what do you reckon gang?

On long journeys there have been times when I have developed a craving for Western junk food but having dived into a pizza place I have instantly regained my liking for local food, Sudan being the exception where bland seems to be the height of good taste.

I usually enjoy the local music scene, be it across West Africa, S America or Asia, but occasionally a burst of Western rock music has rejuvenated flagging spirits, one example being a bar in Saigon where full-volume Guns 'n' Roses was positively soothing compared to the traffic without.

Dave

Exactly what Dave said!

I like the traditional music of the South Pacific but at times I need to get a good blast of Metallica or something of that ilk just to make me feel more alive. I don't listen to that much at home. And as much as I love fish in coconut and rice I usually need to hunt for some wild chili to give it some zing (which also keeps the wontok from pilfering my leftovers ;-)); my chili intake at home is decreasing as I age. When I was ill with dysentry in Nairobi I craved boiled spaghetti with nothing on it, even airplane food sounded good; I am a fan of neither, but the family I stayed with used a lot of cilantro, something I hate and am also allergic to and that sure didn't help keep the food down.

I can't think of a word for it though.

I am ashamed to admit that after or during a protracted period of travelling slipping into a McDonalds holds no revulsion for me.

Refecti familiaritate

Farti afterwarti??

homesickness?

Hi....

You're not slagging anything, or anyone off. You've got opinions that you're entitled to.
Because you don't like something, doesn't point to you slagging it off.
I am a prolific music lover. However, like you, there are styles I both like and very much dislike.
Out in the wilds of Malawi, they were playing Craig David on a CD.
Likewise, it was a surprise to hear Mary Hopkin in Churchill, Manitoba.
I really don't understand C&W music - and Canadian eateries play lots. I just put up with it.
If there's an alternative choice that was playing some UK music that I wouldn't normally like, I'd prefer that.
The whole music aspect for me is incredibly interesting.
My more recent travels involve mainly Eastern Europe, where the music can be very diverse.
To the non-trained ear, Bulgarian gypsy music may sound the same as Romanian gypsy music.
When I first started going (I've done many E.Europe countries), it sounded the same for me too.
I can sit in a restaurant nowadays and know the styles quite well.They are very different.
The music I really like, allows me to chill and take my time. If it's other stuff - I tend to rush a bit and leave.
Incidentally, I never take any music with me when I travel. I prefer to seek out local content.
Radio when abroad is interesting for me too. Again, in E.Europe, radio is very diverse.
The same station will play a full on dance track, then 3 minutes later go straight into a political phone-in ! !
Also interesting, is that so many overseas stations have English spoken jingles ! !
One of the strangest mash-ups of radio content I ever heard, was in Russia.
Also amazing was Egypt, there appeared to be as many stations playing western music as local content.
Food wise.... I totally agree with *6 - RayCCroc. If I need the loo and McD's is in sight, it's a safe bet.
I've been sick in some overseas toilets, just because of the stench.
I struggle with spicy, or a menu I can't read. A street trader selling something I can see, will be better.
I'm not the greatest McD's fan, but it's always clean and OK(ish) food in comparison with many.

For years I wouldn't eat bananas. I think what happened was I was living, as a child, in a place where bananas come straight off the trees, then we returned to England where bananas are imported green and ripened in warehouses. So these were not nice in comparison to what I was used to, and thus I learned I didn't like bananas. Nor did occasional re-exposure to them in fruit salad and muesli encourage me to want to take up liking them again.

Many years later I was travelling by bicycle in Bolivia. This is hard work, because Bolivia is very mountainous, at least in the areas I was travelling, and the roads are mostly pretty rough too. It was hard to get enough calories down my neck because the altitude acts, at least for me, as an appetite suppressant, and also because what you can get by way of food outside of a few main cities in Bolivia is pretty limited and unappetising. Particularly unappetising, to most non-locals (the locals prize it), is chuno, or freeze-dried potato. It suddenly occurred to me that if I had been so hungry that I had been eating up my chuno, maybe bananas wouldn't be so terrible after all. Now whilst in a few remote high altitude places bananas are hard to come by, in general bananas (and oranges) are widely available in Bolivia, after all they grow there. So I bought some bananas, and thought, my, this is a lot better than chuno.

A curious additional factor is that I might not have rediscovered my taste for bananas had it not been for some factors related to ahipas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahipa The ahipa (or ajipa) is a root vegetable I found on sale on my first day in Bolivia in Tupiza. I asked the stallholder about it, and was told that as it is sweet like a carrot it could be eaten as a raw crunchy snack, and since it is quite starchy it is rather nutritious too. They further had the pleasant property of settling bubbling stomachs. It also peels easily. I found it delicious, and thus they became my roadside snack of choice for a while. But as I travelled further north into Bolivia, they became much harder to get hold of. I don't know if this is because the cultivation mainly occurs in the south, or because the season was getting past. If I hadn't become unable to source ahipas, I wouldn't have gone on to bananas. (Although that wiki article says they are grown below 2000m, I was told that they are a local crop in an area at about 3200m I passed through.)

And I've been able to eat bananas quite happily ever since, though they are not my favourite. And I would still much prefer them to be omitted from fruit salad and muesli.

Many years later I was travelling by bicycle in Bolivia

Now that's what I call an opening sentence (of a paragraph)

Is there a word for the opposite experience - I thought I had fallen in love with popular Thai music when I was last there. I heard it back home and thought it was appaling.