Finding Comfort Food While Traveling Abroad

TTT - Comfort Food
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Meggan: [00:00:00] Hey everyone, and welcome back to Travel Tip Tuesday on the Travel Mug Podcast. Jenn, how are you doing this week?

Jenn: am doing well. How are you, Meggan?

Meggan: I am good. Spring is officially here. I mean, some days it doesn't feel like it, but we're in. The good zone, you know, we're headed in the right direction.

Jenn: Definitely.

Meggan: I love that. Now this week I wanted to talk about the comforts of home while traveling. So recently we were eating at Subway. This is in no way am I promoting Subway.

It just happened to be the case. , and we kind of looked at each other and chuckled and said, remember when we were in Belfast and we had Subway for lunch and we had, it? Was there. We were hungry. It was familiar. So this got me kind of thinking. There can be a lot of external pressure at times in the social media age, or even just pressure that we put on ourselves while traveling to always be exploring and trying something new.

I. I find though at times I don't [00:01:00] know about you, especially if you're away for a bit longer than maybe your typical week. Sometimes you just need something familiar once in a while. Yet we often feel like that's almost a travel fail of sorts.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: I know in the past we've talked about, of course, trying new foods.

We've talked about that a lot while traveling. And don't get me wrong, I love that. I'm huge into that, but I also think we have to give ourselves some grace sometimes, and if we see something familiar and it feels right that that's okay. Not every meal or every event needs to be put online for starters.

No one needs to know you had Subway for lunch. , you know, having that mundane sub from Subway is okay, um, because it's a recognized brand. And sometimes when you're in a hurry as well, something, you know, is definitely the easiest thing. You're like, okay, every subway sub tastes the same. I know what this is gonna taste like.

So it, that's the idea of it Now. I never intend to do that on a regular basis because I do travel for new experiences, [00:02:00] but I need to make sure that I'm also reminding myself that sometimes you just need to do what's most practical.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Meggan: So, Jenn, is this something you've done before for comfort or like what's your thoughts on this?

Jenn: Yeah, this reminds me of when we were in Paris on our honeymoon. We went to Starbucks every morning. Um, it was right outside our hotel, like super, super easy to get to. I guess the first morning I think we went to a local coffee shop and um, we asked for like un cafe and we got an espresso. And it's like we really wanted a, like a drip coffee, you know?

And I know that that's not typically what they would drink in Paris, but that's what we wanted. Um, and so we could get that at Starbucks. Um, and it did, it did, like at the time, felt like a bit of a fail. Like, oh my gosh, I can't believe, like I'm in Paris and I'm going to Starbucks. Like, this is ridiculous. But I agree with you, like sometimes you need something easy that you don't need to like think [00:03:00] about as much. And I think that this is especially true when you're traveling, if you have food allergies or you're traveling with someone who has food allergies like my husband, like it's easy for us to go certain places because we know, uh, that it's safe.

And like, you still have to check. I'm not saying don't check because obviously, um, you know, McDonald's in Europe might use different products than McDonald's in North America. And it might not be safe, but just like double checking. Uh, yeah, it's just sometimes it's just easy and like, like you said, like kind of comforting and it's like, okay, I'm hungry right now.

I need something to eat. Let's just eat this and move on and go do something else.

Meggan: Yeah, especially if it's getting in the way of like, you going to see something. I don't want food slowing me down.

Jenn: yeah,

Meggan: And I understand what you're saying about coffee. When we were in, I don't know if it was Amsterdam or Iceland last year, Peter just kept saying, I want a big coffee. He's like, I don't, [00:04:00] I, and, and I know that's probably a North American mindset, but like all when you just get the tiny ones. 'cause it's kind of also, I think we do coffee shops. As like a lengthy baby bit of an experience. And not that they don't there because cafes are huge, but what that also means to us is like larger coffees.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: And I, I, I think it was the Amsterdam because we actually made our way to the train station and went to a Dunkin Donuts that was there because he's like, maybe I can get an actual size, like bigger coffee here.

So I do completely understand what you're saying about finding something where you know you're going to also get what you're expecting.

Jenn: Yeah. And obviously like, you know, we travel to be, uh, in a different culture like that is something that we want to experience. But yeah, sometimes you just want your like large coffee.

Meggan: Yeah, and I, and that's okay because I love cafe culture all around the world. I think that's, we both do bakeries the whole thing. Like that's definitely not it, but sometimes you just need a bigger dose of the [00:05:00] caffeine.

Jenn: Well, and a lot of the times, like in the mornings, we just wanna grab a coffee and go walk. Like I, and I love sitting down in a cafe and having like that experience, but sometimes I just want my extra large coffee and walking around.

Meggan: Exactly. And, and, and if you find somewhere familiar, that's exactly what we're talking about. Just do it. It's, it's, it's okay.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: You don't need to tell Instagram about it either.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: well that is it for this week's Travel tip Tuesday, we hope. When you are away from home, you can find some comfort and not feel the pressure to always be doing something new.

It is your vacation after all, and you get to choose. So thank you as always for listening. You can find us on social media, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook at Travel Mug Podcast, or a website travel mug podcast.com. You can support what we are doing here by. Ironically, like we were just mentioning, buying us a coffee.

Uh, the link is in our show notes, of course, and you can leave us a review if you'd like on Apple or Spotify. We'd [00:06:00] love to hear from you. But until next time, safe travels and bye.