Cars and bikes I’ve come across in my travels

Yes the little electric motor turning a piece of wire with a couple of plastic bags attached to keep the flies off the un refrigerated meat. That doesnt bother me as I dont eat meat. The fish is usually alive in tanks caught locally. My local market you choose the fish and the lady kills, guts and scales it.
Can't complain about the fruit and veg.
It's fresh usually grown by the vendor.
I do worry about what they use to grow them though.
 
motoddrob said:
Yes the little electric motor turning a piece of wire with a couple of plastic bags attached to keep the flies off the un refrigerated meat. That doesnt bother me as I dont eat meat. The fish is usually alive in tanks caught locally. My local market you choose the fish and the lady kills, guts and scales it.
Can't complain about the fruit and veg.
It's fresh usually grown by the vendor.
I do worry about what they use to grow them though.
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The only live fish in our local wet markets are tubs of catfish and tilapia everything else is just lying on the table like the meat. Snails and other shellfish are in dirty buckets. The place to buy live fish is at the big supermarkets, they all have live seafood as well as butcher shops for meat.

The best local seafood restaurants have live fish and shellfish in aquarium tanks where you can pick out what you want. We ate in one last night while watching Vietnam tie Thailand to win the ASEAN Cup on aggregate points. Mussels, abalone, prawns and oysters, all as fresh as can be.

I agree that the fertilizer used and the irrigation water with heavy metals is a concern. Organic produce is occasionally found, but without a true inspection and certification program, who knows how “organic” it really is? But we buy and eat it whenever it is available anyway…🤷‍♂️
 
Alzero said:
I was not commenting upon the rise in ultra processed foods, but rather upon the well deserved decline in fly infested unsanitary wet markets with filthy tables covered with uncooled meat and fish with flies crawling all over them. The vegetables are fine, easily washed. But the proteins are a real hazard to public health.

I’m really annoyed at those who say that one must shop there to “experience the true culture” when the first thing that local people do when entering the middle class is to shop in places with clean counters and floors, no insects, honest weight, sanitary packaging and fixed prices.

All things that are expected as the bare minimum in their home countries. Do not citizens of other countries deserve this too? I do agree that things are lost in the changeover. Like E-coli, salmonella and explosive diarrhea…..
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The kind of market stalls you’re describing exist in non-Western parts of the world too, and people there clearly aren't any sicker than in the West—it’s simply Darwin’s law at work.
At least the products sold there have the merit of being natural.
I’d rather buy organic fruit, vegetables, and chicken at the market than the crap sold in supermarkets—even if the supermarket floors are clean and there are no flies. Those packaged products, treated with preservatives, antibiotics, and other additives... clearly, they do far more harm to your health than what you find at a market stall. I don't eat meat other than chicken anymore; I can't stand the slaughtering conditions in France.
Not to mention the food scandals in the agribusiness industry, which has its fair share of the bacterial contamination you described.
In any case, globalization means all these markets are bound to disappear.
Those who can afford it will keep eating properly, while the majority—those who can't—will end up buying crap from spotless stores.
That’s just my take on things in a friendly discussion.
Since I’m not fluent in English, the translation might not always capture the author's exact meaning, which could lead to a somewhat vague response.
 
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Mastroianni said:
..... That is exactly what happened in France, a country renowned for agricultural and culinary excellence.
I live there, so I can speak from experience, and I see this model taking hold across Europe.
France went from 1.6 million farms to around 350,000 in the span of 50 years, and in the land of the *jambon-beurre* (ham and butter baguette), McDonald's has its second-largest presence after the US.
The Champs-Élysées restaurant is the highest-grossing in the world.
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No doubt thanks to the millions of US tourists passing through? :rolleyes:

I wouldn't shed a tear if McDonalds closed down tomorrow!

piet
 
sfcpiet said:
No doubt thanks to the millions of US tourists passing through? :rolleyes:

I wouldn't shed a tear if McDonalds closed down tomorrow!

piet
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The McDonalds, KFC and Jollibee restaurants here in DaNang are always packed with customers. And not a foreigner to be seen. Or rather, not a Western foreigner to be seen. They are popular with the Chinese, Korean and even Indian tourists and seem to be the only food they will eat that is not of their home countries. BTW, only 30% of visitors to VN are from Western countries, the rest are Asian, predominantly from China, then Korea followed by India.
 
