I have long intended to write this post but now, with a huge
bloggy backlog and much else to do, I don't have the time.
But I've written it anyway.
My father retired in 1980 and bought a house beside a golf
course in Portugal. 'Why Portugal?' I asked. Unlike Greece it was not a country
he had visited much, or at all, and although the dust had largely settled after the 1974
Carnation Revolution the new democracy remained fragile. 'Because,' he said, 'it’s
a fine drinking man's country.'
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| A younger me standing in the doorway of that house in Portugal (April 1992) |
For my father was a drinking man, not an alcoholic or a
habitual drunk, but a man who liked a drink, then another one and that was the
evening started. I differ from him in many ways, but I share his face - I often
stare into the shaving mirror and wonder what the old bugger is doing in my
bathroom - and his fondness for an occasional tincture.
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| I enjoy the occasional tincture A toast in home made mulberry vodka, Goris, Amenia, July 2003 |
So, staggering in my father's footsteps, here is a drinking
man’s guide to a small selection of the 50 or so countries I have been lucky enough to visit. I also
like eating, so I have rated them as eating men's countries, too. And when I
say 'men' I only echo my father from those far off less inclusive times.
The ratings, on a scale of 0 to 5 (halves permitted), are
personal, any woman or man is free to take issue with my scores, but to give a
semblance of objectivity here are my criteria.
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| I like to eat - but I should point out that is a sharing plate Tallinn, Estonia, July 2011 |
Drink: How easily available is it? How much variety is there? What is the quality of the local products? Are imported drinks available to fill gaps in variety or quality? Is the price reasonable?
Food: I am judging food from everyday rather than high-end
restaurants. How easy is it to find such restaurants? Are fresh ingredients
used? Is there a variety of ingredients? Is there a variety of cooking methods?
Is food a cultural expression or a commodity?
So with an idiosyncratic selection of 10 countries across 3 continents here (in alphabetically order) are my scores.
So with an idiosyncratic selection of 10 countries across 3 continents here (in alphabetically order) are my scores.
1)
China
Scoring
only the Han heartland; travelling among Uighurs and Tibetans has its charms,
but they do not include food and drink.
Drinking 3½
Chinese
drinking culture exists but European-style cafés are unknown and bars are not
obvious. Beer is widely brewed and available but the quality is poor – too much
rice and too little (or no) barley. Chinese wine is best avoided - you rarely
see locals drinking it. Spirits are easily available, cheap and drinkable – once
you have acquired the taste. Knock-off western brands exist, too; I treasure
the memory of a bottle of ‘Bushtits Irish Whiskey’, with its familiar black
label.
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| A litre of sorghum based bai jiu (clear spirit) bought in Hangzhou 50% abv, it cost around £1 |
Restaurants
of every class abound but I never cease to be amazed by the variety and quality
of food that can be produced so quickly by one man and a wok working behind
little more than a hole in the wall.
It is difficult to get a bad meal in China.
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| Even little local restaurants like these in can be relied upon for an excellent meal Beijing September 2013 |
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| But it doesn't get much better than this - though it still costs less than a pub meal at home Beijing duck, Quanjude roast duck, Beijing Sept 2013 |
Why
not 5? Lack of dairy products (I do like my cheese) and their tendency to relish
things....
.... nobody else regards as food (1.2 billion Chinese can’t be wrong – or can
they?)
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| Why am I nibbling the webbing from between the toes of this unfortunate water fowl? Dinner with Mr Zhua, Huizhou 2004 |
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| Scorpion soup, somewhere in Guangdong Province 2003/4 Picture credit Sian Morris |
2)
France
Drinking: 5
What could you want that they do not have? Good wine at any
price level, fine beer (in the north, anyway), the world’s best brandy, pastis
(a particular favourite of mine) and a huge range of other drinks. If you
insist on scotch or gin & tonic, that is available, too.
Eating: 4
Eating: 4
Shock horror, the home of European gastronomy and no 5! You
can eat excellent regional dishes, but too many of France’s mid-range
restaurants are resting on their laurels. Menus read better in French, but we
don’t eat menus.
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| Spiny lobster - excellent local speciality Cargèse, Corsica July 2006 |
3)
India
Drinking: 2
Hindus
are often tee total vegetarians, Muslims tee total meat eaters. Beer, though,
is widely available at least in tourist areas, and passable local gin and rum
in bars, hotels, and ‘wine shops’ - often disreputable looking places which
don’t actually sell wine. Gujarat is dry, Kerala has reportedly put its
‘rolling prohibition’ into reverse.
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| Naughty boys at a 'wine shop' Thomas and I, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, March 2016 |
Eating: 3½
Good
Indian food is among the best in the world but finding it is tricky. Most restaurants
catering for western tourists are clean and relatively expensive but dial back
on the spices; desperate not to offend anyone they ultimately please no-one. Those
aimed at the local market can be dull too, the same melange of spices in every
dish regardless of the other ingredients, which you cannot taste anyway. But
sometimes, and not necessarily in a smarter restaurant, each spice retains its
individuality and the combination complements the ingredients instead of
drowning them out. Thomas Mathew, our driver on our last two southern India
trips, has a gift for spotting the right restaurant in an unknown town. Many of
the best meals I have eaten have been in his company, and some cost less than
£1 a head.
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| Thomas' choice in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, March 2016 Here the humble biryani is raised to a thing of joy |
4)
Iran
Drinking: 0
Iran
is dry.
