“In a supermarket in Porto, there was an extensive display of animal legs, I think all or most pork, preserved, possibility by salting, so that they did not require refrigeration.”
You can see this everywhere in Spain, in every town, very common. Spaniards love ham. It’s quite common to buy a whole leg of ham and slice it yourself at home; though I’m not that keen myself.
The examples I ate were not what would be called ham in the US. They had a different texture and taste. Are you using "ham" to mean any meat from a pig?
What you find in Spain are jamón serrano and jámon ibérico, which are both dry-cured hams. The kind of ham you’re probably familiar with is also eaten in Spain, and known as jámon cocido (cooked ham), jámon dulce (sweet ham), or jámon de York (York ham). The difference in taste and texture comes, I think, from the different treatment of the meat. Although jámon serrano and jámon ibérico come from different pig breeds.
Hotels: A lot that depends on the class of hotel you are staying at or area, I noticed you are mostly in Western Europe. In Eastern Europe I find breakfast is almost never given and when it is, it's along the lines of the traditional German breakfast (including in hotels) of "stale bread + cold sausage + mustard" or similar local fare; I'm not knocking the graubrot + currywuerst combo, I like it but it's acquired taste like an English breakfast. Also at the low end, generally the US's Motel 6, EconoLodge, or the most shady US motel that rents to truckers or "by the hour near the tracks", is vastly superior to their peers in Europe, east or west in my experience. At least they provide breakfast (usually; even if just a box of cereal or coffee), air conditioning (that mostly works), clean (enough) rooms, and electricity that works consistently whereas in Europe, excluding hostels which cater to "poor" rich kids, you are often lucky to even have a non-communal toilet. Though as a bonus women sometimes are included in the room at no cost if you want so at least Europe has that going for it.
Amen at the electrical thing though that has been a staple in US hotels as well; at least any that have been renovated or built in the past twenty years in my experience. I'm sold on the duvets (Betttuch in German but effectively the same thing) as well, been using them myself for the last thirty years after being introduced to them in Germany. The Middle East did that for bidet's for me too.
PS: One US advantage that I highly prize but you don't mention as you probably don't run into, is they are open 24x7 effectively in that I can just show up at 3 am unannounced, and generally get a room (if available) for cash no questions or ID while often I find many European hotels aren't even manned after business hours or if they are, not by staff that can rent you a room and God forbid if you want to pay cash or not provide a passport.
One of the annoying things I noticed that is much more prevalent in European hotels is a little slot next to the door that you have to insert your room key in to get electricity.
I'm in Japan right now where it is very difficult to get a bad meal. My home is England where it is very easy to get a bad meal! (But there are tons of good places if you do a bit of research.) I am surprised to hear duvets are not standard in England - my experience is the reverse. And most (all?) English hotels will offer you a 'continental' option for breakfast.
Close to all homes in the UK have duvets now (there's a generation who are still on sheets and blankets, but they're now 70+). Duvets are very rare in British hotels though, to the point where I've never seen one.
And I will just say that Japanese restaurants are the best I have ever found but their hotel breakfasts are average at best (when they aren’t actively terrible!)
"An American hotel room, even a low end motel, will have both a small refrigerator and a microwave."
Maybe you haven't seen as low an end as I have. I've been in American motels where, if you were lucky, there was a drip coffee-maker (perhaps with packets of coffee to use in it, perhaps not), but certainly no fridge or microwave. At one motel, instead of an iron and ironing board being in the closet, you could get both on request if you went down to the front desk to pick them up. I'm not talking about real roach motels or by-the-hour sex joints, but low-end chain motels in the midwest.
I rather like a traditional English breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, and various other things. Although I am English, by birth, I hardly ever eat such a breakfast at home (my wife is Spanish and we live in Spain), but I sometimes eat it in hotels when it’s offered.
The most enormous breakfast offering I can remember was in the Sport Hotel in Eilat, Israel, in 1993. The amount of food on offer was staggering, extending along the whole length of one wall of the large room; and it was quite varied and good, as far as I remember.
