BootsnAll Travel Community

What was the worst meal you ever had on a trip?

Okay, I'll tell you mine.
At the end of a trip to Costa Rica, my husband and were in the San Jose airport waiting to catch our flight home, and I was starved. I ordered some kind of chicken-filled pastry at the airport bar -- was it an empanada? -- and proceeded to wolf it down. Not expecting, of course, that the chopped-up chicken would be accompanied by chopped-up chicken bones.

It has to be the omlette I ordered on the Air Korea flight from Seoul to Anchorage. Whatever you do never, I mean NEVER, order an omlette on a flight. 3 months in SE Asia and I never got sick until I made that unfortunate error. 6 days adn a $400 doctor bill later I learned my lesson.....

Hmmm...

I've had a bunch of bad food... but nothing really comes to mind! I think the taste goes into the memory bank of, "dont frequent this joint again!"

Over 75% of the Korean food I had in Korea could qualify as the worst meal I've had.

Walking Past The Greyhound Pub, St Kilda, Melbourne. Aus.

It only became the worst meal after the prostitute that had "collared" me for a bite of my hot dog (I was eating one!), offered "services" in exchange.

Amazing how fast you can go off a junk food snack when the whiskey-cigarette breath of a hives ridded hooker offers you her services in exchange for a bite of your hotdog.

<shiver>

Dan

Around 1992, while Czechoslovakia still definately had it's Second World flavour, I had the worst hamburger I've ever had.

I was desperate for a hamburger, and ordered one at a small shop off the Charles bridge (wonderful fries!) - and it was a REAL hamburger, i.e. real HAM, and veeeeeery undercooked (with little pieces of gristle type stuff in it.ick).
I took a bite and it came right back up ...and over the side of the Charles Bridge.

ugh. i can still taste that thing....

I spent a lot of time in Australia and New Zealand. I wouldn'nt describe the food as "worst" so much as boring. The meat was always overcooked and a very light hand was used in adding herbs and seasoning. If only I would have brought my bottle of habenero sauce!

i don't know about "worst," but i was soooo excited to try seafood in chile...too bad no one knows how to cook. all these beautiful crustaceans and mollusks, cooked to rubbery, dry toughness. *sheds tear*

British Airways flight from Tel Aviv to London. The vegan breakfast was... wait for it...

1.Brussel Sprouts and baked beans.YUK YUK YUK. OK, the only veg I don't like is brussels so that was a bit unfortunate, but sprouts WITH beans???? And sprouts for breakfast?? Weird.
2. A bread roll with BUTTER (not vege marge). To be fair the roll wasn't stale, but butter in a vegan breakie, c'mon!
3.A bright red yoghurt which smelled fake and vile, I didn't taste it.
4. A little portion of chopped up fruit. Not bad, though not sure what the bright orange hard things were, they didn't taste of much.

Overall, a pretty crap meal.

after a week in Vietnam in 2000, i was starved for some western food. (i'm veggie and was not getting much along the way.) we were in Hue where there were large hotels, which seemed like a safe bet.

i ordered a pizza, but got a 1" thick precooked bun thing with some sort of red, flavorless topping with sprinkles of something that resembled cheese but was probably wax or plastic.

cardboard with ketchup would have tasted better.

my theory was that the cook has seen a pizza but never actually had one or researched it.

I got lima beans and boiled rice for dinner on a flight once. Not sure what they were thinking when they concocted that meal.

Most of the food ın Afghanistan! İt all (away from the city's) consısts of a crazy amount of cotton seed oil wıth whatever meat ıs avaılable and all parts, ıncludıng braın, (which they love) of that anımal. İt got to the point where just smelling it made me sick.

Cotton seed oil, wıth some rice (Loads of oil!). Cotton seed oil, wıth some meat (Tons of oil!). You do get a Naan, but it tastes nothing lıke the killer İndian ones. The same thing breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Oh, the way they cook there Ladyfıngers is up there as well! YUK!

Myanmar is a wonderful, beautiful country that has some really bad food. They have occasional good curries, but most of it was pretty disappointing. Their national dish is fermented tea leaf salad. Mmmm...

98% of the pizza in China also springs to mind.

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Originally posted by skobb:
Myanmar is a wonderful, beautiful country that has some really bad food. They have occasional good curries, but most of it was pretty disappointing. Their national dish is fermented tea leaf salad. Mmmm...

98% of the pizza in China also springs to mind.

I found only one edible pizza in China myself. But thanks for the heads up on Myanmar. My only experience with their food was pretty good, at the Burmese Jade Market in Jinghong mind you, so I'd probably have expected a tasty trip through that country (it is on the schedule).

Pretty much anything in Tibet.

I'll agree with skobb on Myanmar, but there was the occasional bright spot (and noodles or Indian food sometimes worked in a pinch).

I did have some good meals in Myanmar, but they were generally Indian meals. It was the traditional Burmese stuff that I found lacking. I had some really good pumpkin curry though.

One of my worst meals was also in Hong Kong. I thought I'd be adventurous at some BBQ type place and I ordered suckling pig and some sort of goose. I found both to be pretty nasty and I'm a hearty meat eater. They were full of little bones and the pig was protected by some sort of shellac coating.

Worst of all time? the ones that gave me food poisoning.

The one single area?

Cairo. I was on a small budget. The street food was greasy and tasteless, when it had a taste I could tolerate. I ate at an a&W restaurant and lived on burgers.

I can't recall one good meal in Egypt, as a matter of fact. I must have had some tolerable ones, but I can't recall one.

Perhaps people who ate in four star restaurants have a better opinion of Egyptian food. I wouldn't doubt it. In fact- here is my chief complaint about travelling with a low budget. Much of the best food in many countries is to be had at expensive restaurants or at someones house. There is no in-between.

I pretty much starved in Tonga when I wasn't eating the Italian food at our hotel. Tongan food is just plain bad unless you eat straight from the sea and they don't get a chance to screw it up first.

But the worst meal was in Bali: a chicken salad baguette. It was made just to our liking - a little mayo, nice crisp veggies, beautiful baguette, but the chicken was RAW.

quote:

Worst of all time? the ones that gave me food poisoning.

Surprisingly most of the meals that have given me food poisoning taste really really good.

quote:

Surprisingly most of the meals that have given me food poisoning taste really really good.

I can relate to that.