New To Tauck - Curious To Better Understand The Food Experiences On This Tour
We are near to embarking on the Southeast Asia land tour. Food experiences are a very exciting exploration in new cultures that we visit. The land tour provides numerous hotel or local group meals. I'd like to hear from the community on whether or not those provided meals (as opposed to dining on our own) are opportunities for local preparations and flavors. Or, are the provided meals more generally limited to satisfying western travelers.
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I was on that tour recently. The food was generally western. I like Vietnamese food (lived there for a while) but you won't find much in the meals provided as part of the tour.
You can see our tour at https://www.mikeandjudytravel.com/2024-1Vietnam-01.htm
[Let me add a note based on BKMD's post. There is Asian food on the buffets, but it's general Asian, including sushi. What I did not find was Vietnamese food. In Saigon, when we went on the Vespa ride, we went to two restaurants that served some Vietnamese food. If you want to experience real Vietnamese food, I think you'll have to go to a restaurant on your own. Ask the hotel for some suggestions.
Good Vietnamese food is not "strange", like fried crickets. It's an excellent cusine based on what they have available to them - lots of vegtables (some different than used in the US), often seafood or pork, maybe a fine rice noodle, all in a sauce. Some dishes were served over a fine crispy noodle (fine like angel hair pasta but maybe a rice noodle).
The French were in Vietnam for many years and they taught the Vietnamese chefs how to cook French. The chefs have taken that and mixed with with traditional Vietnamese food to produce some excellent dishes. When I was there, I would go to the French Vietnamese restaurants, as well as Vietnamese restaurants. They did some excellent French food.]
[Maybe you can find a tour guide who can take you to one or more good Vietnamese restaurants.]
A little side story. I went to a Vietnamese banquet while I was there years ago. They brought out the first course and it was wonderful - I even asked for a second helping. LIttle did I know that course was just the first of almost a dozen courses. And I had to eat each course to be polite. I was really stuffed by the time the banquet was over. But I was young and inexperienced. I didn't realize you have to pace yourself.
I did this trip in Jan 2024, and respectfully disagree with Mike.
The breakfast buffets had both western and Asian options. Most of the group meals were Asian in style. Perhaps they were somewhat filtered or sanitized in that there was nothing like fried crickets for dinner, but they were Asian.
We were offered tarantulas in Cambodia. I declined.
Some of that odd food offerings is just to get a reaction from the tourist. During the war, I was told by field guys that they were offered monkey eyes as a delicacy, but it was often done to the new guys just to see how they would react. The Vietnamese knew that Americans would generally be put off by the offering. The Special Forces guys just ate it as if it was normal.
I went a day early to Hanoi. I took a food walking tour — we went to authentic local restaurants for a variety of tastes. It was delicious - the tastes were very delicate
with nuanced flavors. It was a fantastic experience. I gave specific information about the tour in an older post. If local food is important to you, I would strongly suggest a food tour.
A Vietnamese food story: When I was there, Saigon was going through a Quail egg mania. That is, suddenly quail eggs were the thing and everyone was trying to raise quail for the eggs. I helped a Vietnamese friend, Mrs. Thien, by giving some advice about raising poultry for eggs – I grew up on a poultry farm.
One way they ate the quail eggs was to put fertile eggs in an incubator until an embryo started developing. The egg was then soft boiled and eaten that way.
Mrs. Thien tried to get me to try one but I just couldn’t face that. She said to me, “You try once, you say Give me more, Give me more.” But I just couldn’t.
However, that phrase “You try once, you say Give me more” became a saying between my first wife and I when one of us wouldn’t want to try some new food.
We called them "half hatched eggs" but I think they didn't let the embryo development go that far.
I did this tour many years ago with Tauck, it is excellent! the food was divine a great with variety selection of both Asian & Western food.
In Hanoi, going in a couple of days early, my husband and I ate the street food, against the advice of everyone. You sat on little kid chairs and tables in the street that they close to traffic late in the day. You cook your own protein in oil over a heat can. It was fun to do and delicious. Sides of rice were served. The only problem was seeing all the chicken before hand, unrefrigerated, in the markets. We luckily survived, but great memories.
I agree with BKMD. Yes, I'm sure some of the Asian meals we had were "westernized," but they were Asian in style and flavors. Many of the breakfast buffets had an Asian section. In addition, we signed up for two cooking classes in Thailand while on our own.
Check out Wikipedia for Balut (or Pinoy).
I never knew the name for that. Thanks! I still could not eat it.
I'm impressed that you could find information about those eggs.
BKMD, I hope you are right, though maybe one has to seek out local dishes. On the Chicago history event, Tauck let me order poke for lunch rather than the usual burgers and salads; I pleaded my case by pointing out it had a lower menu price. For me the food would be a major reason to sign up. I recently read of a tour (elsewhere) to Japan where the Welcome Dinner was at an Italian restaurant and the group was isolated at breakfast with tepid (in flavor and temperature) Western offerings. That is a deal breaker. There are btw companies specializing in food tours to Asia.
When I was in the Navy, the Balut was a "thing" when we pulled into our home-away-from-home- Subic Bay, Philippines. I never met or knew anyone who had actually eaten one. I always thought they were older than 18 days and buried in the ground until fermented!
They were never on pu pu platters. We just stuck with lumpia which is a Philippine version of spring rolls.