this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
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Cool! Raglan huh, I love how many little local coffee roasters we have in NZ now.
My parents said when they were kids every town seemed to have its own brewery and usually cool stuff like e.g a local icecream factory.
There are so many coffee places I feel like I almost never have repeats!
When we travel (which doesn't happen much since kids), I like to try local beers, coffees, etc. I once had ice cream made by Amish in Pennsylvania while visiting. Had an interesting alcoholic fanta-like drink in Indonesia made locally (I probably wouldn't do that again, as in hindsight that was probably a pretty big meths risk). Local beers in Canada were good and one place came for with the option of a 64oz mug. Local beers in New York were... well I didn't enjoy them. The US also didn't do great coffee.
I think there's a resurgence of locally made stuff. With your example of ice cream, I think there's heaps of locally made ones but now it's called gelato.
Yeah I think you're right.
Back when I was able to travel it was all about the local stuff. I don't understand people who go overseas to eat familiar food.
I remember the first time I was going overseas the doctor said I didn't need my hepatitus jabs unless I planned to eat street food and I was like, um okay well I really need them then!
I went to Malaysia and had KFC. I remember ordering the zinger burger and being disappointed that it tasted the same as anywhere else.
I also find it's good to try the food that the locals actually eat, not just what's traditional. Had some boring food in Indonesia before working that one out!
I also learned about Bali street dogs ending up sold as chicken in street food only after going there, though I don't think we had any in Bali, just in Jakarta and surrounding areas we visited. Bali was so super touristy, easily my least favourite place to visit. I'd rather take the driver in Jakarta that doesn't speak English taking us to a Buddhist temple that half burnt down, and the other half was full of awesome diorama things as tributes to different deities, where everyone there was friendly but no one spoke English.
Glad to hear that, cos it's pretty much all I have ever got to do. My travel was when I was a student (mostly alone, my trips were paid for by grants) so I didn't have much money and would mostly just follow down-at-heel locals to see where they ate that was cheap/good.
Some of the coolest was when I would just queue up behind people and copy what they asked for, with no idea what it was going to be since nothing was in English. Also sometimes people just give you stuff.
Would love to visit SEA countries like you have. I've only lurked in their airports.
In my case it was visiting friends or family. I had family living in Malaysia for a few years and took the opportunity to visit and stay with them while they were there.
Indonesia was for a friend's wedding.
Singapore is just the place the planes go but I like it (except the guards carrying guns in the airport. I have to say I always feel the least safe when there are guards carrying guns).
I haven't left the country since before my eldest was born, but I have a friend who's been living in Vietnam for years but we've never visited them. I'd like to go some time before they leave.
That would be cool, I hope you get to visit them. Places are even better when you know someone there and you're sort of seeing it through their eyes. Even normal stuff like shopping.
People carrying guns omg yes, it's freaky isn't it. I think the first time I ever saw that might have been Changi airport too.
I agree on the knowing someone there point. I love the smaller, less touristy places that you get to go when you know someone there. It's much harder to find them as all the little known places don't show up on trip advisor, and if they do then suddenly they are all touristy.
Plus it's nice to go to the museum with 50c entry and the guy doing free shadow puppet shows in order to hopefully get you to buy one of the shadow puppets he made, or having a $2 meal instead of a $30 one.
Though I did have banana juice at a restaurant. I have no idea what it was but it was good. What it wasn't, is it wasn't a smoothie. It was nearly 10 years ago now but I've never worked out what it was I drank (since if you've ever put a banana through a juicer, you'll know they don't really have juice)
Weird I wonder what the juice was... did they juice the skin maybe???
I agree touristy things are not great, they're bad enough right here in NZ. I've never looked at trip advisor, but it's a long time since I travelled, things have changed. Back then I only used to bring a dumb phone and paper maps, omg!
I remember once using someone else's map and there was this X on it in ballpoint pen so I went there ... it was really weird, just a tangle of undergrowth in the middle of a hill a bit like Mt Roskill. I think if I'd been able to see into the future I'd have done more tourist things though.
I doubt it was banana skin. It was sweet and bananary. Probably some amount of banana mixed with something else. Really no idea though.
Trip advisor is what comes up whenever you search for stuff. Super annoying because you have to sign in or something to see anything other that the list.
One time we went to Vancouver and looked the map up before going. The subway stop came up onto the street the opposite way than I was expecting, and we walked almost an hour in the wrong direction. I'm pretty happy there is google maps these days 😆
And did you at least dig in the spot marked X?
Ha ha no, without gps it's hard to tell whether you're within 10 metres of an X in the middle of a reserve. Also it was hot and very still and a bit creepy way out there tbh. Must have missed out on treasure! But more likely to belong to mafia than pirates, so I'm good with that.
Normally I have an innate sense of direction (I assume it's just your brain subconsciously keeping track of your movements, sun or stars position, etc - weirdly I still have it even though I no longer do much as a pedestrian) but subway exits can be disconcerting!
Banana essence, in coconut water or apple juice is my new guess.
Ooh, it came in a glass at a restaurant but maybe it was something like this? I can't find ingredients but it seems to be apple juice with banana puree in it. I guess that would give you a thin drink not like a smoothie, but would be sweet and bananary?
Honestly it feels like two lifetimes ago so I'm not sure that I'd be able to know if it was the same even if I tried it today, I just remember it was sweet, bananary, thin not thick and creamy like a smoothie, and that I ordered a second one because I liked it so much. It seems to make sense that it might come out of a can. It wasn't further explained, so I guess it's a bit like ordering a coke.
Ah that looks really yum. I must say this convo has given me a real desire to try banana juice.
I wonder if some of the Asian shops have it? I quite like some of the drinks like cold chrysanthemum tea.
I once had some sort of canned plant flavoured drink. Pretty sure that was in Indonesia too, we went through a local supermarket and bought a bunch of stuff we'd never seen before (mostly junk food).
Anyway, I can't really recommend canned plant drink. It tasted too healthy, and had some slimy stuff in the bottom.