Cheap destinations for the travelling stomach

ben on 4th March 2010 | 9 comments

Without doubt, my most memorable travelling moments have involved food - tucking into steaming broths in a bustling Asian night market, eating fresh seafood on a moonlit beach or tucking into a large bone of mutton on the Mongolian steppe. Food is arguably the most evocative and memorable feature of travelling.

Ignoring the obvious gourmet foody meccas of New York, San Sebastian, Paris and Rome as this isn’t about eating at Michelin starred restaurants, which destinations can serve up a balanced diet of fantastic food in buzzing restaurants day-in-day-out at a modest price to suit the traveller’s budget?

Some destinations renowned for their great food are nigh on useless for the purposes of a travelling stomach. Take Spain for instance. It hosts a fascinating tapas and pinxtos food culture and some of the best restaurants in the world. However, food in low and mid-range Spanish restaurants is often incredibly oily, devoid of any evidence of vegetation and served at ridiculously late in the night.

The best destinations offer abundant restaurants whose food reflects the countries honest home-cooking rather than a refined and separate restaurant culture. Not surprisingly, SE Asia dominates my top three. Eating out is so cheap there you can enjoy three meals a day for months on end without diminishing your travel budget and the cheaper you go the better it gets, a bustling night market always beats a high end restaurant.

 

1. Vietnam (street food = $0.5pp; local restaurants = $2pp; 1 beer = $0.60)

Vietnamese food has lots going for it, a very long coastline, French, Chinese and Vietnamese influences. The result is an incredible cuisine at an incredibly modest price. Everyone knows about the delicious spicy beef noodle soup Pho, but there is theatre too with the ever popular table-top bbq joints that are rammed to the rafters every night in Ho Chi Minh. Then there are the French influences, yes good wine is available as are French bistros, but seriously, skip the wine. Eat at a buzzing market, follow up with a divine dark chocolate sorbet from an ice cream parlour (Fannys in Hanoi is the best) and then head down to a street corner bia-hoi joint for some seriously cheap and fresh beer surrounded by the insane Vietnamese traffic. The Vietnamese people are crazy about their food, an ever lasting memory I have of our time there was seeing the locals head down en-masse to the beach at low tide to dig up the delicious clams to be found under the wet sand.

 

2. Thailand (street food = $0.50pp, local restaurant food = $3pp, 1 beer = $0.90)

It isn’t always easy finding a good restaurant in Thailand, but you can’t go wrong with the abundant street food.  A steaming hot bowl of chicken noodle soup can be picked up for a modest price and is both delicious and nutritious.  The night markets are without doubt the culinary highlight of Thailand, bustling, aromatic, cheap and delicious.  The greatest challenge is not filling yourself up with your first dish as there will be others you absolutely have to try.  The ubiquitous Thai Green curry and Pad Thai deserve a mention and they do always seem enhanced when served up with a tall bottle of Chang to share at a romantic beach-side table. (Thanks to Flickr user avlxyz for the image)

 

3. Malaysia (street food = $1, local restaurant food = $2, 1 beer = $2)

The beauty of Malaysian food is the variety. Chinese, Malay, Indian and Nyonya influences are at play, and offer real variety. For everyday eating it is hard to beat a plate of Hainanese chicken rice, delicately steamed chicken served on top of the best rice you will ever taste and accompanied by a small bowl of chicken soup. That may not involve a huge dose of vegetables but you can always top up with fruit later. Nyonya cuisine is amongst the finest in the world, but unfortunately it can be hard to find in restaurants.  Malaysia hosts fantastic food markets too and a visit  isn't complete without a Roti Canai with dal. Roti Canai is a delicious flat bread similar to an Indian roti and is usually served with a spicy lentil dal. (Thanks to Flickr user avlxyz for the image)

 

4. South Africa (street food = na, local restaurant food = $6, 1 beer = $1.50)

Few would think of South Africa as a destination for great food, but the combination of modest prices and abundant red meat, fruit, vegetables and decent wine is a winner. Cosmopolitan South Africa boasts a similar passion for fine wining and dining as Australia and New Zealand, but wins hands down for its low prices and the ever present braai, where the humble bbq is raised to a true art form. Eating out is incredibly accessible, even with loud kids in tow – but unlike the Asian destinations mentioned above you will definitely want to plan to cook in some nights, if only to see if you can emulate some of the braai tricks of your hosts! (Thanks to Flickr user victoriapeckham for the image)

 

5. China (street food = $1.50, local restaurant food = $3.50, 1 beer = $1.00)

It is hard to sum up such a vastly varied cuisine as China's so I’ll leave you with some of my favourite meals.  A cup full of potato wedges cooked on an open fire and dipped in the most divine and intensely hot spice rub you could ever imagine in Zhongdian.  Piling up the plates of shaved beef and noodles around a boiling broth in a Beijing shopping mall.  Selecting our meat of choice from cages of live snakes, chicken and ducks.  Soaking rolled up balls of stale bread in a mutton broth in a backstreet Muslim restaurant.  Eating cubes of solid pig fat that tasted as close to heaven as I have ever come.  And finally a 20 course dumpling banquet in Xian!  Even the depressing sign of backpacker exposure was ever present – the dreaded banana pancake!

