Do You Like Exotic Food?
By Darkwing
@Darkwing (21583)
January 13, 2007 5:02pm CST
I do... my favourite is Indonesian. I have a favourite restaurant in Hove, called the Bali Brasserie, which is like a South Sea Island Bar. It is in a walkway underneath a high block of flats on Hove Seafront, in Sussex.
You enter the glass doors into the bar, and there are bamboo tables and chairs in the bar area. The bar itself is shaped like a wave on the shore, at one end of which you can buy cocktails, and the other end is where you book for the restaurant. The centre part is all bar area, but the place has a tremendous atmosphere.
Around the back of the bar is the restaurant. The waitresses all dress in national costume and the walls are decorated with appropriate dolls, lights and fans. They have on their menue, a Rice Table, which is a four-course meal, commencing with Soup of the Day with Java Crackers, Chicken Satay on a bed of salad; then comes the Rice Table. There's a long table with lots of heated stainless steel containers. As you walk down the table, plate in hand, there is Salad, A Meat Dish (Beef or Lamb), a Chicken Dish, a Fish/Prawn Dish, a Vegetarian Dish (often Chick Pea), Stir-Fry Vegetables, Noodles and Groover type Crisps, coated in a Chili and Toffee flavoured sauce. You can go back to the Rice Table as many times as you like and try as many dishes as you want to, until your appetite is satiated. After that, and a little time to make a space in your tum, there is a dessert, normally a choice of around four. All this, for £16.75 per head. Yummmmmmmm... I can spend a whole evening there! They sell my favourite German wine as well, at a very reasonable £9.95. I love the place, and the food which they produce.
So, what is your favourite exotic food and do you have a favourite restaurant like mine?
3 people like this
25 responses
@cloudwatcher (6861)
• Australia
14 Jan 07
Hi Darkwing. I just love Thai food: especially anything with ginger and chili.
We never eat at restaurants here, but I cook quite a lot of Thai-style food. When I am away, we usually find a Thai restaurant, but it's usually a different one every time, simply because its usually a different town or different part of Sydney.
We do minister to the youth at a Chinese Church in Sydney, and they supply us dinner after the service. It is cooked by nationals and we've really enjoyed genuine Cantonese, Vietnamese and Malaysian dinners there.
I guess it would be true to say I enjoy all foods - except garlic. I just can't stand the smell!
@Darkwing (21583)
•
14 Jan 07
Oh yes, Cloud. I love Thai food as well. I have been to several different Thai restaurants but the best of those I've visited is in Stratford-Upon-Avon, which is rather a long trek to visit regularly, but whenever I'm in or around Stratford, I make a point of booking for at least one meal.
I make a lot of Green Chicken Curry, and I like Yellow Curry. I make my own little adaptions, like thickening the sauce a bit, as it tends to be thin, but it's delicious. Also, when I cook rice, I plain boil it and then after draining, put it into a dish and stir in some coconut milk. Yumm!
It sounds as though the Chinese Church ministering could be a very worthwhile experience. I've never tried Cantonese or Vietnamese, but I would imagine it's very acceptable.
I don't mind garlic, apart from the repetitiveness of it. That might just be that it doesn't agree to well with me, but I know it's good for my blood, so I eat it. I don't mind the taste. Ginger is a great favourite of mine too, as indeed, is chili.
Thank you for an excellent, detailed response, Cloud. Brightest Blessings. :-)
@gabs8513 (48686)
• United Kingdom
13 Jan 07
I actually Love Chinese and I used to go to a lovely Chinese Restaurant here but I have not been in 6 years now I just go for Takeaways now lol
Me and the Kids go for a Meal every 2 months to a place here which is your Normal English food but it is lovely
2 people like this
@Darkwing (21583)
•
14 Jan 07
I don't think it matters what the food if you have a favourite, that serves you up with a good meal, and you just visit occasionally, it becomes a really special treat.
We used to have a great Chinese quite close to here, but it closed down. The food there was exquisite... it's a Thai Restaurant now! lol
@patootie (3592)
•
14 Jan 07
That sounds a great restaurant .. my beef (talking about food, 'beef' hahah intended pun) about 'foreign food restaurants' is that they Anglicise the food too much to make it more 'popular' .. buying a Chinese meal here is about as close to authentic chinese as coal is to snow ..