Ground floor being 0 or 1 depends on the country in Europe. In the former USSR and in Scandinavia (except Sweden), the ground floor is the first floor. More details here:
One could, perhaps, spend hours in an effort to convince me that the practice of subtracting sales tax from prices is meaningfully different from fraud, but it would be a long shot anyway.
Ice is also quite popular in Thailand, where street vendors who sell iced coffee, iced tea and other very sweet iced drinks are ubiquitous. In South Korea, when ordering coffee, one has to specify whether hot or iced, and iced noodles are also quite popular. Greeks take great pride in their iced coffees (freddo espresso and such), particularly when they see them sold abroad. But in much of the Mediterranean region, iced coffee is surprisingly hard to find.
Europeans are right about ice. Rarely do you ever drink something slow slowly that it gets warm before you are done. I suspect it only came about because restaurants wanted an excuse to give you less drink
When I came from England to the USA (California) in the mid-80s, the ice was something I greatly appreciated, especially since I arrived in summer. I still like ice and miss it when in Europe.
I'm gonna take a stab at trying to explain the difference between Western European + Austrian Empire hotel breakfast compared to US hotel breakfast, economic class adjusted of course. I think the difference lies in how much time it takes to make and consume or perhaps even just consume this stuff. The US version is DIY, on account of high wages, and damned near "grab and go" on account a high opportunity cost of time. The European version is "let me pay people to make my breakfast and then let's have a seat and have breakfast". Opportunity cost of time is different.
Am not saying that tastes differ systematically across the pond, just the price of labor and of time. Me, personally, at present prices, and even at my low income, I like to linger.
“In a supermarket in Porto, there was an extensive display of animal legs, I think all or most pork, preserved, possibility by salting, so that they did not require refrigeration.”
You can see this everywhere in Spain, in every town, very common. Spaniards love ham. It’s quite common to buy a whole leg of ham and slice it yourself at home; though I’m not that keen myself.
The examples I ate were not what would be called ham in the US. They had a different texture and taste. Are you using "ham" to mean any meat from a pig?
What you find in Spain are jamón serrano and jámon ibérico, which are both dry-cured hams. The kind of ham you’re probably familiar with is also eaten in Spain, and known as jámon cocido (cooked ham), jámon dulce (sweet ham), or jámon de York (York ham). The difference in taste and texture comes, I think, from the different treatment of the meat. Although jámon serrano and jámon ibérico come from different pig breeds.
Hotels: A lot that depends on the class of hotel you are staying at or area, I noticed you are mostly in Western Europe. In Eastern Europe I find breakfast is almost never given and when it is, it's along the lines of the traditional German breakfast (including in hotels) of "stale bread + cold sausage + mustard" or similar local fare; I'm not knocking the graubrot + currywuerst combo, I like it but it's acquired taste like an English breakfast. Also at the low end, generally the US's Motel 6, EconoLodge, or the most shady US motel that rents to truckers or "by the hour near the tracks", is vastly superior to their peers in Europe, east or west in my experience. At least they provide breakfast (usually; even if just a box of cereal or coffee), air conditioning (that mostly works), clean (enough) rooms, and electricity that works consistently whereas in Europe, excluding hostels which cater to "poor" rich kids, you are often lucky to even have a non-communal toilet. Though as a bonus women sometimes are included in the room at no cost if you want so at least Europe has that going for it.
Amen at the electrical thing though that has been a staple in US hotels as well; at least any that have been renovated or built in the past twenty years in my experience. I'm sold on the duvets (Betttuch in German but effectively the same thing) as well, been using them myself for the last thirty years after being introduced to them in Germany. The Middle East did that for bidet's for me too.
PS: One US advantage that I highly prize but you don't mention as you probably don't run into, is they are open 24x7 effectively in that I can just show up at 3 am unannounced, and generally get a room (if available) for cash no questions or ID while often I find many European hotels aren't even manned after business hours or if they are, not by staff that can rent you a room and God forbid if you want to pay cash or not provide a passport.
