So, you’ve landed in a new city. Exciting!
You grabbed your luggage, found transportation and just sat down in the place you’ll be staying for the next few days, weeks or months.
As a nomadic, world schooling family, “where to eat” seems to be one of our most popular topics of conversation. It’s not because we take any pleasure in this debate, but five mouths (really five and a half since our 10 year-old eats so much) and long travel days make for big appetites. This is especially true before we’ve fully settled into a location or found a routine that works. The fridge is empty, your last meal was something salty served at 35,000 feet, and those snacks you brought (you did bring snacks, right?) are anything but appetizing. So we usually decide to eat out and look for “somewhere local” that’s not a chain restaurant.
What happens next is what I consider to be one of the most stressful, yet simultaneously enjoyable moments we experience when we arrive in a new country: the first meal.
The first meal in a new country is incredibly stressful because:
- Everyone is tired
- Everyone is hungry
- Everyone is stressed
- Nobody knows about the food scene
- Google maps lists only 50% of all restaurants (and many listings are out of date)
- Everyone is tired (did I mention this already?)
So we usually settle for “good enough.” We look for a place that has decent reviews and at least one identifiable food we know will fill us up. That’s it. When you land somewhere new, you really can’t bee too picky.
Here are my top three favorite first-meal experiences in a new country. I’ll also share a link to the specific place we visited, but keep in mind the results may change as businesses evolve and links are updated.
Portugal
Portugal was our first international trip as a family, and at the time we landed, we only knew three words: obrigado (thank you), desculpe (sorry) and vinho (wine). We also knew we were hungry and ready to try some new foods. This was another Home Exchange so we threw our bags down while the kids claimed their sleeping spaces, and decided to explore the nearby restaurants.
Google is rarely helpful in these situations, especially if you haven’t activated an e-SIM in your new country. We saw a cluster of options and decided to park and walk until we found a place we thought could work. So we awkwardly stepped inside a small, friendly place called Pāo Quente Seara do Monte.
Apparently, this was a bakery (hey, we learned another word… pao is “bread”), but this bakery also had a dinner menu. We did our best to look it over and find something that looked somewhat familiar, but navigating a new location AND language while you’re tired from a full day of travel pretty much impossible. Also, Portuguese is only vaguely similar to Spanish. Enough to get by if you know a little Spanish, but we were total noobs and our brains were done.
Thankfully, the owner of the restaurant saw us and seemed genuinely excited to have customers (he also spoke relatively good English which was a relief). We told him about our long travel day and he prepared a table for us.
The moment…
Sensing our stress about choosing food, he asked us what we wanted to drink. We all said “water,” but he forcefully refused and said “no, you’re in Portugal, you drink wine.” We laughed and stumbled through choosing a white or red, but this is the precise moment during the first meal in a new location that I love so much: people genuinely want to welcome you to their country.
Our meal was delicious. The owner took over ordering for all of us and brought (along with the bottle of Portuguese red wine) salad, olives, and bread. Then he brought out some very traditional Portuguese foods: Francesinha and Bitoque.
What’s a Francesinha?
The Francesinha is very specific to the city of Porto. It’s essentially a sandwich, stacked with meats like steak, ham, and sausage, smothered in melted cheese, and drowned in a rich, spicy beer-based sauce — usually served with fries and a fried egg on top. It’s a commitment, but oh so satisfying.
What’s a Bitoque?
A Bitoque is another Portuguese comfort dish: a thin, pan-fried steak (or sometimes pork) topped with a fried egg, typically served with fries, rice, and sometimes a drizzle of garlicky or wine-based pan sauce. It’s simple, and is basically Portugal’s version of “meat and potatoes.”
New Zealand
Our second experience landing in a new place and eating a meal together was in Ōakura, New Zealand. After a similarly long travel day and a 30 minute shuttle ride to the house, we were hungry and ready to explore what Ōakura had to offer. We had done some research ahead of time and knew there were a few restaurants on the East side of town that were within walking distance. So, we walked.
It didn’t take long to smell some really good food coming from one of the livelier places in the area called Butler’s Reef. It was a pretty standard looking building and they had a menu with lots of options. We saw many locals just hanging out, talking, drinking and and enjoying the beach town vibes.
