Just to continue a little bit on yesterday's subject.
My wife and I love the Caribbean. We have been to several islands but our favorite is St. Maarten. This island is half Dutch and half French, each part belonging to their respective countries.
Going from one side to the other is like two different worlds. I'll explain later.
About fifteen years ago we vacationed in Aruba. That is a Dutch island. We had a great time there. Many superb restaurants, not much American influence, yet.
We sampled local foods and had the chance to try Dutch cooking along with other international foods.
Several years later we went back and were totally disappointed. KFC, McDonald's and other fast food restaurants blanketed the island along with more American style restaurants. What a way to ruin Paradise!
Now back to St. Maarten.
The first time we vacationed there we thought since it was a Dutch island we might be able to find Dutch cooking. No luck. They looked at us if we were asking for Mongolian cooking.
On the Dutch side every restaurant tries to outdo the others with American style food. Might that be Italian or Chinese or sea food but still the same as we can find at home. Sport bars and humongous menus everywhere.
A food critic once said that restaurants should not advertise home style cooking because if we want to eat home style than we should stay home. I agree with this sentiment.
This same ideology applies to American food. If I want to eat American food I stay home. What's the point showing my passport upon entering into a foreign country then once I'm there I feel like I never left home.
Being a tourist is experiencing things one might not experience at home. These could be customs, food, weather and a myriad of other things.
The beauty of French St. Martin is that the restaurants are almost exclusively French and serving various regional dishes. To eat at any one of them is a culinary experience.
My wife and I do like French cooking and we do go to the other side frequently to sample it. Almost always without any complains. The price is another issue.
Since the French side deals in Euro but having a lot of Americans on the island they do accept US Dollar (grudgingly) however, every restaurateur uses his own conversion factor from Euro to Dollar.
Being the tourists we are at a disadvantage because in case of an argument we have no chance of winning against the French.
Apparently the average American traveler or tourist is not keen to try local cuisine. I can not understand why since American cooking is not very colorful, at least not for me.
In a foreign country one can rarely go wrong by ordering the local fare. That is a major part of the tourist experience.
Just make sure never to order steak chien (dog steak)!
To eat out in Frnace and in Italy, can be fantastic, but I am afraid not necessarily so. In particular Paris has many mediocre restaurants. Prices, because of the strenght of the euro are much higher than they used to be. However i am looking back on many happy meals at places where you would not have expected. On our last visit to Paris, in 2009, I promised agood meal to my wife. We lonched at Hediard, In Place de la Madelaine. The meal was superb. A main course of superb calfs veal, I paid 32 euro for. We might not return for a while.
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