I probably misspoke when I said “not on my radar”. I mean, I primarily eat at local restaurants and rarely at chain restaurants when I travel. It’s more that when I’m planning travel in the US, I am not thinking about the food at all at that stage. Once I get there, given the choice, I will always choose something local to the area to try.
This too.
I’m a foodie, in that I’m emotionally involved with taste sensations, love cooking, and seeking out the best food I can - usually on a budget, but on very rare and privileged occasion if there’s something incredibly special, this can mean meal that is the price of a vacation.
I’m also an inveterate backpacker, so it’s only natural that I will seek out new food experiences wherever I travel. It’s not why I travel, but it’s a huge part of the experience.
It’s rewarding and occasionally disturbing. Roast bees in northern Thailand is something I won’t seek out again, nor rancid yak-butter tea or tsampa in Tibet. Tibet on a whole was a bit grim in the food stakes, though the yak bourguinon I had in Lhasa was awesome. But sharing a cup of this tea spontaneously offered by a nomad woman and her daughter, sitting on a rock on a high grassy plain ringed with mountains was an opportunity to spend time with someone whose life is so alien to me I cannot even begin to conceive of it.
The laab gai served from a trolley by a little old lady down an alleyway in Thailand, the richest chicken curry with paratha I’ve ever had that cost 50c in Malaysia, the fresh white truffle grated straight straight onto a bloody steak at the table in Tuscany, the freshest oysters I’ve ever had, eaten on top of a boat in the clear Spring sunshine in Sydney Harbour… The tastes and textures and feel of being there will stay with me until I die.
Also some of the most memorable things have been the most simple: I will never forget the taste, smell and texture of the early morning baguette spread with La Vache Qui Rit cheese in the misty streets of the Vietnamese mountain village Sa Pa… I’d been in China for two months and that bread was so divine I nearly cried.
Which is why I’m loving Bourdain’s No Reservations, which I’m currently lapping up via YouTube.
Me too - makes my wife nuts.
I travel to see places. The food is of very little consequence.
I love to see places. Good food is a bonus and I’ll always try it, but it doesn’t figure in my planning or anything. I’d rather explore a little more and pick up the equivalent of fish and chips on the way back at the end of the day than spend a lot of time every evening picking out the perfect cuisine.
Hmmm. Well I had to really think about my answer.
I can’t deny that yummy food is a big part of my travel enjoyment. But it’s not what makes me travel.
It’s further clouded by the fact that, if you are going to travel, a good appetite is one of the very best things to take with you. The need to share food is universal across cultures I believe. Being a good eater will serve you in good stead wherever you may be. Old Aunties and Gran’s will be coming out of the woodwork, special ingredients will be sent for, it’s all good.
It’s hard to travel and not stumble into something awesome from time to time, like roast mutton to die for in the Himalayas or some strange street food you still don’t know the name of from Cuzco, Peru.
But it’s still not the motivation for my traveling, it’s just an added bonus!
My food allergies are actually something that discourages traveling for me unless I take some significant precautions. While I do enjoy trying new foods, the prospect of a potential medical emergency in a strange place does inhibit my inclination towards culinary adventures.
These days, I travel for almost any other reason besides food adventures.
My most memorable… memories of New York City are of eating. I tried Ethiopian cuisine for the first (and last, so far) time of my life, and loved it. The sushi was so fresh it practically jumped off the plate into my mouth.
Yeah Illinois sushi is not worth eating, IMO, and Sushi is my favorite food. I never cease to forget not to bother when I return home, though.
If food was my main reason to travel, I would never have visited Germany or Switzerland, as I already knew I didn’t like the food (still don’t, with my apologies to those German coworkers who did their best); as for Italian, most of it is and has been a part of Spanish cooking for a long time. Moussaka was a nice discovery in Greece, but it was about the only dish I wasn’t already familiar with, a lot of Greek specialties are again also Spanish ones (you say kalamari, I say calamares).
I’ll check out local specialties but no, I wouldn’t travel to Scotland for the express purpose of trying haggis. I did want to travel there to see the place and the castles, and when I got a job there, I did see the place and the castles. Oh, and have haggis - but this was an afterthought, it wouldn’t have been the main reason to go there.
Now my mouth is watering. Haggis. Mmmm. My flatmate went home to Scotland, I’d better email him a shopping list asap! Mmm black pudding 
Barely, for me. Food isn’t all that important to me.
Huh? Sure I like different stuff, but traveling for food?
No. I travel for adventure and learning and relaxation. Food is a side bar.
I love travelling to new places, and don’t really care at all about new foods. I’ll try local cuisine if I’m there (and if I can - I have various dietary restrictions) but it’s not even on the list of reasons to visit a place.
I’m tired and somehow concluded this question was about time traveling to try new foods when I voted, but you know, my answer is the same either way.
In general I agree, sushi is not going to be as good inland as it is at the coast. Same with other kinds of seafood (like lobsters outside of Maine). But it’s the best I can usually get, so I’ll take it.
That said, though, I have had perfectly fresh sashimi in Niles, off a tuna being sliced in front of me at Super H-mart. That’s probably the best place to get it in Chicagoland.
I’m game and will certainly try whatever local fare is available, but it’s not very important when choosing a destination. I voted the third option.
I don’t pick places to go based on the food, but a vacation where I ate the same food I could get at home would be very disappointing, even if everything else was great.
Not important. I’ll try to find something local, but if I end up eating at the hotel restaurant, it won’t kill me.
For me, it may very well be the single most important thing about travelling, but that’s how I like to get to know about a culture: through its food and drink. Even when traveling within the US, I want to try out the local food. For example, just being in Detroit, I wanted to try out Detroit style pizza (at Buddy’s), plus some of the fantastic Middle Eastern (specifically, Lebanese, in my case) in Dearborn, Michigan. A couple years ago, my cousin and I planned a road trip specifically to hit the barbecues in Memphis, dip down into Mississippi, and then go through Owensboro to try the four mutton barbecues there.
When my then-girlfriend/now wife decided to go to the Yucatan, we ended up outside of Merida, renting a house with a grill, because I wanted to cook up the local ingredients, as well as have the opportunity to go around sampling the street food, bar food, restaurant food, etc. Walking through local markets and eating foods I’ve never seen before is a big, big part of what makes travel fun for me.
Of course, it’s only one part of travel. When I travel solo, usually saddling up to a bar (if available), getting a glass of the local fermentable and ordering a meal will end up with me striking up a conversation with the locals, and I get a little bit more of a feel for the culture. After all, everybody loves a guest who is appreciative of the host’s food and drink. So the food angle is also kind of a way to find a common ground on which to strike up a conversation.