Sounds like she had some valid criticism for the hotel as well. All inclusive package, but pay extra for water? Wtf.
But honestly, I have no idea why she would expect English food in Greece. Spain only does it because of all the English tourists, it’s not an international standard to serve English food or something.
It reads like she didn’t check ahead of booking, if you have some sort of allergy, she she appears to, its essential to check ahead.
It also reads like excluding tax, they paid about £600 for flights, transfers, hotel and all inclusive, each. I am not surprised that the food and drink would be closer to the budget end for that price.
Isn’t “English food” just an amalgamation of foods from cultures they subjugated in the past, and beef?
With the seasonings removed
There’s 3 sort of sections to British food.
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Old staples, things like stews, pies, roasts etc. We exported most of these, with the empire. They are also shared a lot with Europe, making them even more ubiquitous.
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Local specialities. Local traditional dishes, e.g. Yorkshire puddings, Cornish pasties, or Eccles cakes. These were town or region specific. Some have spread, others are still hyper local.
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Imported. Mostly from the empire days. We tended to “discover” spices and flavours. When they came back, they were often reimagined. E.g. the curry was a Scottish invention, using Indian spices. We mostly dump all the related dishes under a label of the country we stole the flavours from. E.g. Chinese food tastes nothing like what they eat in China.
Basically, there is a lot of really good British food about. We also set the baseline for a lot of the comparisons, making us look bland by comparison. The London restaurant industry also does a complete number on tourists, making us look even worse.
Chicken Tikka Masala was invented in Scotland, by a Scottish chef of Indian descent, in the 1970s. Cleopatra ate curry.
You forgot the fourth section: yellow / brown with beans.
- fish fingers and beans
- beans on toast
- fry up (beans essential)
- everything in Wetherspoon’s
Only taking the piss of course.
Scotch egg is peak for me. Incredible invention. 99% sure that’s British? Introduced to me by an English man anyway.
Used to love smoked kippers as a child. Different English man introduced me to them. They strike me as a very British thing also.
Never quite got the Yorkshire with a roast thing myself but my sister lives over there and is fully converted on them. I mean they’re good like but I’d happily live without them.
Got gifted an Eccles cake by a lovely Scouser I know last year. Also delish with a mug of tea.
I do love a good pastie too (is that Greggs or am I mixing up?).
Baked beans are definitely a VERY British thing, along with fry up in general.
Scotch eggs are Scottish in origin, I believe. I bundle them in with British, though a good chunk of Scotland would disagree. Definitely good, either way. Kippers and haggis are also Scottish/northern England traditionally.
As for Greggs… I personally consider them an example of how British food got screwed over by mass production. I’ve been disappointed most times I’ve brought from them. I know a lot of people swear by them however.
As for Yorkshire pudding. It’s a case of a good one is absolutely amazing, while an average one is just meh. It also needs a good gravy to dip it in. Hence why it goes so well with a roast.
As for Yorkshire pudding. It’s a case of a good one is absolutely amazing, while an average one is just meh. It also needs a good gravy to dip it in. Hence why it goes so well with a roast.
Ah she’s an incredible cook and I’m reliably informed that her Yorkshire’s are legendary level. As with everything she cooks them from scratch (like even her bread is home cooked on the daily) so they were pleasant alright.
I do find her gravy a bit thin myself (again she does it from scratch like some crazy woman). I like my gravy thick AF and have no problem taking it from a tub haha. No bisto though. That’s muck IMO. Anyway I might like them more with my thick peasant gravy as you say.
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Not even British and this is such a gross oversimplification. It’s like calling a french bakery full of bread.
Yorkshire pudding - name of locality of origin included. Generally only served with a “Sunday roast” dinner as a side dish. It is made from a batter and not a pastry.
Cornish pasty - again name of locality of origin included. Wide range of fillings available nothing even vaguely similar to a Yorkshire despite your poor attempt to lump it in.
Eccles is a sweet treat. The pastry is nothing like either a Yorkshire or a pasty.
Most of the more obvious ones are intended as travel food. Wrap something tasty, nutritious, or expensive in a semi disposable, edible wrapper. It’s a basic stable of most of mankind. England tended to use pastry or batter for this. Battered fish and burgers are other examples. Other as regions might use leaves for the same job.
If it was in a good state, you could eat it. If it wasn’t, then you could still eat the good bit inside. The crust of a Cornish pasty is intended to be thrown away. Coal miners could take them down the mine, and eat them without washing their hands.
Other dishes are a thing. They tended to be more family orientated however. The recipes wandered over time, with less stable traditional dishes. Bangers and mash, or a ploughman’s would fall into this sort of category.
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Don’t forget soggy, vinegar drenched chips.
No, it’s instant soups and cookies.
Has anybody ever been on an all-inclusive, agency organized group trip that wasn’t mid at best?
These are all about penny-fucking, and ripping off tourists. I look at the pictures in the article and get PTSD from memories of some childhood trip to Bulgaria. At least we had the excuse of being a working family from a poor ex-socialist country, and any beach and hotel was fancy to us. But somebody from a developed country in 2025 pays for something like this, I don’t know what to say to them.
They could open their browser and book a cheaper trip, staying in an apartment on some Greek or Italian beach, and eating the best local foods. But these old British boomers are lazy and also probably incapable of grilling a salmon steak if their life depended on it. Or at least lift up their asses and walk 200 meters to a restaurant nearby, with edible food.
I would rather keep working in the office during a hot summer week, than go on a trip like this with half a dozen relatives.
Costco does well, but that’s not quite agency-organized. Their travel insurance is also really inexpensive compared to competitors like Travel Guard.
“I have to be careful because I have ulcerative colitis so there’s certain things I can’t eat.”
“There was no bacon. For breakfast there was mozzarella and sliced tomatoes. There was no hot bacon or sausage.”
Pretty dumb of her to not travel with a can of beans and a jar of mayonnaise
She should have chosen a better hotel for her situation. There are hotels in more central locations and hotels that you don’t have to walk downhill to the beach.
But that hotel is too dinky to be called all inclusive. And using TUI is not gonna guarantee a good value.
Hotel food always sucks. I was in Corfu last summer. There were plenty of great local restaurants.
