How to Actually Eat Like a Local

The quest for the "authentic" has its downsides, but you can do it right

Hi there,

It’s been a couple of weeks! Turns out you can’t travel non-stop, continue to work, start a new gym schedule, live your life, AND keep up with a newsletter… (At least I can’t). January was crazy, but hopefully things will be more regular from here on out. 

Anyway, last time we talked about tourist attractions and why they’re great. Right after that I went on a new Guinness brewery tour (see highlights), which was further proof that touristy things can be so much fun! Then I spent the afternoon drinking more Guinness around Dublin, which got me thinking about local advice. Tourist attractions are often must-dos, but can the same be said for touristy restaurants? It’s much trickier. 

There are, of course, a few iconic, touristy food experiences that are worth your time. Lou Malnati’s in Chicago or Cafe du Monde in New Orleans, for example, plus lots of famous restaurants from famous chefs around the world. 

Still, I tend to avoid restaurants packed with tourists, especially if they’re right outside tourist attractions. Restaurants right outside the Colosseum, Eiffel Tower, Petra–pretty much anywhere really touristy–are generally bad. Why is this? Because they can be and they’ll get customers anyway? I have no idea, but it seems universally true. 

How do you know which tourist spots are worth it, and how do you find the actual best food in a city? Most advice says ask locals, but this bothers me. I wrote about this for the New York Times a couple of years ago. We tend to mythologize “the locals” as these all knowing guides who will take us to the best meal of our lives and create for us a travel epiphany. One reason it bothers me so much is because I feel like it happens more in poorer countries, and that “authentic” experience we crave from locals is code for “cheap.” Don’t get me wrong, I have had some incredible meals in those hole-in-the-wall places tourists fantasize about, and love them as much as anyone, but sometimes it feels like travelers equate local food with poor food and nothing else. (Another reason this is a problem is because it can backfire. Often people will recommend the nicest place, which isn’t necessarily the best). 

It also bothers me because we don’t do it at home. Take Chicago, for example. I wouldn’t ask a random person on the street where to eat. If I did, I would get responses ranging from Portillo’s to The Cheesecake Factory to Alinea. Not everyone knows good food, and everyone has a different opinion on what makes somewhere worth visiting. Are you looking for the best food or the best atmosphere? Are you willing to travel outside of downtown? What is your budget?

So, how do you find the best local food? It’s kind of a mix. Read food magazines, find local food bloggers or Instagrammers and look at their recommendations, ask people whose opinion you trust, avoid anywhere with menus in lots of languages, and when you are asking locals make those people chefs, bartenders, anyone in the food industry, or someone you’ve spoken with who makes it clear they’re into food. Also think about what you want, and if you’re asking the right person for that job. 

Case in point: Dublin. After the Guinness tour, I had a few hours to kill before my flight, so asked some older Irish men on the tour what they would recommend. “An old man pub crawl,” they said, and took me around to their favorite pubs where we drank pint after pint of Guinness and I heard all their grumpy opinions about tourists. It was great, and they were the perfect people to show me that side of Dublin. The night before, I had gone to dinner at Clanbrassil House, where the lovely waitress recommended restaurants and a few wine bars. When I mentioned these places–well-known, award-winning restaurants where I ate wonderful meals–to the men on the pub crawl, they said had never heard of them. Both were great experiences, and could only have been had by asking the right locals about the right types of things. 

I travel mainly for the food, and can say I’m pretty good at it. I pride myself on eating extremely well around the world. Here’s how I do it: 

Research! I stalk Instagram, read blogs, magazines, go down social media rabbit holes, and spend a lot of time zooming in on Google Maps and clicking on places for photos of food and menus. Once there, I do ask pretty much everyone I talk to for their opinions, but am discerning with whose advice I actually take. Finally, I eat multiple meals a day to fit it all in. What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear them.

One More Middle East Thing

This newsletter isn’t only going to be Middle East focused, I promise, but since we talked about travel to the region both last week and the week before, I feel compelled to add one more follow up. After the last newsletter, I pitched a story about Oman to a major publication and was told they would not be accepting pitches on the Middle East for the foreseeable future because it was too dangerous. This stance is irresponsible. Oman has a Level 1 travel warning from the U.S. State Department. That’s the lowest level a place can have. The UAE and Jordan are also at level one. People generalize the Middle East, so when they hear of something happening in Iraq, they write off the entire region as unsafe.

Venezuela is currently pretty dangerous for tourists, but editors aren’t banning all stories from Latin America. Because that would be insane. On a related note, I was in Bali this week and some Canadian tourists told me they recently went to Jordan and were shocked that there are nice beaches on the Red Sea and luxury hotels serving cocktails. 

Of course people should be surprised by places, it’s part of the point and fun of travel, but people are consistently surprised by basic things in the Middle East. Maybe it’s a sign that publications should cover it more! If more people knew Jordan had nightlife and nice beaches, maybe we wouldn’t have so much discrimination against the Middle East as a whole. And that’s just one example.

This is a plea for all of you to try to understand that the Middle East is big, varied, and mostly safe. Please don’t believe all the hype on the news. Instead, come see it for yourself! Let me know if you do.

Links I Loved This Week

Old but fitting for today’s topic–Authentic food is a lie.

This NYT piece on an iconic Montreal restaurant. One of my favorites.

The Real Lolita. (My brother got me a subscription to this magazine for Christmas and it’s fantastic!)

Cheese, independence, and hope in Lithuania.

Tourism has never been authentic. (This piece is so well done).

This will change your perception of prohibition.

I was here for New Years and am sad I didn’t get invited to one of these secret wine clubs! I also love that they bring cheap wine because it’s all high-quality anyway.

This is not travel related, but very sweet.

White people must save themselves from whiteness.