Are you not one of those people who makes a beeline for the nearest McDonalds or a Burger King? Do you like experiencing culture and mingling with locals? If you do, this post is definitely for you! (and you score a brownie point in our book, btw) Here’s how you can eat like a local –
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Table of Contents
Familiarize
Mangosteen | Photo Credit: Angie | FlickrWhen in Rome, do as Romans do! While travelling we make it a point to try out the local cuisines everywhere we go. Do a bit of background research; find out what the local dishes are. Can you really leave Indonesia without trying the Nasi goreng? or Poland without their famous Pierogi? Familiarise yourself by checking out the food by country.
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Take a food tour
Food Tour | Photo Credit: Veronica Belmont | FlickrA food tour is a great idea if you have a couple of hours to spare. Walk around (our favourite way to explore) and experience the place with a local guide. Keep in mind, that you definitely should go on an empty stomach and not count calories. Secret food tours organizes tours in Paris, London, Rome, Berlin, Barcelona and Madrid. Some other popular food tours to check out are the Prague food tour, Marrakech food tour, Reykjavik food tours, Italy food tours.
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Local food markets and bakeries
Borough Market in London | Photo Credit: Tyler Tate | FlickrFarmers markets or local bakeries are one of the simplest ways of sampling the local fare. Just walk into one with a friendly smile and ask the owner for what their speciality is. Chances are you will get a generous helping of history along with the yummy goodies.
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Network via the internet
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Mangosteen | Photo Credit: 
Don’t know any locals? Don’t fret. You can still dine with them via websites like Eat Away. Eataway is a website where cooks can invite guests from all over the world to eat with them at their homes. You can book it easily online and it is available in many cities over the world.
If you can’t find the city or cuisine you want in Eataway, try your luck with Vizeat, Eatwith, Mealsharing or Voulevouzdinner.
5. Cooking lessons
Cooking lessons in Sani, Zanskar, India | Photo Credit: Sandeep Chetan | Flickr
If you want to take it up a notch and learn how to cook like a local, take a cooking lesson or two with a local. This will give you a chance to understand the nuances of local spices, herbs and ingredients.
If you are in India, try out cooking classes in Goa, Kerala, Jaipur, Kolkata.
The international kitchen has one day cooking classes as well as cooking vacations in multiple cities in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, Turkey, Greece.
Yes. Love hunting out the local genuine food places and have done cooking courses in India and China. We do a terrific cooking course here in Sicily too
http://www.sicilianexperience.com/cooking-course-1d.html
Thanks for stopping by Marian. We’ll keep your cooking class in mind for a future trip to Italy. 🙂
Wow, I LOVE this post! You’ve hit the nail on the head really with all your tips – trying local food is one of the coolest parts of travelling and doing things like food tours and cooking lessons just enhances your experience. I want to try the websites you mentioned for sharing meals – that does sound interesting. So spot on with this post – thanks for sharing!
Thanks a lot Lexx! We also make it a point to try local food wherever we go. It’s the best way to experience a country’s culture. Thanks for the nice comments and retweets!
Brilliant! this is one of our favourite parts about travelling. We will always try and seek out local food, also done a few food tours now and love them as an introduction, especially the one we did in Hanoi! Markets are great too, I love them for the photo opportunities, and Phil loves seeing how countries differ in what foods they sell. Oh and cooking classes are great too, Phil repeats what he learnt in Thailand regularly at home.
Thanks a lot for your inputs Garth. We love your & Phil’s photographs and frankly are a bit envious of your travels. 🙂
We see that you haven’t been to India yet though. Let us know when you do (it’s inevitable right?) and we can take you to (clean) local food joints and markets.
Eating local food is one of my favorite parts about travel!!! I love hitting up local markets. And another good way to make sure you’re finding the most famous local secret places is just by asking locals! Believe it or not – I use Tinder to do that and so many are happy to tell me good places to eat!
Haha! We never thought about Tinder as a potential way to get tips on good places to eat. Well done! Thanks for stopping by Anna.
Enjoyed this post, we love trying local foods and have enjoyed food tours. Never heard about Eataway so will look into that. Thanks for sharing. #feetdotravel
Thanks a lot you two. Hope the Bangkok trip was great.
We always eat like a local so these are great tips! Not only is it cheaper, but it makes you feel part of the country you are visiting, plus it’s a lovely way of meeting the locals. We always look for a local place that has a lot of locals eating, then we know it’s a good one! A cooking class in Goa was a highlight of our trip and we continued to cook the dish we were taught for quite some time (until we ran out of a particular ingredient – chunky chat). #feetdotravel
I’d really love to prioritize visiting food markets or taking cooking classes while in other countries. We tend to eat as local as possible (fast food in a different country? Never!), but I feel there’s so much more to food than just local restaurants and dives. Thanks for sharing these excellent ways to eat more like a local! 🙂
This is exactly what we like to do. You can learn so much history through simply eating a destination’s food. Markets are our first port of call and we enjoy the odd food tour and cooking class too. I’m also interested in what the top end chefs are doing in each country. Great post!
We love to do all of these things: food tours, cooking classes, and go to local markets. Eating the local cuisine is the only way to truly embrace a culture!
Love eating like a local – one of the most amazing things about travel is the food. I love markets – anywhere! I moved to France in 1989 and my love of food really grew – I learnt so much about food there! I am heading to SEAsia soon and cookery lessons are on the agenda!! #feetdotravel