OFTEN part of the excitement of visiting a foreign country is dining out from strange menus. Not that I recommend that you try the sheep's eyes in Istanbul, the "feet guts" in Morocco nor the skinned snake in Beijing.
However, there are many recipes to be found in restaurants abroad which are new pleasant experiences, but finding the right places to eat them often requires knowledge not found in guide books, which are generally written for tourists. It all starts with selecting the restaurant.
Of course, you can eat in your hotel if you are staying in one although it will be dearer and less interesting than in a local place. But don't just stroll to the nearest bistro and plunge in. Firstly, if it is closest to the hotel it is likely to be planned for visitors and priced accordingly, and secondly, unless it's in a country with a gourmet reputation, the food may well be indifferent.
So how do you pick your restaurant? You can ask a shopkeeper who speaks your language to recommend one, or you can go off the main fashionable streets and start looking there. The nearest to the main street is rarely the right one, I've found, but a little further along the quality can be distinctly better. Menus shown outside are very useful, as are certain signs which can be noted.
For instance, if the place you are looking at is pretty empty at a mealtime, and the diners have been seated strategically near the window, you can tell that it is unlikely to fill later a clue to standards. Also, note the type of diners inside do they look like locals is the decoration overdone? If it is, part of its cost will be on your bill.
Once inside, look at what others are eating and ask what are the most popular dishes. Waiters in cities and towns used to tourists are quick to learn English, and will appreciate being asked as they know that help will often produce a good tip. I learned quite a bit about waiters when, as a student in Paris, I worked in a restaurant at weekends. The waiter often has to share his tips with kitchen staff or else his tables will not get the best food, and waiters are usually accurate judges of tipping potential. They seem to especially like to give advice to clients on wines.
A simple knowledge of a country's food production is a useful basic guide as to what to order. While Ireland boasts of its beef, you will fare better in, say, India, by eating chicken. In Arab states and in the Near and Middle East, lamb is usually a chef's strong point. Regarding fish, plaice in Denmark is the best in the world, cod in western Canada and Iceland, and lobster on the US east coast. Sardines, which are not the tiny fish we see in tins, are delicious in Portugal, as are shrimps in New Orleans. In Japan go for bluefin tuna, keeping in mind that it could have been landed in Castletownbere. In Spain it should be red swordfish, while herring pickled in up to 30 different ways is a treat in Holland.
NATURALLY, the adventurous diner can have mishaps even if he or she avoids fried midges in Uganda, bird's nest soup in Singapore, rakorret (which is fermented trout) in Norway, or fly coated cakes in Algeria. My defence has proved itself most chemists in Ireland sell a "Bombay Trots" antidote which can be taken by tablet or by spoon. I start mine on the very first day out. After all, who would dream of going to Killarney without a raincoat?