In Which City Would You Like to Go on a Food Tour?

It’s rare that I have the chance to travel these days, but when I do, I like to eat well. Food is a huge part of a local culture.

I’ve been thinking about this since my recent trip to Seattle. What I’ve realized is that when I hang out in a new city for a few days, I really want someone who knows the city well to recommend specific restaurants and dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Despite what I said above, the food doesn’t necessarily need to be locally cultural. If you visited St. Louis, there’s a vast array of food I’d recommend based on your tastes (I have an elaborate document listing my favorites). And it also doesn’t need to be expensive–while I’d love to try a Top Chef restaurant, I’m also fine eating dumplings at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant.

The next time I travel to a city, I think I’m going to make a point of arranging this. In fact, I might select the city based on what I know about the food–the entire point of the trip might be the food tour. New York comes to mind (mostly from YouTube videos featuring specific dishes). I love Cajun food, so perhaps someplace in Louisiana. And I wouldn’t mind trying a bunch of different Khao Soi in northern Thailand. Oh, and definitely pizza and gelato in Naples.

Have you ever thought about travel this way? Are there any places you’d like to visit specifically for the food?

10 thoughts on “In Which City Would You Like to Go on a Food Tour?”

  1. Funny you mention Top Chef because every new season makes me want to go to that city/region and try the local cuisine. My parents just visited Charleston and raved about the food so I think it would up there with New York for me!

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  2. New Orleans is the best as far as food, fun and touristy stuff. Otherwise anywhere in Louisiana is good for food. I have the opposite problem. I hate traveling because the food everywhere else sucks in comparison.

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  3. Paris. If you are looking for amazing food, you’ll find it there. One of my favorite cities in the world. Oh and runner up is San Sebastian, Spain. Cap Ferret in the south of France has some amazing restaurants and sea food.
    I was in Medellin, Colombia last year and they had an amazingly vibrant food scene!
    Obviously Italy as a whole is an excellent place to food adventure around. Naples for pizza, Verona for gnoochi, Parma, Puglia, Florence, Modena, Sicily, the Amalfi coast, lake como.. honestly, you can go anywhere and you’ll do just fine 🙂
    Somewhere easy to get to and super amazing is Mexico City and just south of that is a town called San Miguel de Allende.
    The world is FILLED with wonderful food!
    happy travels!

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    • I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed by the food I had in Paris (other than the crepes), but I was in my early 20s the last time I was there, and it’s a big city.

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  4. My sister-out-law (I’m divorced) traveled to Israel last year and had a tour with a pair of chefs who had also studied history. I can’t think of a better way to visit a country. With 25 countries under my belt, I want to follow in her footsteps and take that trip.

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  5. Since you just got back from a trip, what if you had friends put together 10 places in St. Louis that you haven’t tried (that they’d highly recommend). I’d be wiling to weigh in!

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    • That’s a good idea, Trev: Why not first try all of the great food in St. Louis? What are a few must-try places you’d recommend?

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  6. This is often how my wife and I travel. We did a 3-week food tour of Paris and Provence in France; Lausanne, Switzerland; Emilia Romana, Tuscany, and Rome in Italy. The focus was almost entirely on eating food, drinking wine, and learning about the regional specialties. It was amazing.

    We love to seek out local foods when we travel, visit local wineries or breweries, take cooking classes and generally just eat like a local while we’re there. Other favorites were Burgundy, France; Hong Kong/Macau; Cape Town and the surrounding wine regions; and an amazing Biergarten in Salzburg. Vietnam would be an amazing place to just roam around eating Pho, banh mi, and drinking coffee.

    This is the best way to travel. Do it!

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