Why do we put up with it .. why don't we demand really authentic foods .. sigh .. sorry just one of pet pet hates ..
Have to say the restaurant you are describing sounds great .. only problem is it's a long way from Cambridgeshire, too far to just 'pop out' for a meal .. sigh .. why are the best places never near to me ..
1 person likes this
@Darkwing (21583)
•
14 Jan 07
I think you're probably right about the authenticity. Even though there are oriental stores here, I don't think the same foods are available to them, so they have to compromise.
As for Hove being a long way for Cambridgeshire, it is just along the coast from Brighton. Come down for a weekend... you'll find it worth the trip and there is so much else to do in Brighton if you find out the best places to go.
There's a fantastic Indian Restaurant in Welling Garden City, but I suppose again, that's a little too far for you. It serves the best food and their bathroom is the cleanest I've seen in an Indian restaurant. They even had dishes of pot pourri on the cysterns. lol.
@WebMann (4731)
• Canada
13 Jan 07
Mmmmmmm
I really enjoy going to a place to dine that I don't go very often. It makes it extra special.
A friend and I used to go to a little Greek restraunt I believe it was at Bloor and Yonge Street in Toronto. But that was the best meal, every time we went there.
Another place is here where I live. There is an East Indian lady that cooks Wednesday nights at this motel on the edge of town and it will knock your socks off it is so good.
Exotic food can .... Oh man I gotta go eat.
1 person likes this
@Darkwing (21583)
•
13 Jan 07
Oh wow! Sounds delicious, the East Indian Lady at least.
I must say, I haven't eaten Greek Food that often but it doesn't stand out for me. I like some of it but it's not as exotic as the Indonesian and Thai foods. Nevertheless, if you like it and just visit occasionally, like once a month or special occasions, it does make a restaurant more special.
Tank you for your response and I'm so sorry to have made you so hungry! Brightest Blessings! :-)
@Darkwing (21583)
•
14 Jan 07
Steve, that's a difficult question in this day and age. Twenty or thirty years ago, I would have answered a definite "yes".
However, nowadays, things have changed a bit, but I still think there's an upper crust, and moreover, think there always will be. The children who are born into the upper classes are made before they grow. They don't have to work for what they have. They're mollicoddled through life, educated at private schools and presented with their own company when they reach working age.
So, yes, I do think there's still the elite class and the working class, but there's a deviation at the working class level. I'm sure immigrants don't class themselves, so why should we? Also, there are a lot of self-employed or owners of small businesses, who probably don't warrant the title of working class really and pull the working class a little higher up the ladder.
It's confusing these days, and I don't think of myself as beneath or indeed, above anybody else, but I do think there's still some amount of segregation there, Steve.
@jasonsian (231)
• Malaysia
14 Jan 07
Sure I like to try exotic food. There's once I tried fried scorpions in a city named Su Zhou in China. I'm quite attracted when I first saw a stall selling the fried scorpions, cause I have never try scorpions before. I bought it and ate it. It tastes quite okay. But hours after consuming the poisonous thing. I felt something wrong with my stomach. I went to a local hospital and after checking the doctor said I've got food poisoning. I'm not well for at least 3 days. Though it's a bad experience, if there's any exotic food which I never try before, sure I give it a try.
1 person likes this
@Adrenochrome (1653)
•
14 Jan 07
Good call on the Balinese dishes, but for me, it's Singaporean cuisine & Mexican food that sets my mouth a-watering! I love spicey food, just hot enough to make my whole mouth tingle, but not so strong that you lose the taste of the components!
1 person likes this
@chimex4real2k2 (1853)
• Nigeria
14 Jan 07
Sushi is as exotic as I've gotten to be quite honest, but I live in Texas, and have seen people eat goat, rattle snake, rabbit, turtle and stuff like that it's pretty common I guess. They eat it like it's no big deal. I get pretty squeamish. So I defiantly wouldn't be a good candidate for worm eating.
@whrestian (111)
• Italy
14 Jan 07
All the contry have a good food. I had travel more around the world but the food that i prefer is ours, the italian food.