One of the annoying things I noticed that is much more prevalent in European hotels is a little slot next to the door that you have to insert your room key in to get electricity.
I'm in Japan right now where it is very difficult to get a bad meal. My home is England where it is very easy to get a bad meal! (But there are tons of good places if you do a bit of research.) I am surprised to hear duvets are not standard in England - my experience is the reverse. And most (all?) English hotels will offer you a 'continental' option for breakfast.
"Continental" meaning a roll and tea or coffee, or the sort of lavish spread that a continental hotel offers?
But admittedly I’m a lot more familiar with hotels outside England as I live in England and have my own house!
I had a duvet when I lived in England in the early 1980s. I don't have much experience of British hotels, especially outside London.
Close to all homes in the UK have duvets now (there's a generation who are still on sheets and blankets, but they're now 70+). Duvets are very rare in British hotels though, to the point where I've never seen one.
And I will just say that Japanese restaurants are the best I have ever found but their hotel breakfasts are average at best (when they aren’t actively terrible!)
Maybe orange juice, croissant and some fruit. But basically the former.
"An American hotel room, even a low end motel, will have both a small refrigerator and a microwave."
Maybe you haven't seen as low an end as I have. I've been in American motels where, if you were lucky, there was a drip coffee-maker (perhaps with packets of coffee to use in it, perhaps not), but certainly no fridge or microwave. At one motel, instead of an iron and ironing board being in the closet, you could get both on request if you went down to the front desk to pick them up. I'm not talking about real roach motels or by-the-hour sex joints, but low-end chain motels in the midwest.
I rather like a traditional English breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, and various other things. Although I am English, by birth, I hardly ever eat such a breakfast at home (my wife is Spanish and we live in Spain), but I sometimes eat it in hotels when it’s offered.
The most enormous breakfast offering I can remember was in the Sport Hotel in Eilat, Israel, in 1993. The amount of food on offer was staggering, extending along the whole length of one wall of the large room; and it was quite varied and good, as far as I remember.
If I am ever in Eilat ...
Ground floor being 0 or 1 depends on the country in Europe. In the former USSR and in Scandinavia (except Sweden), the ground floor is the first floor. More details here:
https://vividmaps.com/floor-counting-around-the-world/
+1 for Lisbon airport being awful.
One could, perhaps, spend hours in an effort to convince me that the practice of subtracting sales tax from prices is meaningfully different from fraud, but it would be a long shot anyway.
Ice is also quite popular in Thailand, where street vendors who sell iced coffee, iced tea and other very sweet iced drinks are ubiquitous. In South Korea, when ordering coffee, one has to specify whether hot or iced, and iced noodles are also quite popular. Greeks take great pride in their iced coffees (freddo espresso and such), particularly when they see them sold abroad. But in much of the Mediterranean region, iced coffee is surprisingly hard to find.
Europeans are right about ice. Rarely do you ever drink something slow slowly that it gets warm before you are done. I suspect it only came about because restaurants wanted an excuse to give you less drink
When I came from England to the USA (California) in the mid-80s, the ice was something I greatly appreciated, especially since I arrived in summer. I still like ice and miss it when in Europe.
Hilariously enough, when I first encountered a duvet I slept in it like a sleeping bag.
I'm gonna take a stab at trying to explain the difference between Western European + Austrian Empire hotel breakfast compared to US hotel breakfast, economic class adjusted of course. I think the difference lies in how much time it takes to make and consume or perhaps even just consume this stuff. The US version is DIY, on account of high wages, and damned near "grab and go" on account a high opportunity cost of time. The European version is "let me pay people to make my breakfast and then let's have a seat and have breakfast". Opportunity cost of time is different.
Am not saying that tastes differ systematically across the pond, just the price of labor and of time. Me, personally, at present prices, and even at my low income, I like to linger.
When a man is tired of English breakfast he is surely tired of life.