The innate hesitation some foreign travelers display while abroad ranks as a personal pet peeve. Those who seek refuge in irrational fears provide a collective disservice to international relations. The most troublesome travel trait however, is an obstinate refusal to exercise a sense of wonder at meal time.
Aversion to risk is not the recipe for memorable travel adventure, let alone a disposition that will result in the furtherance of alimentary knowledge. If all we do is lounge on the beach or at the hotel and sample little else but fast food, where is the authentic experience? Why leave our homes at all?
The point of travel is not to live like we do in our natural habitat but to stretch our comfort zone. Food plays a major, integral part in this temporal lifestyle shift. To live like a local, you must eat like a local.
Our capricious list of quintessential city food symbols is a good place to start.
The sound of “Fuh?” is everywhere in marvelous Saigon. The urban heart of Vietnam, though in the south of the country, is the hub for a dish that originates from the north. Pho, a beef broth soup with rice noodles, meat and a vast array of tasty adornments, was a North Vietnam staple until the communist regime in that part of the country shut down private enterprises more than a half century ago.
Thus, pho restaurants and stalls spread throughout Vietnam and now dot the metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon. Home to a metropolitan population of almost 9 million people, the city has a surfeit of pho shops, with no shortage of regional variations. As a result, one can opt for the popular beef variety, with shreds of flank steak, or try a more audacious brand of pho, with tripe or chicken hearts and livers. The real pho aficionado looks to garnish the soup with care. Additions such as cilantro, green onion, lemon, lime, bean sprouts, scallions and chili sauce provide necessary body, acidity and texture to the national dish of Vietnam.
Saigon is a world city on the rise and as such, begs to be seen. You do need to book your hotel room in advance however.
The paramount food city of Canada offers a lot of choice in the realm of icon culinary staples. An old-fashioned smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz’s Hebrew Delicatessen – a beef brisket incarnation superior to New York City pastrami in every way – is a must while in Montreal. Similarly, no tour of the city is complete without the comfort food par excellence in the province of Quebec, poutine. The hearty and heinously addictive dish is a lethal orgy of frites, beef gravy and curd cheese. However, if one had to select the foremost food staple of the city, the holy bagel would have to emerge triumphant.
Two rival shops on St. Viateur and Fairmount in the Mile End ‘hood of the city have been at the nexus of bagel production for almost a century. To this day, rows over bagel superiority cleave inhabitants of the city into distinct factions. Whatever side of the divide you fall on, the distinct brand of bagel that hails from Montreal blows away the competition.
A Frankenstein omelette-pancake-pizza that just looks wrong, okonomiyaki is the soul food of frantic Osaka. People in the “Second City of Japan” know how to eat. Despite the obvious sphere of Tokyo, Osaka is the gourmet capital of the country. Takoyaki, or octopus balls, as well as udon, the sumo noodle of choice, are popular staples. But for the ultimate late night beer snack, hit one of many okonomiyaki bars in the city for the Kansai-style batter cake.
The caloric concoction of floor, water, yam, eggs and cabbage as a gummy fortress for other elements such as meat, octopus, cheese, squid, octopus, kimchi, mochi and vegetables, is a feast. A capacious array of sauces and pickles accompany the final miscreation. A must-dish to sample before you take a dirt nap – which you may well need post-ingestion.
Discover the ideal hotel for you in downtown Osaka, close to all the best okonomiyaki bars.
Photo credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Haha, I’d like to sample Okonomiyaki at Osaka, look very nice:-)
I would add ceviche for Lima, Peru
There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points in Features also.