Whether your interest in food leans toward food festivals, local cuisine, or gourmet, you may be a foodie. Travel for foodies connects food with your travel experiences.
Wikipedia’s description of a foodie as a “foodie” is a person who has an ardent or refined interest in food and who eats food not only out of hunger but due to their interest or hobby. The terms “gastronome” and “gourmet” define the same thing, i.e. a person who enjoys food for pleasure.”
I think that description fits many of us – whether we realized it or not.
What are your favorite memories from a recent trip?
From when you were young? Or a pleasant surprise on a recent excursion? What about a trip to Grandma’s house, hanging out around the kitchen table? If food was your answer to any of these, chances are you are a travel foodie.
For me, the answer to all of those is food. Local cuisine, food festivals, specialty food, open-air markets – you get the drift.
This post is for everyone – even those who don’t see themselves as a foodie.
What is Travel for foodies?
I think that is an easy answer.
There is a reason we sample the local cuisine when traveling – every place has something they are known for. Something they specialize in. Something you can only get at that location.
Maybe the food is liquid – some of my favorite memories take me back to adult beverages. Caipirinhas in Brazil. Orange slushie from freshly squeezed oranges at a Pompeii road stand. Frosty beverage on Ocean Drive in Miami South Beach.
Enjoying the place specifically for the food it is known for – that’s travel for foodies with a local cuisine twist.
What if the location is known for food?
Or, if you are there to attend a food festival. Miami is an excellent example of this for us. The SOBE WFF has become an annual staple for the Travel Junkie team.
SOBE Wine and Food Festival (WFF) held annually by The Food Network is a huge tasting – savoring – socializing event, with any type of food and chefs from across the world. If you like to eat it – it’s there. By the way, the 2022 SOBE WFF is scheduled for February 2022 – check it out!
SOBE WFF is once a year, and expensive. Outside your reach? For most of us, the answer is yes.
Busch Gardens in Tampa also has an annual food festival featuring gourmet dishes and local cuisine. The Busch Gardens event is more affordable than WFF and much more relaxed.
My recommendation is to make your own wine and food festival if neither of these food festivals appeals to your taste. It isn’t all that difficult.
Stick with me here.
You will find that many of your favorite destinations sponsor food tours. Local food tours are a fantastic way to express your interest in food while experiencing local cuisine!
While we were at SOBE WFF 2019, we attended a food tour of Little Havana with Miami Culinary Tours. This was such a great experience, we now recommend taking a food tour anywhere you can find one.
Folks, what an opportunity to make your own food festival, combining your interest in food with local cuisine – in this case, Cuban food.
Yummy!
By the way, Miami is one of our favorite Foodie destinations, but it has so many more great activities. Check out our other favorites about Miami here.
Travel for Foodies includes Food Cities as destinations.
Find out what your destination is known for. For example, don’t visit the Caribbean or US Eastern seaboard without trying fresh seafood.
Sample fresh fruits or locally prepared specialties. Visit the local markets – not only a great way to learn the language – but a great way to find out what is in season!
Ask your hotel concierge, rental manager, or friends for restaurant recommendations.
Don’t hesitate to ask your restaurant server what is their favorite dish, or what they recommend. Local cuisine doesn’t have to be gourmet quality to taste incredible!
Travel for Foodies can be fun.
That’s how we ended up with meals that look like this:
And this…
Being willing to try something different is how we ended up with gourmet quality, local cuisine like this in Panama:
Does the Dish Taste as Good as it Looks?
Maybe not. Be willing to step outside your comfort zone. I won’t try bone marrow again and probably won’t order Ensalata Di Mata again.
It’s likely I won’t order nerve and tendril soup again – no clue what it was actually called. Regardless, I can say I tried it – and that was the entire point.
Hire a local chef to cook for you if renting a home. Local chefs often use local ingredients to create local cuisine. If you are lucky, they will provide an informal cooking lesson using local ingredients.
Believe me, being a travel foodie can be a lot of fun!
Take advantage of cooking tours whenever you get an opportunity. Papa Joe is making crepes here, with our Hungarian hosts on a Viking River Cruise in Budapest.
Do we fondly remember this event? ABSOLUTELY!!!
Share experience with loved ones.
Some of my favorite memories are of meals with family. Yes, my sister can get her legs behind her head… Crab legs that is.
Pizza in Odessa at a restaurant in Kandinsky’s home was almost better than at home… almost.
And Papa Joe enjoyed his tequila sampler much more with his daughter than he would have alone.
We even take our own cooking supplies when we travel. Our special seasonings, added to local sauces, equal really incredible experiences.
Try the Local Cuisine
Be willing to step outside your comfort zone. Hamburgers and fries will still be there to greet you at home.
Catching a 3 lb lobster in the tank in Maine, then conquering him on the plate – priceless. Eating chips and salsa on a rubber leaf, on a deserted Costa Rica beach – the memory of a lifetime.
Caipirinha on Copacabana Beach in Rio – unforgettable! Your foodie experience doesn’t have to be gourmet-quality to be memorable.
Create your own memories. Food is a huge part of our lives, whether we want it to be or not.
I will fight a lifetime battle with food – that doesn’t change because I travel. Instead, I choose to make my food selections while on vacation be ones worth remembering.
However, you choose to let your inner foodie out – celebrate it!
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