 

And finally, the disappointments...

Mexico was perhaps my biggest culinary disappointment.  It probably reflects a failure on my part to get under the skin of the cuisine, but honestly I’d take Tex-Mex over real Mexican food any time.  I found many meals under flavoured, too sweet or swamped in sauce.  Admittedly street food was good, but not always that accessible.  New Zealand also disappointed, but for an altogether different reason – a lack of diversity.  And finally who could make an argument for Russia? I'm not averse to a little stodgy Northern European food from time to time, but I have absolutely no memories of what I eat in Russia and that is telling!

Comments (9)

1. Great post! Food is such an important part of travel for my husband Terry and I, and although we love food at all budget levels, from street food to high end, it never ceases to amaze me how a $2 mango and sticky rice from a curb-side stall in Thong Lor, Bangkok, can taste as sublime (if not more so!) than a dessert at a Michelin-star restaurant.

   Couldn't agree more re Thailand, Malaysia and China, but disagree re Mexican and Russian. Would go for 'real' Mexican food over that dreadful American Tex-Mex crap anyday - hate the stuff! The diversity of Mexican cuisine is impressive from taquitos and cerviche on the street to a refined and complex Mole in a high-end restaurant, but you really need to know where to go.

   I also have a bias re Russian food as my ancestry is Russian and my Russian grandmother's food was heavenly. There is actually a fantastic Russian place in Dubai where the food is *exactly* the same as my Baboushka's cooking. Cooked well a Russian dumpling (vereniki or pelimini for example) can be as sublime as the boiled wontons in a Chinese soup and far from stodgy, unlike, say, Hungarian or Czech.

   Do try and give both cuisines a shot again. :)

   lara dunston 4th March 2010

2. Fantastic post - I'm lucky enough to have a South African neighbour who throws braais quite often during the summer, and it puts our burgers-and-chicken-wings on the BBQ to absolute shame!

   Ben, what's going on with the ghosts in your Vietnamese photo? Are they the spirits of those who ate the wrong thing?

   Zeke 5th March 2010

3. Thanks Lara - I think you are right about Mexican food, I am sure it is out of this world, you just need to know where to go - for some reason you have to work harder in Mexico to find the great food. I wouldn't discount TexMex as a cuisine in its own right either - not the pale version we get in England but the true Tex Mex you will get in Southern California and Arizona. I must admit that I managed to get sick in Russia and Mexico which makes it a bit of an unfair comparison!
   @Zeke, re the ghost, you'll have to ask Anna she took the photo, its either a ghost of some taxi driver I didn't tip, or a Vietnamese guy on a motorbike passing very close to the camera - take your pick :)

   Ben 5th March 2010

4. Great post and photos - love the VN photo! Haven't been to SA, but agree about your other picks - I'd put in a plug for Vietnamese coffee, too, although I drink it hot and black.

   I didn't do well with Russian food, either, but on the other hand I ate well in Ukraine. Loved the blinis, and delish red caviar was ridiculously cheap.

   mytimetotravel 6th March 2010

5. While not super cheap, I would say the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo is a must for any sushi/seafood fan. Amazing to walk around and even better to have super fresh sushi for breakfast at one of the many nearby sushi shops.

   Maija 6th March 2010

6. Great article- you do feel bereft of good street food in the UK.

   India-if you know the right places, Calcutta(my hometown) street food is dirt cheap.

   In Europe, went to Czech Republic, was quite cheaper compared to Western Europe.

   London has some amazing budget foodie treats (recently did a review of some)

   www.europebudgetguide.com

   Kash Bhattacharya 6th March 2010

7. Thanks Lara - I think you are right about Mexican food, I am sure it is out of this world, you just need to know where to go - for some reason you have to work harder in Mexico to find the great food.

   Cheap Weekend Breaks 21st May 2010

8. that a great website to get detail of food accommodation

   http://travelworldnetwork.com

   Travel World Network 6th July 2010

9. Piling up the plates of shaved beef and noodles around a boiling broth in a Beijing shopping mall. Selecting our meat of choice from cages of live snakes, chicken and ducks. Soaking rolled up balls of stale bread in a mutton broth in a backstreet Muslim restaurant.
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   Travel Agent Help

   Travel Agent Help 9th July 2010

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