But once again, we were hungry, tired and not thinking clearly enough to know what we wanted.
After the staff shuffled a bit and shared some shushed whispers about the large American family, they found us a table. We sat down and took a breath as we explained our travel day and started some small-talk. The waiter asked for our drink order (waters, lemonades for the kids and a local beer for me) and we started looking at our food options.
“Lemonade”
When the waiter returned, we all learned something that would be helpful during the remainder of our visit to New Zealand: “lemonade” is Sprite or any sort of lemony soda. Not what we expected, but this is how first meal adventures usually go. It’s a learning experience for everyone!
The rest of the experience wasn’t uniquely interesting, but our food was delicious and incredibly fresh (as most ingredients are in New Zealand). We also had a few, more extended conversations with the waiter who was an exchange student from Germany. Our main takeaway from our conversation with him was that people move around all the time. It’s especially normal in European countries where it’s so easy (and economical) to jump from one unique culture to the next.
After soaking in the realization that we made it to the bottom half of the world and just had dinner in one of the most beautiful countries on earth, we paid for our meal, thanked the staff and walked back to our house.
Spain
Another favorite first-meal memory is from Spain. With experience we gained in Portugal and New Zealand, we felt slightly more prepared this time… but only slightly. What made our first meal experience in Spain more challenging was perhaps an issue we didn’t have in Portugal or New Zealand: too many choices.
We were staying in another home exchange near the University and there were hundreds of small cafes, cafeterias, cervecerias, bars, bakeries, “take away” kitchens and a few chains. Keeping with our rule of avoiding chains as much as possible we went to Google Maps for some help. It was overwhelming.
As soon as you zoom to an area and get a sense of the restaurants available, you zoom in a little more and BOOM, 10 more appear. Google simply can’t show everything at once. It truly is like an Onion post I saw on Instagram once: “Modern-Day Magellan Discovers New Dining Options By Zooming In A Little On Google Maps.”
Similar to the approach we took in Portugal, we found an area with a few options and decided to just walk. It’s more complicated in Spain though, because they eat on a VERY different schedule than most of the world. More on that in a future post. We passed a few places, tried to get a sense of the vibe and the menu, and finally found a spot that could seat five people called Restaurante Taberna Asturiana.
We sat down, and after getting us all a bottle of water to share (it was too small, order the “grande” size), we just decided to order a little of everything. Small chorizo sausages, roasted peppers, patatas bravas, croquettes, calamari, and a few other small plates that we all shared. Was it the best? In that moment, in that state of mind… absolutely.
Final thoughts
When you first land in a new country, you probably know NONE of the customs, big or small. For example, do you pay first, or after your meal? Do you tip? When you order water is it still, sparking, bottled or from the tap? Do you ask for a menu, or do they bring you one? All of this can lead to a really stressful experience but the key is to stay calm, and know that usually people want to help you navigate all of this.
Here are a few tips to help make that first meal experience in a new country much easier:
- Don’t try to plan too much ahead, or with too much detail – you can’t guess with any sort of accuracy how you’ll all feel once you land. If you’re too tired to walk, you actually might want to hit up a familiar chain restaurant and that’s ok! We also found that hours posted on Google Maps are correct only about 70% of the time, so don’t rely to heavily on what you see there.
- Learn a few key phrases – “what is your favorite” is a go-to for us because it sneakily puts the burden of ordering on the staff. The reality is, they will know what’s good! If you aren’t ready for full phrases, even knowing a few key words like “menu” and “pay” in the native language will help everyone feel more comfortable.
- Be prepared to spend more time than expected – ordering food in a different country takes more time. Walking to find the place takes time. Stopping on the corner to pull up directions through spotty data connections takes time.
- Know your non-negotiables – you will all need something to drink so get everyone some water (or wine). If you aren’t sure about seafood or gluten or other things you typically avoid, now’s not the time to experiment. You can be more adventurous later.
- Be prepared to be surprised – often times, what you order may not be what you thought you ordered. That’s ok!
- Relax, and enjoy the experience – you’ll look back on this moment with more appreciation after everyone is fed and feeling better. I promise.
If you follow these tips and are kind to the people around you, you’ll do great. You got this. Bon appetit!