Current Issue #488

Tasting the world on a real food adventure

Tasting the world on a real food adventure

For many travellers, what you eat is almost as important as where you go.

Our growing appetite for international flavours – and a boom in experience-driven tourism – has made international food tours an increasingly popular way to travel. In a multicultural country like Australia, culinary traditions from all around the world have found their way into our regular eating habits. Out on the road, travellers can find a deeper understanding of the cultural context and authentic origins of their favourite dishes from the source.

While blogs, TripAdvisor and the occasional Netflix cooking show can help a roaming food lover navigate the best flavours a region has to offer, sometimes a local guide is the best way to make every meal count. After all, a breakfast spent eating cornflakes and orange juice in the hotel is a breakfast wasted.

Pizza in Portisco, Italy (Photo: Intrepid Travel)

Italy is, for obvious and delicious reasons, a popular region for any human with tastebuds. But a tour of the country’s north can take you beyond staples like pizza and pasta, revealing lesser known dishes and traditions from the slow food movement in Turin, white truffles and wine of the Piedmont and Ligurian pesto – which travellers can learn to make from scratch.

The flavours of nations like Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia have not penetrated our food courts and take away menu stacks with quite the same ubiquity, but a trip across Eastern Europe offers a real opportunity to explore secluded fishing villages, world class olive oil and cheese makers, home-style cuisine and burgeoning wine scene (but be prepared to bewilder your local bottle shop attendant upon return with requests for teran, grk, and kurtelaška bijela).

Mumbai, India (Photo: Intrepid Travel)
Mumbai, India (Photo: Intrepid Travel)

Travelling as a vegan can be a minefield, but the traditions of many regions have been steeped in plant-based cooking well before it started trending. A trip through Delhi, Agra and Jaipur is an opportunity to dive headfirst into a world of Indian food untempered by the at-times timid tastebuds of Australian restaurant goers, as you visit secret backstreet spots and social enterprises like Agra’s Sheroes Hangout.

Adelaide’s Thai restaurant scene is booming, with restaurants like Soi 38 and Golden Boy wearing the influence of real-life street food districts of Bangkok on their sleeves. A small group food tour of Thailand allows you to eat your way across Bangkok and head north to Chiang Mai, then eastwards to Kanchanaburi to taste the full scope of what Thailand has to offer.

And, at the very least, you will never feel that terrible, paralysing dread of deciding what to have for dinner.

Want to know more about Intrepid Real Food Adventures or Peregrine Gourmet Explorers? Peregrine Travel Centre SA are holding a free information session on Thursday 28 March.

You’ll get the chance to ask questions to the experts, browse the range of great itineraries and meet other like-minded travellers who also have a passion for food and travel. Register to attend here.

This content is sponsored by Peregrine Travel Centre SA

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