One of the primary rules of travel can be one of the hardest rules to follow: don’t eat non-local food. What I mean is that for the most part the best food will be the native food not their interpretation of your food.
Best example of this is the Mexican restaurant Casa Loca in Seoul, Korea. For some reason the people we visit think that it will be a welcome change for us weary travelers and that it will remind us of home. I have seen reviews of really good authentic Mexican restaurants in Korea but this place is not it. Their Korean interpretation of Mexican food is so not good.
Likewise beware of ordering classic American dishes (or any regional dish other than the local) from any non-chain restaurant. It will not taste like home. It will taste how the locals want the dish to taste with the ingredients they have available to them.
There are exceptions and the key to this is when the owner/chef is from the place of the food origin, has access to appropriate ingredients, and has not modified things for the local palate. There is a wonderful Italian restaurant, Pomodoro, within walking distance of the Caravelle hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. But it is good because the guy who owns it is direct from Italy doing it all his way not some modified Vietnamese interpretation of Italian food (we actually quizzed him about his recipes and whether the food was tweaked for Vietnamese palette before we ate there).
And there are some decent “almost like home” options but you will find great disagreement among travelers about whether these items are really good or not. Hamburger/cheeseburger at nicer brand name hotels can be hit or miss (Westin, Ritz, Intercontinental). After a week of Asian food maybe their version of a cheeseburger is just want you need and often works just fine for me. For my boss, a major hamburger snob who is critical as to what toppings are precisely allowed, this is always a sore disappointment. He rightly points out that the meat has more of a meatloaf texture than hamburger texture. But fries are hardly ever messed up at these major hotel chains and as such are an almost always perfect and very satisfying reminder of home.
And there will come a time when you cannot stand one more Asian dish no matter how good it is and you need something, anything that reminds you of home. So beyond an okay burger at the hotel what can you do?
Chain Restaurants? Starbucks and other coffee meccas are a definite yes. McDonalds, etc. well, yes it can taste pretty much the same as back in the U.S. but I desperately avoid in U.S. so why would I go there overseas? The few times I have had my arm twisted to eat at some sort of U.S. fast food based chain overseas I have gotten sick shortly after. Could be coincidence or timing of trip in general but the two times I have been really sick both of those times I had eaten at a fast food chain within a day of the “event”. “Moderate to higher end” chains seem to do better. I have had decent meals at both Outback Steakhouse and Tony Roma’s in Korea.
Pizza in Asia? It depends. Pizza Hut in Jinan, China was just weird. The menu had nearly everything but pizza and then a small section on pizza. Keep in mind that cheese is not a staple of Asian diets. The toppings were also tailored for the Asian palate. So what we ordered was kind of like home but just off enough to really taste wrong. On the other hand, California Pizza Kitchen in Hong Kong was just like being at one in U.S. and tasted just like home.
Of course Hong Kong seems to be an exception in general. One of the best Thai restaurants I have ever eaten at outside of Thailand is in Hong Kong - Sweet Thai Basil located in Harbor City on Canton Road.
In general it is best, especially the more remote you get, to stick with local cuisine. And let a local order for you! Give them some basic input on your extreme like and dislikes and then be open minded. When you do need an American fix – be careful what you pick!
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