Everyone Should Travel at Least Once Purely for the Love of Food

There is a particular kind of traveller whose itinerary is a list of restaurants, markets and producers — their luggage allowance reserved, half of it, for what they plan to bring back.

This is not a frivolous form of travel. Food is the most direct expression of a place and a people that exists. It encodes history, climate, agricultural practice, religious tradition and economic necessity.

The dishes that define a place are rarely the ones on tourist menus. They require you to ask, to venture into neighbourhoods that do not appear in travel supplements, and to eat alongside the people who have been eating this food all their lives.