9 Tips To Finding The Best Dining Options When Traveling.

A few years ago during our annual Carnival pilgrimage to Trinidad and Tobago, my dad and I volunteered to help mom with the Sunday market shopping (farmer’s market). This meant leaving home at 6 am to ensure we got the freshest of the fresh produce for her. YES, she’s very picky and would send us back with any inferior produce we brought home! After the 30 mins drive and three hours dodging the crowds at the very PACKED Marabella Market (South, Trinidad) we had worked up an appetite. Which meant ONE thing.. the famous Trinbago Doubles. Probably the best street food you’ll ever have the pleasure of eating.

There were six street vendors no more than 3 meters apart selling the very same doubles, so I asked my dad who should we purchase from hoping he would have some local insight. He spends most of his time in Canada so his guess was as good as mine. I opted to employ some of the skills I’ve gained over the years of traveling to determine which vendor would secure our patronage. Stay tuned to learn how we ended up with a FEAST unlike any!

Over the years we’ve been fortunate to travel quite a bit and with the curious appetite we have, we’re always searching out new, different and satisfying foods to try. So how do you find the best food, service and bang for your dollar when traveling?

• Stay away from the touristy areas. We learned this the first time we took a cruise vacation. Immediately after we docked we decided to get something to eat at the port itself. Here’s where they ‘cater’ (prey?) on tourists… only after heading into town did we realize that not only did we overpay, but the quality of what we purchased was not a true representation of the amazing food which was awaiting us, away from the crowds.
• Look for lines! If you see locals lining up it may just indicate that the food is on point.
• ASK! Ask locals for their advice on where to eat and about local dishes you should try. Every country/City will have their own unique dishes, be inquisitive.
• APPS! We have so much information on our finger tips with the Food Review type APPS on mobile devices, it would be hard to not find many dining options, with user reviews.
• Research at home. I like using Google to do my research before leaving so I don’t have to depend on free WiFi to get my apps working (hate paying the ridiculous roaming fees on my cell phone) You may also consider booking a culinary tour of some sort to get a better understanding of the city’s culinary offerings.
• Put your hotel’s concierge to work for you. Though there are times when they could be affiliated or have an ‘understanding’ with restaurants… for the most part, they are a great source of dining information.
• Read what local food bloggers and columnists are writing about.
• TWITTER! Ask and poke around with hash-tags for what’s trending for that city.
• If you’re traveling with children you’ll want to keep that in mind when you’re doing your research (if they  cater to children – if there’s place to park the stroller and if they have high-chairs, have a kids friendly menu and if there’s a “family” bathroom).

My Dad’s solution to the “who should we buy from?“.. we ended up making a purchase at all six vendors! It still amazes me that how the very SAME dish can have so many subtle differences from vendor to vendor. The texture, flavors and even the way they were handled/packaged were similar but still deliciously different.