Road trips and culinary tourism: What do you look for?

What do you look for, foodwise, when traveling? Your favorite foods? The same kinds of things you like to eat at home? The hottest, trendiest places? Exotic tastes? Comforting sure things? Tastes vary. Certainly the spread and popularity of chains is predicated on the idea that some people want to eat exactly the same things no matter where they are.

When I travel to another city, I almost always try to seek out its local specialties, particularly cuisines I cannot get here. Sometimes it's the best local fine dining, but more usually it's native fare, the area's equivalents to Chicago's hot dogs, beefs and pizza, or a ubiquitous ethnic cuisine or a unique place.

A few years back, I went to Memphis. It was an unpleasant trip for a variety of reasons but one of them was that the group I was with included an avid sushi fan, and all she wanted to eat was sushi. Since she was orchestrating the trip and the group was mostly her friends and colleagues, that's what we wound up doing. I don't mind telling you I was appalled. The sushi was adequate -- I could certainly get better in Chicago, but it was all right -- but it seemed to me a huge waste not to go for barbecue or Southern food or something else unique to Memphis.

On a trip to L.A., I amused my local friends by showing no interest in the upscale contemporary places they normally take visitors to. They racked their brains when I said I wanted uniquely local fare and came up with Roscoe's (this was well before the recent national chicken and waffles trend). I was effusive in congratulations.

Visiting Tokyo, my husband and I took his Japanese colleague's recommendation for a special dinner and wound up at an elegant fusion spot. The food was excellent. But the dining room and the menu were such that we could have been anywhere in the world -- Chicago, Hong Kong, London, New York -- and that made it a little disappointing.

Someone else I know, like the sushi fan, is stuck in a one cuisine rut. He loves teppanyaki, and has been to Benihanas and their ilk all over the world. While I concede that this can be a fun way to dine with a group and the experience does vary somewhat with the chefs' skill, it's rarely something I want to do away from home. (I did go to a teppanyaki place in Tokyo ... they served Kobe beef ... without much razzle-dazzle knife work.)

On a long trip, yes, sometimes you want something familiar -- on more than one occasion overseas I have gone to McDonald's just because it was the only place I could be sure of getting a cold Coke over ice (not to mention a clean, free public restroom) -- or a favorite food that doesn't fit the local cuisine. And it's true that sometimes there are gems of ethnic dining in unlikely places. The best Greek meal I have ever eaten was in a restaurant in Stratford-on-Avon, England, and it easily trumped every other meal I had in Great Britain. And I confess that after a couple of weeks of herring and hutspot and meals that all came with two kinds of potatoes and a composed salad in the Netherlands, I was delighted when we spent a weekend at a hotel in Maastricht where lunch and dinner, included in "l'arrangement," were excellent French cuisine. But these were serendipity.

What do you look for? And what do you do to find it?

Regarding Mickey-D's: I don't drink coffee or tea regularly but caffeine can help with jet lag. The Clown is about the only place to get a reasonably-priced cola in other countries. I've paid more than three Euros for a 100ml can or bottle in a restaurant in Barcelona -- not acceptable.

But in terms of what I'm looking for when I travel:
Local specialties -- I'll usually research before I go.
* Cherry pie in Michigan
* Whole-belly clams, lobster roll in New Hampshire
* Crabs in Maryland
* Daube nicoise & sokka in Nice
* Jamon Iberico, xocolate & xurros in Barcelona
* Schnitzel in Vienna

I don't usually go to destination restaurants -- I'm too cheap for big-name places. My wife and I have gotten used to eating relatively early, which always worked well when we had kids around (we don't vacation with them, they're in or graduated from college now). We've been the first ones in restaurants all over the world -- we had problems with Barcelona where places didn't open until 8 or 9PM.
But we'll wander around during the day and make note of places to try.

I always look for markets, farmers markets, and grocery stores (independent) or specialty food stores, to get a sense of a town's food life. My recent favorite is the stunning Julius Meinl emporium in Vienna.

annak wrote:I always look for markets, farmers markets, and grocery stores (independent) or specialty food stores, to get a sense of a town's food life. My recent favorite is the stunning Julius Meinl emporium in Vienna.

Nothing beats a good local market. I spent an inordinate amount of time at the massive market in Budapest last summer and - it being the peak of the growing season - I walked out with 2 large grocery bags of fresh fruit for under $20 (including a kilo of ginormous blackberries). As an aside, one great trend I noted in Budapest were the bicycle pushcarts everywhere selling bags of fresh, chilled, cubed melon. I belive it was about a buck or so and just the thing for a hot day.

Back on topic. Markets abroad are a must-visit. They invariably have great local food stands in addition to nearly every category of food item (and always plenty of local specialties).

We're always looking for restaurants outside of the main tourist district. No doubt there are great options near the main drag, but I enjoy getting out into the neighborhoods and eating with the locals. Not to mention the food is always much cheaper. Markets are great of course. We also always like to research a couple bakeries to pop in for a pastry or small loaf of fresh bread. And, perhaps most important, street food!

