Travel Goals: Hunt for Locale Food

People travel for various reasons. Be it personal trip to a secluded place, a business convention at Koh Samui, or a family gathering in one of the beautiful villas of Samujana – we all have specific agenda when visiting other places. Others travel to meet new people, while most would travel to explore and find adventure. But with all the differences in the purpose, there is one justification people would often say on why they take trips every now and then: all the food that one can taste in a foreign land.

Food, for the most part, is one of the universal links that connect people to people, culture to culture, preference to preference. It is a cardinal anchor to human life (among other things), as eating is a requisite to living. Even without saying much, your sense of sight is heightened by the colours, shapes, and presentation. You are captivated upon sniffing the wonderful aroma from the food. And your mind is piqued about how a cuisine will taste as explosion of flavours collide.

So why does food intertwine with travel that it often is expected they exist side-by-side? Just like eating Pad Thai or expecting a diverse selection of spicy food when in Thailand.

A dive into cultural experience

As mentioned earlier, food is a way to let you experience another country’s culture. And it tells a lot (sometimes way more than what one would expect). It is even surprising to hear that food became a catalyst to change the course of history for certain places, like what happened during the French Revolution. You get a sense of how a country developed and progressed with a spoonful of their local delicacies.

Good food leads to gastronomic adventure

Who doesn’t love good food? Everyone wants to fill their palate craving with real food that delivers a full sensory satisfaction. Immersing oneself with all the local meal gives this thrill of uncovering whether the food is good or place it under the better-not-taste-it-again category. As they say, you miss out on a lot of things when you don’t include food chase in your tour. Be it in a Michelin-starred saloon or on the secret beach hut off-coast of Koh Samui, food will surprise you in ways you cannot imagine. That is the adventure in it. At the end of the trip, each food you tasted becomes part of the priceless memory you have.

A local’s language for hello

Part of travelling is meeting new people. So does with eating. As clueless tourists, one can simply come up to a local, smile genuinely, and ask for where there is good food. And people would be more than willing to suggest the nearest restaurant that serves authentic meals for a great price. Just like how Thai locals would be more than happy to share with you how their exotic food tastes like. It does not end there, there would be some who would even be thrilled to give a quick background on what you are eating and how to eat like an actual local. And they say a good way to form a bond with somebody is through food. It certainly is!

Discover hidden penchant for taste

Travel opens up a golden opportunity to acquire different taste one never had before. Sriracha, anyone? It is a way to widen horizons, gather more ideas, and enter into the unfamiliar. From there one can uncover certain eureka moment about oneself, for example suddenly liking a particular kind of sweet when before any hint of sugar would send chills down your spine. Lastly, eating something new also helps diversify one’s preference for pairing particular dishes.

All these inferences and other plethora of personal motives just goes to show that food will always be inherent to travelling. Food, without a doubt, is one of the greatest conquest you get from travelling. Learn more about Thai food through Samujana’s cooking classes.

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