For the Thriftiest Road Food, Eat--and Drink--as the Locals Do

Napoleon said “an army marches on its stomach”; so do tourists. People enjoy their trips if the food is tasty and cheap; they’re dissatisfied if meals are dull and expensive. And the country that can’t provide decent dining at a reasonable price is doomed to lose its vitality in tourism. Russia is an example.

Visitors often can lower the cost and increase the enjoyment of eating by making wise decisions. I’ve developed rules:

* Eat what they’re eating. Concentrate on local specialties: pasta in Italy, steak-and-kidney pie in Britain, herring in Scandinavia, moo goo gai pan in Taiwan. Local favorites are any nation’s best dishes, well prepared and usually inexpensive. Order your familiar favorites instead--a U.S. hamburger, a martini, apple pie--and you’ll probably pay too much.

* Drink what they’re drinking. In a wine-drinking country (say, Italy or France), order wine, not beer. The wine is marvelous and inexpensive; the beer is no bargain. In a beer-drinking country (Germany, Scandinavia), drink beer, not wine; the beer is cheap and top-notch.

* Eat what they’re eating when they’re eating it. Follow the food patterns of the country you’re in. If the habit is to have a tiny breakfast and a giant lunch (Spain, France, Italy, Greece), have the same. If, instead, you order a big breakfast in those countries, you’ll probably pay mightily for an inadequate meal. By contrast, if the tradition in a particular nation is to have a giant breakfast and a tiny lunch (Britain, Israel, Australia), do that: You’ll find that the mammoth breakfast is the best-prepared meal of the day and is relatively inexpensive.

* Eat less than you think you want. We all eat far more while traveling than we usually do at home. We feel intimidated, among other things, by foreign waiters. Will they think us “ugly Americans” if we don’t order a soup-to-nuts meal? At home, none of us would dream of having four courses for lunch, yet overseas, we think it obligatory to order the table d’hote meal and stuff ourselves into a state of torpor at considerable expense, while the local resident at the next table has a refreshing, inexpensive single plate.

* Divide and conquer. Order one plate for the two of you, or an appetizer for her and a main course for him, and split them. You’ll still have more than enough, and you’ll save money. The servings in most tourist restaurants are enough for a family. (I exclude, of course, haute cuisine places, which usually have tiny portions.)

How many times have you ordered a meat course for yourself that turns out to be so large you can’t finish it? By ordering, say, one prime rib for two of you, you will end up with plenty, and you’ll save $17 or so at the same time.

* Eat picnic-style once a day. Instead of going to restaurants three times a day, alternate the routine; make one of those meals a cold, light snack, like a sandwich lunch at the hotel. Go to a delicatessen, order pate, some cheese, two rolls, two tomatoes, a pickle and wine, and take the lot to a park bench or a riverbank and eat healthfully, cheerfully and for pocket change.

* Look before you order. Never order a dish without knowing how much it costs. Never patronize a restaurant that does not openly display its menu outside. Order nothing listed at “today’s market price” or “s.g.” (selon grosseur, according to weight).

* Beware of waiters bearing gifts. Eat nothing that’s been placed on the table before your arrival (like a crock of pate); it may be priced at princely levels. Refuse anything (other than bread, butter, radishes and the like) brought to your table unbidden unless it’s explicitly described as free.

* Avoid the “household words.” If the name of a restaurant springs to mind in an unfamiliar city, it’s because you’ve heard of it for decades. And that means you’re 20 years too late. The “household words” are too often riding on their reputations and are overpriced. They can afford to be.

* Never eat at airports. Stick sandwiches in your suitcase or put pastries in your purse. Conceal a banana in the magazine or the newspaper that you’re carrying. Do anything, but don’t place yourself in the position of having to buy a meal at an airport. Need I explain why?

* Patronize the marketplaces. When in doubt about where to eat in a strange foreign city, head for the big marketplace, the stalls under canvas or in a warehouse-like building where ingredients of meals are sold.

Wherever there’s a marketplace, there’s a nearby restaurant with good prices for fresh food; that’s because those marketplace eateries buy the makings for their meals from people they deal with throughout the day, at the best rates.