Hacker News Reader

Comment by solvedit | Hacker News Reader

I don't spend $20/day on food in Boston or Paris. Does it really cost that in India? Are my nationalist blinders on? Somehow I imagined that it would be much cheaper there.

View on HN

Although the third world can be surprisingly cheap, it is often surprisingly expensive. Add that to the cost of flights (a $990 round-trip flight to a place equals $33 a day if you stay a month) and things begin to add up. And although billions of people in the third world do eat for cheap, the cheap/local food and what you want to eat may not match up. Combine that with different prices for foreigners and your lack of local knowledge about cheap, good places and you'll be paying a lot more than you'd think.

Only go to places that maintain an illusion of hygiene and prices will rise fast. For example, you might pay the equivalent of $3 more per meal for a place whose employees wear gloves. But in reality, the dirty-looking place next door is actually cleaner; they throw lemon juice on their boards after cutting meat. At the same time the nicer-looking place lets raw chicken touch everything while handling money with the same gloves they use for food.

You can easily spend a tenth of that and get good food in India if you eat at places where the average local person does. However, speaking as an Indian, most foreigners probably don't want to play that crapshoot, because there is always a chance you'll get sick due to lack of hygiene in food prep.

The hotels that cater to Westerners typically charge a lot more, and rates are more comparable to hotels in a cheap European city. Theoretically, with them you get a guarantee of food that is prepared with better safety standards. Whether this is practically true I have no idea.

Ironically, the cheapest way to live and eat in India would be to rent an apartment and get a trustworthy cook to come in and cook fresh food for you every day. Your daily bill will be way less than $20. However, setting this up requires a fair amount of legwork and contacts, which (understandably) someone who is looking for a vacation will not find attractive.

> Ironically, the cheapest way to live and eat in India would be to rent an apartment and get a trustworthy cook to come in and cook fresh food for you every day.

I met a seed-stage startup person who has this setup (somewhere in India) while traveling through a hostel in SF recently. Two meals cooked per day and cleaning. It sounded like a great setup and much more affordable than what that would cost in the US.

> Theoretically, with them you get a guarantee of food that is prepared with better safety standards. Whether this is practically true I have no idea.

Anecdotally, working in Maharashtra with Indians in an Indian company for a few months I was never ill. This was eating $1 "luxury" 8 course meals brought to me in the morning by a dabbawalla on his motorbike which - as with all my co-workers' food - stayed out in the searing heat for a few hours before lunch; I also eventually had him bring me dinner. I lived in the same company housing as everybody else. No idea how you'd find a dabbawalla though, I just took the stack of leaflets dropped at the office and tried them all until I found a good one.

Coming back for 2 weeks to Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore staying at a famous and very nice 5 star hotel chain and eating only in their restaurants, I caught the worst bout of my life. Bit wary of hotel kitchens since then.

I realize this is a fucking gross idea that amounts to poop pills, but there is probably a market for a market for digestive inoculations against local bacteria. Being able to build up a resistance to the local gut bacteria in advance - before you have to commit 100% to all of the local fauna - would be invaluable. Gut bacteria almost certainly play a large part in that balance.

They exist. Cost me $15 at a local chemist (in Australia) to get an immunization for common stomach bugs in Southeast Asia/India). It also isn't impossible to buy antibiotics before you go and to take them with you.

If you are travelling in Boston or Paris (e.g. not cooking your own meals) $20 is really a pretty restrictive budget. Scaling your expectations elsewhere similarly will mean you can probably also do it on a lot less in India...

You mean eating out? When I'm traveling on a budget, I tend to just buy bread and cheese in a grocery store, and use a knife (or whatever I can improvise) to make a meal on the go.

Many travelers -- me included -- find it interesting to try the local food.

Although I agree with you it's also worth pointing out that very often the bread and cheese _is_ the local food. Even in places that aren't known for their cheese, if you head to a market you might find an inexpensive, unique and rather tasty cheese.

no doubt, but some of the best experiences I've had traveling have been going into restaurants and letting wait staff choose what I eat.

I mean, would you recommend someone coming to America try eating nothing but fruits and snacks?

No, that's not healthy. I didn't say "eat nothing but bread and cheese". If someone recommends you try the bonbons in France, do you eat 3 meals a day of only bonbons for 30 days? When people suggest you try a food they usually aren't suggesting you try and make it your entire diet. I was instead recommending eating the local bread and cheese (of course in moderation.) For the places I've lived in this holds:

- NYC? Get a bagel with cream cheese, or a chopped cheese ($3).

- Idaho Falls? Go to Reed's Dairy and the bakery by the public library with free samples (can't remember the name.) Amazing stuff, and pretty cheap.

- Netherlands? Cheese is pretty cheap and good quality everywhere in the country. Bread is incredibly cheap, and even if you're literally surviving off change you find on the sidewalk you can afford it.

- New Hampshire? Go to Cabot Cheese. Best cheddar in the world.

Of course also remember to eat fruits and veggies, but those are always cheap. I just bought 3 large peppers and a kilo of apples for €1.50 here in the Netherlands.

> - New Hampshire? Go to Cabot Cheese. Best cheddar in the world.

Definitely not the best, even in New England, let alone the world

Ok, what New England cheddars do you like? (See my reply to x0x0 for my defense of Cabot.)

There's nothing wrong with inexpensive food. You should try the bagel and schmear in nyc, and if you haven't had pork belly buns, tacos de lengua, or pupusas con curtido you should drop what you're doing and fix that. All of those are amazing. Pupusas, in particular, are pork and cheese in a pancake.

Cabot cheese is the best cheddar though? That's fighting words if you grew up near Wisconsin. If you're ever near there go to Bobby Nelson Cheese Shop. The aged cheddar is amazing and they make their sausage.

Ugh, pork belly buns. I miss those so much.

Have you tried Cabot's whole assortment? For a few weeks a year they lay out a truly ridiculous assortment of cheeses, all free to try. Their hyper-local stuff kicks the ass of the (still fantastic) Cabot you'll buy in the grocery store. What you guys get in Wisconsin trucked across the country is probably not even close to what I ate when I lived a stone's throw from Cabot.

Also, my tastes run seriously sharp. Does Bobby Nelson have anything really sharp? If so I've got to check it out.

Secretly, my favorite cheddar - which I'd bet trumps Bobby Nelson, even if Cabot's hidden stuff doesn't - is made by an older woman who wraps all her cheeses in black paper and sells them at various markets around the Quechee Gorge. But it's somewhat expensive and very hard to find. The last time I bought some I weighed it before and after eating to make sure nobody else touched it, it's that good.

If you want to get more global, try obscure Welsh cheddars. Amazing but expensive. They go very well in between scotches.

Sure, you can do that - but there are other experiences you are choosing not to have that way, which are also valuable.

$20 is equivalent to 1300 rupees. You can get a descent meal for 200 rupees per meal.I should have added food and other expenses for $20.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com