How much do holidays cost?

zagfles

LilElvis wrote: »

When I lived in California I craved a "proper British" Indian curry. There were quite a few Indian restaurants but none of them were what I wanted. Then I found one owned by a guy from Bradford - curry nirvana! Poppadoms and chutney while you perused the menu - all the favourites and real flavour. Came at a cost though - a tandoori mixed grill was $30 20 years ago :eek:

:rotfl:yes we're spoilt here! I think I'd get curry withdrawal symptoms too if I lived somewhere like that...though for a fortnight's holiday I'd make do with the excellent Mexicans

lovesgshp

Suppose E20 for a calf liver and onions is about right for Venice. Would I buy it.....No. Make your own, so easy here for those type of basic food. Bacon is more a problem.

lovesgshp

Doshwaster wrote: »

I'm sure you don't only eat English food in England so I don't see why you should you only eat French food in France. I like to mix things up and it's always interesting to see how interpretations of cuisines vary around the world.

I love Thai food possible more than anything but if I'm in Thailand for 2 weeks I would get bored eating it 3 times a day so it's nice to have an Indian curry, burger or even a pizza once in a while

I got very berated by my wife when we went to Thailand for 3 weeks and stupidly I suggested a Chinese restaurant. Must admit I really never want to see a pizza again even though I live here.

Yellow_mango

That wasn't really the point - it's just when you live in a country that has excellent, good value Indian restaurants and you go somewhere like France which has a much smaller population from the subcontinent and as such far fewer restaurants, and particularly a country which has such a variety of excellent local food, having an inferior, more expensive version of what you could have at home seems bizarre to me! Particuarly on a short holiday.

What can I say. We really like curry :rotfl:

Whilst neither were “proper” curries as we’d get at home, both were very friendly and pleasant dining experiences.

Your point however is well made. It was never going to be a budget option.

This thread has actually proved to be extremely useful food for thought. I think we probably spent significantly more on the occasions we did eat out, just because we were not doing so the rest of the time and so felt the need to blow out a little. Had we started with the expectation that we would eat out most or all of the time, our choices would likely have been different and we may actually not have spent a great deal more overall.

We’re also generally very happy to eat both breakfast and lunch at home / pack to take, and that is cheap and easy to do. So eating lunch out everyday is very unlikely to happen even if we had the budget to do so. So in fact €150 a day or less would probably be very achievable even eating dinner out every day.

Thank you all for your input!

LilElvis

lovesgshp wrote: »

Suppose E20 for a calf liver and onions is about right for Venice. Would I buy it.....No. Make your own, so easy here for those type of basic food. Bacon is more a problem.

I can make it myself - I know it's easy. What I can't do is make it for that price - it's £40/ kilo. And I'll be eating it in Spain rather than Venice.

Doshwaster

LilElvis wrote: »

When I lived in California I craved a "proper British" Indian curry. There were quite a few Indian restaurants but none of them were what I wanted. Then I found one owned by a guy from Bradford - curry nirvana! Poppadoms and chutney while you perused the menu - all the favourites and real flavour. Came at a cost though - a tandoori mixed grill was $30 20 years ago :eek:

When I first started going to the US about 20 years ago it was pretty hard to find a "proper" Indian restaurant as the menus were usually changed to cater for local tastes. There has been a big change since then and you can find decent places in most major cities - maybe that's due to the Indian ex-pat population in the US growing, especially in the tech sector.

Strangely enough one of the best and one of the worst Indian meals I've ever had were both in Spain. The best was a family from Birmingham who had moved their restaurant to Mallorca for a better standard of living but the worst was a restaurant where it was "Spanish-style" Indian - it was very popular with locals but Spanish cuisine really doesn't use any hot spices so it was totally bland.

LilElvis

Here's the Caponata In Agrodolce recipe for Pollycat, and anyone else who's feeling peckish.

800g aubergine, diced
120ml olive oil
1 celery stick, chopped
1 onion, thinly sliced
300g file tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 1/2 tsp sugar
100ml white wine vinegar
1 tbsp pine nuts
100g stoned green olives
25g capers
1 tbsp sultanas, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes and drained
Salt and pepper
Fresh basil leaves to garnish

Put the aubergine in a colander, sprinkle with salt and leave to stand for 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry with kitchen paper. Heat 5 tbsp of the olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the aubergine and cook over a medium heat, stirring frequently, until golden brown all over. Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in another pan. Add the celery, onion and tomatoes and cook over a low heat until thickened and pulpy. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the sugar, vinegar, pine nuts, olives, capers and sultanas and bring to the boil over a low heat. Add the aubergine and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve hot or warm, sprinkled with small basil leaves.

LilElvis

Doshwaster wrote: »

When I first started going to the US about 20 years ago it was pretty hard to find a "proper" Indian restaurant as the menus were usually changed to cater for local tastes. There has been a big change since then and you can find decent places in most major cities - maybe that's due to the Indian ex-pat population in the US growing, especially in the tech sector.

Strangely enough one of the best and one of the worst Indian meals I've ever had were both in Spain. The best was a family from Birmingham who had moved their restaurant to Mallorca for a better standard of living but the worst was a restaurant where it was "Spanish-style" Indian - it was very popular with locals but Spanish cuisine really doesn't use any hot spices so it was totally bland.

Perfect end to a night out used to be British fish & chips, made by a Chinese restaurant who delivered orders to a Scottish pub in San Francisco. Now that's multi-cultural.

Yellow_mango

That recipe sounds amazing!

I’ve checked my account and actually it was only the two curries that were over €100 (€113 and €149). The steaks were €82 and €90. We also had a pizza for around €50. So I guess my perception of costs are a little skewed. Maybe the moral is just don’t eat curry in France :rotfl:

LilElvis

Yellow_mango wrote: »

That recipe sounds amazing!

It's one of Inspector Montalbano's favourites. Can't read the books without the overwhelming urge to stuff my face with cannoli.

Those prices sound pretty good for eating out for five of you - especially for steaks.