I love traveling for the obvious reasons. New places. Different cultures. Photography. Nature. Meeting people. Getting lost occasionally and pretending it was part of the plan.
But there is another reason I travel. Food. Not fancy restaurants. Not Michelin stars. Not tiny portions placed in the middle of an unnecessarily large plate. I mean food. The food people actually eat. The things you discover because you walked past a small restaurant and thought, that smells interesting.
You Can Learn a Lot About a Place by Eating There
I can visit a museum and learn about a country's history. I can walk through old streets and admire the architecture. I can take thousands of photographs. But food gives you something different. It is immediate.
You taste something and immediately understand that you are somewhere else. The ingredients are different. The spices are different. The way people eat is different. Sometimes even the concept of what should be eaten for breakfast is completely different.
Traveling taught me that what feels normal is mostly just what you grew up with. Then you go somewhere else and discover that millions of people have been eating something completely different for generations.
Istanbul Made Me Spoiled
Growing up in Istanbul probably gave me unrealistic expectations about food. You can find incredible food everywhere. Street food. Small family restaurants. Fresh fish. Meat. Desserts. Breakfast. Food is everywhere. And Turkish people have strong opinions about all of it. Everyone knows where the best version of something is. Everyone disagrees. Everyone is convinced they are right.
Food is not just something you eat when you are hungry. It is part of daily life. You meet people around food. You talk around food. You argue around food. You drink tea after food. Then someone brings more food. I grew up thinking that was normal. Then I started traveling.
Miami Was Different
Miami introduced me to a completely different food culture. It is a city where the food comes from everywhere. Latin America. The Caribbean. The United States. Europe. Asia. You can eat food from almost anywhere without leaving the city.
It also made me realize how much food changes when cultures meet. A dish can travel thousands of kilometers and slowly become something completely different. Sometimes better. Sometimes worse. Sometimes completely unrecognizable. But that is part of the story. Food travels with people. It changes with them.
Colombia Was an Adventure
Moving to Colombia introduced me to another completely different relationship with food. Some things immediately made sense. Meat. Fruit. Fresh ingredients. Simple meals. Other things required some adjustment.
And Colombian fruit deserves its own article. Seriously. Before coming to Colombia, I thought I knew fruit. I was wrong. There are fruits here that I had never seen before. Some look suspicious. Some taste incredible. Some have names I still struggle to remember. But discovering them is part of the experience.
Food and Photography Are Surprisingly Similar
I think food and photography have something in common. Both make you pay attention. When you are walking through a new city with a camera, you start noticing things other people walk past. Light. Textures. People. Colors. Small details. Food does something similar.
Sometimes the best experience is not the famous restaurant everyone recommends. Sometimes it is a small place with plastic chairs, no English menu and a person behind the counter who looks slightly confused about why you are there. Those are often the places I remember.
I Don't Travel to Eat the Same Food
One thing I don't understand is traveling thousands of kilometers and immediately looking for the food you eat at home. I understand missing familiar food. But if I travel somewhere new, I want to try something new. Even if I don't like it. Especially if I don't know what it is.
Worst case, you don't like it. Best case, you discover something incredible. Either way, you have a story.
Food Becomes Part of the Memory
Years after a trip, I might forget the name of a hotel. I might forget the exact route I took. But I remember meals. I remember eating something incredible after a long day. I remember discovering a restaurant by accident. I remember the food that surprised me.
Food has a strange ability to stay connected to memories. You can taste something years later and suddenly remember a place, a person, a conversation, a particular day.
And for me, one of the best parts of arriving somewhere new is knowing that I have absolutely no idea what I am going to eat. That uncertainty is exciting. Somewhere out there is a meal I have never tried. I want to find out. And honestly, that is a pretty good reason to travel.