Kebabs

[Taipan]

Must admit, eating a dead animal, is eating a dead animal and it'd not bother me if it was beef, sheep, goat etc. What bothers me is the lack of regulation and hygiene around takeaways. I'll easily get past such concerns when pissed , but the thought of eating such things, including McDonalds, makes me a tad nauseous!

[Count Steer]

Must admit, eating a dead animal, is eating a dead animal and it'd not bother me if it was beef, sheep, goat etc. What bothers me is the lack of regulation and hygiene around takeaways. I'll easily get past such concerns when pissed , but the thought of eating such things, including McDonalds, makes me a tad nauseous!

???

Same legislation/rules apply to takeaways as restaurants.

Food Safety Act 1990 and the Food Hygiene Regulations 2013

You probably don't want to see behind the scenes in some quite flashy-fronted restaurants either.

Problem isn't legislation, it's enforcement. Numbers of Environmental Health Officers have dropped - for a number of reasons inc. budget cuts, lack of recruitment, retirements etc.

[Taipan]

Must admit, eating a dead animal, is eating a dead animal and it'd not bother me if it was beef, sheep, goat etc. What bothers me is the lack of regulation and hygiene around takeaways. I'll easily get past such concerns when pissed , but the thought of eating such things, including McDonalds, makes me a tad nauseous!

???

Same legislation/rules apply to takeaways as restaurants.

Food Safety Act 1990 and the Food Hygiene Regulations 2013

You probably don't want to see behind the scenes in some quite flashy-fronted restaurants either.

Problem isn't legislation, it's enforcement. Numbers of Environmental Health Officers have dropped - for a number of reasons inc. budget cuts, lack of recruitment, retirements etc.

I'm quite often the same with restaurants and have seen behind some fronts and told some horror stories by London's bin men, and locally my old mate used to paint the row of shops near us and his horror stories of what he saw looking through the windows of the various takeaways and curry houses whilst painting their frames was a bit pukey too. I had a Saturday job with Allied Bakeries when I was at school and there was some questionable hygiene practices there too. Sometimes i think you're best not knowing, but it is mainly the reason I very rarely have takeaways, post pub purchases notwithstanding!

My mate used to be a EHO and she often spoke about how they felt the ratings were rigged. She said its mainly independents that get lower ratings as the are individually inspected and rated, where as places like MacDonalds nearly always get 5 star as the have agreed practise or some such? She said the worse ones are mobile food vans as by their mobile nature they can easily avoid inspections and they can be parked in different borough to where they trade providing some get out or another.

[Count Steer]

'In culinary lore, Chinese, French, and Turkish traditions are collectively celebrated as the world's "Three Grand Cuisines". Each represents a foundational pillar of global gastronomy, characterized by rich imperial histories, diverse regional agricultural products, and deeply influential cooking techniques'.

Now one of those is associated here in the UK with day-glo orange sweet and sour, another with a Friday night doner (of questionable provenance) after a skinful of beer and another with pimped-up cheese and ham toasties given a posh name.

I've not been to Turkey but food in the other two has been decidedly meh when I've been there. Hong Kong was good but that was before the handover.

I would agree with that whole heartedly. I prefer North London Turkish to Istanbul, France has always been “meh”, and Chinese food a lottery of what you are eating. The best food i ate was in a Uyghur restaurant. Hong Kong, on the other hand , had some great offerings

I've eaten very well on the multiple trips around Turkey. If you 'eat local' and know what is local you can always find somewhere that'll feed you well. Istanbul, like most cities is a mixed bag but again, if you root out the places where the locals are eating (and stay away from Taksim and the main tourist magnets) it's That said, the North London option is too.

The history and regional nature of the food (it's mainly the Ottoman period that qualifies it as one of the 3 great cuisines) is quite interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_c ... prov=sfla1

Found similar in France* - had some great meals at lunchtime in places where 'Maman' was feeding all the local workmen to a proper sit down/white tablecloth 3 courser. Had to revert to omelette frites and, on one occasion, pizza! at times. Even went in a McDonalds after a long stretch on an N-road where we couldn't find much else. Lived in Paris for a while and generally went out for food with French colleagues and had the main meal of the day at lunchtime but an English colleague that was a long time resident there introduced me to a few places that were excellent for an evening meal too. I probably wouldn't have found them on my own.

Similar thing in Brussels - my colleague/chum Christophe seemed to know every lunch opportunity in the city and insisted on a good lunch every day. (I tended to shop and cook for myself if I still needed to eat in the evening. ).

Edit: * however, the food in ski resorts has been, consistently, the worst.