We all agree on how amazing it is to travel – in fact, did you know that it has a lot of benefits? We also love to indulge in delicious food – who doesn’t, after all. So what could be better than travel or food? Food travel, of course!
Find out more about it and see how the local cuisine can turn your journey in an even more valuable experience.
What is food travel?
Food travel is a new trend on the touristic market – no wonder if it’s also called food tourism.
As the World Food Travel Association states, it consists in the act of traveling to get a taste of place in order to get a sense of place. What this means is that food is an integral part of a journey: it’s the medium through which you experience the place you’re visiting. The local cuisine allows you to establish a deeper contact with the country or city it comes from.
Now think about it: did you experience this during your travels? If your answer is “Yes”, you’re part of the 93% of people who can be considered food travelers.
Maybe you attended a cooking class in Bali, or visited a chocolate factory in Switzerland. Or perhaps did a wine tasting in Italy? That’s considered a food travel too!
You are a food traveler if you feel like an explorer who loves to get off the beaten path and find new exquisite adventures to embark on. This will allow you to create long lasting and powerful memories based on your experiences with local food or wine.
The power of food
So what is it that makes food so special and unique for human beings? Let’s find out!
It awakens the senses.
When you eat, you use all of your 5 senses: that’s why sometimes the simple smell of a certain food takes you back to the journey where you first tasted it. Food travel will create multi-sensory and perfectly defined memories of your trips.
It’s an essential part of a community.
Understanding the culinary traditions of a country teaches you about its history, culture and environment. Through a traditional dish you can understand what’s grown in a land and why, which populations migrated there over the past and even see religious influences. It’s much more interesting (and effective) to study a country through food travels rather than on books!
It provides you with unique experiences.
You can stroll the typical food markets and see how the locals live, you can visit plantations and find out how the food is produced, you can take a cooking class with a local chef… all these will strengthen your knowledge of the connection between food and culture in a way that wouldn’t be possible elsewhere.
When you are in Milan and you eat pad thai in fancy restaurant, it can surely be nice. But when you taste it in a night market in Bangkok, you realize why those ingredients are put together – and you really get a sense of place. That’s what food travel is about: it’s a kind of (delicious) magic!
Are you already drooling, dreaming about your next food travel? Let us plan it for you!