PIE PIE PIE PIE PIE PIE PIE

Lots of little off-the-map places, mom & pops, that sort of thing. We have a rule to never eat in a chain, especially one we have at home, or a place we've been before (unless the food was exemplary).
Roadside food stands/markets/veggie stands, like what they have in Door County selling fresh berries and melon.

We usually go to inexpensive places, but we generally stay away from places that serve exact replicas of things we eat at home. It also depends on where we are. More trendy places and delis when we went to New York (a French coffeehouse, a candlelit diner, Carnegie's) and lots of comfort-food, down-home places in Tennessee (a communal table place with southern faves like chicken fried chicken, sweet tea, etc. called Monell's, BBQ, soul food, etc) and so on.

That was really unfortunate about your trip to Memphis. Sushi in Memphis, really? Though we were just there and had some pretty unfortunate BBQ, so there you go.

I'm one of those people who starts to research restaurants and markets as soon as I've bought my plane tickets. (A little plug: I'd love some recent suggestions for Ireland!)

Most of my relatives are market fans (everything from supermarkets to farmer's market to local produce and meat markets), so it's not uncommon -- even when visiting places in the US -- for one of us to say to another, "I heard about this great grocery store. Want to go check it out?" If we're renting a house, rather than staying in a hotel, all the better, since it means we can actually shop & cook with local ingredients.

While traveling, I'll eat local for at least 95% of my meals. (Sometimes, after a few weeks on the road, you just get a craving from something different, which is where the other 5% comes in.) Of course, "local" means different things in different places. Every meal I eat in Japan is Japanese. But a typical trip to London usually includes some Indian, Lebanese, etc., because that is part and parcel of the local cuisine.

I also try to drink the drinks--alcoholic and non-alcoholic. You can discover some great new brands this way, but I also find that the local drinks usually pair well with the local food.

Edited to add: On a cross-country road trip in college, my traveling partner was driven crazy by the fact that I'd buy candy at every gas station we visited. Finally reaching his breaking point, he grabbed the "Idaho Spud" out of my hand & demanded to know why in the world I'd bought it. "We're in Idaho...how could I not?" I told him. LOL...he took great pleasure in reminding me that we were actually in Iowa.

Idaho Spuds are very tasty, no matter what state you're in. Despite the lack of potato.

Pie Lady wrote:Idaho Spuds are very tasty, no matter what state you're in. Despite the lack of potato.

I can't remember the details. Is it a lump of coconut covered with chocolate? I did see them for sale recently at the bulk candy store (Candyality?) at North Bridge.

I believe it's marshmallow dipped in chocolate and coated in coconut.

LAZ wrote:What do you look for, foodwise, when traveling?
What do you look for? And what do you do to find it?

Regional/City specialties - including things that are done really well at a particular establishment.
Since I don't travel much - it's somewhat simple - I search LTH threads (through Google
and GoogleMap)
For example - Cleveland (mostly thanks to ReneG)

LAZ wrote:And what do you do to find it?

My goal when researching where to eat is to find a local food blog. Usually once you've found one you can find the rest. I've had great success following recommendations from food blogs. This can be harder overseas, but not impossible. Some examples of good blogs I've found overseas

Seville - http://azahar-sevilla.com/sevilletapas/
Istanbul - http://istanbuleats.com/
Rome - http://www.parlafood.com/

We travel with our two grade school aged children around the world and throughout North America on a very tight budget. Intensive internet research through travel, expat and food forums and dining at ethnic spots in Chicagoland helps us pinpoint regional specialties and recommendations. Getting the best possible information, name, addresses, phone numbers and opening and closing hours in both english and the local language helps to find that special hole in the wall place -confirm with your hotel/hostel the destination before you go to avoid wild goose chases. Some places may have closed or changed operating hours. It helps to know where you are staying and where the transport hubs are to avoid spending all day looking for that famous dumpling shop (we never found that place in Shanghai and missed out seeing the sights) when another great shop is just around the corner. I make a city map of recommended places to eat, hours of operation and plot these near the places of interest we will visit. Best laid plans aside-sometimes we find a place along the way and it just looks right so we go for it. Your traveler's sense of places in terms of cleanliness, price and quality kick in somehow and we have not been burned very often. Our kids make it hard and we have frequented McDs across the world. They will eat a burger or nuggets (Ok I will get fries) and we go to the local joints and order what we like and they can sample-which they do. If they are so inclined, we also let them order what they want as well and if they do not eat it-we will. This way I know that if there is nothing that they liked at least they have full bellies. We try to avoid wasting food (and money) forcing them to eat foods they do not like. Since we go overland for the most part-finding snacks is crucial. We love potato chips and the local seasonings can be awesome. (I am still craving the Lay's mushroom potato chips in Siberia!)

We generally look for things peculiar to the area we're going to. In Texas I look for barbecue, in Boston, lobsters and oysters, pastrami in NY, etc.