According to a new survey by DK Travel Guides, over 66% of Brits eat at chain restaurants such as McDonalds, KFC or Burger King while on holiday overseas. This, despite roughly the same percentage (64%), declaring that local cuisine is important to their choice of holiday.

The survey, carried out to coincide with the publication of DK’s new book Ultimate Food Journeys, explores attitudes to world cuisine and reveals a number of other interesting stats.

A third of Brits would eat Italian food for the rest of their life. When asked ‘If you had to eat only one country’s traditional cuisine for the rest of your life, what would it be?’, one third chose Italian, with a quarter sticking with familiar British. Take-away favourites Indian and Chinese were the joint 3rd top choice.

Italy was also chosen as the country where most had ‘eaten like a king’. The USA with its huge portiions came second, with France third.

Of the world’s ‘national dishes’ the British choose their own ‘fish & chips’ as their favourite. Nearly 20% chose the traditional British dish, beating Pizza (15%), Paella (11%) and Green Curry (9%). The least favourite dishes were Injera from Ethiopia and Portugese Bacalhau (salt codfish).

Make my last supper a roast… most Brits would choose a good old sunday roast or christmas dinner to eat as their final meal. Steak was second most popular, with a curry third.
It would appear a familiar hearty meal is what’s required to see us on our way.

‘Ultimate Food Journeys’ showcases the finest original foods from around the world and the best places to eat them.