Why I Travel for Food and So Should You?

 

Food travel may seem like a waste to someone more used to traveling for work, adventure, or pleasure. I have combined all four into one big foodie adventure and made a career out of its retellings. Check out my culinary escapades here.

 You can, too, but first, here’s why food makes me go around the world.

Food Defines My Experiences

Food is the elixir that makes me shape new experiences and form memories. It not only shapes my impression of the people and culture of a country or specific region but also tethers itself to a particular moment—a chat by the fire or a congregation around the dinner table.

 

You don’t have to be a bon vivant to find the idea of traveling to Turkey only to have a burger off-putting. Most tourists, whether or not they’re visiting for the food, would prefer the regional cuisine instead of the commercialized food they can find at home.

Food is the Real Unknown

Do you know what we know less about the human brain and the oceans? The food in smaller regions worldwide. While popular Thai dishes like Pad Thai and Parisian street food like crepes find their way into the mainstream, lesser-known food specific to equally unknown parts of the world never enters our perspective—not unless we travel to the places keeping them alive, that is.

 

I’m talking about unpopular hot pots from Osaka like Nabemono and the wildly popular blood sausage soup from Seoul that you’d struggle to find in Korean restaurants in the US because of how polarizing it can be.

 

The idea that some food in the world would never enter my side of the pond is what makes me cross borders, oceans, and ponds.

 

Food Completes a Country’s Identity

A country’s public image doesn’t define its food. Its culture and history do. I like to travel for food because I’d rather not build my opinion of a country based on popular stereotypes or what I hear about them on the news.

 

Think of it this way: if you traveled to Canada and didn’t have a poutine, have you ever been to Canada?

 

What is China without Dim Sum, India without Panipuri, Mexico without street tacos, and travel without food? Food is an important facet of culture that makes it authentic, and that’s precisely why I travel for it.

 

Visit my food travel blogging website, irinabukatik.com, to read about my culinary experiences. Travel to the top culinary destination in France for the same reasons I do, and don’t hesitate to share them with the world. All those memories have to go somewhere, after all.

 

Get in touch to share your most amazing travel experiences—they might inspire my next trip!