Our entree-duction to catering to dietary preferences, allergies and intolerances

Hello! Ricki-Jane from the Patch team here.

I’ve got a juicy topic for us today…food! Come, sit next to me. I’ve saved you a place at the Patch dinner table for my, (ahem) ‘entrée-duction to what the cuisine will be like on our adventures.

*‘What’s the cuisine like?’ is a question on everyone’s lips before they come on an adventure with us. Our May 2025 Uzbekistan Patchies were excited to find out!*

Right after wanting to know if a destination is safe to visit, ‘cuisine’ is a three-course meal of questions our guests are most curious about before their trip begins. They want to know:

What will it be like?
Can dietary preferences be catered to?
Are they able to come on our adventures if they have allergies and intolerances?

Let’s dig in…

You’ll encounter a world of tastes, textures and aromas that will be surprisingly different to what you’re used to on our off-the-beaten-path adventures. I won’t sugarcoat it…you might not love it all and you’re going to have to be a little bit brave!

*You’ll encounter all kinds of surprising ingredients on our adventures. This pic is from our July 2025 Mongolia trip.*

May I offer you a glass of yak milk?

It can be easy to let our own perceptions be clouded when we think of what a destination’s cuisine is like – like our Trip Ops teammate, Kat, who got the shock of her life when she moved from Western Australia to Mexico and was humbled by her first plate of enchiladas! (You can read about how she discovered she’d been living a lie here).

For us Aussies and Kiwis, even things like larger portion sizes and later mealtimes can take some getting used to. We just aren’t accustomed to sitting down to daily three-course meals, and dinner at 8pm can be hard to swallow if you’ve had a choc-full day out and about exploring. But this is common in many places our adventures take you.

*In places like the Balkans, it’s not uncommon for tables to be filled with more generous portions than you’re used to.*

Do you want to know what the biggest beef is that we hear from our returning guests on their feedback calls?

“There was waaaay too much food!”

This cultural difference can come as a BIG surprise and guests often share their concerns over food wastage.

In Middle Eastern and European cultures however, food is a love language!

Hospitality is serious business in Arabian cultures and food is deeply rooted in a country’s customs and traditions. Dates are often served as a sweet symbol of warmth and generosity when welcoming guests in Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Hospitality is taken very seriously in places like Oman, Saudi Arabia, the Balkans and Romania where you’ll find:

Mealtimes are an occasion not to be rushed
Leftovers rarely go to waste – rather, they’re generously shared amongst family and friends
Looking after guests is a great source of national and personal pride

The locals have hundreds of years of being the ‘host with the most’ engrained in their DNA.

My advice?

Surrender to it, you’re an honoured guest!

*Our April 2025 Patchies got to experience true Romanian hospitality in full colour. What a feast!*

Just graciously accept those plentiful platters as they’re handed to you with a kind word and a smile. I won’t judge you if you need to loosen your belt a notch.

Our Patchies love getting to dine with local families in their homes (you’ll even get to make some meals yourself along the way), but catering to dietary preferences can be challenging in not-so-explored corners of the world. If you’re a vegan or vegetarian, would it shock you to know that in some places, these things aren’t even ‘a thing’?

*Vegetarianism and other dietary preferences aren’t yet mainstream in many cultures. Pictured here from our May 2025 Silk Road & Stans adventure, is a stall holder preparing food at a local market.*

In nomadic cultures, like along the Silk Road and Mongolia, for instance, extreme climates and landscapes help shape the cuisine. Meals are heavily meat-based and (brace yourself!) can include cultural delicacies like horsemeat. Often, meat is simply removed from the sauce it’s cooked in before being offered as a ‘vegetarian’ dish. Being a non-meat eater just simply isn’t part of the cultural psyche in many societies.

*Some destinations over others are more familiar with offering greater choice for travellers with dietary preferences.*

You might find that a little hard to swallow if you’re not the carnivorous kind, so if you’re a person who enjoys more garden variety or are a pescatarian, here are six trips that might be more your flavour:

Not a ‘spice’ girl? No worries!

Whether your tolerance level lands at ‘mild tingle’ or you’re a ‘gimme third degree burns’ kinda gal, just let your guide know. They’ll be able to help balance the heat at mealtimes so you can find your ‘Goldilocks zone’.

As for food allergies and intolerances – we don’t let these things stop you from travelling with us and you don’t have to either!

If these things are severe for you though, it might just mean that certain destinations are simply ‘off the menu’ instead.

*Food handling and hygiene standards in remote destinations can be very different to what you might be used to at home.*

Cross contamination can be challenging to prevent in adventurous locations where things like wheat, gluten, eggs and dairy, or shellfish might be a risk for you, so if you’re a little nervous to bite into one of our adventures…

Don’t be.

Give us a call – let’s chew the fat together!

Our BMs Claire, Aidan and Courtney are super sleuths at finding the right trip to keep your tummies and your taste buds happy. All you need to bring is a dash of bravery and an open mind and who knows, you might just knock back that glass of yak milk…and love it!

Bon Appetite!