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| Tea house at the tomb of the poet Hafez, Shiraz 2000 It's the nearest we got to a drink! |
Eating: 1½
I hate to say this about the land of my birth, but the
restaurant food we encountered was too dull to photograph and numbingly repetitive; mountains of rice with
a pat of butter, maybe some yoghurt to moisten it and kebabs, unseasoned chunks
of beef, chicken or lamb, every day, sometimes twice a day. Home cooking, we
were told, is much better, and maybe it is. My (Hampshire born) sister’s recent
visit suggested variety has improved markedly, but as Iranian cuisine eschews
garlic and all spices, how much better can it be? Pluses: breakfast feta-style
cheese and the world’s finest pistachios.
5)
Macedonia
(Former Yugoslav Republic of)
Drink: 4½
Mastika
(better than ouzo, maybe as good as pastis) before a meal, a choice of wines
with and an acceptable brandy after. Tikveš is the only wine region of note but
it produces a range of interesting varietals including the dark, smoky and seriously
underrated Vranac. Skopsko Beer, dominating the market, is a pleasant lager but
hardly memorable.
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| Popova Kula winery, Demir Kapija, Tikveš region, Macedonia May 2015 |
Eating: 3½
The
Balkans specialises in grilled meats but Macedonians have a lighter touch than
most. Vegetables are rare but salads, often covered in a blizzard of grated
cheese, abound. Being landlocked, fish only figures around Lake Ohrid, but
trout, eel, carp and whitebait were fresh and sympathetically cooked.
6)
Mongolia
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| Carp and eel, and a bottle of Tikveš Zupljanka beside Lake Ohrid, May 2015 |
Drink: 2½
In
Ulanbaatar there is good beer and, as a former soviet satellite, more vodka
than is good for some locals. In the countryside there is airag, fermented
mares’ milk. Good manners say you must taste – and it is not unpleasant – but
drink more and you will discover it rifles through the European digestive
system with destructive haste. Believe me.
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| Making airag, Mongolian encampment July 2007 |
Eating: 1
Outside
Ulaanbaatar there are no vegetables or salad – digging in God’s good earth is a
rude intrusion. Goat’s milk cheese is sun dried until it has the colour and
consistency of a pot sherd, though it (eventually) softens in the mouth to
release a punchy goat flavour. In a week, 12 of our lunches and dinners were
mutton. For the thirteenth we found chicken in a restaurant in Ulaanbaatar. The
fourteenth? We were too full of chicken to eat anything!
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| The first step in cheese making, Mongolian encampment, July 2007 |
7)
Morocco
Drink: 1½
No
Muslim country can be a drinking man’s country, but the Moroccan wine industry
limped on after the French departed and has recently undergone a revival. There
is a full Appellation d’Origine system, but the wine is easier to find in France
than in Morocco. Flag lager used to be a contender for ‘worst lager in the
world’, but I am told it has improved. The Jewish community distil a spirit
from date palms for which a taste can be developed.
Food: 3
Moroccan
food is excellent - tender mechoui roast lamb, tagines of lamb, beef and fish with
couscous, pastilla (a savoury pastry with pounded chicken and almonds),
mountains of fresh fish on the Agadir dockside - but by day four you are going
round the cycle again. The quality and skill on show are impressive, the
variety sadly limited.
8) Portugal
Drink: 4½
Portugal
offers the world’s most underrated wines, plus Port and Madeira, brandy, bagaçeira,
and liqueurs of varying palatability. My father was right; it is a fine
drinking man’s country. Why not 5? Portuguese beer, though widely available is
of modest quality and limited variety.
Eating: 4½
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| Modest quality, limited variety - but that won't stop me Evora Sept 2016 |
I
eat more fish in two weeks in Portugal than in the whole of the rest of the
year. Restaurants use fine, fresh ingredients and let them speak for themselves. Why
not 5? Although the variety is impressive (unlike Morocco), too many restaurants
concentrate on the same old favourites; a little innovation would be welcome.
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| Sardines with Mike and Alison, Portimão Oct 2016 |
9)
Sri Lanka
Drink: 3
Falling
like a dewdrop from the end of India’s nose it might be expected to be similar,
but not so. Lion lager, overwhelming the best selling beer, is available
everywhere as is arrack, the very enjoyable national spirit, distilled from
toddy (see The Backwaters of Kerala) and bottled at various qualities. They
also distil gin and more.
Eating: 2½
Eating: 2½
Drinking
maybe better than in India, but eating is not. Rice and Curry (in that order)
involving three or more bowls of vegetable and meat curries with little
variation is ubiquitous. Devilled meat or fish – resembling sweet and sour with
a chilli kick - or ‘Chinese’ noodles dishes are the only alternative. Beef is
always tough.
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| Rice and curry, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka |
10)
Thailand
Drink: 3½
Chang
Beer is the sort of light, fizzy, flavourless lager I would normally avoid like the plague but, in the Thai heat, it somehow hits a spot. There are other beers (notably the
more characterful Singha), Mekhong ‘whisky’ (which is not whisky), SangSom rum
and several other easily available spirits.
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| Chang beer works its magic, Cha Am beach, November 2015 |
Food: 4.5
We
have eaten one or two dull Thai dishes, but generally the standard of cooking
is high; a red curry in Bangkok and squid with lemon and chilli beside the Mae
Klong River stand out. All tourist orientated restaurant dial back (sometimes
omit) the chillis while other restaurants often clock a large lumbering frame and
a pale face and do the same automatically. You sometimes have to fight for your
right to a chilli.
Being a mathematician I put the results on a graph.
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| Squid with lemon and chilli (and some fish cakes) beside the Mae Klong, November 2015 |
Being a mathematician I put the results on a graph.
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