Today I’m going to share some of my experiences with food in other countries. Not any food. No! Food with something extra! Mmmmmmm…. The story begins in Greece. It was 2001. We (my first boyfriend and I) went to Crete. I still remember the name of the town, because it was so weird: Koutouloufari. It was close to Hersonissos, but a bit uphill (it felt like I had to use my hands as well as my feet to climb up to our apartment!). We traveled on a budget, because we didn’t have a lot of money at that time. Just out of school and earning minimum wage. That meant cooking a lot ourselves. I brought several pasta mixes and pasta with me, because if you need a cheap but tasty meal, pasta is the way to go! 

One night we really fancied a pizza, so we got a takeaway pizza. We each had our own pizza, and they looked really good. I couldn’t wait to dig in! I put the first bite in my mouth, and heard a crunch. Hmmm, that’s weird… I can’t remember ordering any crunchy ingredients. So I took the bite out of my mouth and put it on my plate. Suddenly I saw something shiny, but wait! Are those legs?!! .. IIIEEEUWWW!!! It was a bug! I felt every hair on my body trembling. Did I just eat a bug?! Gross!!! Yeah, I was done! I didn’t want to finish my pizza. But I was sooo hungry. My boyfriend at the time offered me a piece of his. That was sweet! I was a bit reluctant, but he said to me: “What are the chances of it happening twice?”. He had a point, so I got my knife and fork and cut out a slice of pizza (it was not pre sliced). While I was cutting I heard another loud crunch! Hmmm..  Could it be another bug? IT WAS!!! AAAAAHHHHH!

Okay, that’s it. I am done eating this pizza! To this day I still check my food before I eat it. 

Over the years we’ve had some strange things in our food.

In Vietnam (Hanoi) we found a really cool restaurant. It was on one of the top floors of a building and it looked amazing. We shared an amazing noodle dish, and it was delicious! While I was poking around with my fork into the noodles, I discovered a piece of glass! What?! Pfff, luckily we spotted it before putting it into our mouth, but that was scary. Unfortunately, that was not our only encounter with glass in our food.

In India (Goa) we went to this really cool vegan place. The food looked really fresh and it was always busy. But when we ordered our food, there was a piece of plastic in one poke bowl and a piece of glass in the other bowl. How is it possible that we both had something in our food? (Again!) That wasn’t even the worst part. We saw a girl running out of the restaurant while holding her backside. Well, that didn’t look good. Poor girl, she must have eaten something bad. But then I felt something moving around in my stomach. Oh oh! And yes, I experienced the Indian belly as well. I said to Paul that we had to go back to our place, because I didn’t feel so good. I didn’t hold my backside while running, but man, did I run! (I made it on time! Pfew!)

In Thailand we love eating Pad Thai, it’s so delicious. As I am writing this I really wish we were there, so I can have some right now! But unfortunately not all kitchens are as hygienic as others. On occasion I did find hairs in my food. Nothing is worse than chewing on food and finding a hair (that isn’t yours) in your mouth!

But sometimes the meals with something extra are a lot closer to home. Even in the Netherlands we’ve had some pretty disappointing meals. Years ago, in the Hague, I had dinner at a Greek restaurant. We ordered a mixed grill. At first sight it looked tasty, but when I looked a bit closer it wasn’t that great. There was a half eaten piece of meat hidden under the gyros of my ex!!! It looked like they used the half finished plate of another customer and topped it up with some new meat. Unbelievable! A similar thing happened in Amsterdam as well. These days we try to avoid the tourist restaurants and only eat local! 

What is the weirdest or most disgusting thing that you found in your food? Let me know in the comment section below!