Adam Balic

Is that the place on the West highland way? Full of stuffed birds and as you said really something else. I was there last May, one of my more twitchery friends pointed out that there were more dead corncrakes in the lobby then there were in all of mainland Scotland. I didn't notice, far to distracted by a drunk chap in kilt, pretending to be a character from "The League of Gentlemen", scaring some Dutch tourists. Very funny. Absolutely, you must go there.

Another unfair attack on Andy.

Water.

True, but does this matter?

Well that's not fair at all. Maybe if Andy ate as much as you did in Spain, then yeh, sure, why not, I could see that.

"good dining advice". Never dine in a Scottish Restuarant. Well it was very obvious and had to be said. Obviously not true in any way. I live in Edinburgh, maybe you could PM me your travel details and I will see what I can suggest.

TV version is also very good, especially the vocab. Entire thing is very 'Withnail and I'.

Goodness, you lads have eaten more meat in seven days then I have in a year. Apart from you two, is Madrid full of gouty types?

Not in Australia it didn't. The ability of somebody in Melbourne Circa ~1980 to get a decent cup of coffee had little to do with a small section of the population going for holidays in Italy. It was because of Italians (an others) opening cafes in Melbourne. I think that you have overstated the impact of tourism on the development of ethnic restaurants eating. This may be changing, but it isn't historical. Tourists are for tourists.

Don't agree. In Melbourne the model was people that migrated here 1950's-70's really had not idea of what to expect when they got here. The Australian culture at the time was extremely Anglo-Saxon (AS) dominated, so no opening of ethinic restuarants for the locals. People that migrated and ran resturants for the AS ran Fish 'n' Chip places. At the time of my childhood in the 70's most Fish 'n' Chip places were ran by Greeks (now they are ran by Vietnamese). "Ethnic" restaurants when they did open, were opened for the migrants, no the AS population. AS were exposed to these places in the second degree. But, as I said before, to do this you need a certain critical mass of a particular ethnic population to do this. It doesn't really have to reflect any real value of a particular cuisine at all.

And I think that the Thai example maybe most relevant to the UK. There is a large Thai community in Australia.

Tony - But salt cod and offal are what the entire dish revolves around. It's usually a big hunk of salt cod stewed somehow. Or kidneys that are broiled after being coated with mustard or something. They only use a spoonful of dried shrimp paste and it is integrated into a spicing routine that might have 15 other ingredients. So you don't taste it by itself. Steve - you really are having trouble keeping track of who I am today. . I garantee that even a tiny amount of fermented prawn paste with dominate a dish in flavour, not to mention the immediate 100 metres. What is the big deal with salt cod? It has a nice, mildish flavour and it doesn't look weird or anything. As for offal, well it's found in every country, people like it or not and I haven't noticed that Spanish cuisine was over abundant in it. I think that Wilfrid was correct when he said that very few foods have traveled due to tourism. Maybe that will change now with a more food aware culture in the UK, USA, Australia etc, but very little to date I would think. And that may be your clue to why regional Spanish food isn't better know in the US, UK & etc - not enough of a Spanish ethnic population to reach some type of critical mass of food exposure to the non-Spanish population?

I think that this is most likely correct in many cases, but I do think that there is a case for people gaining more experience while traveling abroad, of food they have been exposed to in some way "back home". And being more brave about it in the process. For example people traveling to Turkey would be more likely to try un-known things if they had some sort of awareness in the back of there mind like: " I had that Turkish meat pizza-thing in X, which was nice, I wonder what else they have like that?".

Exactly. SARDINE OF EVIL

The flavours of well aged beef or a nice partridge are "off flavours" and most people don't have a problem with them. If I gave you a slice of raw fermented prawn paste, you wouldn't want to eat it, but then you would never see it in that form, same logic applies to salt cod or offal etc etc. I don't see what the big deal is. Having spoken to a few people that have been tourists in Turkey (popular destination for Australians), one of the things that they mention is that they wish that the food avalible to them was a bit more varied and interesting (ie. No more kebabs and stuffed breads).

Dude, they are canned sardines, they all look and smell weird. . However, I once opened a can of sardines that had one fish in it, now that was very weird and not a little creepy. A large can of oil and one sardine. In my mind I think of it as the "evil-born-of-a-jackal" sardine. Just isn't right, sardines individually canned.

Steve - I don't want to drag this off topic and have to start another thread, but this is really very funny. I see the point that you are making, but boy-oh-boy was the choice of example cuisines off by a mile. How many Thai dishes don't have the salted fish juice in them I wonder?

I'd probably get rid of it. If it doesn't get you sick, it isn't going to have any taste left. Why would storage of sardines for 5+ years have the effect of removing all flavour from them?

Only if you are some type of canned-fish-refridgerating-freak.

I am living in the land of bacon and depending on what type of bacon I am using I cook it in different ways. However, I don't really like crispy bacon and consider it a waste of pig to cook it so. People shouldn't waste pig, pig is good.

Why do you keep cans of tuna in the fridge?

Vedat - what an amazing post, thank you. From the very little I know about Turkish history, I remember that food was very important to the Ottomans (as you have said) and that special cooks guilds existed and often people form certain regions of the empire were employed in the kitchens to make dishs specific from these regions. Are you saying that much of these cuisines no longer exist? How sad if this is true. I know what you mean about the wine. I have always wanted to try Buzbag, but the only Turkish wine I have seen is made from French vines.

Tony - I just found this extremely good Greek food site. Very interesting information on Greek food and culture (even has an article on Marmalade and Pectin!). Greek Food

I have had the thought that maybe if an individual of Greek heritage read this thread, then maybe they would be upset. So, by way of appology let me say that I think that Greece likely has its own cuisine. All this stuff in the thread is about being able to prove this, which is something that we should be able to do .

Wilfrid - I quote myself as I think that it is clear that there is no issue with Turkish food being more 'refined': The point being, do the Greeks have a definable cuisine of there own or not?