Will Travel for Food

Eric and I want to go to Iceland for our five-year anniversary this summer, so I decided to read Marissa’s Iceland blog to get some starting points. It turns out the entire blog post was mostly about the food she ate while there, which inspired me to think about the places I have traveled just for the food, and some of the interesting foods I’ve eaten in my travels.

The Finn family is comprised of some serious foodies. Most of our family group chat is centered around food, and we are always discussing the next big meal. We plan all big events (birthdays, anniversaries, Wednesday’s) around where we want to eat. We do meals instead of gifts, and we travel for food.

We’ve traveled to different states, and in some cases, different countries for every type of food at literally every price point. Because for us, food is an experience. We travel to Vegas to experience casinos. We travel to the Caribbean for a guaranteed warm week on the beach. We travel to the mountains so we can ski. So, we travel to restaurants to experience the food, and in many cases to experience the presentation as well. Here are a few examples of the food I’ve gone out of my way to eat in my travels.

One of the most memorable travel for food experiences we’ve had was when we went to Chicago to eat at Alinea. We’ve been fortunate enough to have some really great tasting meals in our lives, and many times we’ve gone out of our way to eat these meals (like the time I moved from NYC to Bethesda two weeks before my wedding and turned around the next day to meet my family for dinner at 11 Madison), but for Alinea we actually had no plans of visiting Chicago. We made a reservation FIRST and then we planned a trip around the meal.

It is important to note that while in Chicago, we also ate deep dish pizza. As a New Yorker, I don’t really get the appeal, but it was enjoyable that one time.

Two other meals that come to mind are The Fat Duck, and Minibar. These are also tasting meals, similar to Alinea. We ate at The Fat Duck when visiting my sister who was studying abroad in London. The restaurant is about an hour outside the city. The food was good, but this was probably some of the best presentation I’ve ever seen.

Minibar was when I was living in Bethesda, and my family came down to D.C. for the night. Again, this trip was planned around when we could get a reservation, and they spent less than 24 hours there. It was just for the food. And it was worth it. Oh, and it was Harper’s first tasting meal, at the old age of 6 months. She loved it the most.

But guys, I promise we don’t just eat tasting meals. We travel and inconvenience ourselves for all types of food.

Like, for example, food that you have to wait on line for. Two that stand out in my memory are Rose’s Luxury in D.C. and Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room in Savannah, GA. Rose’s Luxury actually takes a limited number of reservations but you have to be on their website at exactly 11 am exactly 3 weeks in advance of your reservation, and then the website crashes or someone beats you to it and you don’t get the reservation. And also, you’re probably at work at this time. Oh, and I think you need a group of 6 or more? Whatever, it’s a process. (Note: This has since changed – I believe you can make same day reservations now but the system is the same and you’re still probably not gonna get it – believe me, I tried, many times.) So the best bet is to get there early and get on line. You can wait on line and get seated, or wait on line and make a reservation for later that night. We chose to try to get seated.

We went at 4 pm, and the restaurant opens at 5. As you can see, the line was already super long.

By the time they opened the doors and started seating people, it was pretty quick to get to the front. We got to the front and were told that since there was an odd number in our party, they would not be seating us. They were only seating parties of two and four – all odd number tables were taken for the rest of the night. We did not eat at Rose’s Luxury that night. However, we did go back another time, and waited on line again, this time just two of us (sorry Tom) and this time on a Tuesday, and we got seated. It was quite delicious.

Mrs. Wilkes was pure southern charm. The restaurant is only open for lunch Monday – Friday from 11am-2pm. These people clearly know what they’re doing. The line starts forming around 9 am. We got there around 9 and waited the two hours and luckily we were one of the last groups to get into the first seating. Everything is served family style, and you are seated at communal tables so it’s a good idea to get to know your neighbors. You will be sharing food with them. It was a typical southern meal of fried chicken, biscuits, mac and cheese, etc. and it was absolutely delicious. Well worth the wait.

Aside from the tasting meals and the trendy long wait spots, there was also some out of the box food (and drink) traveling that we’ve done.

I have attended the Great Chef’s Event in Philadelphia 3 times now, and none of those three times were when I actually lived there. This is a fundraising event run by the Vetri Foundation and Alex’s Lemonade Stand, and it is filled with all of the famous chefs hanging out making small bites for you to taste. So great.

And then there was the time we drove a couple of hours to tour some random farm outside Princeton, and then turned around and drove home. I honestly don’t remember the point of this trip, but there was some farm touring and picking and eating of fresh strawberries and veggies. I guess maybe that was the point? Ask Steven or Marissa – this was their thing, I just tagged along.

There was also a pig in Puerto Rico. We got in a cab and drove for an amount of time that I don’t remember to a remote part of the island up hills or mountains or whatever they have in PR for the traditional Puerto Rican pig roast, or Lechon (I think?). I honestly don’t remember which place we went to or apparently most of the details, but it was delicious. I remember that. We ate all different preparations of the pig. If dead animals make you queasy or unhappy, skip the next few pictures.

And then there was alcohol. A few years ago, we did a road trip of the south, with stops in Nashville, Memphis, and Tuscaloosa (hi Jordyn). If you look at a map, you will see that the Jack Daniel’s distillery is not on the way from Nashville to Memphis. We went anyway. Fun fact: the distillery is in a dry county. They cannot sell alcohol. They can only sell collectible bottles with “free” alcohol inside. Fun fact 2: Eric left our full collectible bottle in the rental car.

To wrap it up: here are some pictures of some food that we ate while traveling simply because we like food. It’s not always inconvenient but it is always an adventure and it’s usually delicious (because we do the research before – half the fun obviously).

Disclaimer: I’ve been to a lot of places and I took pictures of food before it was cool to take pictures of food, so there are a lot of pictures here.

We couldn’t decide between some famous taco shack or hot chicken in Nashville, so naturally we went for both. In the same day. For the same meal. It was a really good lunch.

Right up town guys. Check it out. Somewhere near Columbia University I ate this giant slice.

And below, some snacks in Prague.

This was in Laos. It was some weird liquor somehow made using snakes?