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Alzero said:
The McDonalds, KFC and Jollibee restaurants here in DaNang are always packed with customers. And not a foreigner to be seen. Or rather, not a Western foreigner to be seen. They are popular with the Chinese, Korean and even Indian tourists and seem to be the only food they will eat that is not of their home countries. BTW, only 30% of visitors to VN are from Western countries, the rest are Asian, predominantly from China, then Korea followed by India.
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McDonalds food in Vietnam is quite different to what they sell in USA (as it is in Australia). I guess that's why the locals like it and the tourists not so much. I googled their Vietnam menu and it incudes items with a local influence, like fried chicken with rice, savory spaghetti, fish sauce chicken wings, iced milk coffee (cà phê sữa đá), salted calamansi apricot juice, and matcha green tea McFlurries.

McDonalds apparently has a business model that allows them some flexibility for local tastes. As an example, they smartened up their format for Australia when they realised that the same menu they sell in America wouldn't cut it here. They offered better quality burgers and a range of healthier options on the menu, as well as decent coffee. They even changed the name to Macca's. Aussie Macca's isn't food I'd normally buy, but apparently it's more nutritious and tasty than the muck they sell in their American restaurants.

Plenty of American chain food brands failed in Australia because Aussies wouldn't eat or drink the same crap they were dishing up to their American customers. Starbucks, Taco Bell, Wendys, all set up in Australia with their tried and proven business model that worked in USA, and failed, or at least didn't take off like in USA. Australians wouldn't eat or drink what they were offering and the companies weren't smart enough to know why, or what to do about it.

This video covers the Aussie Macca's story pretty well. It seems McDonald's has done something similar in Vietnam:

 
We had a visit from a relative from Oz here, he wanted to try the local McShit, and we had to google where they had food outlets as we had no idea. They just lost a pretty big lawsuit to a well known English chef who called them out on their so called food.
Supermarkets chains have almost erased small scale providers in most western countries, fortunately immigrant communities keep the alternative alive.
A new topic "Foods I have come across in my travels".
 
Dellortoman said:
McDonalds food in Vietnam is quite different to what they sell in USA (as it is in Australia). I guess that's why the locals like it and the tourists not so much. I googled their Vietnam menu and it incudes items with a local influence, like fried chicken with rice, savory spaghetti, fish sauce chicken wings, iced milk coffee (cà phê sữa đá), salted calamansi apricot juice, and matcha green tea McFlurries.

McDonalds apparently has a business model that allows them some flexibility for local tastes. As an example, they smartened up their format for Australia when they realised that the same menu they sell in America wouldn't cut it here. They offered better quality burgers and a range of healthier options on the menu, as well as decent coffee. They even changed the name to Macca's. Aussie Macca's isn't food I'd normally buy, but apparently it's more nutritious and tasty than the muck they sell in their American restaurants.

Plenty of American chain food brands failed in Australia because Aussies wouldn't eat or drink the same crap they were dishing up to their American customers. Starbucks, Taco Bell, Wendys, all set up in Australia with their tried and proven business model that worked in USA, and failed, or at least didn't take off like in USA. Australians wouldn't eat or drink what they were offering and the companies weren't smart enough to know why, or what to do about it.

This video covers the Aussie Macca's story pretty well. It seems McDonald's has done something similar in Vietnam:

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Hungry Jack aka Burger King seems to have done well.
 
Dellortoman said:
McDonalds food in Vietnam is quite different to what they sell in USA.
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This is one reason many traveling Americans like to eat at least one meal in a McDonalds in every country they visit. They are different in every country, sometimes very different. I had a burger in a Carl’s Jr, a smaller American chain, when in Panama and it was completely different. The ground beef was seasoned with cumin and other spices and was far, far better than in NA.

My shameful food vice is crunchy Taco Bell tacos and I eat them wherever I can find them when traveling. The last time was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
 
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Cadbury's Chocolate does the same thing. I bought a family block in California, same coloured wrapper as in Australia and was shocked at how horrible it was- very bitter. And then a read the fine print, Made onder licase by by The Hodlie Choclate Company. Years later, I watched a doco on TV; they change the recipe for Cadbury Chocolate in every country it's sold in, even Ireland is different from England.
 
9i
Vince said:
Cadbury's Chocolate does the same thing. I bought a family block in California, same coloured wrapper as in Australia and was shocked at how horrible it was- very bitter. And then a read the fine print, Made onder licase by by The Hodlie Choclate Company. Years later, I watched a doco on TV; they change the recipe for Cadbury Chocolate in every country it's sold in, even Ireland is different from England.
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Thats because they are owned by Kraft now - the whole range has been cheapened and tastes like shite.
 
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