You love to travel, and you love to eat!

That’s GREAT! 

Because I personally believe that following your belly is the best way to learn about a new culture, explore a new destination, and last but not least, satisfy your hunger.

Eating is one of the common human necessities that surpasses all international borders, all cultural divides and all ethnic battles.

If you have just one point of relation to the most opposite person in the most counter-culture as your own, it’s the need to eat… everyday.

Methods of cooking, ingredients, what tastes good, rituals and etiquette, are however not common at all – and that’s precisely why being a traveler who chases food is so fascinating.

Here are a few ideas of how you can step up your food game and become a voracious food connoisseur when you travel.

1. Food Research

Like we all know, the internet is vastly useful, and something I do before I ever visit a destination is research a country’s cuisine. It’s even more important to me than knowing where I’ll sleep!

Lists of food, like 40 of the best Sri Lankan dishes, are a fantastic place to start, but you’ll need to research even deeper. While I do write lots of food and photo roundup lists on Migrationology, I also like to cover smaller restaurants that I eat at that deserve individual attention, like Hotel Rolex in Jaffna.

Make sure you write down a few of the dishes that you really want to sample.

After checking out food lists, it’s important to then search out a local food blog, written strictly about the country or even city you’ll be visiting. You don’t have to go to any of the restaurants the blog recommends, but reading a little will give you a little food knowledge for the cuisine you’re about to enter.

You may try reading or posting in forums or getting online advice, but in end, just showing up in a country and finding a local restaurant is the best way to go (paired with the research you’ve already done).

I once read a forum about how to write about food. Expert restaurant review critics mentioned that the best anyone can hope to do is describe it from their own point of view – the flavors, the sensations, and comparisons. However, it’s downright impossible to know precisely what your readers taste in the same dish. Salty is relative.

All that to say, read and look at photos, but don’t make your own false predictions about food before giving it a try yourself. You just might LOVE it!

2. Eat Local Favorites… Not Tourist Favorites

Thailand’s Gaeng Massaman has received its share of international attention lately. But ask any Thai what their favorite dish is and I can nearly guarantee massaman curry doesn’t rank that high.

Same goes for Pad Thai, sure it’s ubiquitously associated with Thai cuisine, but while it is widely available, it’s hardly the most beloved dish of Thailand.

Find the dishes that local people get excited about… and eat those!

3. Ask Locals for Restaurant Recommendations

It’s a tricky subject to find an authentic local restaurant by asking a local; Many, out of good intention, offer their advice leading directly to a popular tourist restaurant.

Also, rarely is it a good idea to ask the receptionist at your guest house (with exceptions), because again they’ll probably direct you to a restaurant that caters to foreigners, not locals.

Instead look for other opportunities.

Last time I was in Nairobi, I noticed a taxi driver squatting next to his vehicle eating a giant plate of delicious looking food.

Kenyans are extremely friendly so I walked up to him and politely asked where he ordered it. Soon I was sitting on a blown-out truck tire scarfing down home-cooked Kenyan street food!

I’m not the only one to exploit the local culinary wisdom of cab drivers. Jodi explains that cab drivers know the best spots for breakfast or any other meal.

Ask locals in the neighborhoods where to eat the best food – that way you often get a local perspective instead of a local perspective for visitors.

4. Explore Markets, Universities, Hospitals, Transportation Hubs

When you don’t know anything about a city but want to locate tasty authentic food, markets, universities, hospitals, transportation hubs, or any other gathering locations are a great bet.

Markets often have it all, big portions of food catering to hungry workers that are always on the hustle.

Find out where the workers are eating and get your meals there.

Areas surrounding universities tend to have highly flavorful restaurants and street stalls.

You see, students love to eat local comfort food, and their wallets aren’t normally too fat – that’s a win-win situation for foodie travelers!

On my visit to Manila, along with the company of a number of couchsurfers, we ventured to the University of Philippines to get our mouths on some Isaw – grilled intestines that happen to be extremely famous from a little stall known as Mang Larry’s.

They were exceptional, especially dipped in the vinegar sauce!

Areas around hospitals or transportation hubs also tend to flourish with delicious cuisine!

Once you’re in a high food concentration area, check out these secret ways to pick an outstanding restaurant before you eat there.

5. Be a Willing Sampler

For food travel, I have a policy: If the food is offered, someone must eat it and it must be good to that person.

Under this philosophy, I can honestly say that I will sample just about anything that’s available.

Now you don’t have to sample everything you see, like something that will really make you sick (know your stomach), but do be a willing sampler.

The willingness to sample, to give a local delicacy a try, is not only a rewarding experience for yourself, but it can also be an opportunity to relate to others in the vicinity.

6. Take Photos of Everything You Eat!

I’m not kidding.

Ask anyone that’s eaten a meal with me in the last 5 years and they’ll surely tell you I took a photo of whatever we ate. I’ve taken thousands of food photos.

The photos don’t however just sit on my hard drive collecting dust, instead I try to learn the local names for each dish. I try to identify them, learn the ingredients and write about them.

Being a voracious food traveler is about remembering the things you eat.

Because sometime down the road you’ll meet an Egyptian and you’ll be able to talk for days about kushari, or you’ll meet a Burmese and be able to smile about mohinga, or a Sri Lankan and you’ll laugh and salivate discussing hoppers with lunu miris and wood apple juice.

Connecting with others is another joy of travel, and food is the ultimate vessel.

What other things do you do to be a local food traveler?