple and banana from our local place! They complain about people pushing in etc. Well I do think the British gift to the world is the queue, but Costa not British and you need to go with the flow.

I agree there are places where somewhere like McD's is a welcome sight. On a short visit to an out of the way place, noone wants to get sick.

[lahore]

This is a wind up, right?

[YarnHappy]

I think the Sausage McMuffin is better in Egypt (it's beef not pork) but in Italy I say stick to what they do best. We tried McD's in Milan and it was soooo horrible and even the staff seemed to hate the idea that McD's existed in Italy :) I only stopped in there because my DS was 3 at the time and too hungry to wait for a real meal. Later though, he got a taste of filet mignon and handmade spaghetti and guess which one won his heart? Yeah, my kid's not stupid :)

 

By the way Pizza Hut in Egypt is different and the Pepperoni pizza is awesome.